Has anyone else seen the ‘trend’ of al-Desko lunches? Well that’s what this post is all about…
Having just gotten back into the workplace after 18 months off, I’m not sure I approve of never having to leave your desk during the day – that’s just not right! Popping out to grab some takeaway lunch with your workmates is a bonding moment – at least for a new starter it’s a good way to to learn more about people.
But that aside, when work gets busy, which it does for me now onwards, sometimes it’s great to have delivery to your office (I wouldn’t say desk as the security guards don’t tend to let delivery men through!).
So this is where Deliveroo come in. I’ve seen their service being advertised in Camden, showcasing some local restaurants including Q Grill and La Patagonia (although La Patagonia seems to have come off the site now). The idea is that any restaurant can sign up with them to have their food delivered – i.e. they don’t need to have their own delivery drivers and you get food from a wider range of premium restaurants for a small delivery charge.
So I decided to bribe treat my new colleagues at EY with a pizza lunch – luckily this happened to be the day after my welcome drinks so carbohydrates were welcome all round to try and negate the hangovers!
Disclaimer: Deliveroo paid for my al-desko lunch, in return for me writing about them – all my own views though! – but in the interests of a comphrensive review I ordered and paid for a second takeaway myself.
Deliveroo provided a plethora of pizzas from Ticino – an Italian restaurant not far from More London Place (London Bridge)
We had a mix of veggy and meat pizzas to cater for the different team members – all were tasty!
Lovely Parma ham, rocket and Parmesan
Fresh mozzarella – to die for!
We got some healthy food too – salad and the delicious grilled vegetables
The zucchini fritti didn’t travel so well – these are best when still crispy straight out of the fryer, as you can see these ‘sweated’ in the box en route – soggy chips not great 🙁
So my first impressions of the service…. Given that someone at Deliveroo had to organise this for me the food turned up without my name on the address, so it took them a while to find me at reception and hence was a bit cooler than I would like (or soggy in the case of the fritti!). So my first point would be caution on what you order – some things just aren’t suited to take away…
The quality of the food was great! The team loved the pizzas, even if the boys wanted more meat lol! As a concept this worked really well – we got a team lunch, in the office, without ‘wasting’ time trekking to a restaurant and back.
To try and test the website ease of use myself, as well as the quality of the delivery when they actually know my name and address, I ordered a takeaway at home in Camden.
The second take away from Bintang
My flatmate and I wanted something spicy that wasn’t Indian curry, so Bintang up the road in Kentish Town seemed like a good option – they do a pan Asian menu, so we could find something to suit both of us. A red curry and one of their speciality dishes with coconut cream hit the spot!
Red curry was very strong – they use Scotch Bonnet chillies! (That’s the brown one – not the red one!)
The prawn crackers that were a let down 🙁
The food arrived to the right address in a timely manner and still piping hot – so all good there 🙂 The only complaint I had is that the Thai prawn crackers weren’t, they were just big bog standard crackers, nothing Thai about them 🙁 But as this is a description issue with Bintang, so far no problem relating to Deliveroo.
The Deliveroo website is easy to use – you enter your postcode and a list of available open restaurants comes up. Pick which restaurant you like, order and let them deliver to you for £2.50.
Now given that Bintang have their own website and offer delivery via this, I’m not sure why you would want to go through Deliveroo to order from that particular restaurant. Having not used the Bintang website I can’t say whether they charge for delivery – but perhaps Deliveroo do all their deliveries now.
Personally I’m not sure I’d use the Deliveroo service for my normal take away needs, Hungry house etc do this already with no delivery charge, but if you have a particular restaurant that doesn’t deliver themselves, then Deliveroo could be the answer! You can request they add restaurants that aren’t already on the site and ensure your favourite is included.
So whether its an al-desko meal with colleagues or a special meal from a quality restaurant, it might be worth checking Deliveroo out.
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