Getting the best out of every delivery

The hour you pick decides what you eat

A kitchen does not work at one rhythm all day. Between noon and 1:30 it is at full output and the most-ordered dishes come out continuously: that is the best time to order what the house makes most of. At 3pm the same kitchen is quiet, and that is the best time to order the complicated dish nobody ever takes.

The 20 minutes that matter

Food leaves the kitchen hot and arrives warm. Nothing prevents that. What changes everything is what you do with those 20 minutes:

• order rice and sauce separately where the house offers it, and assemble at home,
• ask for chilli on the side, because it keeps cooking in the sauce,
• ordering for 4, take 2 dishes twice rather than 4 different ones: the kitchen plates them together and nothing sits waiting.

What the menu does not say, and you can ask for

Most kitchens accept requests they never write down: less salt, sauce on the side, meat well done, no groundnut. Put it in the order. A short, precise note is followed 9 times out of 10; a long one gets skimmed on a busy service.

Spotting a kitchen that delivers well

Three signals, visible before you order:

• an online menu shorter than the room's, which means the house has sorted what travels,
• photographs that look like what arrives, rather than like a catalogue,
• a stated preparation time that changes with the hour, because an honest kitchen knows it is slower at lunch.