Key takeaways
- Deleting Uber Eats is worth doing and not enough on its own: reinstalling takes seconds, your card is still in the account, and ubereats.com works from Safari.
- A Screen Time app limit set to 1 minute only holds if someone else chooses the Screen Time passcode, because the Ignore Limit button is a doorbell to a brain that wants a burrito.
- The door most people forget is the App Store: turn off Installing Apps under Content & Privacy Restrictions and the 11 pm reinstall stops being an option.
- Notifications and promo emails are the habit knocking. Switch them off in Settings and unsubscribe from the email itself, so the cue never reaches you.
Quick steps: block Uber Eats with Screen Time in 2 minutes
- Open Settings → Screen Time and make sure it is turned on.
- Tap App Limits → Add Limit.
- Open the Food & Drink category and select Uber Eats.
- Set the limit to 1 minute, the minimum, and tap Add. Turn on Block at End of Limit.
- Set a Screen Time passcode and let someone you trust choose the four digits, so you cannot tap Ignore Limit.
To block Uber Eats on iPhone in a way that actually holds, do three things: delete the app and sign out of ubereats.com in Safari, set a 1-minute Screen Time limit behind a passcode you do not know, and turn off app installs so it cannot come back at 11 pm. Each one on its own leaks. Together they close most of the doors the habit uses. This guide is specific to Uber Eats. If DoorDash is your app, or you want the side-by-side of every Screen Time option, read how to block DoorDash on iPhone; the mechanics are the same and the guides are built to be read together. Grubhub and Seamless have their own version, how to block Grubhub on iPhone.
Free tool: not sure what those orders add up to? Run your own numbers in the fast food cost calculator: per month, per year and over five years.
Why deleting Uber Eats doesn't work on its own
Deleting the app removes the icon, the notifications and the one-tap reorder button in a single move, and on a low-craving day that is genuinely enough. The problem is the high-craving day. Reinstalling from the App Store takes seconds, your saved card and address are still sitting in the account, and ubereats.com works fine in Safari with the same login. So the round trip is: delete on Monday, reinstall on Thursday night, order, delete again on Friday. If you have done that loop more than once, you already know the app was never the barrier. The barrier has to be something you cannot undo in the two minutes a craving lasts. That is what the three methods below build, one door at a time.
Method 1: delete the app and log out of ubereats.com
Start here, because it is free and it works on the easy days. Press and hold the Uber Eats icon, tap Remove App, then Delete App. Now close the second door: open ubereats.com in Safari, sign out of your account, and if Safari offers to save or autofill the password, decline. The point is not to make ordering impossible. It is to make sure that at 11 pm the path to checkout has three or four extra steps in it, each of which gives the craving a chance to pass. Most do, if the reward is not immediate. That is the whole logic behind stopping delivery orders without relying on willpower: change the chain before you are hungry, not during.
Treat this method as step one, never the whole plan. It leaks in exactly the way described above, which is why the next two methods exist.
Method 2: Screen Time app limit with someone else's passcode
This is Apple's built-in tool, and the setup takes two minutes:
- Open Settings → Screen Time and make sure it is turned on.
- Tap App Limits → Add Limit.
- Open the Food & Drink category and select Uber Eats (and any other delivery app while you are there).
- Set the limit to 1 minute, the minimum, and tap Add.
- Turn on Block at End of Limit, otherwise the block is a polite suggestion.
Now the honest part. When the minute is up, the block screen shows an Ignore Limit button: one more minute, remind me in 15, or ignore for today. You can hide that button behind a Screen Time passcode, but if you set the passcode, you know it, and four digits are not friction for a brain that wants fries. The fix is simple and slightly humbling: set the Screen Time passcode in Settings → Screen Time and let a partner, a flatmate or a friend choose the digits without telling you. The limit now belongs to the calm version of you plus one person who is not craving anything. If nobody is around to hold the code, this is the gap a blocker with a commitment lock fills, and the DoorDash guide covers that option.
Method 3: block reinstalling with Content & Privacy Restrictions
Methods 1 and 2 leave one door wide open: the App Store. A deleted app is one search away, and a Screen Time limit can be edited by anyone who knows the passcode. iOS has a switch for this, and almost nobody uses it. Go to Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions, turn the restrictions on, then open iTunes & App Store Purchases → Installing Apps and set it to Don't Allow. From now on the App Store will not install anything, Uber Eats included, until that setting is flipped back. Pair it with the Screen Time passcode from Method 2 and flipping it back needs someone else's four digits.
Two things to know before you do it. First, it blocks every install, not just delivery apps, so plan for the day you need a new app: ask your passcode holder, install it, and turn the restriction back on. Second, while you are in Content & Privacy Restrictions, close the Safari door as well: Content Restrictions → Web Content, then add ubereats.com under Never Allow. Delete, limit, block installs, block the site: that is the full set, and the delete-reinstall loop has nowhere left to run.
Stop Uber Eats notifications and promo emails
A promo notification at 9 pm is the habit loop knocking, and you are at checkout before the craving has had to argue its case. If you delete the app, the notifications go with it. If you keep it installed for now, silence it: open Settings → Notifications, find Uber Eats and switch Allow Notifications off. That handles the phone.
The email is the other channel, and it does not care whether the app is installed. Open the next Uber Eats promotional email you receive, scroll to the bottom and use the unsubscribe link; it takes a few clicks and it removes a cue that would otherwise land in your inbox for years. Keep the receipts and account emails if you want, but the offers are the ones doing the work against you.
Should you delete your Uber Eats account?
It is an option, and for some people it is the right one: no account means no saved card, no saved address and no one-tap history, on any device. You can request it from the account section of the Uber Eats app or the Uber website. Before you do, be honest about two things. If you sometimes use Uber for rides, the accounts are linked, so check what you would lose. And an account you can recreate in a minute is only a stronger version of deleting the app: it helps because it adds steps, not because it makes ordering impossible. If your goal is quitting delivery for good, deleting the account is a clean line to draw. If your goal is cutting back, the three methods above give you a block you can lift on purpose later, which is usually the better fit.
What to do the first night you want to order anyway
The block holds. The craving does not care. You are on the couch, the wall is up, and the urge is loud. This is the moment the whole setup exists for, so have a move ready. First, check what the craving actually is: the free what am I craving quiz takes a minute and tells you whether tonight is hunger, tiredness, stress, habit or boredom, because the fix is different for each. If it is hunger, eat the backup meal you planned, and if you did not plan one, eggs on toast beats a forty-minute wait for a bag. If it is habit, tell yourself you can still order in ten minutes, then change your state: leave the room, drink water, shower, put the phone somewhere else. Evening urges stack tiredness, hunger and a familiar cue on top of each other, which is why fast food cravings hit hardest at night. A single craving builds, peaks and passes in a few minutes whether or not you feed it. The first nights are the loudest, and every one you get through makes the reflex quieter. If you do order, one order is not a relapse; here is what to do in the next hour.
FAQ
Can I block Uber Eats without deleting it?
Yes. Set a Screen Time app limit of 1 minute on Uber Eats with Block at End of Limit turned on, and add ubereats.com under Never Allow in Web Content. The catch is the Ignore Limit button, which you can always press if you know the Screen Time passcode, so let someone else choose it.
Does Screen Time block the Uber Eats website?
Not by default. App Limits only cover the app, and ubereats.com works fine from Safari. To close that door, go to Content & Privacy Restrictions → Content Restrictions → Web Content and add ubereats.com under Never Allow.
How do I stop Uber Eats from sending me notifications?
Open Settings → Notifications, find Uber Eats and switch Allow Notifications off. Deleting the app removes them too. For promo emails, open one and use the unsubscribe link at the bottom.
Can I block Uber Eats on Apple Pay?
Not directly. Apple Pay does not let you block a specific merchant: the card in your Wallet pays wherever it is accepted, and removing it from the app does not help much because your details are still in the account. The real fix is to block the path to the checkout: the Screen Time limit, the Never Allow entry for ubereats.com, and the install block above.