Doordash launched it's home food delivery service in Utica for over 120+ CNY restaurants the day before Valentine's Day. After realizing that the cupboards were empty last night, we decided to try it for the first time.

When you get a hankering for Everything Wings from the Killabrew and aren't interested in leaving the house (even though you live only 7 minutes away,) you now have the option to have foods like that delivered to straight to you. The coolest part to me wasn't even getting the food delivered, it was actually the insightful process.

Screenshot: KJ
Screenshot: KJ
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Rather than ordering the wings and then just waiting for the knock at the door, the app keeps you updated every step of the way along with estimated times. I put in my order and the first thing that the app told me afterwards was that they were waiting for the restaurant to confirm and how long things should take.

Once they did, the next message I got was that the dasher (what they call the delivery guy) was at the Killabrew waiting to grab the order. Not only that, but they listed his name and gave me a button to text the driver directly if need be! Then, as soon as he left the restaurant with my food, I got another notification that he was on his way complete with a moving map of his car as it approached my house.

Then as he was within feet of my house I got ANOTHER notification that said he's nearby so get ready, then BOOM, seconds later, DING DONG! Oh, and you know what else? Sometimes you wanna order food but then realize that you have no cash to tip... Well, the app let's you tip the driver as part of your purchase and even gives you amount suggestions so you don't have to do mental math anymore.

Screenshot: KJ
Screenshot: KJ
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When all was said and done from ordering on the app to delivery it took just over a half hour which was actually faster than if I'd phoned in my order and went to pick it up myself (and it didn't cost much more either.) There is nominal delivery fee  ($4 in this case) for this service, so in the end you're paying a little more out-of-pocket than you would for a pizza place who already offers delivery in house, but I found it to be well worth the price.

Stay tuned for more on what it's like from the driver's perspective... or just watch this:

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