Brits Are Still Using ‘Restaurant’ Delivery to Order (Five Guys’) Burgers

The United Kingdom is still using restaurant delivery technology to order burgers.

Delivery giant Deliveroo has published its most-ordered items in 2018 and for the second time in as many years, cheeseburgers from U.S.-import Five Guys sit at the top of the rankings. Globally, it is second only to a pad Thai dish from Thaï at Home in Paris.

In last year’s list, the U.K. first place went to the Five Guys cheeseburger; a cheeseburger from Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) and a burger from Byron also featured in the global top 20 dishes ordered. Meatliquor’s ‘Dead Hippie’, which had topped the London charts earlier in 2017, placed at 21.

Only Five Guys remains in the list at all, with GBK, Byron, and Meatliquor all dropping out of the top 100 dishes ordered globally.

Globally, according to Deliveroo’s findings, it appears that poke and burritos register as a favourites for comfort and convenience. In total, 14 poke bowls appear in the top 100, while three burritos register in the global top 10; eight in the top 100.

Despite vast investment in technology and marketing from Deliveroo (and its closest U.K. competitor, Uber Eats), to position itself as an alternative to eating out in restaurants — as a device for bringing restaurant-quality food to the consumer, evidence suggests that users are using the services principally to order foods whose circumstances for enjoyment are typically not reliant on the restaurant itself. It’s worth remembering that Uber Eats’ backbone — indeed the reason it is a viable business in the U.K. — is an exclusivity deal to deliver McDonald’s (burgers.)

As the battle between Deliveroo and Uber Eats intensifies in the new year, all industry eyes will be on how, if at all, either can present an existential threat to the restaurant per se.