9 awesome food hunting and online food delivery apps in UAE

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Dollars to dimes, there is plenty of online food delivery app(s), which you can use to order food. However, it takes a reliable food ordering app to truly deliver not only the scrumptious delectable to your stomach but does so in a safe, secure and swift manner.

Let me ask you something: if you are having a severe case of munchies, would you rather place an order for your favorite food on an online food delivery app that’s insanely popular, or would you go for a “meh” sort of application that isn’t as reliable? Something tells me that you will go for the first option because nothing cuts a fancy dinner plate when it is smoldering hot at the time of delivery.

Plus, it takes finesse and active collaboration on an online food ordering app’s behalf to ensure that each customer is treated like royalty.

To that end, this post highlights some of the best food ordering apps for people in the UAE. Since the entire online food ordering portal entails hundreds of applications at a worldwide level. If I were to cover each and every one of them, the topic would eventually go stale. In that order, it’s a region, by region approach to showing you which popular apps are a go-to choice for people in that country.

Blink is your #1 Online Ordering Platform for Restaurants

Is There Any Online Food Delivery App for Food Business Vendors in Dubai?

As a matter of fact, yes, there is.

Blink works as a scalable intermediary resource for up-and-coming food businesses in the MENAP region.

If you own a fully functional food business chain or a startup-level restaurant, the app offers you an all-time low commission haven to do business and much more!

With Blink, you don’t have to worry about percentage-based charges that are applied on every single incoming online food order. Instead, the company offers a subscription-based payment plan that is flexible in terms of allowing small vendors, especially, to focus on their marketing and expansion prospects.

As a food delivery app for food business operations in MENAP, some of the main features of Blink, are detailed below:

  • Access to customer data and analytics with actionable insights
  • Ability to execute, manage and monitor marketing campaigns
  • Integrate rewards and loyalty program campaigns
  • Dedicated fleet management system for food order customers and restaurant owners, alongside real-time GPS tracking
  • Fuss-free restaurant menu creation system
  • Create your website and front-end free food ordering app through Blink’s bleeding-edge technology
  • Visually immersive UI & UX interface for you and your restaurant customers alike!
  • Easily create promo campaign straplines for your mobile food app for maximum customer retention
  • 24/7 robust customer support for restaurant business owners

For more information, feel free to book a demo with Blink. reps at Blink for Restaurants Page.

Blink is your #1 Online Ordering Platform for Restaurants

Why an Online Food Delivery App Is Generally Hyped Up?

Online Food Delivery App Solutions in UAE

Why wouldn’t it be that way?

Of course, not “all” types of food delivery applications cut it in terms of popularity. As it was mentioned earlier, few food ordering apps are under the radar because of user issues, or probably because these applications are specific to a certain location.

The general reason(s) for any kind of hype associated with mass-level online food delivery app is appended below:

  • There’s a wide range of different, and easily available, menu options to choose from.
  • Mobile food delivery apps are a convenient way for ordering delivery or takeaway.
  • Almost every online food delivery app offers a real-time delivery tracking system.
  • Time-gated deals specific to your favorite restaurant offer a unique cuisine experience for different parts of the day.
  • Above all, your private information, credit card info, and other data are protected by the aggregator behind any popular food ordering app. Restaurants only see your name, contact, and delivery information which cannot be stored in the restaurants’ database, by default.

Blink is your #1 Online Ordering Platform for Restaurants

The 9 Best Online Food Delivery App(s) for UAE Based Foodies!

UAE is a land of diversity, different cultures, and people from all corners of the world. Needless to say, the taste palate sprawls for online food delivery app users sprawls over different culinary exotic delights.

On a grander scale, in terms of the variety of options to choose from, it’s not easy to suggest one particular food ordering app for everyone.

Here’s a quick list of popular applications that you can use to order food online:

  1. Uber Eats:
Uber Eats

Also known as UberEats, it is a phenomenal online food delivery app that’s not only popular in the UAE, but also in other parts of the world.

Technically, Uber is a Ride Share company with millions of active commuters spread across worldwide communities. Seeing the insane popularity, and the sense of connectivity that came along with it, Uber decided to spread its outreach through a dedicated food ordering system.

In the UAE, Uber Eats offers a heavenly food ordering system that only takes about an average of 15 – 40 minutes for any sort of food to get delivered.

Right off the platter, customers are offered a 4-step process where they select the food of their choice and get done with placing an order in a few minutes. UberEats’ cloud kitchen experience is lined up with multiple restaurant chains, specific deals for an active time of the day, and different scrumptious menus to go for.

Price-wise, Uber Eats offers an affordable assortment of menus where low-tier menus are available at AED 4 to AED 10. Depending on your order location, your price and order delivery time may vary.

Update: UberEats is no longer functional in the UAE. As of recent business developments, the company announced a swift retreat from the Middle Eastern hemisphere, followed by an uproar from disgruntled restaurant business owners.

Also Read: UberEats Decides to Switch Off in Dubai | Gulf News


UberEats’ “due diligence” to maintain commission percentage up to 35% on restaurant operators’ orders, was met with severe backlash.

Since COVID-19, most of the food business owners in Dubai and all over the world haven’t been able to break even. As a result, F&B and food startup owners expected UberEats to reduce its service charges in support of helping businesses to grow during tough times.

However, the company’s failure to revise its policies caused it to shut down its operations in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and pretty much all over the UAE belt.

If you are interested in UberEats Dubai alternative apps, or food delivery apps in Dubai, browse through the rest of this post. You can also continue to use Careem to order food in Dubai, since UberEats joined hands with the popular food vendor to retain its share in the market.

  1. Zomato:
Zomato

Zomato is insanely popular in South Asia, but it does maintain a strong foothold as a reliable online food delivery app in the UAE.

Plus, if it is your first time ordering through Zomato, you can avail up to 20% of your orders. The top-rated dine-out experience bundled with verified customer reviews shed insight on the hottest menu deals.

Usually, customers sign up for a Zomato Gold account that gives them freeway access to exclusive members club, special discounts, and a wider range of restaurants within the local communities in the UAE.

It’s cheap, it’s reliable and works as advertised.

PS: Zomato sold its UAE food business to Food Hero. Therefore, your food ordering experience may vary in terms of region specific customer experience.

  1. Talabat:
Talabat

Of course, if it’s about getting off with a fine dine-out experience, Talabat has become more of a household name among food lovers in the UAE.

Their slogan, ‘Find a restaurant, order your meal, and enjoy your food!’ stands up to the hype that Talabat is famous for. As a brand new customer, you can scroll through an assortment of different menus coming in from popular and brand new restaurants all around you.

Talabat is also a preferred mode of business for food delivery agents since this online food delivery app allows customers to dole out huge tips beforehand. Of course, this sense of reliability and trust comes from unparalleled service, which is nothing new for Talabat Co.

Why don’t you sign up for an account and give it a spin?

  1. Deliveroo:
Deliveroo

Now here’s a convenient online food delivery app, right after my own heart.

Deliveroo culminates an exquisite dine-out experience for people on the go in the Middle East. Popular restaurants, such as Pinkberry and Sushi Art have garnered hundreds of positive reviews from folks in the UAE who fancy a rich menu with easily affordable options to choose from.

Did You Know!

BlinkCo is an online ordering solution centered around servicing restaurants that do not have their native food ordering app. Blink takes care of vendors’ marketing needs, food orders, scrumptious menus and time-gated campaigns to convert any ongoing business by tenfold.

The platform is offered on a Software-as-a-Service basis where restaurant owners are given full access to an intuitive white-labeled, ready-to-use template that only takes about 15 – 30 minutes to create their first menu on the fly.

Here’s the best part!

Blink doesn’t charge a flat commission based on partners’ order volume, or monthly revenue. On the contrary, restaurants only have to pay a nominal monthly fee to avail Blink services without any hitches and/ or last-minute hidden policies.

Blink is your #1 Online Ordering Platform for Restaurants

  1. Eat Clean:
Eat Clean

The conundrums of consuming food through online ordering apps can easily pack a few pounds around your waist.

However, Eat Clean comes as a health-friendly food ordering app for folks in the UAE who are concerned about their dietary intake options. The menus might be a little low calorie, but you can sift through tons of vegan, high protein, and low carb delicacies that are often overlooked in typical online food delivery apps in the UAE.

Of course, regardless of your scrumptious meal plan, everything is delivered to your doorstep in a jiffy. After all, reliability, efficiency, and swiftness are some of the cool factors that Eat Clean is famous for!

  1. EatEasy:
EatEasy

Eateasy offers tantalizing food wrapped around diversified multi-cultured menu options to make up for an exquisite experience.

You can further customize your online food ordering experience by typing down your location that enables this online food delivery app to suggest restaurants in your close proximity. All the more, the convenience of browsing through these restaurants by the number of user reviews helps to pin down “only” those outlets that offer a 5-star customer experience.

The best part about Eateasy is a select menu option for health-conscious folks. If you are worried about shedding off those extra inches, you can go for warm bowls of high protein goodness, salad-only menus, and other dietary options enriched with low-cal nutrients.

  1. Burger King UAE:
Burger King UAE

Burger King is a household name when it comes to fast food, delivered to your doorstep at lightning speed.

The fact that the restaurant has got over 400 franchises all over the UAE speaks well about its reputation. You can sift through a variety of different menus ranging over the infamous Whopper, divine steaks and plenty more to satiate your culinary buds.

All the burgers are flame grilled and taste like the real thing right off the chef’s cooking range. Needless to say, you will definitely enjoy your meal, right down to the last bite. It’s a shame that their fries are sometimes so scrumptious that you will often regret not ordering extra with your food.

Blink is your #1 Online Ordering Platform for Restaurants

8. Munch:On

For Dubai foodies, we’ve also got Munch:On in this list. The food ordering service is specifically made for people on the move – i.e. workaholics, officer goers, and vice versa.

If you don’t have time to pack your lunch for work – let alone make it, you can order anything to look up a meal of your choice through Munch:On. The fresh menu rotates every other day, so there’s something new to look forward to.

Some of the key highlights of Munch:On online food delivery app are:

  • Order meals for as low as AED 30
  • Collection of over 400 top quality Emirate restaurants in the app
  • Order anything before the cut-off time
  • Get instant mobile phone notification when the meal is delivered to your workplace or residence
  • Inbuilt review and rating system
  • Membership is also available for AED 39 per month. Members get a discount on each order likewise.
  • Munch:On also offers a free trial to new users and a limited discount from time to time.

Having said that, if this Dubai food ordering app isn’t your cup of tea, we’ve got another exclusive for you. Read on…

9. Smiles UAE

Smiles UAE was recently launched in collaboration with Etisalat. This isn’t primarily a food ordering app, but rather offers a wholesome customer experience by bunching up groceries, home use items, and vice versa.

As part of their innovative customer experience, people at Etisalat have worked hard to create Smiles UAE food ordering app. To that effect, there are over 2500+ restaurants with a new delivery system that offers reward points that can be applied to the next order.

Alongside redeemable points, Smiles UAE also has a discount system for using card payments and other options that encourage contactless deliveries, etc. Such developments not only add to the voracious user appetite but also contribute to the various avenues of delightful customer experience.

As of right now, Smiles UAE is being used by over 1.6 million users in the UAE. The overall food and general use item rates are competitive. You get a savings tracker that lets you in on how much you have saved throughout your order history.

On top of everything, if you are an existing Etisalat customer, you can pay your bills and opt-in for recharges. Each bill payment generates Smile points that are added to your virtual in-app wallet.

Overall, it’s a decent combination of Dubai food ordering app and other festivities that are hard to come by through a centralized platform.

Which Online Food Ordering App in UAE is The Best In Terms of Usability:

While all of these applications are equally popular among Middle-Easterners, we wanted to highlight one specific food ordering app that surpasses performance in terms of usability.

Deliveroo reportedly has the cleanest user interface with a minimalistic visual theme that not only makes it easier to wade through restaurant menus but also results in a relatively quick only ordering experience.

Having said that, Uber Eats and Zomato are nothing short of perfect. However, as dedicated online food ordering apps, both aggregators “kind of” make it slightly difficult to navigate across restaurants. For instance, Zomato users find it a little difficult to find out which restaurants actually offer food delivery because, by default, the food ordering app shows all sorts of available branches for any given restaurant.

Another point of confusion, while reviewing the online food delivery apps on this list was that both Zomato and Uber Eats sometimes mislabeled the size of burgers. Regular burgers are often jumbled up as ‘Single’ in Zomato and ‘Small’ in Uber Eats.

To get the idea for the burgers’ specific size, you have to compare their prices in other food ordering mobile apps to figure out whatever you’re ordering is in fact the right-sized burger for your palate.

Regardless, Deliveroo is a clear winner, since it reportedly showcases reliability, order security, and an overall lightning-fast food ordering system.

If you beg to differ and think that some other food ordering app deserves the title of the ‘Best online food delivery app’ in the UAE, feel free to share your thoughts through the comments section. We look forward to hearing from you.

After all, when it’s about reliable food choices, we all want the same thing: exquisite taste bundled with a fast remote food ordering portal.

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