Choosing food for delivery is something I do frequently both as a personal consumer and as part of my job. My needs and concerns for either situation are often on opposite ends – low price is a concern when ordering for myself, whereas it is not a concern when ordering for my job, in favor of ease of setup and taste.

My research thus starts from one of those two points. For myself, as a non-driver pickup is not an option, so delivery is a must. DoorDash is my go-to first step for personal orders, whereas EZCater (designed for ordering for large groups) is my first step for work orders. With that in mind, I looked through the personal-order scenario, described below. I used the Salt Lake City court as the delivery address, as that is close to where I would be if I were ordering for work and likely nearby for a personal order as well.

Needs recognition: Personal ordering is always prompted by my immediate hunger. In this example, I have a strong craving for Italian food (unusual for me) and – being hungry – would prioritize delivery that is closer/faster.

Information search: Cost is a factor for me, and using DoorDash I give some priority to those restaurants that have a $0 delivery fee. I found a significant number of restaurants searching “Italian” on DoorDash for my SLC address, so I set the filter to “under 30 minutes” (this cut the options approximately in half, to 99 results). To further lower the number of options, I set the “Ratings” filter to only show restaurants rated 4.5 stars or above. This got me down to 66 results. After that, I just scrolled. The majority of the first results were pizza (something I am skeptical of anywhere outside the tri-state area) and various pubs, none of which seem particularly Italian to me, so I just kept scrolling. I did place a high priority on the photo that each restaurant chooses as their display pic, and found that I preferred a photo of pasta (to me, that reads as Italian food).

Evaluation of alternatives: I ultimately considered Zaffo’s Artisan Pasta or Antica Roma. In choosing between them, I noted that Antica Roma had over 1,000 reviews whereas as Zaffo’s had only 62. However, Zaffo’s had  two pesto dishes featured in their “popular items” choices that I found very appealing based on the picture and the description (“reginette” is not a very common American-Italian option in my experience which suggested to me that it the restaurant as a whole is more authentically Italian, as well as the desserts – only three, two panna cotta options and one tiramisu, listed under the title “Dolci”). Antica also looked to have great pasta dishes, but at more than twice the cost ($25 versus $11) and no panna cotta in the dessert options.

Purchase decision: I opted for Zaffo’s – the menu options gave me confidence despite the lower number of reviews, and additionally I strongly prefer pesto-based pasta dishes over tomato-based or cream-based sauces, which Zaffo’s had solid options in. Additionally the cost difference was substantial, a definite consideration when ordering for myself and especially if I am ordering for family members as well.

If I was ordering for work, I would have likely ordered from Antica – they had bruschetta and other appetizers (much more important when ordering for a team meal), and while I did not check, it seems likely they offer catering via EZCater, and going with the more expensive but also more reviewed choice is my standard approach for work.

I presume for other consumers, they would have additional options based on being able to do pickup if desired. Consumers with more disposable income would possibly also turn to Antica more quickly than I would. I also skipped a restaurant that chose a meatball sub image for their picture (Moochie’s Meatballs and More); I am not a big fan of meatballs or sandwiches, and presumably consumers who find those items more enticing would be more likely to consider that restaurant (or, pizza, if they are more willing to risk Utah pizza than I am – since there were 5 pizza options outside of the larger chain options, I presume others are interested in that where I am not!)

First-image photos definitely had a larger impact on me than I expected, as well as name choices!