How to Order Food Delivery Without Getting Confused

The food-delivery apps are simultaneously among the most useful things on a smartphone and among the most fee-heavy. Used carefully, they let you have your favorite local restaurant's pad thai on the kitchen table forty-five minutes after the thought first occurred to you. Used carelessly, you'll end up paying $42 for $19 worth of food after the service fee, delivery fee, "small order fee," "regulatory response fee," driver tip, and the slightly higher menu price the apps quietly add.

Below: which app to pick, how to avoid the fees you don't have to pay, and what to do when the order arrives wrong.

The three apps and what they're best at

DoorDash. The biggest in the United States. The widest restaurant selection in most cities. The default if you don't have strong preferences. Comes with a paid membership tier called DashPass ($10/month) that removes delivery fees on most orders — worth it if you order at least twice a month.

Uber Eats. Similar restaurant selection in most places, often the same restaurants as DoorDash. The advantage if you already use Uber for rides — same login, same payment method, occasional cross-promotions. Their paid tier is Uber One ($10/month).

Grubhub. The oldest of the three. Smaller restaurant selection in many cities now. Sometimes the cheaper option for specific restaurants because Grubhub charges restaurants less. Their paid tier is Grubhub+ ($10/month, free with Amazon Prime).

The honest answer for most readers: install one, not three. Comparing prices across all three for every order is more work than the small savings are worth. Pick whichever has your favorite local restaurants and stick with it.

The trick most people miss

Many restaurants have their own ordering systems through their own apps or websites, which are typically dramatically cheaper than the delivery apps. The restaurant pays the delivery app 15–30% of every order; that cost gets passed to you. Order through the restaurant directly and that markup disappears.

For example: a $40 order from your local pizza place through DoorDash might cost you $52 after fees. The same order through the pizza place's own website with their own delivery driver might cost you $43.

Worth checking the restaurant's actual website before defaulting to the app. Many local restaurants have a "Order Online" button on their site that's connected to a service called Toast or ChowNow — same convenience as DoorDash, lower fees.

How to actually place an order

Open the app. The first screen shows restaurants near your delivery address.

If you know what you want: tap the search bar at the top, type the restaurant name, tap it from the results.

If you're browsing: scroll through the categories. The app sorts restaurants by distance, ratings, and (quietly) which ones pay extra to be featured. The first results are not always the closest or the best.

Tap the restaurant. Browse the menu. Tap an item to add it; many items have customization options (sauce on the side, no onions, extra rice). Tap your way through them.

When you have everything, tap the cart icon. Review your order. Choose delivery time (now, or scheduled for later). Confirm your address. Add a tip — 15–20% of the food cost is standard.

Tap Place Order. The app shows you the driver's progress on a map. The food arrives in 30–60 minutes typically.

Fees, decoded

Every food delivery order has several lines of charges. Worth knowing what each is.

Subtotal. The food cost as displayed in the app. Sometimes 5–10% higher than the restaurant's menu price would be if you walked in. The apps charge restaurants enough that many restaurants pass the cost to you in higher in-app prices.

Delivery fee. Usually $2–6. Goes mostly to the platform, partly to the driver.

Service fee. Usually 10–15% of the subtotal. Goes to the platform. This is the fee that catches most people — it's not obvious until checkout.

Small order fee. If your order is under a certain amount (often $12 or $15), an additional $2–3 fee. Avoid by ordering enough to meet the minimum.

Tip. Standard 15–20%. The driver sees the tip when they're choosing whether to accept your order; a low tip means a slower delivery (or sometimes no delivery).

When the order arrives wrong

Item missing, item wrong, item arrived cold, restaurant forgot the sauce. All of these happen. The app handles refunds for most issues if you report them within a day.

In DoorDash and Uber Eats: open the order in the app, tap "Help" or the three-dot menu, tap "Report an issue." Pick the problem. The app issues a credit or refund usually within minutes.

If the entire order is wrong (wrong restaurant, wrong everything), don't accept it from the driver — refuse it and call the app's customer service immediately. The driver will return it; you'll get a full refund.

Don't take the issue out on the driver. The driver carried the bag from the restaurant to your door; they did not cook the food and did not pack the bag.

One thing I'd skip

"Cash on delivery" is rarely offered in food delivery anymore, and when it is, the app usually still requires a card on file. Just pay through the app from the start. There's no benefit to trying to pay cash for these orders.

Avoid clicking through promotional emails offering "$5 off your next order." Most of them come with hidden conditions and the savings rarely materialize. The app's regular pricing is what you'll actually pay.

For my own household

We order food delivery maybe twice a month, almost always from the same three restaurants. I have those restaurants' own apps installed in addition to DoorDash. For two of the three, the restaurant's app is meaningfully cheaper. For the third, DoorDash is the only option because the restaurant doesn't run its own delivery.

The savings on the two restaurants pays for one extra meal a year. Not life-changing, but real. And the food arrives in the same time either way.

Written by David Chen. Last verified 19 June 2026.