Fast Food: The Online Revolution

By Toby Hillard

The world is changing, and changing fast. I remember the time when it was impressive to order a Big Mac via a scratchy-voiced drive through machine. When finding out that your favourite Italian restaurant did takeaway dishes. 

But those days are long gone. Instead of the drive through, you can now simply walk to your front door.

In what we could only imagine featuring in Back To The Future 2, online food services are now a major a reality and a regular part of many peoples lives. We consume a lot of things via the Internet these days, such as movies, news, games, TV - so why not some lemon chicken?

Online delivery is no longer the way of the future, it's simply a way of ordering food. There are in fact hundreds of online shops popping up on the Internet - allowing you to purchase DVDs for the kids and sexy lingerie for the wife, and all without leaving your chair!

And The latest online application is for home delivered food.

It is, in theory, the perfect idea. You can keep stressed-out employees energised for late night meetings by having dinner sent straight to your office; gone are the days of dodgy pizza or uncooked Chinese food. Even more exciting is being able to order from an array of menus - we're talking hundreds of different restaurants around Australia, from Korean to Italian - before leaving the office and having it waiting for you as you walk in the door at home.

There are plenty of advantages to it. It's quick, it's easy and the choices of food far exceed the level of kitchen expertise we hold ourselves. It's a system which has worked well over the phone for many years, and this is simply one more step towards Internet convenience.

That's not to say that the system is totally perfect. We tested several sites and (besides needing to diet afterwards) we found several little loop holes which may need ironing out.

First up, delivery is limited (in most cases) from 4pm onwards - which unless specifically stated (which many weren't) can make for a frustrating time when ordering lunch. On several occasions we went throughout the entire process of filling in the orders and credit card details - only to get to the end of the process and discover that we aren't eligible to get the meal for another four hours!

On the other hand, being able to order what you want at 11:00am on Thursday morning, and requesting it be delivered to your door at 7:00pm that night is quite handy.

On occasions, and depending on where you live in Australia, there can be slight of a lack of diversity of options when it comes to food choice. Indian, Thai and Italian seem to be the major options on offer - however there are many sites which seem to offer upwards of 400 restaurants with more being added every day.

As with most things on the Internet, there will be a period of learning and adjustment. It's a system which is by no means perfect but steadily finding it's place in the market. The question is - are you ready to be prepared to be ahead of your time?

It's fast, it's easy, it's simple, and most importantly (when it comes to online shopping) it's safe. Now, who wants to say Grace?

Want to Try Online Food? Need Some Dinner for that late-night office meeting?

Give It A Go: Menulog