There was a time where food delivery options were limited to stale pizza or greasy Chinese food… with the wonders of modern innovation, we now can savour the best restaurants in Vancouver without changing out of your pajamas or leaving the office.
That said, there are still a fair share of downsides with food delivery services…
- for example some food delivery services may have you paying upwards of 50% more than your bill with excessive fees so which food delivery app provides the BEST value? Your time is valuable but who wants to pay $30 for a $15 Wendy’s meal?
- or perhaps unfriendly couriers which may mar the food experience or cause spillage and food safety concerns?
- worst still, some food delivery apps may have horrible customer service that take more time to resolve issue than time saved.
Nevertheless, a good food delivery service can provide you invaluable time and valued convenience; it can even let you cater your entire office party or home gathering with a push of a button with the exact costs already quoted accurately.
In this article we’re going to discover (in our opinion) the BEST food delivery apps and services in Vancouver, BC.
Here are the five best food delivery service in Vancouver, BC:
1) UberEats: The BEST food delivery service in Vancouver, BC.
Hands down, UberEats is the best food delivery service in Metro Vancouver where it concerns with (1) value (2) ease of use, UX, technology (3) consistency (4) delivery/courier and (5) customer service.
Firstly, UberEats provides the BEST value for food delivery service in Metro Vancouver.
The Uber EatsPass costs a mere $9.99 (plus taxes) and provides you with FREE delivery on hundreds of restaurants in Metro Vancouver (actually most of the restaurants on UberEats that you see are participants of the EatsPass program, so you get plenty free delivery) on others over $15.
Effectively, with the EatsPass (a) you get free delivery over $15 with restaurants participating in EatsPass program (b) you get 50% off fees which means all you pay is a 5% fee for any delivery orders (excluding tips) on the EatsPass program BUT on top of that, many restaurants frequently offer promotions exclusively through UberEats (often times co-promoted with UberEats for BOGO offers – which means UberEats will still pay the restaurants 50% of the free menu item, so you get it free and the restaurant doesn’t lose out the cost of goods. Win-win) such as Buy One Get One or free products/items over a certain spend.
As such, all-in-all, you actually often end up getting FREE delivery, or at times even better value with delivery on UberEats than even ordering directly from the restaurant – such as when there are BOGO promotions through UberEats. (I can personally attest that often times I’ve saved more money ordering delivery through UberEats than even going to the restaurant for pick-up, especially during the frequent BOGO promotions that UberEats runs with restaurants in Metro Vancouver.)
Secondly UberEats has the Best user-friendly food delivery app in Metro Vancouver IMHO
UberEats is a multi-national company with operations globally. With the Uber & UberEats app, you can open the app basically anywhere in the world, and have access to convenient transportation & food delivery, to save time and hassle, effortlessly all on one app.
With their large user base and integration, any marginal improvement in their technology, user interface, or app – is amplified to benefit millions of users; economically, this is very efficient both for the enterprise, users, and society.
It is also one of the original food delivery apps and the original ride-sharing app.
Putting together the age/length of operation, and the economics of scale – you get a very advanced and user friendly food delivery app… Uber has the engineers and resources to improve their app and user experience, they also derive sufficient value in doing so with the volume of users. The same can’t necessarily be said of other food delivery apps such as Fantuan (although having access to more Asian restaurants, and good couriers – where your food arrives in Tesla, BMW, or Mercedes LOL).
Despite being now a publicly listed company, in many respects, Uber still operates as a start-up with the motto of move fast and break things. If you find a glitch or error in the app, they are generally very quick and responsive in fixing things – also for this reason, as they try to introduce new features and functions from time to time (for example, one of the features they tried testing for a period was letting you get free delivery from a gas station with your UberEats order; this was delivered by the same courier picking up your food who would swing by a gas station to pick up anything else you needed, free) – there can still be glitches but they generally get resolved quickly.
Thirdly, UberEats is consistently the BEST food delivery service in Vancouver.
Consistency is very important with anything in life including your food delivery service. ? Consistently, UberEats delivers your food promptly, warm, and without any spillage.
The nice thing about UberEats is you can expect that your food will arrive on time and with care. Should any problem arise, such as spillage or a missing item, it is resolved very promptly. (Often times, if you’re a regular customer – you don’t even need to wait for a customer service representative in chat; the system will automatically guide you through resolving the problem with a refund.)
What I especially like about UberEats is the consistency and the customer service. It’s almost like an added insurance that you will get your food properly. If you order through a restaurant’s delivery service, your customer experience may vary and often times they’ll deflect any problems – however for the small 5% fee on UberEats EatsPass, you get an added assurance that if there is any problem with your order (such as the restaurant missing or forgetting something) or the delivery (such as spillage or the courier leaving the food at the wrong location) that you can effortlessly resolve the problem with a refund and reorder or get something else.
On the basis of consistency – UberEats is bar none the most consistent food delivery service in our opinion mostly because of (1) their technological advantage (2) their customer service.
[You can say I’m quite the fan of UberEats in Vancouver by a first hand experience both of their delivery service and problem resolution, and especially great value. ]
Fourth, UberEats has consistently one of the BEST delivery and courier service. Here’s why.
Besides, the great value you get with UberEats especially with EatsPass, the user-friendly app interface and ordering process, the consistency with problem resolution and delivery, is the courier and delivery service itself.
Uber likely has one of the most contact workers for the gig-economy lending to its brand recognition, popularity, and first movers advantage. You can almost always assure that your food will be delivered on time and properly – because they have more couriers than most other food delivery apps.
Importantly, besides the free delivery with EatsPass, Uber rarely groups too many orders together. In fact, they were relatively slow to adopt this process likely to ensure customers get their food quickly and warm. However, it’s now a necessity for cost efficiency especially with free delivery through EatsPass. This process of grouping food delivery was first pushed by Fantuan who uses it extensively. (Fantuan will give you a delivery window about 45-1.5 hours after your order. They will group about 2-5+ orders together for one courier to deliver. Eventually, this became a necessity to attract couriers because it increases their earning potential with tips and efficiency. At times however, your food may arrive less than warm. In contrast, UberEats rarely group more than 5 orders together and many times your food arrives directly even with free delivery. More commonly, they will group two orders together especially if the restaurant is running a promotion requiring more couriers to service the restaurant.) So in essence, you can expect that your food will arrive quicker with UberEats because they deliver the food directly to you more frequently than other food delivery apps.
Furthermore, with their AI and statistics, they can very accurately predict arrival times and best of all – going back to point two about good user interface and app, you can track your courier all along the way and know exactly when they’re nearby by seeing their (very accurate – I know, because the building I lived in had two entrance and I can always see the couriers mistakenly going to the wrong entrance and have to tell them the right entrance. LOL.) GPS tracker.
As for the customer service of their contract workers, the couriers, it varies admittedly but it’s mostly good. By experience, Skip The Dishes have the most unkempt, haphazard couriers, while DoorDash seem to attract better couriers (perhaps better pay) and formerly Foodora. However, UberEats is fairly good. There are some couriers who are very courteous and attentive. For the most part, you just need to have your food delivered and dropped off from point A to point B. So that’s not too much a concern; you just want a courier who is contentious to avoid spillage and also hygiene (most important during COVID19 and was also the primary reason I started using Fantuan more during that period).
UberEats also has a rating system for their courier so you can see how your courier is rated. Most couriers are 90%+ positive ratings. If you give your courier a bad rating, the app will automatically prompt you if you need assistance with your order. (That’s a thoughtful process and once again alludes to the quality of the user experience; as far as food delivery app goes from the customer side, UberEats is likely the best in Metro Vancouver. As far as earning goes, you probably earn more with Fantuan which is why you have Tesla and BMW delivering your food, lol. That’s largely because they group orders together and institutes a mandatory 10% tip minimum. Tipping on UberEats is completely optional but I generally give 10-20%; UberEats also has a function that allows couriers to say thank you for the tip which I think seems nice for both the couriers and customer… actually, I kind of want to ask an option to increase my tip to the courier if they say thank you. I digress.)
Fifth and Finally, UberEats is the BEST food delivery service in Metro Vancouver because of their consistent customer service.
The key value proposition of apps like UberEats is convenience and time savings – which can be very valuable.
The last thing you want is to have a problem with your order and spend 30 minutes to an hour trying to resolve the matter, in the process leaving a sour taste in your mouth and making you frustrated with your day.
Thankfully, UberEats (by experience) have always been a hassle-free experience dealing with any customer support inquiries. Most of their level 1 customer support seems to be outsourced to third-world country which makes sense for cost efficiency however they are respectful (with scripted response) and still reasonably efficient.
That said, there are two ways which you may contact UberEats – first is a live chat (the resolution for most of your order problems) which I find mostly goes to South America like Mexico or Brazil. Those are usually very helpful and useful. The second which are messages you leave which will be responded in 24 hours mostly go to India. (My experience with that is often they are unable to solve the matter and have to redirect it back to North America. So that adds another 48 hours to the resolution – however this is not the common customer service experience, it was about a discrepancy in billing with their subsidiary Cornershop, which has excellent customer service and customer experience as well.)
More often than that you’ll use the live chat which resolves your problem very quickly and effectively. However, a new thing they seem to be piloting with regular customers is an automated customer service (saves you time, and saves them labour cost). Effectively, if you have a problem with your order like a spillage, a missing item, your courier didn’t put the food at the right place and you can’t find it…. then the app will guide you through the problem and resolution in under a minute and automatically refund your missing item or order. (Which will then be verified later by a human.)
Overall, you likely have the best customer service experience with UberEats over any other food delivery app due to their prompt response, scripted professional responses, and also their automated customer support saving you significant hassle and time.
All in all, UberEats is the BEST food delivery service in Metro Vancouver.
In consideration of (1) value (2) app/user experience (3) consistency (4) delivery/couriers and (5) customer service, UberEats is definitely the leader as far as food delivery service goes – at present.
The thing about start-ups and tech companies is, they can change fairly rapidly compared to traditional companies. (It goes with the culture of the fast-pace industry; they’re willing to make changes and try new things then implement it if it works and revert if it doesn’t.) The thing is, UberEats is not really making money for their share holders. (Many of your rides and UberEats order are actually being subsidized by their share holders lol… so you can thank Mr. Masa Yoshi Son for your cheap delivery order.) This may result in some changes to eventually reach profitability, which may result as well in your customer service experience. It shouldn’t be too much a difference – logically the app, customer service, and consistency should still be there – the value may be less poignant perhaps. (At present, their goal seems to be more orientated towards market share but it’s a question how long they can continue the cash burn – especially as food delivery apps have relatively lower barrier to entry and new players entering periodically making it hard to achieve a monopoly to raise prices, and economic efficiency. It’s a fairly price sensitive industry because of the alternatives so value shouldn’t diminish so much – likely just fewer BOGO promotions. So, sign up and take advantage of the BOGO offers and promotions while they last! AS the saying goes, nothing lasts forever and all good things must come to an end.)
<Admittedly, I ate too much – it was also an UberEats pickup order haha – and was just rambling on towards the end.>
2) FanTuan: The BEST Chinese Food Delivery Service in Vancouver
FanTuan is an Asian-centric food delivery service. They are known especially for Chinese restaurants. It’s the best food delivery service for Asian-oriented restaurants in Metro Vancouver because they have access to the most Chinese restaurants in Metro Vancouver for delivery. It’s also an excellent app for takeout.
This is the go-to app if you want your food delivered in style with a BMW, Tesla, Mercedes – all being popular options, I’ve yet to see my food arrive in a Maserati though.
In all seriousness, Fantuan is the go-to for Chinese food delivery. With their niche-specialty, they are able to work directly with merchants who may not be familiar with the modern technology. This means, you have access to merchants who would not otherwise have their food delivered.
The service itself is good. The app isn’t very user-friendly. They group orders together in as many orders as they can at one go – to make it more economical for the courier. You’re also required to tip 10% minimum on your order. There is no membership program that would give you free delivery but many restaurants offer exclusive delivery promotions such as $10 off $20 or 50% off. Delivery fee ranges from $2.99 to $10 and you also pay a 10% service fee separately.
Overall, it’s great if you’re using a restaurant promotion – other than that, you’re better off with UberEats (EatsPass) or DoorDash (DashPass). Their competitive advantage is being the Asian-centric food delivery app in Vancouver.
3) DoorDash: The BEST IKEA Food Delivery Service
DoorDash is the option you go for after UberEats and Fantuan… I mean, if you have better deals on UberEats, or more restaurants (specifically Asian) available on Fantuan (with great deals too!) – why in the world would you use DoorDash or a DashPass?
Well, unless you want IKEA food delivered; those meatballs are pretty darn good.
In all seriousness, DoorDash is an identical service as UberEats but you often end up paying more (DashPass also offers free delivery for orders over $15 BUT there are fewer restuarant promotions on DoorDash than UberEats, by experience.) The benefit with DoorDash however is they do have some exclusive restaurant deals with merchants such as 711, Tim Hortons, Cactus Club, and IKEA who all operate their own food delivery service using DoorDash services. (However, those are ordered through their respective apps – you get exclusive promotions but you don’t get to use your DashPass if you have one.)
4) FaceDrive Foods: The Best Eco-Friendly Food Delivery Service in Vancouver.
FaceDrive Foods is a Toronto-based start up that focuses on ride-sharing and food delivery. They are sort of a local, eco-friendly competitor to Uber and Lyft services. Most of their current operations are in Toronto, Ontario – and their website doesn’t seem to be completed so not too sure how committed they are to expanding to British Columbia. However, the next alternative – Skip The Dishes – is such a bad option in our opinion for food delivery services that it’s better to give the benefit of the doubt that FaceDrive Foods would be better at #4 best food delivery app.
They are not yet launched in Vancouver, BC but have purchased the assets from Foodora Canada. (Foodora Canada unfortunately closed down during the midst of the COVID19 pandemic and was easily the #2 Best Food Delivery service in Vancouver with their focus on local, sustainable, and community based business operations. Unfortunately, they likely didn’t control their cash burn when competing with UberEats and ascribed to the growth at all costs model – which was only sustainable if economically times were good and funding was readily available…. for that matter, growth at all costs is rarely effective when your competitor such as Uber has a limitless war chest. For that reason, I’m not too optimistic about the outlook of FaceDrive company either, with their direct competition to Uber BUT we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt that at least on the basis of customer service, environments, and community – FaceDrive Foods would be better than Skip The Dishes. If you want to lose your money, or your investor’s money then start a food delivery business and compete with Uber…. heck it’s probably a worse investment than the traditionally loss-making airline industry. For one, the margins on food delivery business is low enough even with a 30% cut of the bill, add to that the need for managing customer relationships, merchant relationships, and regulatory plus investor relationships. Then you add to the fact that it’s a crowded space with little to no barrier to entry. It becomes a commodity and commodity is . The only way to win in that industry is to gain a technical competitive advantage followed by a brand loyalty through excellent and efficient customer service consistently and then finally wipe out your competitors through deep discounts if you can sustain it…. then once you’re a monopoly or oligopoly to adjust prices accordingly to profitable levels – which is basically what Uber is doing and no one has as big a war chest or technological advantage as UberEats. Fantuan is the exception because they target a micro-niche market which is within the Asian food/restaurant industry of which traditional mindsets generally require some coaxing to adopt new technology and hence they gain the slight competitive advantage through cultural understanding. So basically, we don’t have much hope for FaceDrive Foods but at least they claim to be environmentally-friendly, and locally focused much as Foodora was before they shut down…. for that, we’re giving the benefit of the doubt that – as likely – they are better than Skip the Dishes.)
5) Skip The Dishes: Yeah, Just cook something yourself.
Honestly, in our opinion, this is quite possibly the WORST food delivery service you can use.
Skip the Dishes is only mentioned here because there are literally only five (English) food delivery services in Vancouver, BC. (And the #4 best food delivery service in Vancouver is not even being launched in Vancouver yet as of this article writing on December 27, 2021. FaceDrive Foods is a Toronto based start-up who bought over Foodora’s Assets with plans on expansion to Vancouver, BC. Foodora Canada regrettably shut down during the midst of the COVID19 pandemic. They claim to value sustainability and local community so we’re giving it the benefit of the doubt that it’s better than Skip The Dishes.)