It’s not delivery convenient, but it’s a chance to get out and exercise without killing your whole lunch hour or having to rush through a restaurant meal.
MealPal launched its subscription lunch service in Chicago today with more than 50 restaurants on board. Choose menu options from local restaurants for less than $6 per meal – and skip those annoying lines.
Chicago and DC are the latest cities to join the crowd. In New York, San Francisco, Boston and Miami, weekday lunch crowds have now ordered over 500,000 meals from more than 1,000 restaurants. MealPal has also recently introduced Pal, a smart bot that uses artificial intelligence to personalize your choices.
- Preferences. Pal will ask you a series of questions to understand which ingredients you like and don’t like. That way you see meal options that fit your tastes.
- Reminders and calendar integration. Pal will remind users to reserve lunch on any given day if you forget, and will add lunch reservations to your calendar.
- Longer booking window. Previously, you couldn’t start ordering until 7pm the day before to select your lunch for the following day – but now you can check out the next day’s menu starting at 5pm.
The service is simple to use. Visit the website or mobile app to browse the daily menu, filtering meals by cuisine and portion size. Reserve your meal by 9:30am, choosing a time to pick up your lunch. When you pick up your food, skip the line and be in and out of the restaurant in less than 30 seconds.
Six bucks for lunch? Not bad. And you don’t have to sign up to use it everyday. As of right now, it’s only available in the Loop but they expect to add more ‘hoods soon.