It was well over a year after I had arrived in Turkey that I finally discovered the glory that is Yemek Sepeti. I don't think it was until I started making expat friends that I heard about this website, this wonderful website that delivers food to your door. Well, the website doesn't, but you know what I mean.
Gone were the days when I had to actually call a restaurant and -- gasp! -- speak to a human being to order my lahmacun. Now I could go online, click the dishes that I wanted and yippeee! 30 minutes later somebody brought it straight to my door.
The best thing about Yemek Sepeti, I think, is that you don't enter any credit card information online. You simply pay the delivery guy with cash or a debt card or whatever when he shows up with your food.
You totally need this in your life.
The first thing you want to do is go to Yemek Sepeti's homepage. From here, choose your city.
You will be redirected to the site's main page, which will likely be in Turkish.
Click "english" in the upper right corner.
Now, even though my computer recognizes me, I am going to mime through the process of creating a new account so you can see how it's done. Click the "sign up" button on the left.
Fill in all the required information, including your name, email, phone number and address. Be specific about your address particulars: tell the color of the building, the building's name, what it's next to or above, etc, anything that will help make the delivery guy's job a little easier. You can also add more than one address: one for work and one for home. See how great this is!
Once you're logged in, you'll see that the site lists all the restaurants currently serving your region, which in my case is Bostanli, Izmir.
Click on your region to see which restaurants are open and ready to serve you.
In my case, on a Sunday afternoon, there were 37 restaurants serving my neighborhood. Depending on where you live, you'll either have more or less. If you live anywhere near Taksim in Istanbul, there will be many more restaurants that you can choose from.
From here, let's say you're interested in pizza. At the top, click on "all cuisines" and choose "Pizza & Italian."
Then you have to choose your region, which, again, in my case is Bostanli, and click "go."
And there you go! In my neighborhood, there are 14 pizza restaurants that I can choose from.
You can change your search criteria at any time. You can choose from
international foods, homemade and Turkish food, and even fast food. You can also skip food altogether and have booze and cigarettes delivered to you. Not that I've ever done that, cough.
Let's say you already know which restaurant you want. Start by hovering your mouse over the restaurant's name. This will tell you the minimum delivery amount for your area (the minimum you have to spend to get food delivered to you), the payment types accepted by the restaurant (which range from cash to debit card to food checks), and the top 5 best sellers.
Let's see what Kofteci Remzi has to offer.
Here you'll see the restaurant's address, working hours, payment options and the average delivery time. By scrolling down, you'll see all the dishes the restaurant sells and their prices. My favorite dish happens to be kofte izgara. By clicking on the plus button next to the dish's name, I can add it to my basket.
At this point, a popup screen will sometimes appear asking you to choose your portion size or request toppings or extras.
Do as requested and then click "add to basket." Ta da! You have added a meal to your basket.
Now, you can't add meals from more than one restaurant to your basket at a time. So if you want, say, kofte from one restaurant and your roommate wants a Whopper from BK, you're going to have to place two orders.
You're almost done! Now click "confirm basket" to begin checking out. First, you will be asked to confirm your address. Your address will be listed below your name, along with your phone number and email. (I have deleted it from the following photo because I'm not in the habit of broadcasting my particulars on the interweb.) If your info is correct, click continue.
Now you can confirm your order and specify when you want your food delivered and how you want to pay.
You can choose to have your food delivered immediately or at a specific time. You can also add notes to your order, like "no tomatoes" or "extra pickles." These notes should be written in Turkish, however, otherwise the restaurant staff likely won't understand them. You can also choose not to receive plasticware, a major plus! When you're all done, click "place order" at the bottom.
And your food is on its way!
At this point, you'll get an email confirmation (in Turkish) about your order. All you have to do now is sit back and wait for your food!
Afiyet olsun!
