I wasn’t planning on writing a story about my favorite Sonoma County restaurants for food delivery this week, but then the pandemic hit. My family was exposed to COVID-19, so we quarantined and ate like a bunch of bored people whose biggest thrill of the day is a pile of delivery boxes left on our doorstep.
It was delicious.
Gaining confidence in the online delivery process, we explored the variety of food our local restaurants have to offer: Korean, Chinese, Greek, American, healthy, not-so-healthy, tacos, tempura and on and on and on.
By now, most restaurants have adjusted to the ever-changing pandemic landscape, and we soon realized you can get almost anything delivered — hot dogs, wine, banh mi, warm cookies, milkshakes and munchies and much more.
Santa Rosa, where we live, has the most delivery options in Sonoma County, including late-night eats and alcohol. The Petaluma Food Taxi has partnered with just about every restaurant in Petaluma, making this local third-party delivery service a great choice for more upscale meals when you get sick of fried chicken and pizza.
Those who live in Windsor, Rohnert Park and Cotati benefit from the proximity to Santa Rosa and Petaluma restaurants with delivery services, as well as neighborhood restaurants. In Healdsburg and Sonoma, pickings are a bit slimmer for delivery, though expanding (takeout is more popular there).
Click through the above gallery for 23 local spots that delivered excellent meals during our quarantine in recent weeks, with restaurant websites and phone numbers for placing orders, as well as third-party services such as Doordash and Grubhub for restaurants that only use these for delivery.
About Third-Party Delivery Services
If you eat food, you’ve probably heard the ambivalent feelings restaurant staff have toward third-party delivery services like Grubhub, Doordash and UberEats.
These third-party delivery services charge commissions and fees for providing restaurants with drivers, a seamless ordering system and marketing. Restaurants pay a high — some say excessive — price for the convenience and so do customers. It’s an unwelcome surprise when your $70 order skyrockets to $100 with taxes, service charges and tip.
Local delivery services like Redwood Food Taxi and Petaluma Food Taxi also take a percentage of restaurant sales, but only charge a flat $5 delivery fee for an entirely local service. The best bet, when possible, is ordering directly from the restaurant, allowing local business owners to keep most of their profit.
As a side note, a new state law is coming into effect this year that aims to ensure delivery drivers get tips directly; it’s now illegal for food delivery apps to keep tips. And when you order through one of these apps but choose pickup instead of delivery, the food delivery app now must pass the gratuity on to the restaurant.