When it comes to new food trends, you probably recognise them sweeping across Melbourne city. Remember when Mexican food blew up, with burritos, tacos, and tostadas reigning everywhere from Mad Mex in Windsor to Mamasita on Collins? Then we had the American BBQ trend with brisket and pulled meat, accompanied by mac’n’cheese and even deep fried pickles…

But these are simply types of food trends. We also have had some cool dining trends sweep through, too, mainly the fitout of cafes and restaurants with neat little gimmicks.

But until now, there hasn’t been much of a shake up in the food delivery realm. Sure, you had individual restaurants with their own drivers, and small localised services like Menulog in operation. But there was not just one service, that you could reliably get food from, with a huge range of restaurants on offer, easily and from anywhere.

 

 

This has now all changed, however, with the introduction of UberEATS.

UberEATS follows in the footsteps of the Uber platform, which connects passengers needed a lift with vetted drivers in the surrounding area, via an app on your smartphone. Uber has been a smash success worldwide, after starting as a Silicon Valley brainchild, before branching into greater San Francisco, and then the world. Although Uber has run into some hurdles along the way with law and the taxi regulations, it is now considered a mainstay in a large number of countries. It also has legislation written up to deal with this new way of doing business.

What else Uber opened up was a wealth of people who had their own car and were happy to drive about either in their spare time, for some extra cash, or as a full-time job for some. For Uber, this was perfect – they had their own fleet of drivers who could be called on to do other driving tasks.

Uber themselves began experimenting with different types of deliveries on special days in certain regions. Places got to experience food delivery, puppies delivery, and even helicopter pickups! While this was mainly to promote Uber’s services, it also served as a gauge of how well a certain delivery service may perform.

And so, UberEATS was born.

UberEATS takes advantage of the Uber driver to pick up food from a restaurant and deliver it direct to your door. UberEATS is its own app – you need to download it separately if you only have the original Uber app on your phone.

The app finds your location and shares a list of restaurants in your surrounding area. You can search for a favourite cuisine, such as pizza, or even your favourite restaurant. You can even search for restaurants by looking on a map and checking their distance from your location. Within the app, you can view delivery times, menu items, descriptions, and cost and customisations, and more. Simply order the items from the restaurant you want and send through.

From here, a driver will be found, and you can track their progress from their current location, to the restaurant, and then to your doorstep, all in real time on a map. Their map location will show how much time left until your food arrives at your door, too.

One of the best things? UberEATS is cashless, which means that you don’t have to look around the house for spare change if you don’t have any cash on you. The app is linked to a credit or debit card and the amount is simply taken from this card. No fuss, no worries.

UberEATS has similar competitors around Australia such as Deliveroo, but with the greater number of drivers on the road, it can generally provide a faster service, which is better for customers. UberEATS charges a fee to the restaurant for each order too, not you, so you don’t have to worry about that part of the equation.

If you haven’t yet, download the app, head over to the store on your smartphone or tablet and give it a go. The app is free and it is easy to set up so long as you have your name, email, and a valid card handy.

Take the time to familiarise yourself with the app before your first order. You might be surprised at some of the amazing choices you can find! UberEATS is also a life send for those late night munchies – you’re able to see what’s open at 3 am and get delivery from there easily, without going to bed hungry, which couldn’t be more awesome.

This content is provided by Bubba Pizza – A Melbourne based Australian Pizza Restaurant.