With the coronavirus pandemic shuttering dining out, Seattleites have spent much more time ordering takeout and cooking at home. So what kinds of food are people gravitating toward?
DoorDash — one of the biggest food delivery apps in the U.S. — has released data that reveals trends about what food people in Seattle have been ordering for delivery through the first half of 2020.
Using order data from January through June, and a national survey of 2,000 adults, DoorDash says that Seattle’s delivery food of choice is seafood, including sushi, fish and chips, and crab rangoon.
This maybe comes as no surprise, as the Pacific Northwest serves up some of the country’s best seafood, and boasts a plethora of restaurants that cook up fresh offerings from the sea.
The West Coast’s food preferences are more varied, with top foods ordered including pizza, chicken tikka masala, Mongolian beef, cheesecake and more. DoorDash also aggregated data from other West Coast cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, whose top delivered foods were sushi and Indian food, respectively.
Across the U.S., a chicken sandwich and french fries was the most popular meal that people ordered from DoorDash through the first half of 2020. The delivery app also noted a nationwide increase in orders for breakfast foods, likely because more folks are working from home and no longer picking up food on the way to work.
Also interesting? The DoorDash survey provided this look at what people tend to order in for different meals in different regions of the country. Takeaways: The East Coast really likes chicken. The Midwest really likes starches. And West Coasters enjoy a wide array of Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Mexican food.
East Coast:
- Breakfast: Iced Coffee, donuts, steak omelette, Belgian waffle, bagel with butter.
- Lunch: Crispy chicken sandwich, chips, iced tea, grilled chicken Caesar salad, turkey sandwich.
- Dinner: Chicken quesadilla, Caesar salad, spicy tuna roll, fried rice, gyoza
- Late Night: Chicken fingers, apple pie, mozzarella sticks, strawberry milkshake, sugar cookies.
West Coast:
- Breakfast: Breakfast burrito, bacon, French toast, latte, pancakes.
- Lunch: Create-your-own pizza, miso soup, veggie spring rolls, chicken egg roll, orange chicken
- Dinner: Chicken tikka masala, spicy tuna roll, Mongolian beef, bean burrito, dragon roll.
- Late Night: Stuffed jalapeños, mini churros, cheesecake, horchata, fried zucchini.
Midwest:
- Breakfast: BEC on a biscuit, iced French vanilla latte, breakfast sampler, oatmeal, strawberry banana smoothie.
- Lunch: Mac and cheese, potstickers, Italian beef Sandwich, hot dog, chili.
- Dinner: Potstickers, chimichanga, street tacos, spaghetti and meatballs, fettuccine alfredo
- Late Night: French fries, chocolate milkshake, cheese sliders, chocolate chip cookie, cinnamon rolls.
South:
- Breakfast: Sausage biscuit, hash brown burrito, orange juice, fruit salad, buttered biscuit.
- Lunch: Spicy chicken sandwich, Buffalo wings, strawberry lemonade, nachos, southwestern egg rolls.
- Dinner: Fried chicken, sweet iced tea, banana pudding, country fried steak, ribeye.
- Late Night: Onion rings, chocolate chip cookie, cheesecake, nachos, cinnamon rolls.
While many people are still ordering from restaurants , DoorDash’s survey also revealed a big increase in cooking, with 70{c33c21346ff5e26ab8e0ae3d29ae4367143f0d27c235e34c392ea37decdb8bed} of respondents saying that they’ve cooked more at home since the beginning of the pandemic.
Food delivery apps have seen a stark increase in usage since the beginning of the pandemic — UberEats reported a 40{c33c21346ff5e26ab8e0ae3d29ae4367143f0d27c235e34c392ea37decdb8bed} increase and GrubHub is up 24{c33c21346ff5e26ab8e0ae3d29ae4367143f0d27c235e34c392ea37decdb8bed} from the same period the year prior — in some cases acting as a lifeline for Seattle’s restaurant scene. But many have also complained about the commissions these apps charge on food sales. To combat this and help restaurants, the city of Seattle has implemented a 15{c33c21346ff5e26ab8e0ae3d29ae4367143f0d27c235e34c392ea37decdb8bed} cap on commissions that third-party, app-based delivery services can charge restaurants.
