A popular Norwich restaurant and bar has said it will sever ties with Deliveroo after concerns over its service.

Gonzo’s Tea Room, on London Street, said they had been pushed to make the decision after two recent incidents.

In a lengthy statement on Facebook, they said in one, a rider who picked up a meal for delivery was handed the food, but Gonzo’s staff saw him outside 10 minutes later waiting for his next order.

In the second incident, Gonzo’s said a rider collected an order, but dropped it on the floor twice, which on the second occasion caused the box to open.

They said they “immediately confronted him” to take back the order, but claimed the driver ignored them and left anyway.

After calling head office to complain about the second incident they said a representative contacted the customer, who confirmed the food had arrived cold, but said they could not inform the customer the food had been dropped on the ground if it had not been raised in a complaint.

MORE: ‘It felt more continental’ - how Norwich restaurants fared on first day back

Deliveroo said it had taken “immediate action” to rectify the problems.

Gonzo’s Facebook post said: “We know some of you may not be ready to go back out, but please stop ordering from these takeaway giants and if you do feel the need to use their platform, please only use those that use their own drivers.

“In saying that, we know companies aren’t all terrible, we know some of their drivers are great people who’ve worked incredibly hard during the pandemic and that controlling every facet of a company like Deliveroo is nearly impossible.

“We’d like to invite Deliveroo to make contact we us and we can help them regulate their riders.”

They said their goal was to ensure bad food, cold food or tossed food never reach a customer’s doorstep.

A spokesperson for Deliveroo said: “Deliveroo takes any complaints we receive extremely seriously. We have taken immediate action to rectify this situation”

At the start of 2019, Deliveroo was working with 80,000 restaurants across the globe, up 60pc on September 2018.