I ordered dinner via delivery for a weekend & it felt more worth it than eating out

I distinctly remember a time last year when a friend of mine had recommended that I order from Deliveroo, as she’d told me about how she regularly used the platform for significant savings.

“Really?”

That was my sceptical response then.

But with my friend being a homemaker and mother-of-two who had to settle her family’s meals almost daily, I had no reason not to believe her.

To be perfectly honest, I’d always had the impression that the prices on Deliveroo were a little higher than other food delivery platforms.

I’d also assumed before that a majority of their partners are higher-end restaurants rather than smaller eateries or hawker stalls.

I soon learned that I was wrong, on both counts.

When I was given the opportunity to try out Deliveroo’s S$1 delivery promotion, boy, was I pleasantly surprised.

Yes, you heard that right, delivery fees on Deliveroo will be at a flat rate of just S$1 starting Oct. 15, from 5pm to 9pm every day, on all orders.

But more on that later.

As I was scrolling through the app, the first thing I noticed was the variety of options available.

Apart from restaurants, there are also fast food, zi char and hawker options as well, ranging from restaurant-standard western fare to fish soup and mala xiang guo.

I also discovered that on Deliveroo, even outside of the S$1 delivery promotion time frame, there is no such thing as a peak-hour or rainy-day delivery surcharge — something I had come to expect from most other service platforms.

Most of the restaurants I found on the app only required a minimum of S$9, if not S$12 or S$15 order so it was definitely not difficult to hit the amount, even as a solo diner.

Do note, however, that the minimum amount is dependent upon the distance of the merchant to the delivery address.

The chance to experiment came at an opportune time as it would be a busy work weekend for me.

And with my husband being away, handling dinner just for me and my eight-year-old via delivery would be the simplest and most fuss-free option.

In fact, I found it made more sense to deliver than to eat out, when considering the transport cost involved.

Prices on Deliveroo were also comparable to those on other platforms for most of the restaurants I checked, or sometimes even a smidgen cheaper.

For my first order, I ordered two Japanese bento sets (salmon and teriyaki chicken bento, and beef don) for my son and me, to the tune of S$14.60.

Adding in the S$1 delivery fee bumped up the final bill to just S$16.20, inclusive of a small service fee.

Not bad for a filling meal for two.

The next day, I tried a cafe that had a “purchase-with-purchase” promotion of a S$7 beef tortilla pizza.

A deal within a deal? Count me in.

My order of a caesar salad and a whole pizza came up to S$20.40 including delivery.

I also saw that a dessert of four Hokkaido cream puffs would have come up to less than S$15, all-inclusive, but decided to save them for another time.

A gleeful thought popped into my head: “At this rate, I probably wouldn’t have to cook or dabao outside for the entire month.”

This is no easy statement coming from someone who would usually forgo ordering food via delivery unless there are others around to share the delivery cost with.

At just $1 for delivery, I love that there’s no complicated math to grapple with.

The best thing is when I realised I could order multiple times from various stores for one meal (main course, drinks and dessert) and still only pay S$3 in total for three separate deliveries in the end.

Enjoying the S$1 delivery fee was simple too.

No complicated T&Cs.

Writing this Deliveroo-sponsored article made this writer wish that this promotion continues forever.

Top photo by Candice Cai.