Uber Eats In Kyoto

April 20, 2019

by Shayne Gonzales, Genki Takeuchi & Sakura Hatsuta

Uber eats is a food delivery platform that delivers food from different kinds of local restaurants around Kyoto. Using Uber Eats is simple: you just open their app on your computer or smartphone and select the food you want to eat from an extensive list of restaurants. Also, when you place your order, you can add some instructions to let the restaurant know about things like allergies or if you want to change something about your order. They can deliver your order to right in front of your door, or to whatever location you are. This is true even if you don’t have an address to give them, such as if you are in a park or on the banks of the Kamo River. The Uber delivery person can find you with GPS tracking.

You can pay with cash upon delivery if you want. But even better, you just connect your credit card to the app, and then you don’t have to worry about handling money. The payment is automatic. The price you pay for the food is the same price that is sold in the restaurant. Currently their booking fee is a flat 380 yen all around Kyoto. Also, if there is a problem about your order, you can contact the Uber Eats support team to let them know about the issue and they will definitely take care of it. Finally, Uber Eats also promotes coupons, like discounted coupons, but you can only add one coupon per order.

Uber Eats is beneficial to restaurants because they can take orders and prepare food for take-out without having to manage and pay for their own delivery service. They just get a contract with Uber Eats and it increases their sales. It is also beneficial for hungry customers because all they need to do is open the app, choose a delicious dish, push a button, and the food is delivered hot and fresh in a timely way.

Kyoto has developed its own culinary culture for more than 1,000 years. It was influenced by history, location, and environment. Not only does Uber Eats deliver food from casual chain restaurants like Moss Burger, Gyoza no Ohsho, and Matsuya, but also, they also offer food from places that with a long tradition and history, called shinise in Japanese. Uber Eats customers can easily experience the wonderful food from shinise restaurants. It provides a good opportunity for tourists and young people to experience more of Japanese food culture because it is so convenient. To learn more about shinise restaurants, we would like to introduce one of the shinise restaurants that can be found on Uber Eats.

Narumi Mochi Honten

Narumi Mochi is famous for making traditional Japanese sweets, called wagashi. Founded in 1875, it has been in business for more than 100 years in Kyoto. They sold mochigome (steamed glutinous rice) at the beginning, and then later released seasonal sweets such as hanami dango (cherry blossom viewing dumpling), to be eaten in the spring, and minazuki - also called rokugatsu (June) - which is made to be eaten in the summer. It looks like it is made of ice. People believe if you eat minazuki in June, you can survive the hot summer. Narumi Mochi also creates sweets for the Halloween and Valentine’s Day seasons.

On Uber Eats, users can order from more than 30 sweets on the menu, along with seasonally limited items. The menu is divided into 5 different categories: Main, Sweets for Every Day, Winter, Summer, and Autumn.. As typical Japanese sweets, the Main menu offers steamed red beans rice for 432 yen and rice cakes for 389 yen. The Sweets for Every Day menu has 3-color rice dumplings for 152 yen, and sticky rice balls with sweet bean for 152 yen. The Winter menu lists mitarashi dumplings for 174 yen and strawberry daifuku for 249 yen. The Autumn menu has Moonlight dumplings for 152 yen and sweet beans jelly with chestnuts for 195 yen. While the Summer menu has rice cake wrapped bamboo leaves for 173 yen and jelly-like confection for 335 yen.

As you can see, with a shinise restaurant like Narumi Mochi on Uber Eats, users can get access to many different Japanese sweets at reasonable prices without ever having to leave their home or hotel. All they have to do is scroll up and down on their smart phones and press the buy now button. Traditional Japanese sweets will be on the way shortly.
 

Interview with an Uber Eats Delivery Person

We interviewed a friend who actually works at Uber Eats as a delivery person. He started his part-time job six months ago in order to make money in his free time. He said that one of the advantages of working for Uber Eats is that, unlike a normal part-time job, there is a lot of flexibility in terms of working times. Also, you get to move around a lot, either by bicycle or motorcycle; he rides a bicycle. In Kyoto, delivery by car seems to be prohibited at the moment, which has something to do with GPS.

He also talked about some of the disadvantages of working for Uber Eats. One is that he gets paid on commission rather than hourly wages or a salary. This means that the money he makes is dependent on the number of deliveries given to him. And because he doesn’t get paid much for a single delivery, it is difficult to make a lot of money. He also said that he had to purchase a bright green delivery bag with the Uber Eats logo on it, which costs 8,000 yen. So, it is an initial cost that needs to be earned back.

Nevertheless, he enjoys his job. He has many encounters, and his said it was fun to meet with customers and learn about various shops and restaurants. Finally, we asked if he would recommend others to get a job at Uber Eats. He said that he would recommend it because it is a good way to make effective use of free time, by making money and getting exercise on a bicycle. It takes away his stress.

Conclusion

Uber Eats is a convenient application that people can easily place order food in Kyoto and using Uber Eats would be great opportunity to experience many types of local food. If you are planning come to Kyoto, why don’t you try Uber Eats in Kyoto?