Cookie policy

What a cookie is, briefly

A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to keep, so the site can recognise the same browser on the next request. Related technologies (local storage in particular) do a similar job, and this policy covers those too.

Under UK law, cookies that are strictly necessary to provide a service you asked for do not need your consent. Everything else does. That distinction is why the list below is short: we only use the first kind.

On this website

A session cookie identifies your browser for the duration of your visit. It is what lets a form you submit be tied to the page you submitted it from.

A security token cookie protects forms against cross-site request forgery, an attack where another site tries to submit a form to us as though it were you.

Both are strictly necessary. Without them, forms on this site cannot work safely.

Analytics (Google Analytics) is the one exception, and it asks first. When you first visit, a notice offers the choice. If you accept, Google Analytics sets cookies (their names start with _ga) to tell one browser from another, so we can count visits and see which pages are read. If you decline, those cookies are not set. Either way your choice is stored in your browser so you are not asked on every visit.

On a restaurant’s storefront

The same session and security cookies apply, for the same reasons.

If you sign in to a customer account, a cookie keeps you signed in until you sign out or it expires.

Your basket is held in your own browser rather than on our servers. That means it survives a page reload without us storing your basket against your identity, but it also means clearing your browser data clears your basket.

If the restaurant has enabled a cookie notice, your choice is recorded so you are not asked repeatedly.

Cookies set by other companies

At checkout, the payment provider the restaurant uses (Stripe, Revolut or Worldpay) may set its own cookies as part of processing the payment and detecting fraud. Those are set by that provider under its own policy, not by us.

Where a map is displayed, Google may set cookies. Where a restaurant’s app sends you notifications, Google’s messaging service is involved, though that is not a cookie in your browser.

We do not control these and cannot switch them off on your behalf.

Managing cookies

Every mainstream browser lets you see and delete cookies and block them by site. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will stop sign-in and checkout from working, which is a limitation of how the web works rather than a choice we have made.

You can change your mind about analytics at any time: clear this site’s cookies and site data in your browser, and the notice will ask again on your next visit.

If we ever add further cookies that are not strictly necessary, we will ask for your consent before setting them, and we will update this policy first.