Red Horn Pizza, Rockdale courtesy of Menulog (11th October 2013)
I've seen Menulog ads on billboards at train stations around town though have not personally tried them to date so when I was approached to trial and write a review on their online ordering system, I said yes!
Menulog makes online takeaway ordering a breeze with its easy-to-navigate and simple-to-use website - hop on the website, key in your suburb or postcode, and a list of restaurants that cater to your suburb appears. Still new to Rockdale, Jono and I have yet to discover where the locals eat so often fall back to trusty Crust Pizza (ordered online and delivered) or walk to the nearby Thai takeaway on nights when we are too lazy to cook; I was delightfully surprised to find over 30 restaurants that cater for my suburb on Menulog. You can easily filter the results using the search criteria available on the left side panel (e.g. by cuisine, specials, payment method), as well as sort your list by consumer favourites, name, speed, rating and minimum payment. I thought the speed column was pretty handy, especially if you're super hungry and want somewhere that gets your meal ready and to you fast. Some restaurants also offer first order and loyalty discounts, while others provide meal deals. Menulog pride themselves as 'No.1 For Online Takeaway in Australia' and a quick Google search reveals several competitors in the market offering similar services but none have as many user reviews or number of restaurants on their system. Having apps for both iPhone and Android also makes Menulog fully mobile and it's free to download.
Each restaurant has its menu laid out and categorised clearly so it didn't take us long to decide on the restaurant and what to order. We went for Red Horn Pizza and ordered ourselves a Super Meat calzone, a medium Red Horn Supreme pizza (the pizzas come in medium or large) and the Wild Rocket & Roasted Sweet Potato salad with choice of one dressing - Balsamic, Italian, French or Caesar; we went for Balsamic. The folks at Menulog have kindly given me a $25 voucher which we've put to good use this evening. Because it was our first order, we also received a 10% discount though was slapped with a 1% credit card surcharge on the Visa on checkout - there was no way we could have avoided the surcharge since you must use a credit card when redeeming a voucher (surcharge amount varies depending on the restaurant). Delivery cost was $2 making the total cost of the order $34.31 (actual cost to us was $9.65). We entered our payment details, clicked 'Pay' and the order was placed.
In addition to the order placed confirmation page seen on screen, I also received a copy of the confirmation sent to my email. Within a few short minutes, I heard a 'ding' on my mobile indicating I've received an SMS - it was the confirmation from Red Horn Pizza. The SMS also advised that the expected delivery time was 8.55pm (which was about 45 minutes after we submitted the order). So now we wait...
Our takeaway arrived 10 minutes earlier than expected. The food was packaged nicely in boxes, and both the pizza and calzone were still warm when the delivery man handed them to Jono at the door. Time to eat!
The quality of food was good and reasonably priced. The Red Horn Supreme pizza was of the thin-crust kind and not overloaded with sauce or toppings which are pluses in my book (personally, I find overloaded pizzas just too much). The Super Meat calzone (folded pizza) was delicious and my favourite of the lot. A squeeze of lemon juice on the top gives it a nice zing. Though I enjoyed the peppery Wild Rocket & Roasted Sweet Potato salad, I felt it could do with more cheese - the box was generously filled with rocket, sweet potato and pine nuts but only had four small pieces of brie :/
Menulog makes online takeaway ordering a breeze with its easy-to-navigate and simple-to-use website - hop on the website, key in your suburb or postcode, and a list of restaurants that cater to your suburb appears. Still new to Rockdale, Jono and I have yet to discover where the locals eat so often fall back to trusty Crust Pizza (ordered online and delivered) or walk to the nearby Thai takeaway on nights when we are too lazy to cook; I was delightfully surprised to find over 30 restaurants that cater for my suburb on Menulog. You can easily filter the results using the search criteria available on the left side panel (e.g. by cuisine, specials, payment method), as well as sort your list by consumer favourites, name, speed, rating and minimum payment. I thought the speed column was pretty handy, especially if you're super hungry and want somewhere that gets your meal ready and to you fast. Some restaurants also offer first order and loyalty discounts, while others provide meal deals. Menulog pride themselves as 'No.1 For Online Takeaway in Australia' and a quick Google search reveals several competitors in the market offering similar services but none have as many user reviews or number of restaurants on their system. Having apps for both iPhone and Android also makes Menulog fully mobile and it's free to download.
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| Menulog homepage - find restaurants by suburb or postcode |
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List of restaurants that deliver to Rockdale
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| You can use the search filters on the left to narrow down your list as well as sort the search results |
Each restaurant has its menu laid out and categorised clearly so it didn't take us long to decide on the restaurant and what to order. We went for Red Horn Pizza and ordered ourselves a Super Meat calzone, a medium Red Horn Supreme pizza (the pizzas come in medium or large) and the Wild Rocket & Roasted Sweet Potato salad with choice of one dressing - Balsamic, Italian, French or Caesar; we went for Balsamic. The folks at Menulog have kindly given me a $25 voucher which we've put to good use this evening. Because it was our first order, we also received a 10% discount though was slapped with a 1% credit card surcharge on the Visa on checkout - there was no way we could have avoided the surcharge since you must use a credit card when redeeming a voucher (surcharge amount varies depending on the restaurant). Delivery cost was $2 making the total cost of the order $34.31 (actual cost to us was $9.65). We entered our payment details, clicked 'Pay' and the order was placed.
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| Red Horn Pizza menu |
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| Checkout page |
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| Payment details page |
In addition to the order placed confirmation page seen on screen, I also received a copy of the confirmation sent to my email. Within a few short minutes, I heard a 'ding' on my mobile indicating I've received an SMS - it was the confirmation from Red Horn Pizza. The SMS also advised that the expected delivery time was 8.55pm (which was about 45 minutes after we submitted the order). So now we wait...
Our takeaway arrived 10 minutes earlier than expected. The food was packaged nicely in boxes, and both the pizza and calzone were still warm when the delivery man handed them to Jono at the door. Time to eat!
The quality of food was good and reasonably priced. The Red Horn Supreme pizza was of the thin-crust kind and not overloaded with sauce or toppings which are pluses in my book (personally, I find overloaded pizzas just too much). The Super Meat calzone (folded pizza) was delicious and my favourite of the lot. A squeeze of lemon juice on the top gives it a nice zing. Though I enjoyed the peppery Wild Rocket & Roasted Sweet Potato salad, I felt it could do with more cheese - the box was generously filled with rocket, sweet potato and pine nuts but only had four small pieces of brie :/
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Our home delivery from Red Horn Pizza
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Red Horn Supreme Pizza (medium) ($16) - smoke cured pepperoni, smoked ham, Italian sausage, fresh capsicum, Spanish onions, mushroom, pineapple & kalamata olives on a tomato base
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Super Meat Calzone ($10.90) - Italian sausage, pepperoni, double smoked ham, mozzarella with marinara sauce. Served with a wedge of lemon.
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Wild Rocket & Roasted Sweet Potato Salad ($9).
A mix of fresh wild rocket, roasted sweet potato, pine nuts & brie.
Balsamic dressing packed separately.
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It turned out to be quite a lot of food for two - we only managed to finish the calzone, half of the salad and a third of the pizza. Guess we'll be having leftovers for lunch tomorrow! All in all, the online ordering experience was a good one from order to consumption - I'm glad I've finally tried it out :) Jono is all for supporting local businesses; I'm sure you know where we'll be ordering our delivery pizza from next time round.
At the time of order, the confirmation page provided a voucher code for $5 off on our next Menulog app order - we totally intend to use it to try out one of the other restaurants that deliver to our suburb before the code expires next week :)
Though Menulog provided a voucher for use on their website, opinions on this post are my own. Thanks Menulog for inviting me to trial their online ordering system.
At the time of order, the confirmation page provided a voucher code for $5 off on our next Menulog app order - we totally intend to use it to try out one of the other restaurants that deliver to our suburb before the code expires next week :)
Though Menulog provided a voucher for use on their website, opinions on this post are my own. Thanks Menulog for inviting me to trial their online ordering system.
Great article, I've also struggled to find many good takeaways close by so I'll give this site a go. The pizzas and salad look really good!
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