Drone food delivery has made its way to Melbourne at last. Wing, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has partnered with Doordash to bring aerial food delivery to the eastern suburbs.

If your delivery address is in or near the Maroondah City Council area, you'll now see a Drone category – represented by a cartoon drone with eyes – in the Doordash app, alongside Grocery, Coffee, Pizza and Alcohol.

The drones deliver Tuesday through Sunday from 9am to 4.20pm and operate from a distribution centre (which the company calls a “nest”) based out of Eastland Shopping Centre in Ringwood.

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People in 26 suburbs including Bayswater, Donvale and Nunawading can order from chains including Schnitz, Sharetea, Laurent Bakery, Gelatissimo and Betty’s Burgers without, for now at least, a delivery fee.

Wing launched in Australia in Queensland four years ago. “Our customers use drone delivery for things like a loaf of bread to prepare school lunch, toiletries, or an afternoon treat like coffee or ice-cream. We’ve been able to provide delivery that’s safe, fast, and environmentally friendly”, Jesse Suskin, a spokesperson for Wing says.

The delivery drones are a significant upgrade from – though perhaps not as exciting as – the city’s parachuting jaffles of 2013. Jafflechutes belong to a simpler era of technology, after all.

In recent years, we’ve seen robots getting in on food service around the world, including the cat-like robot waiters known as Bella Bots and the more humanoid Pepper. Closer to home, more and more Melbourne restaurants are working with robots, including Soi 38, Dodee Paidang and hot pot chain Hai Di Lao. Don’t feel like going out? You can even buy your own robot waiter from Amazon.

While some may wonder about the impact drone delivery will have on jobs, Eastland Shopping Centre manager Greg Balmforth says, “By bringing drone delivery to Eastland in Ringwood, we can help retailers harness another avenue of business, while improving the shopping experience for our customers.”.

Whether drones are the future of your lunch order or a quirky tech gimmick, expect to see some literal pies in the sky in Melbourne this winter.