Amazon just made a major investment in buzzy British food delivery unicorn Deliveroo. Here's what it is like to use.
There are two ways to order Deliveroo – via its app or on the website.
The app is free to download and the sign-on process is pretty hassle-free.
The opening dashboard feels a lot like its US competitors – Uber Eats, Caviar, or Seamless. Once we set our location, a dashboard appeared with local restaurants that we could order from.
You can filter by the location and delay the arrival time using the drop-down arrow. This is handy if you're at work but want to pre-order a meal to be sent home later.
Deliveroo recently caused an uproar after one of its board members, Martin Mignot, said the company's ultimate mission is to kill off home cooking.
You can search for a type of cuisine or for a specific restaurant. Failing that, you can scroll down the list for inspiration.
Deliveroo lists the customer ratings for each restaurant prominently. This is a helpful tool when you're wading through its vast list of restaurants.
On a dreary summer day, we were in the mood for some brightly colored donuts.
You can filter by your dietary requirements or by the best local offers.
Deliveroo seems to be pretty hot on food allergies. There are numerous occasions when it gives you the chance to list these.
Once we'd chosen our restaurant, we selected the exact types of donuts that we wanted.
The process of adding the items the basket is very straightforward.
A delivery fee is automatically added to the order. This fee is based on factors such as the distance and the time to delivery. Riders earn on average £10 ($12.76) an hour.
The company makes money from these fees and by charging the restaurant a commission to use this service.
Customers also have the option to add a "rider" tip. The company has been criticized in the past for riders' pay and working conditions.
The employment status of these riders continues to be an issue. Deliveroo classes them as "self-employed," but experts say that restrictions placed on them by Deliveroo could mean they should be entitled to further rights like a minimum wage and holiday pay.
It isn't until this point that you're asked to actually register with the company. This can be done by manually entering your email or by linking it to a Facebook or Gmail account.
It's definitely a bonus that you don't need to give away all your details right away.
Once you've added your address, it asks for any extra details to make the delivery process slicker.
You can zoom in on the map and mark exactly where the building entrance is.
Our order was placed at 12.21 p.m. and it was scheduled to arrive within 20 minutes.
Once you've ordered, you'll receive an email notification and can track the order progress via the app.
But just five minutes later, we received a call to say the delivery person was 2 minutes away.
The donuts were neatly boxed up...
...and within five more minutes, we were tucking in.
Overall, we were impressed by the process.
The app is very easy to use and there's a good selection of choice. On this occasion, there were no delivery delays so we had zero complaints.
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