You know the scene: the music is blaring, the bar is surging, the football is engulfing but¦ it’s your round. You have to get up, head to the bar, wait to be served, remember the orders, fumble with the change and balance the drinks all the way back to your seats. That’s how we’ve been doing it for as long as we can remember, but a new app named Orderella wants to change it all.
Available for free on iOS, this is a unique new way to visit the pub. Basically you can make your order through your smartphone and have the drinks brought over to you. Payment is handled within the app, so there’s no reason to reach for the card or find an ATM. You can stay in your seat and be waited on hand and foot.
Pubs that support the app have an iPad behind the bar that holds the orders. Staff will let you know that your order is currently being processed via the app, and then they should be with you in a matter of minutes.
Orderella also makes a few interesting twists of its own to stand out from similar apps. You’ll be able to use the app from home, and order for any friends that might be at the pub. It won’t completely make up for missing a mate’s birthday, but it will get you halfway there. Should the bar in question have a food menu, then you’ll also be able to order some grub.
At the time of writing Orderella is only just beginning to grow. Right now it’s only available in just two pubs, one being the Keyworth Tavern in Nottingham and the other at the Parcel Yard in London’s Kings Cross Station. We got a chance to see the app in action at the latter, and were impressed with how smooth the experience was. The bar’s entire menu was available in-app, and it was as simple as scrolling down and adding up the drinks to order. Of the three orders we made, it took no longer than five minutes for the drinks to arrive.
But the company is planning a rapid expansion across the two chains that own these pubs. One of those is Fullers, which owns over 380 pubs and bars across the country, so there’s plenty of chance for the app come to every corner of the country. The other is Pub People, which runs over 40 pubs in the east-Midlands area, so that’s covered too.
An Android app is also apparently on the way, so it won’t just be iOS owners getting the drinks in.
