Here at Grubhub, our employees are pretty obsessed with food. Every day, we’re making sure delicious food finds its way to your door….and to ours. Say what? Correct, we too order from Grubhub (so meta).
With our “What I Ate in a Week” series, you’ll get a sneak peek into the lives of actual — never not hungry — Grubhub team members. A nice benefit that happens to come with our jobs is what we call “mealperks” — our weekly Grubhub stipend. Clearly, we’re using this to get the best bites in town each and every week.
On deck, we have: Natalie, a Senior Manager on our Public Relations team. Get the lowdown on her delivery highlights of the week and top ordering hacks.
Let’s meet Natalie:
I’m a Southern girl at heart, growing up in the small town of Gulf Breeze in the Florida panhandle (about 5 minutes away from Pensacola Beach). After living in Los Angeles and San Francisco after college, I’ve now been in NYC for about 5 ½ years and I can confidently state that I much prefer the beach over snow.
I currently live on the Upper West Side with my boyfriend (hi, Dustin!) and I’m always on the hunt for a good mezcal cocktail. When it comes to food, it’s safe to say I’m a creature of habit, but that doesn’t mean it’s all cheeseburgers (which I do love…) and chicken sandwiches. Some of my other favorites include sushi, tacos, po’ boys, ramen, poke, and anything Thai. And regardless of how stuffed I am after a meal, there’s no way I’ll ever turn down dessert.
And here are my top delivery eats from last week…
Mexican with El Mitote
It’s Sunday night, which means we’ve made our weekly shopping trip to Trader Joe’s, prepared for the week ahead, and are now ready to veg out. Thankfully, we have our go-to Mexican spot on the UWS that we eat on average twice a week – El Mitote. It’s just that good. I love ordering from this restaurant for delivery because they do it well: all sauces & condiments are packaged separately so nothing gets soggy, everything is always kept warm, and it’s simply delicious. We go with our usual (pro tip: “express reorder” is a savior) of steak tacos, carnitas tacos, chicken tostada, and chips & guac. We feast on the couch while catching up on our favorite shows. Not a shabby start to the week if you ask me. (Note: Sometimes hunger kicks in and you forget to take a photo of your awesome food. But here’s another pic of steak tacos from El Mitote.)
Steak Bowl from Del Sur
While I’m a creature of habit, I’m also very prone to food envy. So, when my colleagues have something delicious-looking for lunch, I always want in. That’s where Del Sur comes in, which is conveniently a stone’s throw from our office. It’s finally nice out (read: not raining) so I order pickup for lunch to get outside for a few minutes. On the menu today is a bowl with coconut rice (a game-changer for the record), hanger steak, veggies, and plantains. The chimichurri sauce is where it’s at though, so get an extra side with your order!
Salmon Poke from Poke Time
It’s a day full of meetings, which means it’s very possible that I forget to order lunch until it’s about 3pm and I’m hangry. I’m feeling poke today (if you ask any of my colleagues, they wouldn’t be surprised by this choice), so I login and there’s my order history front and center from my favorite spot – Poke Time. This is where “express reorder” saves the day because, if you’re like me, I include about 10 toppings on my poke bowls (texture is important!) and I don’t feel like adding each topping every time. My personal poke is salmon-centric with seaweed salad, crunchy onions, avocado, green onion, mango, soy sauce, and eel sauce. Give me all the goodness!
Pro tip: if you’re new to poke, lucky you we have a guide to walk you through the important pieces!
Beef Noodle Soup from Lan Larb
As mentioned, I love anything Thai, so when I got a Grubhub email about spots I might like — which included Lan Larb — I decided to give it a go. It seems New York decided to go straight from summer to winter overnight (yes, I consider 50 degrees winter), so that officially means it’s soup weather. I ordered the beef noodle soup, which they describe as “a dark noodle soup with Chinese broccoli, bean sprout, scallion and cilantro.” My spontaneity did not disappoint, as it was exactly what I wanted. Also, it seems this restaurant is no newbie to takeout; they packaged up the broth, noodles and veggies separately, which made it easy to plate just the amount I wanted. Luckily, I had plenty leftover, so combined it all and kept it in the fridge for the next day!
Bubble Tea from Gong Cha
This is a new obsession of mine and something I tried for the first time when I started with Grubhub. Trust me, there’s no shortage of food and drink suggestions at the office. Since I had leftovers from the day before, I treated myself to a large, iced passion fruit green bubble tea from Gong Cha. The packaging of bubble tea lends itself brilliantly to delivery with the sealed cover.
Friday night in with Sushi Yasaka
It’s finally Friday and I have no shame in admitting that getting home and ordering in sounds amazing. Thankfully my boyfriend feels the same way, so we have a date night in and pick out a movie. Similar to El Mitote, we have our go-to sushi spot (Sushi Yasaka) we order delivery from often, even if it is only two blocks away. We usually end up with about 15 different items in our cart when ordering sushi, so inputting that each time is just inconvenient. Yet again, this is where “express reorder” comes in handy (are you sensing a trend yet?). We end the week on our couch with the diced blue fin tuna and avocado appetizer, an array of sashimi and nigiri, a shrimp tempura roll, and a spicy tuna roll. The ideal Friday night if you ask me. (Note: Bear with me, I got so hungry I forgot to snap a pic again! But here’s a sweet spread from Sushi Yasaka.)
