Seamless Web -- Let's Hear from the Corporate Slaves!

[(MP)]

Ok, so I work in midtown and end up ordering my dinner from Seamless Web 3-4 nights per week. (Seamless Web is a website that allows people like me who work late hours to order food from various restaurants.) The food that I get is fine, but not exactly chowhound heaven.

I have done some searching on various restaurants listed on the site, but many do not make it onto chowhound at all, or are dismissed as the sort of bland, overpriced-for-what-it-is stuff that is not really houndworthy. I certainly would not patronize most of the listings were I not held captive at work several nights each week, but I want to make the best of a mediocre sitation.

So... I would love to hear from similarly situated hounds who have recommendations regarding the best of Seamless Web.

Here's my standard rotation:

Hatsuhana -- Sushi Dinner
Mi Nidito -- Enchiladas or Rice and Beans
Siam Inn -- Pad Kee Mow
Korea Palace -- Soon Doo Bu Chigae
Shun Lee -- Spicy Dry Beef
Abitino's -- Pizza

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Swirvin]

Comfort Diner (my fave!), Savannah Steakhouse, Ferrier, Haru, Manhattan Chili Co., Josie's/Better Burger

Just a few ideas. Good luck!

[Fida]

Maybe I'm dense, but I don't understand how a website "allows" you to order food at night. We do it all the time via a device called a telephone. We have some menus, we look up others on Menu Pages, and we can discuss our order with the restaurant.

I couldn't find Seamless Web, but it sounds like the places on their list may be places like the ones that are in coupon books ... nothing you'd ordinarily patronize, exactly as you said.

[Greg S.]

I'll leave it to you to decide whether you are dense or not.

Seamless Web's website is pretty easy to find -- it's at www.seamlessweb.com. When "corporate slaves" (and law firm and investment bank slaves, etc.) are working late and want to charge food in the office, most employers limit our choices to a particular list of places, if we want to get reimbursed.

In the old days, we had a list of restaurants where we had accounts and a bunch of menus, we used the telephone (as you quaintly describe), and we submitted receipts with expense forms to the accounting department, which had a big headache dealing with mountains of expense account reimbursement forms and paying each of the restaurants individually.

Seamless Web ("SW") provides a solution to that problem -- they have all the accounting information on their site (which streamlines the accounting and chargeback process), which we "slaves" (and slavedrivers) take care of as we order, and SW acts as a clearinghouse for all of the payments to the restaurants (which streamlines the payment process).

From the employer's point of view, SW is pretty nifty; from the employee's point of view, SW is a new version of the same old problem (which account should I order from tonight??), except that now, every SW subscriber has basically the same restaurant choices, which makes Chowhound a good place to explore alternatives on the list, rather than just asking colleagues.

The list of SW restaurants is pretty long, and while it does not include many great places, many are decent (and generally not as bad as you have somehow decided they are). The reason for this thread is finding those places on the SW list that are better than decent, for those of us who get food through SW (sometimes several nights a week).

I hope this helps you understand, although I assume this is largely irrelevant to you. Oh, by the way, the restaurants' menus are on the SW website (otherwise, it would be rather difficult to order...).

Me, I like Blockhead's Burritos, the spider roll and spicy tuna roll at Go Sushi (it ain't Yasuda, but it works). Fortunately (except tonight), I am not a slave to SW too often, so no other places come to mind....

Link: http://www.seamlessweb.com/login.m

[Dan M.]

Seamless Web doesnt allow non members to check the list out.

[Mike D.]

yea you can, i'm checking it out right now...

[Manny Shevitz]

I can enthusiastically vouch for Seamlessweb. It makes 90-hour work weeks ALMOST tolerable.

Dealing with restaurants on the phone is a hassle. You call them, you wait on hold. Language barriers are problematic. Paying by credit card is a pain. In sum, what takes five minutes on the phone and often results in a wrong order takes 30 seconds online and is accurate. When it's 10:30 at night and I'm trying to work, that's a significant amount of time.

Seamlessweb "allows" me NOT to put up with all those headaches.

Sorry to sound like a shill, but those guys just have their act together. The service works. Period.

But as someone mentioned, it's currently a b-to-b service, so if your company isn't signed up, you might be SOL. There's something on their home page right now about what looks like a retail service? Worth keeping an eye on if your company isn't signed up yet or you do a lot of ordering at home.

As you were.

[MAH]

My regular picks are: Mi Nidito & Blockheads for Mexican; Wondee Siam II (the original isn't on seamless, and this one will do for office delivery); Wu Lian Ye for excellent Chinese(the Grand Sichuan that participates in Seamless is the weakest of all branches the Lex/33rd -- not great); Chola for Indian; Bread and Olive for Middle Eastern; City Chow for good tossed to order salads.

Your options may be slightly different than mine based on your office location.

[Peter Y.]

Wow, I was waiting for someone to make this post. I agree with the prior suggestions. In addition to those, my choices are: Philly Slim's or Carl's cheesesteaks or Philly Slim's buffalo chicken sandwich, Dervish (uneven), Island Burger, Nino's (Chef's Specialties only, also uneven, but good tomato sauce), Pearl's (good Braised Beef Soup, Ma Po Tofu, Fresh Bacon w/Capsicum)and Utsav (if your meal allowance can afford it). Carnegie's smoked salmon and onion omelette is nice when you are stuck at the office on a weekend - request a bagel with it, otherwise they give you two slices of white bread. Places I haven't tried yet: Wild Edibles looks promising; people in my office like Fresh Basil's and one guy likes the mains and the cappuccino shake at Route 66.

Two other things: I have heard Seamless has an online competitor, it would be good to hear what we are missing (or gloat, whatever the case may be). Also, I wonder if the service is tailored to location, i.e. some of the restaurants might not show up for some people.

[Nor'easter]

I believe the competitor you've heard about is www.snapfood.com. I haven't tried them, but the setup looks very similar to seamlessweb.

[hungrylawyer10]

snapfood is not even in Seamless Web's sport, much less their league. snapfood's few restaruants are awful. they don't really work with corporate clients either, while i think seamless has hundreds of them- at least every lawyer i know uses seamless at their firm. i use it everyday, which is fine by me. their customer service people are great.

[Nor'easter]

As I said, I haven't tried snapfood yet. But I agree that seamlessweb is great (one might even say seamless).

[jojo]

Wu Lian Ye for Chinese,Chola for Indian, Pacific Echo for Sushi or Malaysian.

[tweedy]

Chinese: Shun Lee (chan-do chicken; XO shrimp), Wu Liang Ye (pork dumplings, any szechuan dish)

Thai: Wondee Siam II

Burger: Island Burger; Burger Heaven

Italian: Fresh Basil's (very hit-or-miss)