How we review food delivery service apps

We explain our scoring and methods for assessing food delivery apps.

Fact-checked

Last updated: 20 Jun 2019

We order takeaway meals from Uber Eats, Menulog, Deliveroo, EatNow and Oz Food Hunter to assess the quality of the apps, and work out which app has the biggest range of options.

Each food delivery service receives a CHOICE Expert Rating made up of:

ease of use (50%)
food options (25%)
special dietary requirements (15%)
order tracking (10%).

Ease of use

We assess how difficult it is to set up an account, browse for a meal and place an order. This includes:

installing and initialising the app, including setting up an account and payment method
user interface, looking at how the app organises search results and allows you to filter, which we do by assessing the number of cuisine filters (including special dietary requirements), their accuracy, and any other search options such as price range and user ratings
restaurant information
meal information, including how easy it is to browse the list of dishes from a food outlet, and information provided about the dishes (including photos)
how you order the meal.

Order tracking

We ordered the same meal from a restaurant that offers ordering and delivery through every app in our review. We do this to assess information, features and functions that the app provides after you order a meal, such as:

cooking updates, including ETA
delivery updates, including ETA
whether the service uses its own drivers/riders, or a driver/rider supplied by the food outlet
what sort of driver/rider information is available
whether or not you can cancel the order in-app.

We don’t assess food quality or driver/rider delivery time due to the number of variables involved, many of which exist outside the food delivery service’s control. This would ultimately be an assessment of the food outlet and delivery drivers, which is not in our review.

Food options

We assess the number of options available in each app, by entering a delivery address in Marrickville, Sydney, as it’s known for its broad variety of cuisine options. We also conduct the same search in Cairns, as this is one of a handful of regional cities where every service in our review operates.

More food outlets within the service’s search proximity equals a higher score.

We search for meals across a broad range of cuisines:

City (Marrickville): Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, burgers, pizza, fast food, Italian, American, breakfast, Indian, sandwich, seafood.
Regional centre (Cairns): burgers, pizza, seafood, Asian, fast food.

The locations are selected based on population density, a broad range of food options, and locations where all services are in operation.

Our test was conducted on 16 April 2019 in the early evening, when food outlets were likely to be open for dinner.

The specific number of outlets available on each app fluctuates constantly, depending on location, partnerships with the app, changing hours, unexpected closures and more. Broad results are consistent, however, so our results can be used as a general guide to which services have the most (or least) options.

Special dietary requirements

This is assessed using the same method as the food options score, within Sydney. We select criteria based on common and available health, social and religious-based dietary requirements. These are: vegan, vegetarian, halal, kosher and gluten free.

Peter

When I first walked through the doors at CHOICE, my job was to write about tech for CHOICE Computer magazine. Since then, I've covered everything from home entertainment to personal safety devices, tech for your car and even mattresses. If you want to find the best combination of a bed, 4K TV, soundbar, GPS unit and food delivery app, I'm your guy. The one thing I've noticed across all the product tests I've organised it's that nothing is simple. Mattresses can be just as complicated as computers, and manufacturers as well as salespeople don't make things easy. They either use complex jargon that you just want to ignore, or they oversimplify things to the point where you don't know what you're paying for. My goal isn't just to help you find the best TV, mattress or soundbar, I also want to cut through the nonsense and help you fully understand the products you're considering. That way, you can make an educated, informed decision when it's time to buy without falling prey to a sly salesperson. Plus, when you understand the product, you know how to set it up in a way that best suits your home and can look after it. Nothing is plug and play anymore, and if a complicated smartphone or Bluetooth speaker feels less intimidating after you've read my content, then I know I've done my job. Outside of work I'm very into gaming, I love watching retro classics at the cinema, I enjoy getting up early to spend hours smoking a tasty cut of meat and I'm deeply into home hi-fi. Any music genre from laidback jazz to the loudest, screamiest, most brutal heavy metal ticks all my boxes. I also had a stint as a live music photographer for a number of years. You can find me on LinkedIn.