- Restaurants are redesigning their menus to suit food delivery platforms and customer habits.
- App-friendly meals prioritize portability, packaging, and shareability online.
Open a restaurant menu today and you might notice something missing: the dishes that just don’t travel well. Food delivery apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub aren’t just changing how we order food—they’re quietly rewriting what chefs decide to cook in the first place.
Menus Built for the App Economy
The classic dine-in menu once reflected a chef’s vision of flavor and presentation. Now, restaurant owners are making a second calculation: how will this dish survive a 20-minute car ride? Soufflés and delicate seafood? Too risky. Smash burgers, poke bowls, and saucy noodles? Perfect app material.
According to Restaurant Business Online, restaurants are increasingly designing “off-premise menus” tailored specifically for delivery apps. These items are chosen not just for taste, but also for durability, consistency, and ease of packaging. That explains the rise of grain bowls, fried chicken sandwiches, and loaded fries—foods that stay tasty even after bouncing around in a delivery bag.
Delivery apps are also driving portion size changes. Family-style bundles and shareable platters have become popular since they boost ticket size while appealing to groups ordering at home. Some restaurants even create “virtual brands”—ghost kitchens or app-only menus that exist solely for delivery customers.
Packaging, Photography, and the Algorithm
Food delivery apps don’t just influence what’s cooked—they shape how it’s presented. A dish has to look good in a photograph to stand out in a crowded app interface. That means restaurants are investing in professional food photography and leaning into bold, colorful dishes that pop on a phone screen.
Packaging is another new frontier. A perfectly plated dine-in dish won’t impress if it arrives soggy in a cardboard box. Restaurants are now testing heat-retaining containers, anti-sog liners, and eco-friendly packaging that balances sustainability with practicality.
And let’s not forget the algorithms. Apps often promote dishes based on popularity, order frequency, or customer reviews. That nudges restaurants to double down on “viral” dishes that can climb rankings and earn coveted top spots in search results. In effect, the apps act like gatekeepers, deciding which meals customers are most likely to see and order.
Food delivery apps were once just a convenience tool, but they’ve grown into powerful tastemakers. They influence what chefs create, how menus are designed, and even how food is packaged. For diners, that means more portable, app-friendly dishes. For restaurants, it’s both an opportunity and a challenge to adapt. And for food culture overall, it raises a new question: in the age of delivery, are we eating what we crave—or what the algorithm tells us we want?
Jacklyn is a San Diego–based food journalist with a background in the confectionery world. Before diving into food reporting, she worked at a startup crafting plant-based, low-sugar sweets designed to make candy a little healthier
