Ordering from online food app? Everything you need to know

Having the luxury to download an app on your phone or laptop and order food at your convenience if you’re pressed for time, have deadlines to meet or plain lazy is one of the best inventions we’ve made as humans.

Tell me you don’t love the idea of having your favourite restaurants, coffee hubs and fast food cafes on your phone? Thought so.

If you didn’t know, with apps such as Bolt food, Uber eats, Yum delivery, Glovo and Jumia foods, you can browse through menus, place an order then await the meal package to be delivered to you. 

The beauty of these apps is that you can track your meals being prepared, when the rider picks it up and when he/she is on the way to you. 

Thank God for technology, I’m I right?

I decided to give Bolt food a try just for the user experience.

Just like most of the other food apps, they have close to 400 restaurants for customers to choose from. 

Food is delivered by motorcycles, electric tuk tuks, and e-bicycles and the normal bicycles as well.

Before confirming the order, you will view the cost in your shopping basket and the approximate delivery time. You can then choose your preferred means of payment.

The means of payment range from, your visa card to paying cash (which isn't advisable in these times) and via mpesa.

There is also bolt balance which is an in-app payment feature which can be used to pay across selected goods and/or services purchased through the app.

It enables you to prepay by way of loading funds on Bolt Balance and using such funds at any later stage for the goods and/or services purchased through the app.

After confirmation a receipt is sent to your email address with details of your order.  

It was quite a challenge picking a meal as some restaurants didn’t have pictures to go with the listed meal or additional insight on the Menu. 

I ended up ordering from Barista & Co as it's a restaurant I'm familiar with.

As a first time member using this app, I was impressed. My app had 40% off on meals from all restaurants and reduced delivery fees as well.

Way to welcome clients!

I ordered an iced cinnamon spiced latte, pasta mushroom Alfredo and a box of six macaroons, at around 13:40 and the estimated time of delivery was 14:10.

The rider arrived with the delivery at 14:13, the app notified me of their arrival, however the rider also called my number as it's indicated on the app.

The packaging was neat and clean, all the meals were in a big brown bag that was sealed with staples and didn't indicate any signs of tampering with.

The latte was well wrapped with cling film and placed on the cardboard coffee carrying trays, while the macaroons were in a separate box on their own.

The pasta was really amazing and comes with an extra bowl of grated cheese.

It had mushrooms which were really amazing and sliced onion rings which just like the mushrooms, weren't too crunchy nor too soft.

The meal was well seasoned and savoury.

Macaroons are like donuts, cake and a cookie all put together which translates to an amazing explosion of sweet dessert that isn't too overpowering and a slight nuttiness from the almond flour.

They come in different flavours, the sides are crunchy but the middle is so soft to bite into and sorta chewy.

The cream filling in the middle determines the flavour of the macaroon.

I have a thing about trying new meals and I hardly ever order meals I've had before in hotels. Thus why I decided to be daring and get the cinnamon spiced latte.

It was a pleasant surprise to my taste buds.

The drink has spicy earthy undertones and is fairly sweet. In my opinion it could use extra sweetener.

I loved having my meal delivered to the office with ease allowing me time to still work.

Also the payment method is really secure and efficient. The rider requests for a code from their app which then sends a prompt message with your order code to your phone, accompanied with the amount of money that you're required to pay.

You authorize the payment by keying in your Mpesa pin, and an email of the transaction is sent to your phone.

With that done, you can head over unpack and enjoy your meal.

So next time you're all tied up for time or you want to treat yourself, then you know what to do.