What Layout is

Layout is a way to order food without opening a food app. You ask for what you want the way you would text a friend, and Layout does the ordering part: it finds the restaurant, reads their real menu, puts your order together, and pays for it after you approve the total.

You pick it up at the counter. That is the whole product.

How an order actually goes

1. You ask

   Say something like "a grande oat milk latte from the Starbucks on 5th," or just "my usual from Chipotle."

2. Layout finds the place

   It works out which location you mean, from where you are or from what you said, then opens their current menu. Real items, real prices, as they are right now.

3. Layout builds the order

   It adds the items, sizes and options you asked for, plus anything you saved in your preferences.

4. You confirm

   Layout shows you the order and the total before anything is spent. Nothing is placed and nothing is charged until you say yes.

5. You pick it up

   Layout places the order and pays the restaurant. You get a receipt, and the food is waiting under your name.

Why it works at places that never heard of us

Layout does not need the restaurant to sign up, install anything, or know we exist. It uses the ordering site the restaurant already has, the same one you would use yourself. That is why the answer to "does it work at my spot" is usually yes, including the single cafe with one location and a website from 2019.

It also means Layout is bound by what that site can do. If the restaurant does not sell something online, Layout cannot order it, and if their site is down, Layout will tell you rather than guess.

What it is not

Layout is not a delivery app. Everything is pickup for now.

It is not a menu you browse, either. There is no cart to manage and nothing to tap. If you want to see what a place has, you can ask, and Layout reads their menu out to you.

And it is not an autopilot. Layout never spends money without a confirmation from you, every single time. See confirming and paying for exactly what that means.

What you need

• A Layout account, which takes about a minute to set up.
• A card saved to it, so Layout can pay the restaurant when you approve an order.
• An assistant Layout is live in, from layout.link/connectors.

Optional, but it makes every future order faster: a few saved preferences, like a dietary rule or your usual order.