Over the past two months I've been noticing large advertisements in the windows of many Edmonton restaurants. It's the big red and white logo for Skip the Dishes, a start-up company based out of Western Canada. Skip the Dishes aims to push the boundaries of home delivery beyond pizza and Chinese food. Partnering up with local restaurants in 14 different cities, Skip the Dishes looks to offer locals the ability to order food from their favourite restaurants online for delivery right to their door at a specified time. Last week I took the opportunity to test run the service to see what they had to offer.

The process was easy to follow and the website was very user friendly. Upon reaching the home page you can type in your address, then a list of restaurants partnered with Skip the Dishes able to provide delivery to your address comes up. I was quite surprised to see what restaurants were on the list, as some of my favourite Edmonton restaurants were on there. Restaurants like Viphalay, Japonais Bistro, T.H.I.S. Place and Lan's Asian Grill popped up, just to name a few! Unfortunately given my location in the far south, many of the restaurants couldn't deliver to me. Hopefully this changes in the future, because I would love some of my favourite jalapeno yellowtail from Japonais Bistro delivered right to my door!

Most restaurants partnered with the website charge a $5-6 delivery fee with no minimum order amount, but there are some exceptions. Out of the restaurants able to deliver to my address, my boyfriend and I decided to try food from somewhere new. We settled on Thai Basil, a restaurant based in the west end of Edmonton. The website listed out the entire menu with descriptions of each dish, prices, and the ability to customize the dish to your liking (e.g. level of spiciness, type of sauce or proteins being used in the dishes). It was very easy to use and place the order, and through the website you can leave a tip for the driver too. I placed my order at about 5:30 PM, selecting the delivery to arrive within the time period of 7:00-7:30 PM.


Tom Yum, Pad Thai & Papaya Salad
Waiting is the hardest part. Shortly after placing my order, I got an email to my inbox telling me that a staff member at Thai Basil had verified my order and they confirmed that the food should be delivered to my door at 7:15 PM. At 7:10 PM I got another email update stating that the order would arrive at 7:30 PM, which was still within the time frame that I had originally selected. I was quite impressed with the timely updates that were given to me, and sure enough my doorbell rang right at 7:30 PM. The driver had the food in an insulated bag and upon opening the take out boxes the food was still hot.

Of course the food probably isn't going to be as delicious as if you were sitting in the restaurant and being served at the table, but Skip the Dishes does their best to deliver the restaurant experience to you in the comfort of your own home. Utilizing Skip the Dishes is going to be perfect for me on those nights where I don't want to cook, but am too lazy to go out and have a sit down meal at a restaurant. Gone are the days of just pizza and Chinese being delivered at home...welcome to Edmonton, Skip the Dishes!

Disclosure: I was provided with a $30 credit to try out Skip the Dishes. This post is 100% my opinion, and as always, my priority is to you, the reader, to present an unbiased, thorough review.