Review: Restaurant Food Delivery in Prague

There are three main food delivery players in Prague; Dáme jídlo, Wolt, and UberEats. I hadn’t tried any of these services before the restaurants closed – now I’ve tried all three. So which delivery service is best?

Wolt

My first app download was Wolt. I chose Wolt because they seemed to deliver from several quality restaurants that I liked to visit when open – wasn’t just focussed on existing takeaways. It was pretty easy to set up my details – the app was in English and I liked that I could use Apple Pay so I didn’t have to enter my credit card details again.

My first order experience was perfect. The menu was automatically translated and I was able to add items to the cart, add a tip (you can revoke later if needed), checkout and immediately see the progress of my order. The progress was updated until it showed that my order had been collected. I could see the progress of the courier on a map and delivery time, so I was at the door just as they arrived. The food handover was easy and the courier was friendly.

UberEats

I already had the Uber taxi app and so I used that for my first order. I would have used Wolt except that I wanted a McDonalds Bacon Big Tasty and Wolt don’t deliver McDonald’s. I subsequently downloaded the full Uber Eats app and found it slightly better, although both are very similar. The app is in English and I was able to set Apple Pay as a payment option.

My first order experience was very good.  Automatic translations of the menu weren’t available, but it wasn’t difficult to figure out what I needed – especially as this was just McDonalds! I was able to add items to the cart, add a tip (you can revoke later if needed), checkout and immediately see the progress of my order. The progress was updated until it showed that my order had been collected. I could see the progress of the courier on a map and delivery time, so I was at the door just as they arrived. The food handover was easy and the courier was friendly.

Dáme jídlo

I probably wouldn’t have bothered to install the Dáme jídlo app, except that I wanted to order from Café Buddha and they didn’t appear on either of the other two apps. The app is in English but it was difficult to set up my details and there was no option to set up a payment type.

I chose the items I wanted from Café Buddha and was taken to a payment screen where I had to manually enter all my credit card details (many apps offer a scan option using the camera). I clicked pay and the app just sat for a few minutes until I was prompted to enter a verification code. I entered the code and the payment failed. I had to repeat the process a second time and then it worked.

The app showed delivery in one hour – that seemed like a long time but I assumed the restaurant was busy. The app didn’t show any updates, but I did receive an email with an ‘Order Status’ button. That opened the Dáme jídlo website, with ‘Order not found’ but then the order shown underneath.

I clicked to open the Dáme jídlo app – it opened but my order wasn’t shown at all.

At 7.25 pm, the delivery driver called to say that he’d arrive in four minutes. I was actually pleased that I didn’t have to wait until the time shown, but also irritated that the progress didn’t show ‘order on its way’, nor a map to show the driver progress.

The food handover was easy and the courier was friendly.

I checked the order status to see if it had been updated. It did show ‘food has been collected’ but still showed a delivery time of 7.49 pm.

I believe Dáme jídlo were the first to offer a food delivery service in Prague. But it looks like they’ve become complacent. All I can hope is that they take less commission from the restaurants they serve – that would be the only reason I would consider using them again.

Delivery Fees

In my experience, all three services charged a similar delivery fee. The average was 49Kč.

Contactless Delivery

All three delivery services offer ‘contactless delivery’ – your order is left on your doorstep. I didn’t choose this option as it didn’t seem very practical when living on the 6th floor of the building. With or without ‘contact’ the courier will handle your bag. I always wore a face mask when meeting the courier – more to reassure them than protect myself.

So which delivery service is best?

Wolt has been consistently the best delivery service app for me. They have the best user interface and offer many of the restaurants that I’d normally visit to dine in.

UberEats is a close second and I’ll continue to use them when I need to junk out on a Big Tasty burger.

Dáme jídlo really need to improve their app or they could find themselves in fourth place following the launch of Bolt, formerly known as Taxify, who just entered the Prague delivery food market.

Why you should stop using these apps when the current restrictions are lifted

All of these food delivery operators take a hefty percentage from the restaurants they serve. You often see platitudes from them that mention how they are ‘glad to support businesses during these trying times‘.

If these operators really wanted to support restaurants, they’d offer free restaurant registration and halve the commission fee they charge on each order – I’ve read that can be 30-40%. If you’re a restaurant owner, please let me know the fees you pay and I’ll update the summary table below.

When restaurants do open, please support them by visiting and dining in the restaurant. Not only will they save the commission fee, you’ll enjoy nicely-plated, hot food, delivered to your table by a lovely waitress, while you enjoy a glass of wine within the ambience of the restaurant.