Amazon Now Delivering Restaurant Food In Seattle

IMG_3060If having Amazon deliver your groceries or farmers market produce wasn’t enough, the e-commerce giant turned deliverer-of-all-things-edible now plans to bring consumers piping hot meals right to their dining room tables with its foray into the restaurant delivery service arena.

Amazon announced today that it will begin testing yet another service, this time delivering food from local restaurants to Prime members in Seattle.

The service will be completed through Amazon’s Prime Now program, which provides members of the company $99/year Prime service deliveries in one or two hours.

Using the Prime Now mobile app, Seattle customers can view participating restaurants, browse menus, place orders and track the status of their delivery. Once an order is placed, Amazon delivery drivers pick up and deliver the food within an hour or less, the company says.

While it’s always nice to have options when it comes to hot food showing up at your door, the promise of delivery within one hour of pick up has us wondering if dinner will actually arrive hot, or just luke warm.

According to Amazon, the menus featured on the Prime Now app will include “transparent prices – there are no markup or hidden service fees.” For a limited time, delivery thought the service will be free.

“Prime members can now enjoy food from the Seattle restaurants they love without having to drive all over the city,” Gus Lopez, general manager of Amazon Restaurants, said in a statement. “For many of these restaurants, this is the first time they are offering delivery, and we are delighted they have chosen to work with us.”

For now, restaurant delivery is only available in select Seattle zip codes, but the company anticipates rolling out the new service to other areas of the city in the coming days.

“Prime members can download the Prime Now app and enter their zip code to see if Prime Now is available in their area,” the company says. “In zip codes where restaurant delivery is available, customers will see Restaurants on the home page.”

Prime Now Introduces Restaurant Delivery in Seattle [Amazon]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.