It's too cold to leave your apartment, you're too busy to cook, or maybe you're just too hung-over to go anywhere. Whatever the reason, the convenience of a food delivery service is the best invention since sliced pizza. Beijing is seeing great advances in the industry, with new services popping up all the time, so here's a look at the best ones in town.

1) Jinshisong

Jinshisong delivers from over 60 different restaurants to customers on the east side of the city, extending their coverage north to Shunyi and east past the 5th Ring Road. The beverage menu offers five or six wine choices and an impressive variety of reasonably priced beers. Non-drinkers can also choose from lots of other soft drinks.

Ordering from the website is quite simple. You can choose a restaurant from the list, or search for a certain type of cuisine. Then choose the dishes you want, and check out. When you enter your address, the delivery price and final total are displayed. After clicking to submit the order, someone will call or text in the next few minutes to confirm it.

Jinshisong is relatively new and is still working out occasional kinks like long delays or cold food, but they make up for it with superb customer service. In past experiences they've reduced the price or delivered a brand new order at no charge to resolve customer dissatisfaction. Communication over the phone is really easy in English or Chinese. Occasionally, they offer good deals in the form of promotional codes, coupons and special deals with specific restaurants to keep customers coming back.

Language Requirements: Fluent English and Chinese on the phone and website
Delivery range: Currently Jinshisong is concentrating on the east side of the city, delivering to CBD, Chaoyang, Dongcheng and Shunyi
Tel:  010 6417 3066 
Hours: 10:30 - 22:30, but keep in mind specific restaurant operating hours
Price: 15 RMB for the first 3 km, but some restaurants have deals on the delivery fee. Minimum 68 RMB per order
Website: jinshisong.com

2) KKRabbit
Based on a fictional character who loves gourmet food, KK Rabbit has been around for a while. With 59 restaurants to choose from, there's something for every palate. The impressive beverage menu contains a great wine selection, as well as beer, soft drinks, ice and even cigarettes.

For now, KK Rabbit only delivers to Dongcheng and Chaoyang districts, but this could change in the future. The fee is 15 RMB for restaurants within 3 kilometres of your location, and an additional 7 RMB for each kilometre. Sometimes the price on the website is higher than this, but within 10 minutes of your order someone will call to confirm your order and give the correct delivery fee.

This isn't the website's only drawback. It will sometimes let you place an order when a restaurant is not open, causing frustration when someone calls 10 minutes later to inform you that you will not be getting your meal. The site is in Chinese and English, although with phrases like "trouble you a delicious meal", Chinglish can also be part of the experience.

A nice feature is the chat support (via Skype or MSN), which can come in handy when faced with problems or confusion on the site. It can be a bit slow-going at times, though. Staff has been consistently polite and helpful with questions and concerns.

Language Requirements: Website and hotline both in Chinese and passable English.
Range: Chaoyang and Dongcheng Districts
Tel: 400 720 1717
Hours:  10:00 – 22:30, but some restaurants have different hours
Price: 15 RMB for the first 3 km, 7 RMB for each additional km
Website:  http://www.kkrabbit.com.cn

3) Sherpa's
Sherpa's has a smaller, slightly pricier selection, though there is still a great variety of international tastes to choose from. Originally only offered in Shanghai, they've recently started up a service in Beijing. Both the phone staff and site are in fluent English and Chinese, and they offer a bilingual live chat service on their site.

While ordering, check out their beverage and cigarette menu to add to the experience. They offer decent promotions on wine and beer to accompany your meal. In fact, a quick look around the site shows lots of different deals and giveaways to encourage repeat customers. A quick peek at Sherpa's blog reveals they have a number of promotions at their Shanghai location that, if successful, will soon be making their way to Beijing.

As a major plus, they deliver not just to Chaoyang and Dongcheng districts, but all around the city for a price. Delivery fees start at 10 RMB for the first 2 km and increase from there. Outside of the Sanlitun area, the price can get quite high, with delivery to Wudaokou costing 120 RMB.

The site is well-designed for customer convenience. Sherpa's understands the customer's frustration over lofty delivery fees added in at the end so they made their online ordering process as painless as possible. Once you type in the nearest intersection to your location, the restaurants are displayed by distance and delivery price.

Choose what restaurant you want to order from, click on the items you want, and checkout. You can add special requests in at the end in the memo box. If you're having any trouble, the phone staff is really helpful, or you can get live chat help on the website.

Language Requirements: English and Chinese
Range: All parts of the city
Tel: 400 600 6209 
Hours: 10:30 – 22:30
Price: 10 RMB for the first 2 km; increases with distance. Prices are very high outside Chaoyang and Dongcheng districts
Website: Sherpa.com.cn, or visit their blog at: http://blog.sherpa.com.cn

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Keywords: meal delivery services Beijing ordering food online Beijing Beijing food delivery websites