Order ahead, and walk past the queue

The worst part of a good lunch place is the twenty minutes between deciding and eating.

Ordering ahead removes it. You order from your phone, the kitchen starts when it suits them, and you arrive when it is ready rather than when you got hungry.

How it works

1. Pick a place and order. The menu is the real one, with the real prices.

2. Choose when. Now, or a slot later on. Ordering at half nine for one o'clock is the version that saves the most time, and the one most people forget exists.

3. Pay on your phone. Once, before you leave. Nothing at the counter.

4. Go when it says it is ready. You get told. That is the difference between collecting food and queueing for it.

Collection is usually the better deal

Delivery is convenient and you pay for it — a driver is a real cost and somebody is covering it.

Collection is the quiet option that does not get pushed anywhere else: the same kitchen, the same food, no driver, and you walk past the queue. If you are within ten minutes of somewhere good, it is almost always the right call.

What it costs you

A small booking fee that scales with the order:

• €0.30 under €10
• €0.60 under €30
• €0.90 under €50
• €1.29 above that

All VAT inclusive. The food costs whatever the place charges for it — there is no separate markup on the menu, which is not true everywhere.

Knowing where it actually is

Collection orders fail in one specific way: you turn up and cannot work out which door to use, or the place has a hatch round the side, or it is inside a market.

The place is on a map with its real opening hours and its actual entrance, and the order tells you when to be there rather than making you guess. Small, and it is the difference between collection being easy and collection being a thing you tried once.

Ordering for a time that suits you

The slot is the underused part of this.

Most people order when they are hungry, which is exactly when everybody else does, and a kitchen has a limited number of things it can make at once. Ordering at half nine for one means you are not competing with the lunch rush, and the food is made at a calmer moment by people who are not behind.

For an office, it is the difference between eating at one and eating at twenty past.

Ordering with other people

One person starts the order and shares it. Everybody else opens it on their own phone and adds their own things.

Then either one person pays for everything, or each pays their own share. The second is the useful one: nobody fronts sixty euro and chases seven colleagues for it, and the order does not go to the kitchen until everybody has paid, so nothing is cooked for a group that has not settled up.

Changing your mind

You can cancel in the first couple of minutes and get your money back automatically.

After that, a kitchen has started cooking, and it goes to the place to decide. That is the honest arrangement: somebody has begun making your food, and the window for a free change of heart is the window before they did.

What else to look at

• Dishes — working out what to order before you order it
• Rewards — an order counts as a visit
• Reservations — when you want to sit down instead
• Ratings — whether the place is any good