New app lets you skip the line at restaurants

Kitchen. Mobile phone and food on the table

Jacob Dubé
The Eyeopener

(CUP)—Next time you and your friends are looking for a place to eat, instead of searching aimlessly around the city, try out Ritual. Ritual is an app that lets you order food in restaurants around Toronto directly from your phone, effectively skipping lines and any unwanted human interaction.

After you’ve finished setting up an account (add a profile picture, it helps the restaurant owners recognize you when picking up an order), you’re brought to Ritual’s main page. Based on your location, the app will sort out some of the over 250 restaurants and cafes based in districts like Yonge and Dundas, Liberty Village and Yorkville that are affiliated with it.

If none of the initial choices seem like the right fit, Ritual has a search option so you can either find the specific restaurant to suit your cravings, or look through tags like “burgers” or “George Brown” for other options.

Each restaurant’s page has its full menu on Ritual, and some orders offer extra options like additional milk and sugar for coffee.

Once an order is placed, the app tells you how long it will take to be ready, and suggests when you should leave to pick it up. I ordered a Dark Phoenix coffee at the Black Canary on Yonge Street and once I arrived, it was waiting for me on the counter with my name on it. I just had to say I ordered through Ritual and I was all set. Though it’s a fairly new app, the cafe appeared to have adopted it seamlessly.

If your favourite restaurant isn’t on the list, you can contact Ritual on their website and get them to send a request to join the app.

Be on the lookout for promo codes to get coupons when you sign up. For every friend you get to download Ritual and order something, you will get a $10 coupon to go with your next purchase.

Ritual is available for free on the iOS App Store and Android’s Google Play.