Food & Drink

Three new online services offer more options — for a price

Instacart

The service: This new app and Web site allows you to send a personal shopper — typically students or artists looking to make extra cash — to grab groceries for you from Whole Foods, Costco, Key Foods or Fairway, and deliver them anywhere in Manhattan, western Brooklyn or western Queens.

The cost: Delivery is free for your first order, then $3.99 to $9.99 depending on how quickly you want it and whether you spend $35 or more. The cost of the groceries themselves is roughly what the store charges, but can be slightly more. Gratuity is not included but easily added during the online ordering process.

The lowdown: The Web site — with lists and pictures of popular items — is easy to use. If there’s anything you want that’s not listed, you can put in a special request. That’s what I did for a ball of burrata, and my friendly shopper called me from Whole Foods to confirm what I wanted and to make sure I was OK with a different brand of club soda than I ordered (if only Fresh Direct were so kind). My groceries even arrived 15 minutes early.

Caviar

The service: Delivery from more than 30 NYC restaurants — including Black Seed Bagels and Fung Tu — with food several notches above that Thai place near your apartment. It currently serves only from FiDi to 96th Street, but Square just acquired Caviar and expansion is on the horizon.

The cost: The standard delivery fee is $9.99, but through August, it’s just $4.99, tip included.

The lowdown: As with Instacart, the Web site is attractive and well-designed. Only a handful of each restaurant’s dishes are available, but Caviar has the big hits, such as the spicy pork sausage and rice cakes and pork buns I ordered from Momofuku Ssäm Bar. My order from the East Village restaurant arrived in less than an hour, and I was able to track my pork buns, via the Web, as they made their way toward me.

Postmates

The service: An app that, like Caviar, offers delivery from dozens of exciting restaurants. Postmates has “featured restaurants,” but says it can send a “postmate” to pick up food from any restaurant you desire.

The cost: The cost of the food plus a 9 percent service fee and a delivery fee, which starts at $5 and goes up depending on how far you are from the restaurant. For a one-hour delivery from Williamsburg to Fort Greene, Brooklyn, I paid $10.75. Tip not included.

The lowdown: Not as good as I’d hoped. My first order, from Frankies 457, appeared to go through, but I got a call 10 minutes later saying the restaurant didn’t have time to make the food.I finally had success ordering from the Meatball Shop in Williamsburg. Too bad the food was a bit cold. And the app itself is clumsily designed, making it hard to browse menus and choose where to order from.