We’re all so busy these days, who even has time to swing by a restaurant to pick up food? Going from meeting to evening activities like volunteering, hitting the gym or kids sporting activities. That’s where DoorDash comes in. The food ordering and delivery system will let you easily choose from lots of restaurants and cuisines in your area and schedule delivery. DoorDash offered me a $50 credit to try the service.

DoorDash recently launched in Atlanta and parts of the metro area including Alpharetta, Marietta, Roswell, Sandy Springs and Vinings. My experience was unique. I’m just slightly out of the delivery area, so I had to get creative. I scheduled my DoorDash delivery to my gym and instructed the driver or “Dasher” as they are called, to meet me promptly after my class was over. She was waiting right in front for me as I walked outside.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. What about the DoorDash order process, right? My advice is to enter your full address before browsing, so you can get the true selection of what is available for delivery in your area.

From there, I browsed the restaurant offerings from DoorDash and settled on il Giallo Osteria. I’d heard good things but wanted to try it for myself. I ordered an appetizer of meatballs and two pasta dishes along with a side of roasted cauliflower. Taking a peek inside the bag, I saw that the smaller items were boxed, while the pastas were in round containers with the foil lid.

When you schedule an order, you have a 30-minute window. My class was over at 8, so, I scheduled delivery for between 8 and 8:30. There is a space where you can leave more notes for your driver, and I asked my DoorDash driver to be there promptly at 8 as I knew my class would let out right on time. It worked out perfectly and I didn’t have to wait one minute. And just like Uber, the tip is included for your DoorDash driver. The default is 15 percent, but you can increase it if you like.

I set the bag on the car floor and it stayed upright the entire time. Unfortunately, when I got out of my car oil from one of the pasta dishes had leaked all over and the bag collapsed as soon as I got out of the car.  We lost all but one of the meatballs (critters in the backyard dined well that evening!). The Angolotti pasta stuffed with duck (pictured above) was tasty though. It was poor packaging on the restaurant’s part, no fault of DoorDash. I did contact the restaurant and they do want to make it up to me, so that’s nice.

DoorDash Pros:

• You can search by the type of cuisine you are looking for. Burgers? Thai? Pizza? Whatever.
• You can pre-order. Got an evening meeting and it’s your turn to provide food? Just schedule the delivery. Note that there’s a 30 minute window, but you can specify a time in the additional notes.
• Besides cuisine, you can also sort by price and speed.

DoorDash Cons:

• There are a lot of fast food restaurants on their options. I wish they would only include real, local restaurants not fast food establishments.
• You place your order and it doesn’t take you to a confirmation page. Don’t hit “place order” again – check your email and the order confirmation should be there.
• I wish the items were more descriptive. I might know what souvlaki is but that doesn’t mean everyone ordering from them does. They have so much room for description but don’t use it.