Takeout Central

too expensive, long wait times, but at least they support a variety of restaurants instead of just pizza. google the restaurant and see if a cheaper delivery option exists, and if there’s no other company, order it from takeout central if you’re too lazy to go get it yourself. the drivers are usually fine, but sometimes they aren’t that nice if they have to wait more than 30 seconds for you to walk out of your building.

I want to like them. I really do. But they make it so hard. When it was Tar Heel takeout the delivery people survived off of the tips bc they didn’t make enough there (I knew two of the drivers). It’s just too much money for getting my food cold.

Delivery service was quick and driver was courteous. Wish I could rate this higher, but I only received part of my order from Buns. Tar Heel Takeout was closed shortly thereafter. Probably wouldn’t order from again.

Recent security breach of credit card data coupled with huge wait times for food, (1 hour to order online, calling the same restaurant and picking it up yourself is 15 mins door to door), and the generally poor service don’t make me want to be a return customer. I had hope that I could use this service to help expand the number of restaurants available in Durham, but it isn’t worth it.

This company has good service however the delivery fee is $ 4.99 and the driver expect a tip. This makes your delivery and tip more than your order.
This is insane!!! Only order when its an emergency.

So, I’ve ordered from these guys more than once and never had a problem with food arriving cold. Until yesterday. The pizza I ordered was stone cold. I’m not talking lukewarm. No, it was like it was pulled out of a fridge, not an oven. Like it had been sitting out for hours or something. Look, I get that the driver has to make the trip from wherever he or she is to the restaurant, then drop it off at my home, and I get that it’s a risky job, but maybe the company should invest in some insulated bags or something? Because with the $ 5 for the delivery fee, plus the $ 10 minimum, PLUS the tip, it adds up… And if you’re dropping over $ 20 on a 10″ pizza and side, I expect it to arrive if not piping hot AT LEAST warm.
I might order from them in the future, but not without making sure I don’t have a pre-​heated oven ready to go because I pulled a slice out for the cold breakfast pizza option and it was pretty much the same temperature it was when it arrived. That’s not okay.
Oh, by the way, I had ordered my meal about 3 hours in advance and I’m doubtful my pizza was actually sitting around 3 hours, but that’s seriously how cold it was.

This service has been a gift from above. While my 14-​year-​old daughter is admitted at UNC Children’s hospital and under going cancer treatment I often call and they will deliver to the hospital. The fact that they will deliver from more than one restaurant is spectacular since my daughter and I do not enjoy the same foods, and the hospital food while award winning, is still hospital food… I don’t care how much they charge to deliver because when you’re stuck in a hospital and you want Indian food and your child wants Jersey Mikes this service can not be beaten!

Good:
— I can now order more than just pizza and Chinese!
Bad:
— Can get pricey really quickly. Two helpings of souvlaki for dinner ended up running something like $ 50 total… really?
— Your food may arrive in 30 minutes, but it might also take two hours. I get that it can be difficult to handle all of the deliveries, but they’re not new! They should have more control over this.

I used Tarheel Takeout for the first time tonight. The interface for the website is simple and efficient. However, the cost is a bit ridiculous. I realized that I could have ordered directly from the restaurant, had them deliver it to me, and not paid the $ 5 delivery charge… PLUS tip! my order was supposed to be $ 12— I ended up paying $ 21. Also, I didn’t really want to spend $ 10 but was willing to for the convenience… I’m not sure if I will use this service much in the future unless I’m desperate for a craving and don’t have the means to get to the restaurant (or cheaper delivery options) available.
Even though the price is sky high, the service is amazing. I was a bit worried when I saw the standard «your food should be here in one hour» message after completing my order. However, it was at my door in less than 30min. Maybe I got lucky, but I was pleasantly surprised. My food was hot and delicious.
All in all, the price is still ridiculous, but if you need speedy service, this is the company to use.

Dear future me,
I know you’re hungry. I know you’re lazy. I know you don’t want to eat the lunch you brought with you to work. I know you’d rather pay to have someone bring you something from some delicious place.
But take pause, and think: do you want to pay to have your order screwed up? Do you want to have to be forced to spend at least $ 10? Plus the $ 4.99 mandatory delivery charge? PLUS the tip? Do you want to spend $ 20 on something you’d normally spend $ 7 on? DO YOU STILL WANT ELMO’S THAT F’N BAD BUT CAN’T PICK UP A PHONE, ORDER IT YOURSELF AND PICK IT UP YOURSELF???
Fine, then use Tarheel Takeout. Add two drinks on there just to make the minimum and hope the drive wasn’t bumpy so the pickles you specifically requested NOT be there don’t rub all over your meal. Get ripped off by the most ridiculously high delivery charge you’ve ever seen. You’re worth it.
But if you want to save some money, and not be so upset when your meal comes incorrectly, and eat sooner rather than an hour to an hour and a half later, then you should probably just eat what you brought or take the time to get something yourself. It’ll be quicker, cheaper and done right that way.
xoxo,
experienced me

Delivery takes about an hour. In addition, they didn’t bring me any silverware. After calling back and asking for a fork (to eat my Chinese food with), the driver came back 30 minutes later and gave me one fork for a huge meal. I am now eating my Chinese food with my hands. Thanks Tarheel Take-​Out!

Ordered from them for the first time tonight, and service was perfect. Website worked great, food arrived in about 45 minutes, hot. I’ll definitely be ordering from here again.

I love IP3’s pizza, and Tarheel Takeout is the only way to get it delivered. With a toddler at home and a baby on the way, picking up just isn’t an option for us.
Long story short, our order was incorrect. The manager we spoke to at the time only gave us a credit for delivery when we expected the entire pizza to be covered. I called to complain and was directed to write Wes (the owner) an email. He was very professional and handled my complaint wonderfully.
What could have turned into a very bad customer service experience ended up being a great one! Wes and his company obviously care about the quality of their service, which is more than I can say about most restaurants.

Ten meals later and I am still loving this service. The employees are very professional, the drivers on time and food from some of my favorite restaurants. They recently added Sandwhich to their line up and the last two times we ordered our food (from Sandwhich) it got here in 30 minutes.
I like that the employees will call me to double check something if they aren’t sure about my order and not just chance it. The one time they were over an hour delivering they called and told me they were refunding me the delivery charge. That is outstanding customer service. I didn’t even have to ask.
This place has been a life saver since I have been recovering from surgery and don’t want to eat pizza every night. Like I said earlier, the $ 4.99 delivery charge is worth it to me. I don’t have to drive downtown and pay for parking and brave the cold and the crowds. I think we’re pretty lucky to have this service!

Okay, so here’s the deal. Not a rant, but the deal, with Tarheel gone Durham Takeout.
1) Durham is way bigger than Chapel Hill.
2) The businesses that they are getting food from aren’t all on one street. They’re all over town, which can have its perks. (It’s like the 70’s for delivery over in South Durham.)
3) It’s difficult to have enough drivers on staff for any given situation. i.e. a slow Tuesday vs a FREE DELIVERY! Tuesday. Granted, this is a hazard of the trade, and therefore not my problem. Oh wait, I live in South Durham.
Now, I have had PERFECT, 5 star service from them like 10x or more and omg I can’t believe you called to cancel my order an hour later, make me postal one star type situations as well. Fortunately, less of them. But the manager has been kind enough to return emails, call etc., in efforts to improve the service.
They aren’t tremendously reliable, which is the downside, but I will say this, I’ve never got cold food… even if it did take a while. And when my only other options are pizza and mediocre Chinese food… I WILL roll the dice on Durham Takeout any day of the week.
There are some days that only Sitar delivery will do!
— – If there’s any reason to be concerned that your food isn’t coming (it’s late; questionable delivery time like early afternoon or just a bad feeling… drop them a line. They will tell you what’s going on, even if it’s not what you want to hear — –

If I could give Durham Take-​Out zero stars, I would.
I used to use them when I first got a flyer, mostly because, for whatever reason, a lot of delivery places don’t deliver to my apartment complex. I’ve ordered from them quite a few times since then.
However, I just ordered something from them this week — it’s the same food from the same restaurant (Moe’s) I’ve ordered quite a few times before. This time, I ordered it the same way as I had each time before. However, it showed up with way too many ingredients on it, one of which I’m allergic to and one of which puts my mouth on fire enough so that I don’t even taste the food anyway.
So I called Moe’s, assuming it was their error — because I had had such great experiences with Durham Take-​Out before. Looooooooooooong story short, they told me that the order was called in as Moe’s had filled it. So I called Durham Take-​Out. I first asked for the manager, but told there wasn’t one on duty (it was about 9pm, so that was ok with me). To make a long conversation shorter — I told them that I was allergic, it had things on it I didn’t want, etc. The girl who answered told me that the dish came with what was under the name of the dish «Choice of meat, jalapeño,» etc. I don’t read that as «jalapeño, beans, choice of meat,» because I obviously read the description differently than they meant it. I kept telling her that I read it differently, but she wasn’t trained in the «customer is always right» mindframe apparently, because she repeatedly told me that there’s no way for them to know what I DON’T want. That was insulting enough. She didn’t offer any sort of recovery — no free food, no coupon, nothing. I told her I’d call back when there was a manager.
I ended up writing a request on their website (a complaint, with a request for someone to call me back with customer service) that night — no response, and that was three days ago. Due to work conflicts and giving them time to call me (three days should be plenty for the magnitude of the complaint I left on their page), I called them back today. I spoke with another girl, who told me that she had been there when I had called the night that I received the wrong order. She essentially told me the same thing the first girl had — no manager was in the building, can I help you, there’s no way for us to know what you don’t want, I’m not going to split hairs with you (did I ask her to? no). If she had let me speak, I would probably feel better about the interaction, but instead she kept cutting me off and over-​explaining things (a guilty conscious needs no witness, isn’t that the right phrase?), she told me I was obviously upset — I didn’t raise my voice, curse, call her names, insult her or the business, it’s three days later so obviously I’m not that upset… Yet she dismissed me, treating me the same as the first girl, like I was hostile. She called the manager (if she could call him, why couldn’t I talk to him?), and she said that he agreed with her — they could offer me two free deliveries, which is far more than the dish I ordered cost (I paid $ 18, two deliveries total is $ 9, which I told her — she said that was all they were going to offer). I told her that I didn’t want to order through them anymore due to these experiences, and she «apologized» and said that that was my choice.
So I’m doing this in order to make others aware of the ridiculous way I was treated as a PAYING customer who received the wrong product that Durham Take-​Out charged me for and has not refunded me. I will not order from them again, because why would I? I order things so I don’t have to go out — there’s no point in ordering from them if I have to go out after I get the wrong product, in order to pick up the correct product. Not only is that upsetting, that I got the wrong food, but the way I was treated by them I refuse to put up with, and they should not conduct business like that.
And, I still haven’t talked to a manager.

These guys are a branch of the Tarheel Take-​out delivery service in Chapel Hill I used to hold so dear to my undergraduate heart! Now they’re doing their thing in Bull City… part of it, anyway… looks like you’re SOL if you fall outside of South Durham for now. I got a flier in the mail with $ 8 off, but at the time I think they only offered three restaurants to choose from. Now they’ve got a bigger better selection (still doesn’t rival CH, but when it’s cold and rainy sometimes you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do). I placed my order online at 8pm and got an email confirmation back that it would arrive in an hour — and it did, on the dot. I’d put my coupon info in during checkout, but it must have been overlooked because the driver had to phone hq and make sure it was okay to redeem it. A few minutes later she came back and reported the correct total, so no trouble. My second time using the service was about the same 1-​hour turnaround. It’s a $ 6 service fee and a $ 15 minimum order… but considering some of the restaurants they have on offer are at least a 20-​minute drive away, I don’t think it’s too shabby at all.

I have never encountered a company so unerringly dedicated to abject failure as Durham Takeout. My wife recommended them when she heard they had opened in Durham (Their previous incarnation being Tarheel Takeout, servicing Chapel Hill). She had nothing to say but positive things regarding Tarheel Takeout. I’m sure their service in Chapel Hill is quite good — however the service in Durham is abysmal.
When they first opened, things were quite good. For months, we’d order food through their service once a week or so. No problems. Occasionally there would be problems with the directions (we assumed new drivers), or relatively late food (over an hour). All acceptable, if not spectacular. But hey, it happens.
However, over the last month, the service has collapsed. Their website is utterly unreliable. It is frequently listed as open, only to change status an hour after I order to «Closed’. The worst time is when I called after waiting for 2 hours.
„Hi, I was wondering where my order was. I ordered over 2 hours ago.“
„Oh, I’m sorry sir, where from?“
„The Pub?“
„The. Pub? We don’t have any Pubs in Chapel H– Oh, wait, you mean the 54^th Street Pub??“
„Uh. Yeah.“
„In Durham?“
„Yes.“
“Oh, we don’t have any drivers in Durham right now.»
«Uh… So, uh. I’m sorry, why was your site listed as open then?!»
«Oh, he must not have turned it off.»
«…I guess ‘he’ didn’t. So. No food?»
«No.»
*click* (me)
How difficult is it to note to your customers that you’re not, actually open? The CS personnel, or whoever answers the phone there is quite nice and accommodating — but frankly, there’s a limit to how much time I’m willing to spend on the phone with customer service issues. Seriously? You run a *business*. Get on the ball, or take the site down until you’re ready to be reliable.
WHEN they are around, and have a driver, and can find your place — it’s a neat service. Food from any restaurant in the area, delivered to your door. But the frequency that those stars are aligned is rare at best. I recommend sticking with places that have their own delivery services.

They bring you your food in relatively good time, but they charge your first born for it.
On top of the $ 7 delivery charge (which does not include tip), they take a 15%-35% mark-​up on EACH dish.
If you are hungry and really want delivery, then they are worth it. Not that you have many other choices!
Update: $ 5 is still to steep of a price for delivery, but I appreciate that some businesses have been running free delivery coupons. It has influenced our decisions on where to order from. With a newborn at home, we sometimes don’t have much of a choice but to have our food delivered.
I was going to raise them up a star because of the coupons, but one of our recent orders came from a delivery person that reeked of cigarette smoke, and it had gotten to the bag the food came in, and we had to take it to the garbage can outside to stop smelling it. (Fortunately, the food was not effected.) I don’t understand why you hire smokers to deliver your food… especially when it costs so much to have said food delivered. This only happened once, and hopefully it won’t happen again.

I used Tarheel Takeout all the time when I was in school, mostly because I rarely had access to a car or cash. The name is kind of misleading, since they pretty much only do delivery, but they do take OneCards as payment (expense, not flex dollars). I loved the convenience of being able to order a burger from one restaurant and a burrito from another and having them both brought to me at the same time.
It’s a great service but it’s not perfect, and I do have some gripes. First, there’s a delivery fee AND a service charge. I think the last time I placed an order I totaled the fees and it was something like $ 7. So you definitely pay for the convenience. Also, it usually takes at least 45 minutes to get your food, and I once waited almost 2 hours. And I realize that the closing time of 9:30 or 10 pm (depending on the day) is based on the schedules of the participating restaurants, but I really wish they were open a little later.

Tarheel Takeout Express is a godsend if you’re studying, or don’t want to trudge from your dorm to Franklin Street in the rain, or just lazy (hey, I’m not judging.)
Plenty of restaurants participate, so you’re pretty much assured to find something you like once you get over the initial confusion of ordering delivery that isn’t pizza. There’s a delivery fee but it’s nothing too severe, and they take OneCards.

Tarheel Takeout is one of those staple services around Chapel Hill that helps the city run… It oils the machinery of the local academic body in such a way that, were the service suspended, rioting and mass hysteria would surely take place.
It really is a great system all around, and I challenge anybody to refute that. For those pedestrian masses wandering around Carrboro or South Campus, Tarheel Takeout is a beacon in the dark that has been followed many times, always ending deliciously.
The only thing that prevents me from giving this service five stars is their occasionally slow service. After all, delivery drivers are not chosen for their grit and determination under pressure, so things don’t always arrive as quickly as you’d like.