Postmates Ideas

The most exciting new thing in my food life is Postmates. Postmates is a service that offers delivery from basically anywhere in Los Angeles that offers takeout. I tend to order delivery for dinner on most nights, and this has greatly expanded my options. (I live in DTLA.)

I’m looking for ideas on restaurants to try all across LA. Here are my current favorites:

Jitlada. I order from here all the time. The ingredients and execution are highly variable (e.g., sometimes the prawns are toothsome, sometimes they are mealy) but the flavors are so exciting I can live with it.

Au Lac. In my opinion, one of the most outstanding things about the LA dining scene is the vegan/vegetarian/raw options. Au Lac is one of my favs.

Mozza to Go. Do I need to say more?

Marouch. Underrated. Delicious. And healthy too.

Angelini Osteria. Even some high end restaurants are available.

I will have to look into Postmates. I have been really digging ordering Sotto from Caviar, but more options are always good.

Edited - actually just checked my neighborhood options through Postmates. I can also get Sotto through Postmates, but not the Sotto desserts that are offered through Caviar (otherwise the offerings seem the same). Sadly, nothing else that I would consider ordering. Cheesecake Factory? Pinkberry? No thanks. I am obviously outside the delivery area for Jitlada, Mozza2Go, Angelini Osteria.

I don’t believe Postmates has a delivery area. You can order from anywhere in the LA area that offers takeout. I live in DTLA and can order from Marina Del Rey and the Valley. It just costs a higher delivery fee. I am pretty sure you can order from Jitlada, Mozza2Go, and Angelini Osteria, given that you can order from Sotto. That’s what makes Postmates so great.

Not all restaurants are displayed for you automatically. You have to search for them. (Interestingly, I’ve found the search only works to its fullest extent on a mobile device. For example, when I search for Jitlada through a web browser, it doesn’t come up. But I’ve ordered from there 5-10 times through my mobile phone.)

And for many restaurants, you need to manually type in the menu items. (This is actually a benefit, in my mind. You aren’t limited to the pre-set online menu. Caviar, for example, often fails to list all menu items.)

The drivers do an excellent job of getting your order right. I’ve never gotten a wrong order. I think they prefer the longer deliveries because they make more money. (Longer deliveries are typically accepted more quickly than shorter deliveries.)

I have ordered from Sotto before through Postmates. It was good. But strangely, I found it over-salty, which is not a usual complaint I have of restaurants. The menu was great so I will try it again.

Thanks, Alkiegourmand. I will have to investigate further because when I put in my address to Postmates, only a pre-populated list of restaurants came up. I live 5 minutes from Sotto, so it wasn’t surprising that Sotto came up.

I will have to figure out how to manually type in menu items. Do you mean you just go to the restaurant’s own website, look at the menu, and then type the item into Postmates?

By the way, I love Sotto, but I agree that the food is salty. I once got a tour of the kitchen of a 4-star Italian restaurant and when I saw all the boxes of salt next to the “pasta station” I couldn’t believe it. I think that kind of food can be salty. I did order whole Orata fish from Sotto the other night. It was good and perhaps not as salty as the other items on the menu.Also, the pizza didn’t seem too salty. The pasta was pretty salty, albeit delicious. I have tried all their desserts and they are great, with perhaps the chocolate crostata the best.

Edited - wow, I just downloaded Postmates to my phone and I see that you are right. If I type in Jitlada or Mozza2Go or Angeli Osteria, they come up. Jitlada doesn’t have a pre-populated menu. Does that mean, you just go to their website, look at the regular menu and then type in what you want?

Edited further - you are right Alkiegourmand about the difference between the phone app for Postmates and the web browser. Jitlada came up on the phone when I typed it in, but not on the web browser.

By the way, Alkiegourmand, where do you order from in the Valley? I love Lebanese and Armenian food, but never want to trek to the Valley. This could open up a whole new world for me.

Yes, you just type your order in. For Jitlada, I use this menu. Los Angeles Menus - Los Angeles, CA Restaurants Guide.

I actually haven’t ordered anything from the Valley; I just see the restaurants pop up. For example: Mantee, a restaurant on Jonathan gold’s top 100 list.