Flickr / allisonmseward12 Amazon has launched its restaurant food delivery service in London as it looks to go head-to-head with Uber and Deliveroo.

The "Amazon Restaurants" service is available in a handful of postcodes via the Prime Now app, which launched in the UK in 2015 and enables Prime members in nine urban areas across the UK to get one and two-hour delivery on over 15,000 products.

Unlike Uber and Deliveroo who pay a fleet of cyclists and moped riders to deliver food from restaurants to homes and offices, Amazon intends to use a network of "delivery service providers" . That means the company is less likely to run into the same difficulties that Uber and Deliveroo have seen with its delivery drivers. It also means you won't be seeing food delivery couriers travelling around London in Amazon-branded clothing. Amazon refused to say which delivery service providers it is working with to make Amazon Restaurants a reality.

The fact that you have to be an Amazon Prime member to use Amazon's restaurant food delivery service is likely to put off a number of customers given Amazon Prime costs £79 a year, or £7.99 a month. Uber and Deliveroo, on the other hand, have no membership fees.

Amazon has convinced Michelin star Indian restaurant Benares to sign up to its platform, as well as Mayfair Pizza Co., The Duck Truck, and Hummus Bros. In total there are 148 restaurants that will deliver their food via the platforms. Amazon isn't planning to give cyclists branded clothing in the same way that Deliveroo does. Deliveroo

"London offers some of the best cuisine from around the world, so we’re delighted that Amazon Prime customers can now enjoy food from their favourite restaurants via Amazon’s ultra-fast Prime Now service," said Al Wilkinson, UK head of Amazon Restaurants at Amazon.

"Based on our own research into what is important to consumers in food delivery, our team have hand-picked a selection of the best quality local restaurants in London. We’re excited to be helping many of these small businesses start offering home delivery for the very first time."

Amazon said all food deliveries will be completed in less than an hour, while Uber and Deliveroo are targetting times of closer to 30 minutes. The company has also promised customers no menu mark-ups or hidden fees for the delivery service, provided their orders are at least £15 in total.

The service — launched in Seattle in 2015 and now available in a total of 15 US cities — will initially be available to Prime Now customers in the City, the West End, Westminster, Pimlico and Victoria in central London; Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Bow, Clapton, and Homerton in the east; Islington, Stoke Newington and Stamford Hill in the north; Kensington and Chelsea in the west; and Southwark, Lambeth, Vauxhall and Kennington in south London.

The launch of Amazon Restaurants in London comes after couriers at Deliveroo and UberEATS staged protests over pay, with several of them saying they were earning less than minimum wage. Amazon has not specified how much it intends to pay couriers.