UberEats is live, with hundreds of dishes from top Melbourne restaurants. But can it deliver?

THE new UberEats app is live, offering restaurant fare delivered to your door. Here’s what happened when we tried it.

AFTER much fanfare, UberEats has arrived in Australia.

Billed as a way for foodies to upgrade their office lunches, skip the weekend brunch queue and host dinner parties catered by celebrities chefs, the new service kicked off this morning in Melbourne.

Naturally, we decided to put it to the test when the starter’s gun went off at 11am, placing an order for a serving of Moroccan Stew and rice balls from Fitzroy’s VeggieBar.

The results were a little slow off the mark, and not exactly piping hot, but the delivery itself went as smoothly as your average UberX ride.

Our correspondent on the ground in Melbourne’s Swanston St waited 38 minutes for her lunch, which was handed over with a smile and the offer of bottled water and mints.

Water and mints?

Delivered in 38 minutes.

The app indicated that the delivery itself took about 10 minutes.

Unfortunately, there was no cutlery inside the UberEats-branded paper bag and the stew “not very hot, lukewarm at best”, while the rice balls were “warm”.

Our taste tester gave the experience three-and-a-half stars, with points added for delivery and deducted for food quality.

It looks as though there are still some kinks to be ironed out in Uber’s latest venture.

VeggieBar’s inaugural UberEats delivery scored three-and-a-half stars.

The new app builds on the popularity of Uber’s ridesharing service — which is already used to deliver takeaway food on an ad hoc basis — with a stand-alone app that offers 35-minute delivery from 80 of the city’s top inner-city restaurants and cafes.

Among the offerings are souvlaki from George Calombaris’s Gazi, lobster rolls from Andrew McConnell’s Supernormal, burgers from Laki Papadopoulos’s Vegie Bar, buckwheat Bircher muesli from John Curtin’s Uncommon and deconstructed sushi from Emily Hazell’s Serotonin Eatery.

Uber drivers who opt into the new app will deliver hundreds of dishes from partner restaurants to destinations within a 3km radius and inside a limited delivery zone, bordered by Carlton, West Melbourne and Windsor.

Delivery is free during the initial launch phase, seven days a week from 11am to 10pm. Eventually, users will pay $5 per delivery, with restaurants giving Uber a cut of their takings.

As with Uber’s ride sharing service, customers can track their delivery on the app and can sign in with their existing account, or create a new one.

The UberEats delivery zone takes in Windsor, West Melbourne, Carlton and everywhere in between.

One thing that won’t be available on the Australian app, at least for now, is the “instant” option that allows a limited selection of items to be delivered in as little time as 10 minutes.

Available overseas, it’s being phased out in New York after just one month, with users notified by email on Monday.

The instant service relied on drivers picking up food items to carry with them on the road, and deliver them to customers who they happened to be passing by in between jobs.

It appears that Uber Australia is focusing on a more premium service, partnering with big name restaurants and trendy cafes.

A noticeable absence from the new app is Messina Gelato, which Uber partnered with last year as part of a public relations blitz that centred on delivering frozen treats, and even puppies, on demand.

No Messina, but Pidapipo does the trick.

UberEats General Manager Simon Rossi declined to comment on Messina, but said the app aimed to “provide the best choice anywhere, anytime”.

“Ultimately we want to increase choice while driving down delivery times, similar to UberX where we have continued to drive down waiting times,” he said.

Dessert lovers will be catered for by Lisa Valmorbida’s Pidapipo, a traditional Italian gelataria on Carlton’s Lygon St.

Mr Rossi said the service would be expanded throughout metropolitan Melbourne, with delivery times to include breakfast and late night dining, before being rolled out nationally.

Kitchen staff at Gazi are going to be extra busy today.

While venues like Supernormal, Serotonin and Uncommon are places where being seen — and posting snaps of ornate-looking meals to social media — is as crucial to the experience as the food, UberEats aims to tap into a new premium home dining market.

To meet the challenge of maintaining the quality of dishes in transportation, some partner venues have created specially-tailored menus.

Uncommon co-founder Alex Luk said not all of the popular brunch spot’s dishes were suitable for the app. While pancakes adorned with flower petals make great Instagram fare, they don’t travel too well.

Instead, her team has come up with a menu including buckwheat Bircher with 72 per cent cacao and pomegranates, millet porridge and a selection of salads.

“We’ve spent a bit of time organising takeaway packaging to make sure the food travels well,” she said.

Settle, petal: some dishes are unsuitable for travelling. Picture: Nicole Cleary

The decision to partner with UberEats, rather than an existing rival like MenuLog, came down to a cultural fit as the platform was taking a “curatorial” approach to its partnerships.

“I feel its going to connect us with a larger audience to expand our customer base, and make health food more accessible,” Ms Luk said.

A weekday lunch menu targeting nearby office workers was in the works, she said.

Since opening in December, Uncommon has become a popular weekend brunch location, with customers facing long queues to secure a spot at the 80-seat venue on Saturdays.

UberEats will allow people to skip the wait — though it’s unclear what impact this will have on sit-down customers.

Ms Luk said she was confident her kitchen staff could keep up with the extra patronage.

“They tell me they can do it, and we’re already set up for it,” she said.

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Originally published as UberEats is live, with hundreds of dishes from top Melbourne restaurants. But can it deliver?