Do luxury takeaways deliver?

Why were people surprised when the former BBC chairman, Gavyn Davies, announced that his first business move since resigning was taking over a gourmet food-delivery service? Posh takeaways have become a lucrative feature of affluent lifestyles.

Davies, a banker whose stake in Goldman Sachs is worth around £80 million, is investing in Deliverance, which specialises in Chinese, Indian and European food. It has grown rapidly since it was founded in May 1997 by fellow banker Rohan Blacker and barrister Patrick Reeves, who started in south London with a pizza oven bought at auction.

Its main rivals include Room Service, which delivers ready-cooked food to your door sourced from 150 London restaurants, including Vietnamese and Lebanese. Even more upmarket is the dotcom www.lobster.co.uk, whose Roman Supper Box, costing £30, starts with buffalo mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes, proceeds to a main course of linguine vongole and ends with Italian coffee and biscuits.

Deliverance has an advantage because it maintains separate kitchens cooking different cuisines, so that you can order both an Italian and Chinese meal at the same time. Each week it delivers to more than 15,000 offices and homes from three locations in south-west, central and west London. It now has about 20 chefs and a fleet of 100 motorcycle couriers, who, on request, will also bring wine, cigarettes and videos. In its last yearly official accounts, it made a profit, although last year it lost £100,000, hence the need for Davies's investment.

Deliverance's customers are typically thirtysomethings. The company certainly has a good opinion of itself. On the top of the little plastic pots containing the food, it says "Deliverance: Culinary Salvation".

But is the food as good as the hype? Charles Campion, the Evening Standard's food critic and editor of the Rough Guide to London Restaurants, picked through four dishes to assess whether Deliverance really delivered value for money. They arrived by bike 75 minutes after being ordered from Deliverance's central kitchen, and were not especially warm, but the company had said it would take this long because they were delivering outside their usual location. The average waiting time is 45 minutes.

This is what Campion ate:

Salmon and smoked haddock fishcakes

Price: £7
Portion: Three
Verdict: "Like all the other dishes, it was lukewarm, which is the problem with takeaways, but this has a really good flavour. Carrying them in a box across London means they are not as crispy on the outside as one would like, but they are as good as those you would find in most local restaurants. Rating: *****

Penne with organic smoked salmon and baby spinach

Price: £7.80
Verdict: "It's somewhat disconcerting to see a heavily sauced dish in a cardboard box, but again, the portion is good and the salmon is well-seasoned. More of a starter portion for a main-course price.
Rating: *****

Quarter of crispy aromatic duck with pancakes

Price: £9.70
Verdict: "The crispy duck had fainted in the packaging and was rubber duck. The pancakes lasted well. Lots of mixed greens. There's enough cucumber and spring onions to accommodate a whole duck - not the quarter duck we have been given. Hoisin sauce is good quality, if a bit on the sweet side. The duck was a meaty one but the meat was fairly dry. Again, you have to suspect that this is a dish that doesn't travel well. Pancakes dry out really quickly in these circumstances."

Thai Red Curry and Vegetables

Price: £7.80
Verdict: "Fairly sweet, not very curried. It's okay. Given the cost of three ounces of mixed vegetables, charging £7.80 is cheeky. Poor old vegetarians - they have been turned over again."
Rating: *****