How an order works

Every order runs the same way, whether you ask in an assistant, an app built on Layout, the web, the iPhone app or a text: you ask, Layout builds a real cart at the restaurant, you confirm the total, and Layout places it.

Ask like a person

There is no syntax. Say it the way you would text a friend:

• "a large iced coffee from Dutch Bros"
• "two chicken burritos from Chipotle, no beans, extra guac"
• "my usual from the Starbucks by work"
• "something vegetarian from the Thai place on Grand"

Quantities, sizes, substitutions, extras and a specific location all fit in one sentence. You do not have to know the menu: ask what a place has and Layout reads its current menu, with real prices.

If the restaurant requires a choice, such as a tortilla or a milk, you are asked to pick from the options the restaurant lists.

Which store

Name a chain without a street and Layout finds the nearest open store and asks before ordering there. If your assistant cannot tell where you are, Layout sends a one-tap link to share your location for the next hour. Giving the store's street address, "the one at 120 Court Street", picks it directly.

Building the cart

Layout opens the restaurant's own ordering site, adds your items, sets your options and gets to a real total. At a restaurant Layout has not ordered from before that can take a few minutes; that is normal, not a hang. You get a tracking link while it works. See tracking and receipts.

An account without a card can build a few carts to see real prices. Placing an order needs a card.

The cart

Layout comes back with the items, the store, and the exact total: the restaurant's price and tax plus Layout's service fee, as one charge. Layout One waives the fee. See fees and Layout One.

Read it. This is the moment to catch a wrong size or a store on the other side of town. To change anything, say so in plain words, "make it a large" or "the one on Main instead", and Layout rebuilds and shows a new total. Nothing is spent until you confirm.

Confirming

Say "place it", or press Confirm on the cart. Layout charges only the total you were shown: if the price changed since, it shows the new total and asks again.

Most orders need nothing more. A six-digit code is texted to you when the total is over $50, or when a risk check asks for one. The text names the amount, the store and the card, and the code approves that order at that amount and nothing else. See confirming and paying.

If you have not confirmed shortly after the cart is ready, Layout also texts it to you. Reply YES to place it. An order that needs a code has to be confirmed in the Layout app instead.

When a cart expires

A cart waits 15 minutes after it is ready. The cart text says the time it runs out, and a reminder follows if you still have not answered. After that the cart is released, nothing is placed and nothing is charged. Ask again whenever you are ready.

You have one waiting cart at a time. Asking for something new retires the cart you had not confirmed yet, so a YES can only ever place the order you were last shown.

Timing

Every order goes in as soon as possible, the way a counter order works. Layout does not schedule orders for later, so "in twenty minutes" tells Layout when you are coming, not when to send it.

If the earliest pickup a restaurant offers falls on another day, Layout stops and asks rather than booking you in for tomorrow morning.

After you confirm

The order is with the restaurant and it is final on Layout's side, because a real kitchen has started on it. The help center covers what you can still do: change or cancel an order.

Layout tells you the order is placed only when it has evidence that it was. If an order fails, or Layout cannot tell, see when an order fails.

Picking it up

You get a text and an email with the store, the pickup time when the restaurant shows one, and a link to your receipt. Layout has already paid the restaurant, with a Layout card rather than yours, so there is nothing to settle at the counter. Give your name and take the bag.

Saved preferences make the next order shorter: a dietary rule or a usual order applies every time. See preferences.