Pre-ordering at restaurant

Chomeur · 15 December 2016 at 12:23PM

Not so much a money saving question, more a time saving one. Sometimes I'd find it helpful to be able to pre-order at a restaurant, preferably online. Restaurants seem to offer plenty of opportunity to order food to take away for collection at a particular time, but I'd like to be able to preorder food to eat in. Do any restaurants do this? I don't see why it should be that hard. The closest I can come up with is Starbucks as they allow it through their app, but obviously that's not a restaurant.

Thanks

nomoneytoday · 15 December 2016 at 2:17PM

A decent restaurant will have already prepped the food, so should be able to serve the first course within about 12 minutes.

Why prebook if that's the case?

Oakdene · 15 December 2016 at 2:19PM

I'd never prebook because what I fancy for food can change in an instant. Plus a restaurant could have a specials board which they don't publish online/

arbroath_lass · 16 December 2016 at 6:12PM

We do for our office Christmas night out, just to save time. We've never had any issues - makes it easier to work out what everyone owes too - just drinks and tips to add on.

PasturesNew · 16 December 2016 at 6:17PM

They probably can't do it ... I've had preset Xmas meals, booked 2 months ahead, where there's been no real choice of meals .... and still they get it wrong/late to the table.

They'd be loathe to start cooking your food before you'd even arrived at the door. It's not how they work.

splishsplash · 16 December 2016 at 6:20PM

We pre-book work lunches and some dinners also, but never online. It normally involves everyone giving their choices to one person, then they phone it in.

It works well for lunches especially, when time is limited. So far I don't think we've been turned away from anywhere. Quick and easy turnaround for the restaurant, can't see why they'd mind.

Chomeur · 16 December 2016 at 7:00PM

splishsplash wrote: »

We pre-book work lunches and some dinners also, but never online. It normally involves everyone giving their choices to one person, then they phone it in.

It works well for lunches especially, when time is limited. So far I don't think we've been turned away from anywhere. Quick and easy turnaround for the restaurant, can't see why they'd mind.

So for the most part you have found that restaurants are happy to do it? If they do takeaways at a certain time I don't see why they should mind.

Generally I don't mind waiting 15-20 minutes for a meal to be served. But sometimes I go for classes in a gym in a big shopping centre and then to the adjacent cinema afterwards. I want to eat between the two. The times of the classes and the cinema are obviously fixed, so I may only have half an hour for dinner. If I can could preorder a meal it could be really helpful. I suppose it doesn't have to be online, I could just call in before going to the gym. I'll try it.

Chomeur · 12 September 2017 at 4:57PM

Finally did this (at Pizza Express). Worked perfectly and they didn't have any problems with it. Pizza was ready at just the time I asked for it.

Chomeur · 12 September 2017 at 5:05PM

nomoneytoday wrote: »

A decent restaurant will have already prepped the food, so should be able to serve the first course within about 12 minutes.

Why prebook if that's the case?

It's not the case. As a mystery shopper I record this and find that meals usually take 15-20 minutes to arrive. But I've had experiences where it's been an hour.

TBagpuss · 17 October 2017 at 4:51PM

Chomeur wrote: »

Not so much a money saving question, more a time saving one. Sometimes I'd find it helpful to be able to pre-order at a restaurant, preferably online. Restaurants seem to offer plenty of opportunity to order food to take away for collection at a particular time, but I'd like to be able to preorder food to eat in. Do any restaurants do this? I don't see why it should be that hard. The closest I can come up with is Starbucks as they allow it through their app, but obviously that's not a restaurant.

Thanks

I think it would depend on the restaurant. from their end, they are going to be concerned that if you don't show up, they've made a meal that's wasted. If you show up but are delayed, you may complain that the meal is cold/ over cooked because it was ready too soon.

if you are a regular then it would be worth asking them if you an phone as you leave the house so it's ready when you walk in, which they may be prepared to do if you are a good customer.

Alternatively, your best bet may to tell them, when you arrive, that you are short on time and ask what they recommend - they should know what the prep time is for different dishes, and can suggest something which will be available quickly.

System · 17 October 2017 at 5:30PM

I wouldn't mind this either.
A lot of people however go out to dinner for the entire 'experience' and like being waited on etc

Pre-ordering at restaurant

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