3 Unique New Delivery Services, Reviewed

Though pricey, an abundance of delivery services in San Francisco make ordering at home easier than ever. You already know about apps like Caviar, Postmates, Uber Eats, Amazon Prime Now, DoorDash, and more. These are the ones that have hooked up with restaurants around town to bring food from the Richmond available all the way down to the Mission and vice versa.

But this being San Francisco, there are also some more ... quirky options out there. In particular, three new ones — a truck that cooks its pizza on its way to you, a Korean barbecue service that comes with grill and all, and on-demand alcohol delivery — stood out to Eater SF so much that we just had to test them out. Here’s what happened.

Gen Delivers

Gen Delivers/Facebook

The Deal

Korean barbecue has long seemed like one of those experiences so laborious to replicate at home that it just wasn’t worth it. Making the myriad of banchan (those pickled and fermented sides that accompany the meats) alone is enough to call it quits. But now San Jose’s Gen Korean BBQ House has figured out KBBQ at home. The Los Angeles-based chain’s new Gen Delivers service sends you literally everything you need to make the experience work at home: meat by the pound, all the sides, rice, and wraps, and — not kidding — even the grill. A sampler platter (feeds two to four people) is $45, which is certainly cheaper than if you were to eat in-restaurant.

The Verdict

The package arrived the day after we ordered it packed in dry ice, and opening it was like entering Mary Poppins’ purse; the individually-wrapped containers of marinated meats, jerky, rice, rice wraps, lettuce, kimchi, various sauces, and more just kept coming. That was the hardest part, though; once it was all unpacked and defrosted, it was insanely easy to execute. We just plugged in the electric grill, plopped on the meats, and quickly had a feast in front of us.

The great news is that it all tasted fresh and authentic; traveling didn’t seem to downgrade any of the ingredients’ quality. The not-so-great news is that smoking up your home with grilled meats is enough of a reason to not do this at home (though a backyard is a handy solution). Gen Delivers is worth it for a unique dinner party, but otherwise KBBQ is probably best reserved for a fun night out.

Zume

The Deal

Zume Pizza is a Silicon Valley invention, but is squarely a food, not tech, company. The premise is pizza made by robots and cooked in the delivery truck on its way to your house, rather than getting colder on its way to you. Big names in food are involved, specifically executive chef Aaron Butkus, who came to the Bay Area from New York’s cult pizza favorite Roberta’s. He developed the dough, while the sauce is made from organic, dry-farmed tomatoes from a collaboration between lauded pizza chef Chris Bianco of Tuscon’s Pizzeria Bianco (called America’s best pizza maker by Eater critic Bill Addison), and Rob DiNapoli, a third generation canner. Meats and produce are sourced locally.

Right now, Zume is only in Mountain View, but is expanding rapidly. You can read about all the details here.

The Verdict

It’s easy to see Roberta’s influence shine through in Butkus’ pizzas, which have a funny way of bringing disparate ingredients together for a truly creative pie. The dough is aged, which gives it a pleasing, chewy crust that gets a little charred in the brick oven, like all good pizzas tend to do. High-quality ingredients from local purveyors also make for a flavorful delivery experience. Some of the standouts include the Gold Rush, topped with mozzarella, cheddar, fingerling potatoes, bacon, Peppadews, green onions, and cream, and the Lucky Bueno, made with tomato sauce, mozzarella, soppressata, honey, roasted garlic, and basil.

Ultimately, there’s nothing better than a steaming hot pizza, and having it delivered to your doorstep moments after coming out of the oven is undeniably superior to old school delivery.

Drizly

The Deal

You can already get alcohol delivery on demand through delivery services like Postmates and Door Dash, but Drizly is a brand-new app that focuses solely on that. It’s already in 25 other markets and going strong. You can compare prices between retailers right on the app, there are no markups, and — best of all — alcohol will be at your door in under an hour.

The Verdict

The app was incredibly easy to navigate, and the delivery fee ($5) and tip were very transparent (unlike, frustratingly, other services in the area). After accidentally ordering two bottles of Prosecco to the wrong address, we were able to quickly get in touch with customer support to correct our error. We could track the order’s progress, and fifty minutes later, two chilled bottles were in our hands, making this one a huge success. One thing to note: we were not carded, which is either very upsetting or very amazing, depending on your outlook.