It's a million degrees below zero outside, you're starving and you're sick of ordering pizza and "freaky fast" subs.
Thankfully, getting whatever you want to eat without moving a muscle has never been easier.
That’s why decided to do a head-to-head shootout to see how four of the area's most popular food delivery services performed during the lunch hour on a bitterly cold day in Downtown Indianapolis.
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We then tried to replicate the test in the northwest side suburbs to see how the options and fees changed once you left the heart of the Circle City.
We’ve also taken a look at the fees, the user experience and the perks of each one. Here’s how it went.
The contenders and the conditions
The services used in this were DoorDash, Grubhub, UberEATS and ClusterTruck. Don’t ask me why none of these services believe in using spaces in their names.
For this test, I was deliveringfood to the IndyStar newsroom at the corner of Georgia and Meridian streets, and I was doing so as a first time user to each of these apps. I did not use any promo codes or special promotions of any kind when placing my orders.
The Downtown test was done on Jan. 3 around noon. For the record, that day had light snow and minimum wind chills between 5 below zero and 15 below zero.
Logging on
All of the apps require you to create an account and sign in so that your order history, location and preferences can be saved. For DoorDash, Grubhub and and ClusterTruck, I connected to the apps through my Facebook page. If you want to keep Facebook out of it, you can just create a login and password.
For UberEATS, I was able to log in using my existing Uber account and payment information.
Food Options
Here’s where each service starts to get a bit different. When it comes to sheeroptions at the time of the test, DoorDash came out on top with 122 restaurants listed as available. However, 10 of those restaurants were slated for “preorders” because they weren’t open at the time the orders were being placed.
As you scroll, each available restaurant lists the estimated time for your order to arrive and your delivery fee, which and is set by the restaurant, according to DoorDash. On the day and time we ordered, the lowest delivery fee was $1.99, and the most expensive was $6.99.
Grubhub came came in second with 82 different restaurants listed as available. Time estimates were available upfront as well as delivery fees that ranged from $1 to $7. But unique to Grubhub was a minimum order amount. None of the other tested services indicated that there was a price minimum for an order to be completed.
UberEATS came in with 35 restaurants available. Another 22 restaurants were listed as closed, but there was no option to preorder. During the test, we found that delivery estimates and fees were available upfront on the mobile app, but not when going to the website on a desktop. When ordering from a computer, that fee only seems to appear after you’ve placed an item in your bag.
Finally, ClusterTruck is a totally different beast when it comes to options, as it’s the only service that houses its own 2,000-square-foot kitchen in Downtown Indianapolis. So instead of a number of partner restaurants, ClusterTruck divides its food offerings into about a dozen “digital trucks,” but all the food comes from the same kitchen, and so has the same delivery time. ClusterTruck also is the only service without an upfront delivery fee.
However, ClusterTruck does automatically add a tip once you've moved items to your bag. It starts at a minimum of $3 or about 20 percent, whatever is more, but you can change that amount. You can also remove the tip completely and still place an order for a very small item without restriction. For example, you can put a single bag of Lay's potato chips in your bag, remove the tip and only pay the tax, and you can still place the order. But you should never do that because only a completely terrible person would have someone brave the cold to bring them chips and then not tip at all.
Moreon tipping later, but always tip. What are you, a monster?
Cost
Now it's time to order some food, and here's what we picked.
From DoorDash, we ordered a burnt cheese burger from Punch Burger for $7.50. Along with that, there was a 68 cent tax, a $3.99 delivery fee, a 38 cent service fee and a $2 small order fee. I was also given an automatic $3.99 discount without the use of any promo codes or special. That made the total cost of the burger $10.56, not including tip.
From Grubhub,we ordered buffalo wings for $11.95 from Yard House. That item was chosen to meet the $10 minimum order required by Yard House.There was a $3.99 delivery fee and a $1.12 tax, making the total $17.06 before tip.
From UberEATS we ordered a calzone from Pearl Street Pizzeria and Pub for $8.95. There was a tax of 81 cents and a booking fee of $4.99, bringing to total to $14.75.
Finally, from ClusterTruck we ordered an Italian hero for $11.32. There was a tax of $1.02, making the total $12.34 before tip.
Now, let's talk tips. Each app allows you to tip right from your phone, so tip. That's it. If you don't want to tip, don't order food for delivery. Instead, get up and get it yourself.
Speed
It should be noted that every service got us food much, much faster than the estimated delivery time they provided. But ClusterTruck, which did not offer an estimate, was the first order to arrive.
All of the orders were placed at 11:57 a.m. on Jan. 3., and ClusterTruck texted me that they were in front of the IndyStar at 12:11 p.m.
They were followed by DoorDash who arrived at 12:17p.m. after estimatingthat our food would be here at 12:45 p.m., and UberEATS at 12:19 p.m. after giving us a 12:24 p.m. estimate.
Grubhub got the wings to us at 12:28 p.m., beating an estimated delivery window of between 12:46 p.m. and 12:56 p.m. So yes, Grubhub lost this race, but all of the service won when it came to getting food to us in the cold much quicker than expected.
It should be noted that all of the orders were correct, and all of the food was fresh. The order from Punch Burger also threw in an order of sweet potato tots that we did not ask for, but they were a welcome arrival here in the newsroom.
Do I have to go outside?
With UberEATS and ClusterTruck, I had to go outside and meet the driver to pick up my food. But the drivers from DoorDash and Grubhub brought it inside where it was nice and warm.
How 'bout the 'burbs?
Doing this test Downtown is one thing, but the options changed quite a bit when looking for food around my place on the northwest side.
When placing an order to the area of West 96th Street and Towne Road around 1 p.m. on Jan. 5, DoorDash options drop to 102 restaurants and Grubhub options drop to 33. UberEATS listed 21 open restaurants and six closed restaurants in the delivery area.
Sadly, ClusterTruck wasn't an option at all.ClusterTruck serves a radius of six driving minutes from its Downtown Indianapolis kitchen. If the company were to expand in Indianapolis, that likely would mean opening another kitchen to serve a different area.
So there you have it. Which service is right for you? And is there another service not in this showdown that has served you well? Shoot me an email and let me know!
Call IndyStar reporter Justin L. Mack at (317) 444-6138 or email him at justin.mack@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack.
