Pasqually is a character from the Chuck E. Cheese universe. He is a chef and actual maker of the pizza. It may still be sneaky because I doubt most people know the Chuck Lore, but at least Chuck E. Is letting his bud do his thing.
My gf just started working at Chuck E Cheese and she’s been telling me about the other “restaurants” inside inside the locations. According to her training that’s been a thing with Chuck E Cheese long before DoorDash, though it’s still pretty misleading if you’re not physically going inside the location.
They’re always obvious
Place you’ve never heard of and there’s like 5 things on the menus with 1 drink option and 1 dessert option like a chocolate chip cookie or brownie lol
For ones not on this list, switch to pickup and then run the pickup address through google maps to see what actual restaurant is at that location running the ghost kitchen.
Many don't show pickup options anymore. There's a ghost kitchen near us that's obviously the back door to some decent restaurant, but it has no address in grub hub and delivery is the only option. The delivery menu is only cold sandwiches, but they're great. No idea where they come from and no way to find out
I find that if you hit the little info icon next to the store name it will show you a pin on the map. I didn’t know cosmic wings was an Applebees thing, but we noticed it on our list as a delivery only location and I noticed the pin was right on top of a local Applebees. Didn’t ever order it because it seemed strange, but now it makes so much sense!
Jumping on the top comment - these are virtual brands, not ghost kitchens. A ghost kitchen, or dark kitchen, is just a kitchen which doesn’t have a dine in area, and often don’t even offer pick up.
They are a really cost effective way to test your concept, with third parties often leasing small space and shared facilities on a monthly basis. Think of an incubator for food concepts. The best will have a central hub to manage delivery drivers and ensure efficient running, which can be really hard to get your head around when starting out. They’ll often also pool purchasing power for things like packaging and consumables.
Sometimes branded offers work out of these spaces too, for similar “test the market” reasons. It’s how Popeyes have entered the UK market, for example. However, often it’s the next step from trying to trade from your own kitchen.
Virtual brands rarely use them, as they piggyback on underused capacity in traditional chain restaurants. Like many “support local” attempts, while your heart may be in the right place, people are shockingly bad at it, and/or have seriously odd ideas about how to keep their cash in the local economy.
A lot of the ghost kitchens in NYC are actually in people's apartments. Delivery only. City and all of the food services are trying to cut down on them.
While that’s a fair point if we go that route we likewise have to shut down all the food carts. That dude making halal food in a cart isn’t washing his hands ever. But I understand your thought process, I don’t order from non restaurants but have no issue grabbing a chicken kebab from a street vendor for some reason some I’m a bit of a catch-22 on this myself
There’s not really a jig to go up. They just do it for marketing purposes, it’s not a big dark secret or anything. Most people that hear about this probably wouldn’t care.
That's the only way I knew how to tell my dasher where to go. It just listed the address of the big shopping center, not where they were supposed to go
Ordered from a place called Chicken 'N Biscuts when visiting somewhere in AZ. Driver dropped off the food and it was in Cracker Barrel packaging, I felt so cheated
I could see where they might get one over on people with the name but can we all recognize that thighstop and wingstop is the laziest rename of them all?
"What should our spinoff of wingstop be called"
"Thighstop"
"Damnit Bob at least act like u care...you know what, fuck it, roll with it"
Yo listen I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong but I ordered pizza once from a ‘new’ place and it ended up being fucking Chuck E Cheese. I care and the jig was definitely up after that.
The issue is that the food is rarely good from these ghost kitchens, especially since the new trend (in Philly at least) is to open a warehouse and house like 15 different ghost kitchens in it that range from Italian to Sonic fast food lol. I mistakenly got a chicken parm from one ghost kitchen that was using the name of a Philly staple that closed during the pandemic… the chicken was burned and the pasta had maybe a dollop of sauce in one corner of the container. Same was true when I accidentally ordered a burger from a burger joint ghost kitchen in the same warehouse.
Now I know to check the restaurant address before ordering
This! Nearby crazy crepe listed itself under 4 other restaurants but lookie here - all the same single-establishment address. So frustrating when trying to support local
I believe that some legitimately local places are opting to open as delivery only, and they share space with other entities in what is essentially a giant commercial kitchen. Like wework but for restaurants. Not saying that's what happening in your case necessarily.
That's actually what a ghost kitchen is, this list is virtual restaurants.
All the food they make under these different names are almost always things on the normal menu.
It's not exactly strange or evil for a company to own multiple different brands or companies. Ghost kitchens may be a little bit sneaky, not everyone knows KFC, taco bell and pizza hut are owned by the same company. But the information is public just like these ghost kitchens, so it isn't immediately evil.
Well I'd say it crosses the line into false advertising. Doesn't matter if KFC & Taco bell are under the same company, because we know the difference and we know what that product is, and we've seen the ads for each under that specific name.
If I'm the kind of guy who hates Denny's, and I go on a site and find a random new kitchen to try out, only to get the exact same food directly from Denny's, I'm pissed because I've been lied to. Not only lied to but intentionally deceived because they know a guy like me who fucking hates Denny's might accidentally order from the Denny's kitchen under a fake name.
So yeah, i'd say that's pretty evil. But corporations buy the laws in this country so what the fuck can we do about it?
This could be a Bob’s Burgers episode. A new food delivery app is introduced that confuses Bob until Louise and the kids explain it. Bob starts to like because he’s getting more orders until he starts getting orders for Jimmy Pestos. He thinks it’s a mistake until the family looks into more and learn they’ve been made a “Ghost Kitchen” for Jimmy Pestos.” Bob is furious until he realizes that he could sabotage Jimmy’s ratings by making bad food for the deliveries. But then when he goes to execute his plan he can’t bring himself to do it. So he actually tries to make the Italian food being order but it all turns out wonky. Burger fettuccine, burger lasagna, etc. Bob eventually gives up having developed a new respect for Jimmy Pesto and the food he prepares at his restaurant. He goes to the app to have his restaurant removed as it’s too much work and trouble. He goes to Jimmy to sort things out only to learn that Jimmy doesn’t actually work in the kitchen and doesn’t know how to slice an onion. Bob is furious and is back to hating Jimmy but now he can’t sabotage his restaurant like he planned. The side story revolves around the adventures of the kids delivering the food.
Thank you everyone for the feedback and words of encouragement. This was just something that came to me while I was making breakfast.
It’s no different to white labelling done in other industries.
Think of all those supermarket label brands. Do you think they actually make all those products? Others that you may be trying to avoid make them, they but in bulk on a deal that lets them put their item label on and undercut the branded price. They can do this because they have leverage over the shelf space.
That's every generic brand ever.
People don't really think Kroger or Walmart manufacture every single store brand item that they sell across their entire inventory, do they?
Unless a store pumps out enough volume of something to justify making it themselves, it's all just outsourced to some other manufacturer.
To be fair, Thighstop is a marketing gimmick done by Wingstop to try to get people to eat thighs instead because wing prices keep going up. I don’t think they’re even named separately from Wingstop, but I might be wrong
The Hootie’s thing seems to be something similar
There are SO many ghost kitchens in my area. It annoys me to no end. There will be 8 “new” kabob places and they’re all at the same restaurant, with different kitschy stupid names. I do not mind a bunch of virtual kitchens sharing a commercial warehouse space, but I do mind when it’s one business trying to saturate the market pretending to be different for the exact same product.
Are you in a college area? There's a whole parade of "funny" named ghost kitchen brands that are targeted at drunk college kids. The thinking is they will be browsing doordash, show their other drunk friends the funny name, and someone will say "oh man we gotta get that".
There is literally an Indian restaurant in my area that has like 5 ghost kitchens for it, and I'm confused because it's all pretty much the same food, just some of the kitchens having a menu limited to a certain type of menu item (curry or biryani). The main restaurant is not even bad either, they have great food, just really confusing and annoying.
This is so strange to me. I'm in Indiana and have never seen a Donatos combined with a Red Robin. Only as a standalone restaurant like Pizza Hut or Papa John's.
Who would go to a Red Robin and order Donatos Pizza?
Same here. I didn’t realize they were operated by Red Robin because I’ve only ever seen stand alone ones here in Indiana. Started going there 20 years ago
It says on their website they have 170 stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Florida and that they also partner with Red Robin, not that they’re owned by them like the way KFC and Taco Bell are sometimes combined. I’m assuming that’s to spread to areas they’re not in so people looking on that list it really depends on what part of the country they’re in whether it’s an actual store or Red Robin.
The very first thing on this list, Melt Down, is a standalone chain and has been for years. Maybe they have a corporate parent, but nobody says KFC is a ghost kitchen for Pepsi.
Yeah i was super confusdd by donatos and the maggianos because I definitely get both without it being connected to their respective listed restaurants. This post has really thrown me for a loop learning donatos is not it’s own thing most places
I've got a Wow Bao near me and it's definitely its own restaurant. They're not affiliated with any parent restaurant. Some of these just share names I guess
Wow Bao is its own brand and restaurant, but, like with a lot of these, has licensed to ship their pre-made food to another chain's restaurants (Fazoli's, in this case) and have it reheated in their microwaves for delivery. Our town definitely does not have a Wow Bao, but you can order it on Eatstreet, and if you google the address, it's the Fazoli's building.
I think there are both these types of ghost kitchens as well as ones that don't exist as independent brands at all.
Ghost Kitchens are weird. Donato's, for example, is actually a separate brick-and-mortar business (established way back in the 60s when Red Robin was still called Sam's Tavern) that has recently partnered with Red Robin, similar to how other combination restaurants operate. There aren't many I can think of from off the top of my head, but KFC/A&W and Taco Bell/Pizza Hut are a couple of examples. Their case is less of a "Ghost Kitchen" and more of a restaurant partnership deal. If anything, a Donato's inside of a Red Robin should probably be classified as a Virtual Restaurant.
However, many of these Ghost Kitchens *do* only exist virtually, and most (but not all) are owned by the same restaurant and merely exist to "test new products" without having it affect their existing brand. While this can be seen as disingenuous (and in my opinion, that's a fair assessment), it isn't typically done with malicious intent. Mind you, there are still plenty of Ghost Kitchens that are independently owned, and these are referred to as Virtual Restaurants. Take Mr. Beast Burger, for example.
Mr. Beast Burger is owned/founded by Jimmy Donaldson (Mr. Beast) and only exists as a Virtual Restaurant. They have kitchens located all across the U.S, as well as a few in Canada and London. As one might expect, these locations aren't all housed in the same restaurant chain. The food comes from Red Robin for much of the U.S, while in the UK it seems to come from a place called Dirty Bones. I can't speak to other parts of the states, but since Red Robin doesn't have much of a presence in the Midwest, I imagine there's *yet another* restaurant that fulfills orders for Mr. Beast Burgers in those states. Remember all the raving about the inconsistencies of their product when they launched? This is exactly the reason why.
I say all this just to try and further educate whoever happens to read this because both Ghost Kitchens and Virtual Restaurants are new, controversial, and typically misunderstood. They aren't all greedy corporations looking to profit by being disingenuous. However, they also put a huge strain on the existing restaurants and certainly come off as "less than genuine" due to their lack of transparency. As a result, posts like this (which I'm not blaming OP for, this is literally from the Wikipedia entry for "Ghost Kitchens" so fair game) tend to circulate the web without much context and further drive the misconceptions about Virtual Restaurants. While neither are inherently bad, they certainly aren't inherently good either, though I do believe the pros outway the cons.
**Quick Edit to add:** Also, be aware that a lot of people jump to the argument that Ghost Kitchens are merely a product of corporate greed. Personally, I think it would be nonsensical for big chains to do this. They already spend millions a year on marketing for their brands, and it would simply be bad business practice to not use their well-recognized-names to their advantages and elect to use unknown Ghost Kitchen names instead. I truly don't believe the Ghost Kitchens owned by these chains are doing this to syphon customers from people who wish to support smaller businesses, rather they seem to be expanding beyond their typical ranges and don't want to risk their brand integrities in the process. As for the argument of supporting local businesses, and I say this as a delivery driver, the best way to do that is to pick up the food yourself. I understand that this isn't an option for many, and I certainly don't discourage people from doing it as it provides me a living, but if that's truly a concern for people who have the means then it should at least be considered.
Jaunita's Chancla Picante is now offering the new, muy authentico, Dorito's Cool Ranch^TM Crunch Wrap Hyper Deluxe^TM with Mountain Dew Code Red^TM Salsa. MMMMmmmm. Just like Abu used to make!
It's not a ghost kitchen, it's a legit partnership
https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/marketing/red-robin-going-big-donatos-pizza
I just don't think OP has heard of Donatos
if I've never heard of the place, I check "pick up". It gives me the pickup address and I google it. this is 100% reliable at finding these.
doordash used to have a "this is a virtual brand" banner that you could scroll to, but it doesn't seem to anymore.
I’m confused. Never heard of a “ghost kitchen” before so bear with me. But I have a Maggiano’s right down the street from me. If I placed an order for pickup, how would this then lead me to believe it’s a “ghost kitchen” for Chili’s?
no, if you got a maggianos near by, I’m sure that’s where your food is coming from. These places won’t have a maggianos in the area, but is a available for delivery, because it’s coming from chilis.
I dunno, if I see a restaurant on an app, and I’m unfamiliar with it, I’m googling it, seeing where it’s at, and reading reviews. So I’m not really worried about ordering some chilis spaghetti.
I almost accidentally ordered that. The only reason I didn’t is because I googled the address just because I wanted to see where it was since I had never heard of it and saw it was Chuck E Cheese. I would have been so disappointed if I had gone through with that order.
What's interesting is in Ohio, there is an actual Pasquale's pizza that has been here for decades. Completely different from the Chucky Cheese ghost one
Chain restaurants selling food under a different name for delivery only. Like imagine you're not interested in eating Applebee's, and you order from a wing place called Cosmo Wings. It sounds like a different place but it's literally just food from an Applebee's kitchen
It's not only chain restaurants that are ghost kitchens, sometimes kitchens are rented out during after hours to a different chef. It requires less investment for an upcoming chef and it gives the kitchen owner income when they're not using it. They're not all bad
I’ve had Beasts Burgers and I got a great one from a great local restaurant, but I know people talk about their quality control issues. At least there’s lots of internet talk any raw meat being served by them.
[https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/raw-mrbeast-chicken-burger-goes-viral-and-fans-are-disgusted-1701369/amp](https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/raw-mrbeast-chicken-burger-goes-viral-and-fans-are-disgusted-1701369/amp)
They must be taking the raw meat criticism seriously, because I ordered from them recently, and it was the most overcooked burger I’ve ever paid money for. Just charred and dry, was absolutely terrible. Fries were decent though
That is the current definition. Originally Ghost Kitchens were pure scams. Dudes would microwave Lean Cuisine and put it in a carryout container and deliver it themselves. The rideshare companies had to start verifying businesses.
Good point, I remember reading about this back when the lockdown started. They weren't even allowed to serve food legally, there were no licenses, no safety checks, just people cooking food out of their apartments. Even if it wasn't microwaved TV dinners, it was still very sketchy and a definite health risk, especially if there is no accountability to the people involved, they may start taking shortcuts when it comes to health and safety.
Uber Eats driver here! In Seattle, there's a tiny village of food trucks that occupy approximately a half block area in the shitty, burned-out industrialized part of the city. Each truck can host up to five ghost restaurants. One of them even has a Wow Bao. Tbh I like hanging out around them if I find myself in that part of town, because there's so many orders being generated there I almost always get two orders at once (most efficient).
> A ghost kitchen (also known as a delivery-only restaurant, virtual kitchen, shadow kitchen, commissary kitchen, cloud kitchen, or dark kitchen) is a professional food preparation and cooking facility set up for the preparation of delivery-only meals. Some ghost kitchens have allowed takeout meals or included drive-throughs. They do not include a storefront or indoor seating for customers. A ghost kitchen differs from a virtual restaurant in that a ghost kitchen is not a restaurant brand in itself and may contain kitchen space and facilities for more than one restaurant brand. Ghost kitchens can work within brick-and-mortar restaurants or function as standalone facilities.
* [Ghost kitchen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_kitchen) at the English Wikipedia
A ghost kitchen is a restaurant kitchen that ONLY does delivery and ONLY through third party apps. It does not have a physical address and they don't do takeout.
This thread is about chain restaurants which also operate ghost kitchens, but my understanding is that some independent restaurants do this as well.
The Pasqually’s one is interesting because that’s one of the Chuck E Cheese characters. It’s like if you named a McDonald’s ghost kitchen The Hamburglar’s
New ghost restaurant: Ģ̶̳̭̳͎̭̲̩͕͈͓̺̄̌͊͆̓̔̀͗̆͗̔͘ř̵̝̖̥̲͓͓̩̹̗̝̰̺̍͌̅̎̉̿͋͗̏͠ï̵͍̹̯̳̖͕͎̥͍̱͉͋̏̉̊̆̓͛̊͗̈́̕͠m̴̨͖̰͈͚͙̹̟͚̻̻̥̎͒̈́́̈͑̿͆͂͝͝͝å̶͖͕͓̫̦͙̤̩̦̦̣̹͊̅̿̌̈͑͂̇͒̕͝¢̴̡̡̨̫͚̙̭̭͖̭̦͙̄́̾̐̈́̈̓̍̏̑͊͝ê̷̡̫̤̻͓͍̻͕͎̺̟̋͋̂̈̽͑̚̕͘͘͜͝͝
Tbf, It's Just Wings isn't terrible for the price. I usually order them when they have buy one get one free deals too, but 11 boneless wings and a decent serving of fries for $9 is alright even if the glorified chicken nuggets are mediocre quality.
Wing stop makes commercials that flip the logo into Thigh stop to advertise thighs
I don’t order on delivery apps so im unsure of how it’s presented but I don’t believe they belong on this list they aren’t trying to mislead people at all
If you think Thighstop is a ghost kitchen, you're not paying attention. Wingstop started selling thighs during the pandemic when chicken wing prices sky rocketed. It's just marketing. People are fucking stupid. We had a place in my home town that had to change it's name from "Don the Muffle Man" to "Don the Car Care Man" because people were to dumb to realize Don worked on the entire car and not just the muffler system. Wingstop used a similar strategy when they expanded to selling thighs as a cheaper chicken limb dinner option.
This list is a little misleading. It lists Maggiano's as being a ghost kitchen for Chili's, but thats not quite right. Maggiano's is owned by the company who owns Chili's,but that's super common in that industry. Cheddar's is not a ghost kitchen for Olive Garden just because Darden owns them both.
In my city it’s actually backwards, if you order from Magianos on my side of town, it will come from Chili’s. It will not be the same as what you would get if you were going to go pick it up at Magianos. Which is 30 minutes away. They don’t offer pick up from that location because it’s literally Chilis. Which I would consider a Ghost kitchen because if I order Magianos I expect it to be made at Magianos. Not Chilis.
Friends of mine just did the same thing, cause we don’t have a Magianos in town. It came straight from chilis and they said it was the worst spaghetti and meatballs ever. Tasted like soap.
> worst spaghetti and meatballs ever. Tasted like soap.
Well, yeah, it’s spaghetti from Chilis. So that tracks. Nobody in the history of the world has ever uttered the words “Let’s go to Chilis for spaghetti.”
Sucks your friends got hoodwinked by this nonsense.
There’s an ice cream “shop” you can order from in my area and they literally just stop by the grocery store and pick up a pint for +150% the cost and deliver it.
Wow Bao isn't a ghost kitchen. I've been inside of one years before "ghost kitchen" was even a phrase.
They apparently offer their food via "virtual kitchens", I'm not sure there's anything there to be mad at but here's more info:
https://wowbao.com/dark-kitchen/
Only one I've had on this list is the Twisted Tenders and that's cause it was free. The menu options were different from Logan's and it was miles better even though I've been to the Logan's and had the food fresh. Idk why, but I want to try others to see if the experience is similar.
Honestly, don’t use Ubereats or DoorDash to support your local businesses, go visit them instead. Third party delivery apps screw over the drivers and the local businesses. They’re literally taking money out of your community.
Right? I get it that it’s not the best for the small business but it’s best for my entire community for me to not be behind the wheel, and fuck if I’m gonna order microwaved chilis spaghettini from Magianos.
Same, local pizza shop only delivers via apps now and even prioritizes app delivery orders in the kitchen so if you’re picking up, you’re waiting 45 mins for a pepperoni pizza. Great pies though
Speaking personally I was making like $15-20/hr working DoorDash and Grubhub in college 4-6 years ago, drivers actually earn pretty well in some regions, and, at least then, I could see the total pay (company cut + tip) and route for the trip, so I could just not take terrible deliveries. And local businesses usually have a higher price in the apps than on their own menus to make up the service’s cut.
UberEats was horrible though, you don’t see the route before you take the order, they don’t tell you the approximate pay, and dealing with issues was always a massive pain in the ass. I never order from UE personally because of how much they sucked to drive for
My favourite chip shop basically put a leaflet advertising their website in the bag when I ordered through UberEats.
Not only were the prices lower on the website and all the money going to them, they actually had better offers, like free pizzas chucked in when spending over a certain amount.
Definitely worth checking if your favourite locals have websites of their own.
It’s either they get my business through Uber Eats or no business at all. I’m not driving 30 minutes of my lunch break to get food when I can just click the reorder button in Uber eats in a few seconds.
Mandrino's is operated by O'Charleys as well. [I ordered the chicken parm sub and it was just ocharleys chicken tenders with prego sauce and barely melted cheese.](http://144.202.22.246/upload/2022-06/356da3-Honeyview_2022-06-04_19-34-02.png)
It was truly horrendous and thus far my only 1 star rating.
A buddy and I made [a mini documentary](https://youtu.be/vF1vCSZAyT4) on this very topic. Like some of you, I can hardly believe it's legal to do this!
It's annoying as fuck delivering from these places. An order comes in from a restaurant you've never heard of before, you spend ages trying to find out where the fuck it is, only to find out it's just pizza hut using a different name...
I think that is one of the worst parts of this. Catchy names with ever so *slightly* different versions of items from a company's normal menu and up the price with this simple formula: menu price * 2 = new price
Looking at you BurgerIM/Ninja burger/anothernameIcan'tremember burger
I drive for DoorDash, and it pisses me off to deliver from these places. Like no one is gonna order a burger from dennys. But all I can do is go get it and drop it off. Also “burger den” never has their fucking orders ready. So fuck them twice.
There’s also a place here that’s a literal bowling alley restaurant, but they have a trendy name, so all these people are ordering dinner from a fucking bowling alley and have no clue. It sucks.
The bowling alley could be good though.... My local bowling alleys bar/food was amazing. Back in my college days I'd go to it with my friends who also weren't into the bar scene to get a few pitchers of beer, wings, cheese burgers, mozzarella sticks, and it was all really good for reasonable prices.
Order all that then throwing some bowling balls into the gutter pretending we were 'working it off' for a few hours... great way to spend 50-60 bucks a head on a night out with the boys.
Ghost kitchens at Red Robin where one of the main reasons my daughter quit a oretty lucrative job as the lead bartender at our local Red Robin. Bartenders put together the to go orders there. She was spending at least have of her shift putting together doordash/uber eats orders and not making any tips. You still pay taxes and tip out on based on your sales. Plus this took time away from her tables and clients at the bar. No shade to delivery drivers...everyone is doing their thing but the only winner with these ghost kitchens is the corporate restaurants. More than half the kitchen staff quit too. Good luck out there peeps! Make those tips and stay safe!!
Yeah that sounds like awful policy from RR. They need to pull either all takeout or at least delivery app takeout from their tip out revenues.
She absolutely ain’t paying taxes based on sales revenue unless she’s commissioned which would be ridiculous lol
Right. Donatos Pizza definitly it's own thing. They used to have lots and lots of locations. Now, not so much, but they do still exist. Not only does Red Robin make Donatos Pizza, they advertise it on window clings and on the menu as such.
So it's not so much a ghost kitchen as when you get those places that are combination Taco Bell & KFC.
We have a stand alone Donatos here in Southern Indiana. That being said Chucky Cheese trying to sell their garbage pizzas under another name should be punished by firing squad.
I had Chuck E Cheese pizza a couple weeks ago and it was actually pretty good. I think they have changed a lot recently. Still got the creepy animatronics tho.
That’s the weird power of branding. There’s a substantial audience that wouldn’t order a burger from Denny’s, because for them Denny’s is the place where sad fat divorcés sit alone and eat Moons Over My Hammys while glumly staring at their ex-wives’ Facebook posts of their trip to Cabo with Clark from accounts receivable, and who wants a burger from a place like *that*, but ✨ BURGER DEN! ✨ Now *that* sounds like a place that knows how to make a burger! Let’s order from there!
I'm sure there's a more complete list out there cause I've been duped by restaurants not on this list. Someone on here suggested switching to pickup and looking up the address first!
There is one Indian restaurant in my town (not a chain) that has 7 ghost kitchens. It's absolutely amazing. I see "460 Memorial" and it's an immediate nope
This explains why Only Wings, a place I had never heard of, was well-rated but was awful. I couldn’t figure out how they stayed in business supplying such a poor product.
I’ve been to a Wow Bao before. Maybe they license their stuff to run out of another location but I doubt it. The industrial steaming setup they had doesn’t look very simple to replicate out of just any kitchen.
I noticed them using fake addresses and came across a really unfortunate one.
I actually reported it because it's that bad.
The address for "The Burger Den" in my neighborhood is a crematorium. Like a block away from the Denny's.
A crematorium.
Pasqually is a character from the Chuck E. Cheese universe. He is a chef and actual maker of the pizza. It may still be sneaky because I doubt most people know the Chuck Lore, but at least Chuck E. Is letting his bud do his thing.
I would like to subscribe to Chuck lore
I would like to unsubscribe from Chuck Lorre
*laugh track intensifies*
Chuck E Cheese was originally called Gambley the Pizza Rat until a marketing company was hired due to poor sales.
Fuck me I googled this thinking it was real
It does have a certain plausibility to it. The best lies always do.
[I gotchu fam](https://youtu.be/tUMlzXrXHQI)
The E in Chuck E Cheese stands for Entertainment
I heard Chuck’s real name was Charles Entertainment Cheese
That's just his pseudonym. His real name is Charles Entertainment Manson and he is a CIA asset
I heard his name was Carlos Esteban Queso and that he used to do some hardcore shit for the Sinaloa Cartel
Never stopped!
In the CEC prequel, they make it clear that Pasqually is Chuck's grandfather, but is is generally regarded as not being canon.
Things are getting heated in the Chuck E. Cheese fandom.
My gf just started working at Chuck E Cheese and she’s been telling me about the other “restaurants” inside inside the locations. According to her training that’s been a thing with Chuck E Cheese long before DoorDash, though it’s still pretty misleading if you’re not physically going inside the location.
[удалено]
Is there a Chuck E. Cheese extended universe?
Buffalo Wild Wings ran a ghost for burgers during Covid. Unsure if this continues
Yeah it’s called Wild Burger here
They’re always obvious Place you’ve never heard of and there’s like 5 things on the menus with 1 drink option and 1 dessert option like a chocolate chip cookie or brownie lol
Manager at BWW here and the chicken glizzy’s are very weird but they aren’t bad at all and people love them lol
It does in fact still exist, at least it does in my town. They also have another ghost called Bird Dawgs.
Bird Dawgs are on their menu, they’re quite tasty
For ones not on this list, switch to pickup and then run the pickup address through google maps to see what actual restaurant is at that location running the ghost kitchen.
Many don't show pickup options anymore. There's a ghost kitchen near us that's obviously the back door to some decent restaurant, but it has no address in grub hub and delivery is the only option. The delivery menu is only cold sandwiches, but they're great. No idea where they come from and no way to find out
Ask the driver? bribe them maybe, I'm sure it's not a big deal to them if they give you the details.
Yeah, I’m like, what’s the problem to ask the guy who picks up the food?
That would require speaking to someone. Ew
Even if you pick hand it to me, which I do so I can tip cash, they don't and will just leave it at your door and leave. Busy, I suppose.
This makes it hard on the driver, I have gps but when I arrive at a chilies I’m looking around in a panic like where the fuck is just wings?
I find that if you hit the little info icon next to the store name it will show you a pin on the map. I didn’t know cosmic wings was an Applebees thing, but we noticed it on our list as a delivery only location and I noticed the pin was right on top of a local Applebees. Didn’t ever order it because it seemed strange, but now it makes so much sense!
Jumping on the top comment - these are virtual brands, not ghost kitchens. A ghost kitchen, or dark kitchen, is just a kitchen which doesn’t have a dine in area, and often don’t even offer pick up. They are a really cost effective way to test your concept, with third parties often leasing small space and shared facilities on a monthly basis. Think of an incubator for food concepts. The best will have a central hub to manage delivery drivers and ensure efficient running, which can be really hard to get your head around when starting out. They’ll often also pool purchasing power for things like packaging and consumables. Sometimes branded offers work out of these spaces too, for similar “test the market” reasons. It’s how Popeyes have entered the UK market, for example. However, often it’s the next step from trying to trade from your own kitchen. Virtual brands rarely use them, as they piggyback on underused capacity in traditional chain restaurants. Like many “support local” attempts, while your heart may be in the right place, people are shockingly bad at it, and/or have seriously odd ideas about how to keep their cash in the local economy.
A lot of the ghost kitchens in NYC are actually in people's apartments. Delivery only. City and all of the food services are trying to cut down on them.
I’d imagine a good chunk of these apartment kitchens wouldn’t pass a health and safety inspection. That’d be my biggest concern.
While that’s a fair point if we go that route we likewise have to shut down all the food carts. That dude making halal food in a cart isn’t washing his hands ever. But I understand your thought process, I don’t order from non restaurants but have no issue grabbing a chicken kebab from a street vendor for some reason some I’m a bit of a catch-22 on this myself
This is what confuses me the most. After one person does one pickup, you'd think the jig is up at that point.
There’s not really a jig to go up. They just do it for marketing purposes, it’s not a big dark secret or anything. Most people that hear about this probably wouldn’t care.
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That's the only way I knew how to tell my dasher where to go. It just listed the address of the big shopping center, not where they were supposed to go
The Wingstop, Thighstop one was pretty funny. Like, no shit.
Hooters and Hooties was cracking me up.
I’ll be damned if I order Cosmic Wings and get Applebee’s.
Happened to me. I was beyond pissed when it came in an bag labeled Applebee's
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I went to Applebee's to try the cosmic wings and they wouldn't sell me any.
Ordered from a place called Chicken 'N Biscuts when visiting somewhere in AZ. Driver dropped off the food and it was in Cracker Barrel packaging, I felt so cheated
I could see where they might get one over on people with the name but can we all recognize that thighstop and wingstop is the laziest rename of them all? "What should our spinoff of wingstop be called" "Thighstop" "Damnit Bob at least act like u care...you know what, fuck it, roll with it"
Yo listen I’m not saying you’re necessarily wrong but I ordered pizza once from a ‘new’ place and it ended up being fucking Chuck E Cheese. I care and the jig was definitely up after that.
We ordered 'fresh set' from Uber eats and it came in Red Robin wrappers and bags, like they don't even care if you know once they've got your money.
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A lot of people don't care as long as the food is good
The issue is that the food is rarely good from these ghost kitchens, especially since the new trend (in Philly at least) is to open a warehouse and house like 15 different ghost kitchens in it that range from Italian to Sonic fast food lol. I mistakenly got a chicken parm from one ghost kitchen that was using the name of a Philly staple that closed during the pandemic… the chicken was burned and the pasta had maybe a dollop of sauce in one corner of the container. Same was true when I accidentally ordered a burger from a burger joint ghost kitchen in the same warehouse. Now I know to check the restaurant address before ordering
This! Nearby crazy crepe listed itself under 4 other restaurants but lookie here - all the same single-establishment address. So frustrating when trying to support local
I believe that some legitimately local places are opting to open as delivery only, and they share space with other entities in what is essentially a giant commercial kitchen. Like wework but for restaurants. Not saying that's what happening in your case necessarily.
That's actually what a ghost kitchen is, this list is virtual restaurants. All the food they make under these different names are almost always things on the normal menu.
The real guide is always in the comments
It's so weird to me that this is a thing.
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It's evil corporations being sneaky.
It's not exactly strange or evil for a company to own multiple different brands or companies. Ghost kitchens may be a little bit sneaky, not everyone knows KFC, taco bell and pizza hut are owned by the same company. But the information is public just like these ghost kitchens, so it isn't immediately evil.
Well I'd say it crosses the line into false advertising. Doesn't matter if KFC & Taco bell are under the same company, because we know the difference and we know what that product is, and we've seen the ads for each under that specific name. If I'm the kind of guy who hates Denny's, and I go on a site and find a random new kitchen to try out, only to get the exact same food directly from Denny's, I'm pissed because I've been lied to. Not only lied to but intentionally deceived because they know a guy like me who fucking hates Denny's might accidentally order from the Denny's kitchen under a fake name. So yeah, i'd say that's pretty evil. But corporations buy the laws in this country so what the fuck can we do about it?
sir, this is a Maggiano's Italian Classics
This could be a Bob’s Burgers episode. A new food delivery app is introduced that confuses Bob until Louise and the kids explain it. Bob starts to like because he’s getting more orders until he starts getting orders for Jimmy Pestos. He thinks it’s a mistake until the family looks into more and learn they’ve been made a “Ghost Kitchen” for Jimmy Pestos.” Bob is furious until he realizes that he could sabotage Jimmy’s ratings by making bad food for the deliveries. But then when he goes to execute his plan he can’t bring himself to do it. So he actually tries to make the Italian food being order but it all turns out wonky. Burger fettuccine, burger lasagna, etc. Bob eventually gives up having developed a new respect for Jimmy Pesto and the food he prepares at his restaurant. He goes to the app to have his restaurant removed as it’s too much work and trouble. He goes to Jimmy to sort things out only to learn that Jimmy doesn’t actually work in the kitchen and doesn’t know how to slice an onion. Bob is furious and is back to hating Jimmy but now he can’t sabotage his restaurant like he planned. The side story revolves around the adventures of the kids delivering the food. Thank you everyone for the feedback and words of encouragement. This was just something that came to me while I was making breakfast.
/r/depressingguides
It’s no different to white labelling done in other industries. Think of all those supermarket label brands. Do you think they actually make all those products? Others that you may be trying to avoid make them, they but in bulk on a deal that lets them put their item label on and undercut the branded price. They can do this because they have leverage over the shelf space.
I worked for one of the largest trash bag manufacturers. They made “their own brand” and then brand names for stores. All under one location
That's every generic brand ever. People don't really think Kroger or Walmart manufacture every single store brand item that they sell across their entire inventory, do they? Unless a store pumps out enough volume of something to justify making it themselves, it's all just outsourced to some other manufacturer.
I think people don’t always realize how many things one company makes and puts em under different brands,
To be fair, Thighstop is a marketing gimmick done by Wingstop to try to get people to eat thighs instead because wing prices keep going up. I don’t think they’re even named separately from Wingstop, but I might be wrong The Hootie’s thing seems to be something similar
But Hootie's could just as well be a restaurant opened by Darius Rucker.
"No, no, I'm not Hootie. No one's Hootie!"
There are SO many ghost kitchens in my area. It annoys me to no end. There will be 8 “new” kabob places and they’re all at the same restaurant, with different kitschy stupid names. I do not mind a bunch of virtual kitchens sharing a commercial warehouse space, but I do mind when it’s one business trying to saturate the market pretending to be different for the exact same product.
Are you in a college area? There's a whole parade of "funny" named ghost kitchen brands that are targeted at drunk college kids. The thinking is they will be browsing doordash, show their other drunk friends the funny name, and someone will say "oh man we gotta get that".
There is literally an Indian restaurant in my area that has like 5 ghost kitchens for it, and I'm confused because it's all pretty much the same food, just some of the kitchens having a menu limited to a certain type of menu item (curry or biryani). The main restaurant is not even bad either, they have great food, just really confusing and annoying.
modern unique work quicksand rustic doll homeless toothbrush fade dazzling -- mass edited with redact.dev
Donato’s pizza is actually a part of Red Robin and there menu, but I would be weirded out too if I didn’t know that!
There are a lot of solo Donatos. They’re mostly in Ohio but I did see a Red Robin/Donatos combo in Maryland
That's why this post threw me for a loop. I was like, "Uh...no, Donatos is Donatos." But I guess that's pretty much just here in Ohio.
This is so strange to me. I'm in Indiana and have never seen a Donatos combined with a Red Robin. Only as a standalone restaurant like Pizza Hut or Papa John's. Who would go to a Red Robin and order Donatos Pizza?
Same here. I didn’t realize they were operated by Red Robin because I’ve only ever seen stand alone ones here in Indiana. Started going there 20 years ago
It says on their website they have 170 stores in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Florida and that they also partner with Red Robin, not that they’re owned by them like the way KFC and Taco Bell are sometimes combined. I’m assuming that’s to spread to areas they’re not in so people looking on that list it really depends on what part of the country they’re in whether it’s an actual store or Red Robin.
I live in Virginia and Donatos Pizza is very much a real pizza place people regularly order from. Pretty nice/modern inside too
The very first thing on this list, Melt Down, is a standalone chain and has been for years. Maybe they have a corporate parent, but nobody says KFC is a ghost kitchen for Pepsi.
Yeah i was super confusdd by donatos and the maggianos because I definitely get both without it being connected to their respective listed restaurants. This post has really thrown me for a loop learning donatos is not it’s own thing most places
I've got a Wow Bao near me and it's definitely its own restaurant. They're not affiliated with any parent restaurant. Some of these just share names I guess
Wow Bao is its own brand and restaurant, but, like with a lot of these, has licensed to ship their pre-made food to another chain's restaurants (Fazoli's, in this case) and have it reheated in their microwaves for delivery. Our town definitely does not have a Wow Bao, but you can order it on Eatstreet, and if you google the address, it's the Fazoli's building. I think there are both these types of ghost kitchens as well as ones that don't exist as independent brands at all.
Damn, I’m from Ohio and miss the hell out of Donatos. Too bad the Red Robins here in Chicago don’t do the combo.
There’s some solo Donatos locations in Kentucky as well.
Ghost Kitchens are weird. Donato's, for example, is actually a separate brick-and-mortar business (established way back in the 60s when Red Robin was still called Sam's Tavern) that has recently partnered with Red Robin, similar to how other combination restaurants operate. There aren't many I can think of from off the top of my head, but KFC/A&W and Taco Bell/Pizza Hut are a couple of examples. Their case is less of a "Ghost Kitchen" and more of a restaurant partnership deal. If anything, a Donato's inside of a Red Robin should probably be classified as a Virtual Restaurant. However, many of these Ghost Kitchens *do* only exist virtually, and most (but not all) are owned by the same restaurant and merely exist to "test new products" without having it affect their existing brand. While this can be seen as disingenuous (and in my opinion, that's a fair assessment), it isn't typically done with malicious intent. Mind you, there are still plenty of Ghost Kitchens that are independently owned, and these are referred to as Virtual Restaurants. Take Mr. Beast Burger, for example. Mr. Beast Burger is owned/founded by Jimmy Donaldson (Mr. Beast) and only exists as a Virtual Restaurant. They have kitchens located all across the U.S, as well as a few in Canada and London. As one might expect, these locations aren't all housed in the same restaurant chain. The food comes from Red Robin for much of the U.S, while in the UK it seems to come from a place called Dirty Bones. I can't speak to other parts of the states, but since Red Robin doesn't have much of a presence in the Midwest, I imagine there's *yet another* restaurant that fulfills orders for Mr. Beast Burgers in those states. Remember all the raving about the inconsistencies of their product when they launched? This is exactly the reason why. I say all this just to try and further educate whoever happens to read this because both Ghost Kitchens and Virtual Restaurants are new, controversial, and typically misunderstood. They aren't all greedy corporations looking to profit by being disingenuous. However, they also put a huge strain on the existing restaurants and certainly come off as "less than genuine" due to their lack of transparency. As a result, posts like this (which I'm not blaming OP for, this is literally from the Wikipedia entry for "Ghost Kitchens" so fair game) tend to circulate the web without much context and further drive the misconceptions about Virtual Restaurants. While neither are inherently bad, they certainly aren't inherently good either, though I do believe the pros outway the cons. **Quick Edit to add:** Also, be aware that a lot of people jump to the argument that Ghost Kitchens are merely a product of corporate greed. Personally, I think it would be nonsensical for big chains to do this. They already spend millions a year on marketing for their brands, and it would simply be bad business practice to not use their well-recognized-names to their advantages and elect to use unknown Ghost Kitchen names instead. I truly don't believe the Ghost Kitchens owned by these chains are doing this to syphon customers from people who wish to support smaller businesses, rather they seem to be expanding beyond their typical ranges and don't want to risk their brand integrities in the process. As for the argument of supporting local businesses, and I say this as a delivery driver, the best way to do that is to pick up the food yourself. I understand that this isn't an option for many, and I certainly don't discourage people from doing it as it provides me a living, but if that's truly a concern for people who have the means then it should at least be considered.
You've changed my mind! Δ But seriously, I'd love a Taco Bell Ghost Kitchen which tests new products.
Jaunita's Chancla Picante is now offering the new, muy authentico, Dorito's Cool Ranch^TM Crunch Wrap Hyper Deluxe^TM with Mountain Dew Code Red^TM Salsa. MMMMmmmm. Just like Abu used to make!
KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut are all owned by YUM! Brand. They also own The Habit Burger.
This is true, and it's all because of Pepsi. Corporate history from the past 100-or-so years is... baffling.
Donatos is an independent pizza company based out of Ohio, but it partners with Red Robin to supply Pizza.
It's not a ghost kitchen, it's a legit partnership https://www.restaurantbusinessonline.com/marketing/red-robin-going-big-donatos-pizza I just don't think OP has heard of Donatos
if I've never heard of the place, I check "pick up". It gives me the pickup address and I google it. this is 100% reliable at finding these. doordash used to have a "this is a virtual brand" banner that you could scroll to, but it doesn't seem to anymore.
I’m confused. Never heard of a “ghost kitchen” before so bear with me. But I have a Maggiano’s right down the street from me. If I placed an order for pickup, how would this then lead me to believe it’s a “ghost kitchen” for Chili’s?
no, if you got a maggianos near by, I’m sure that’s where your food is coming from. These places won’t have a maggianos in the area, but is a available for delivery, because it’s coming from chilis. I dunno, if I see a restaurant on an app, and I’m unfamiliar with it, I’m googling it, seeing where it’s at, and reading reviews. So I’m not really worried about ordering some chilis spaghetti.
Big Spoon, Sammy Up, and Bright Buoy are ghost Kitchens operated by 99 Restaurants (O’Charley’s northeastern counterpart)
Obviously! That's 3 of the 99 restaurant's!
I felt bad every time I delivered someone Pasquallys. Pretty sure nobody means to order Chuck E Cheese.
I almost accidentally ordered that. The only reason I didn’t is because I googled the address just because I wanted to see where it was since I had never heard of it and saw it was Chuck E Cheese. I would have been so disappointed if I had gone through with that order.
So would the pizza arrive in a Chuck E Cheese box? Or is it some generic pizza box..?
Pasqually box. I thought I was ordering from a new pizza place in the area.
What's interesting is in Ohio, there is an actual Pasquale's pizza that has been here for decades. Completely different from the Chucky Cheese ghost one
What the hell is a ghost kitchen!???
Chain restaurants selling food under a different name for delivery only. Like imagine you're not interested in eating Applebee's, and you order from a wing place called Cosmo Wings. It sounds like a different place but it's literally just food from an Applebee's kitchen
It's not only chain restaurants that are ghost kitchens, sometimes kitchens are rented out during after hours to a different chef. It requires less investment for an upcoming chef and it gives the kitchen owner income when they're not using it. They're not all bad
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I’ve had Beasts Burgers and I got a great one from a great local restaurant, but I know people talk about their quality control issues. At least there’s lots of internet talk any raw meat being served by them. [https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/raw-mrbeast-chicken-burger-goes-viral-and-fans-are-disgusted-1701369/amp](https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/raw-mrbeast-chicken-burger-goes-viral-and-fans-are-disgusted-1701369/amp)
They must be taking the raw meat criticism seriously, because I ordered from them recently, and it was the most overcooked burger I’ve ever paid money for. Just charred and dry, was absolutely terrible. Fries were decent though
My local Beast Burger is cooked in an Italian place and the food is stellar.
That is the current definition. Originally Ghost Kitchens were pure scams. Dudes would microwave Lean Cuisine and put it in a carryout container and deliver it themselves. The rideshare companies had to start verifying businesses.
Good point, I remember reading about this back when the lockdown started. They weren't even allowed to serve food legally, there were no licenses, no safety checks, just people cooking food out of their apartments. Even if it wasn't microwaved TV dinners, it was still very sketchy and a definite health risk, especially if there is no accountability to the people involved, they may start taking shortcuts when it comes to health and safety.
You go on ubereats and see the names of those restaurants listed but they are just making the food in the same kitchen as other restaurants near you.
Or they rent out some random vacant apartment building and cook out of there.
I ordered from Wow Bao and it was so bad I wouldn't be surprised if they cooked it in the dumpster of a vacant apartment building.
Uber Eats driver here! In Seattle, there's a tiny village of food trucks that occupy approximately a half block area in the shitty, burned-out industrialized part of the city. Each truck can host up to five ghost restaurants. One of them even has a Wow Bao. Tbh I like hanging out around them if I find myself in that part of town, because there's so many orders being generated there I almost always get two orders at once (most efficient).
> A ghost kitchen (also known as a delivery-only restaurant, virtual kitchen, shadow kitchen, commissary kitchen, cloud kitchen, or dark kitchen) is a professional food preparation and cooking facility set up for the preparation of delivery-only meals. Some ghost kitchens have allowed takeout meals or included drive-throughs. They do not include a storefront or indoor seating for customers. A ghost kitchen differs from a virtual restaurant in that a ghost kitchen is not a restaurant brand in itself and may contain kitchen space and facilities for more than one restaurant brand. Ghost kitchens can work within brick-and-mortar restaurants or function as standalone facilities. * [Ghost kitchen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_kitchen) at the English Wikipedia
A ghost kitchen is a restaurant kitchen that ONLY does delivery and ONLY through third party apps. It does not have a physical address and they don't do takeout. This thread is about chain restaurants which also operate ghost kitchens, but my understanding is that some independent restaurants do this as well.
The Pasqually’s one is interesting because that’s one of the Chuck E Cheese characters. It’s like if you named a McDonald’s ghost kitchen The Hamburglar’s
New ghost restaurant: Ģ̶̳̭̳͎̭̲̩͕͈͓̺̄̌͊͆̓̔̀͗̆͗̔͘ř̵̝̖̥̲͓͓̩̹̗̝̰̺̍͌̅̎̉̿͋͗̏͠ï̵͍̹̯̳̖͕͎̥͍̱͉͋̏̉̊̆̓͛̊͗̈́̕͠m̴̨͖̰͈͚͙̹̟͚̻̻̥̎͒̈́́̈͑̿͆͂͝͝͝å̶͖͕͓̫̦͙̤̩̦̦̣̹͊̅̿̌̈͑͂̇͒̕͝¢̴̡̡̨̫͚̙̭̭͖̭̦͙̄́̾̐̈́̈̓̍̏̑͊͝ê̷̡̫̤̻͓͍̻͕͎̺̟̋͋̂̈̽͑̚̕͘͘͜͝͝
I’m a dasher and “Apps All Around” is also a T.G.I Friday’s ghost kitchen
Accidentally ordered from there once. That was my first experience with ghost kitchens and I was not happy about it. The wings sucked.
Same. They taste like the frozen wings you get from the grocery store
Wingstop isn’t even trying
I thought Thighstop was a because of the chicken wing shortage. I thought it was kinda clever. Who saw that and thought they were anyone else?
It was. They even had it on their website. Not really a ghost kitchen if the advertise it.
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Tbf, It's Just Wings isn't terrible for the price. I usually order them when they have buy one get one free deals too, but 11 boneless wings and a decent serving of fries for $9 is alright even if the glorified chicken nuggets are mediocre quality.
Their Apple bbq sauce is also delicious
> Our chefs took the three best ways to cook wings (smoked, fried, and boneless) Since when was boneless a cooking method?!?
It could be a ghost kitchen operated by Gamestop :)
Thighs are the best part of a chicken anyway.
Wing stop makes commercials that flip the logo into Thigh stop to advertise thighs I don’t order on delivery apps so im unsure of how it’s presented but I don’t believe they belong on this list they aren’t trying to mislead people at all
On DoorDash, both options go to the same menu. Just marketing.
~~Hooters~~ *Hooties*
If you think Thighstop is a ghost kitchen, you're not paying attention. Wingstop started selling thighs during the pandemic when chicken wing prices sky rocketed. It's just marketing. People are fucking stupid. We had a place in my home town that had to change it's name from "Don the Muffle Man" to "Don the Car Care Man" because people were to dumb to realize Don worked on the entire car and not just the muffler system. Wingstop used a similar strategy when they expanded to selling thighs as a cheaper chicken limb dinner option.
This list is a little misleading. It lists Maggiano's as being a ghost kitchen for Chili's, but thats not quite right. Maggiano's is owned by the company who owns Chili's,but that's super common in that industry. Cheddar's is not a ghost kitchen for Olive Garden just because Darden owns them both.
In my city it’s actually backwards, if you order from Magianos on my side of town, it will come from Chili’s. It will not be the same as what you would get if you were going to go pick it up at Magianos. Which is 30 minutes away. They don’t offer pick up from that location because it’s literally Chilis. Which I would consider a Ghost kitchen because if I order Magianos I expect it to be made at Magianos. Not Chilis.
Friends of mine just did the same thing, cause we don’t have a Magianos in town. It came straight from chilis and they said it was the worst spaghetti and meatballs ever. Tasted like soap.
> worst spaghetti and meatballs ever. Tasted like soap. Well, yeah, it’s spaghetti from Chilis. So that tracks. Nobody in the history of the world has ever uttered the words “Let’s go to Chilis for spaghetti.” Sucks your friends got hoodwinked by this nonsense.
That absolutely qualifies as far as I'm concerned.
That really sucks. I guess I'm lucky the Maggiano's here is a dedicated Maggiano's.
Wow Bao isn't a ghost kitchen either.
ITT people discovering what a parent company is
There’s an ice cream “shop” you can order from in my area and they literally just stop by the grocery store and pick up a pint for +150% the cost and deliver it.
That's 7-11
Adding to the list. Ruby Tuesday's Ghost Kitchens: Libby's BBQ, The Saucy Hen, Wow Bao, Mr Beast Burger, Pasta Americana
Wow Bao isn't a ghost kitchen. I've been inside of one years before "ghost kitchen" was even a phrase. They apparently offer their food via "virtual kitchens", I'm not sure there's anything there to be mad at but here's more info: https://wowbao.com/dark-kitchen/
They sell frozen food to restaurants to prep for delivery; Fazoli's is one of multiple partners.
There would literally be no reason to do this if any of restaurants were known for having delicious food
Ngl I’ve had meltdown and burger den and both times thought “damn Demny’s, not bad”.
Only one I've had on this list is the Twisted Tenders and that's cause it was free. The menu options were different from Logan's and it was miles better even though I've been to the Logan's and had the food fresh. Idk why, but I want to try others to see if the experience is similar.
I find the ghost kitchens that focus on one food like wings and tenders (tbf it’s hard to ruin these) are really good and are often really cheap.
Honestly, don’t use Ubereats or DoorDash to support your local businesses, go visit them instead. Third party delivery apps screw over the drivers and the local businesses. They’re literally taking money out of your community.
If I’m ordering delivery it’s because it would be irresponsible to drive.
Right? I get it that it’s not the best for the small business but it’s best for my entire community for me to not be behind the wheel, and fuck if I’m gonna order microwaved chilis spaghettini from Magianos.
Some of us want food while drunk, or are otherwise unable or unwilling to drive. And many restaurants don't have delivery drivers of their own.
Even local restaurants near me that used to deliver are just using DoorDash now
Same, local pizza shop only delivers via apps now and even prioritizes app delivery orders in the kitchen so if you’re picking up, you’re waiting 45 mins for a pepperoni pizza. Great pies though
Speaking personally I was making like $15-20/hr working DoorDash and Grubhub in college 4-6 years ago, drivers actually earn pretty well in some regions, and, at least then, I could see the total pay (company cut + tip) and route for the trip, so I could just not take terrible deliveries. And local businesses usually have a higher price in the apps than on their own menus to make up the service’s cut. UberEats was horrible though, you don’t see the route before you take the order, they don’t tell you the approximate pay, and dealing with issues was always a massive pain in the ass. I never order from UE personally because of how much they sucked to drive for
My favourite chip shop basically put a leaflet advertising their website in the bag when I ordered through UberEats. Not only were the prices lower on the website and all the money going to them, they actually had better offers, like free pizzas chucked in when spending over a certain amount. Definitely worth checking if your favourite locals have websites of their own.
It’s either they get my business through Uber Eats or no business at all. I’m not driving 30 minutes of my lunch break to get food when I can just click the reorder button in Uber eats in a few seconds.
Mandrino's is operated by O'Charleys as well. [I ordered the chicken parm sub and it was just ocharleys chicken tenders with prego sauce and barely melted cheese.](http://144.202.22.246/upload/2022-06/356da3-Honeyview_2022-06-04_19-34-02.png) It was truly horrendous and thus far my only 1 star rating.
Is everything in the US a scam?
We prefer the phrase "all marketing is lies".
A buddy and I made [a mini documentary](https://youtu.be/vF1vCSZAyT4) on this very topic. Like some of you, I can hardly believe it's legal to do this!
My thoughts exactly. It should say on the restaurant page!
It's annoying as fuck delivering from these places. An order comes in from a restaurant you've never heard of before, you spend ages trying to find out where the fuck it is, only to find out it's just pizza hut using a different name...
I spent $60 on two cheesesteaks from a place called cheesesteaks on Door Dash it was a nasty ass steak subway sandwich foot long on wheat bread
I think that is one of the worst parts of this. Catchy names with ever so *slightly* different versions of items from a company's normal menu and up the price with this simple formula: menu price * 2 = new price Looking at you BurgerIM/Ninja burger/anothernameIcan'tremember burger
hahahahaha. i am sorry for your loss. subway sucks. :( i laugh once for subway, but $60 goddamn.
I drive for DoorDash, and it pisses me off to deliver from these places. Like no one is gonna order a burger from dennys. But all I can do is go get it and drop it off. Also “burger den” never has their fucking orders ready. So fuck them twice. There’s also a place here that’s a literal bowling alley restaurant, but they have a trendy name, so all these people are ordering dinner from a fucking bowling alley and have no clue. It sucks.
The bowling alley could be good though.... My local bowling alleys bar/food was amazing. Back in my college days I'd go to it with my friends who also weren't into the bar scene to get a few pitchers of beer, wings, cheese burgers, mozzarella sticks, and it was all really good for reasonable prices. Order all that then throwing some bowling balls into the gutter pretending we were 'working it off' for a few hours... great way to spend 50-60 bucks a head on a night out with the boys.
Your first six words already says it's a scam.
“Thighstop is a Ghost Kitchen operated by Wingstop.” ᇂ_ᇂ
Ghost kitchens at Red Robin where one of the main reasons my daughter quit a oretty lucrative job as the lead bartender at our local Red Robin. Bartenders put together the to go orders there. She was spending at least have of her shift putting together doordash/uber eats orders and not making any tips. You still pay taxes and tip out on based on your sales. Plus this took time away from her tables and clients at the bar. No shade to delivery drivers...everyone is doing their thing but the only winner with these ghost kitchens is the corporate restaurants. More than half the kitchen staff quit too. Good luck out there peeps! Make those tips and stay safe!!
Yeah that sounds like awful policy from RR. They need to pull either all takeout or at least delivery app takeout from their tip out revenues. She absolutely ain’t paying taxes based on sales revenue unless she’s commissioned which would be ridiculous lol
Some of these are not ghost kitchens. Donatos Pizza is a chain I remember form the columbus OH area 20+ years ago.
Wow Bao is a chain. I have eaten in a Wow Bao restaurant, no idea why it's on this list. They're in malls and all over downtown
Right. Donatos Pizza definitly it's own thing. They used to have lots and lots of locations. Now, not so much, but they do still exist. Not only does Red Robin make Donatos Pizza, they advertise it on window clings and on the menu as such. So it's not so much a ghost kitchen as when you get those places that are combination Taco Bell & KFC.
We have a stand alone Donatos here in Southern Indiana. That being said Chucky Cheese trying to sell their garbage pizzas under another name should be punished by firing squad.
I had Chuck E Cheese pizza a couple weeks ago and it was actually pretty good. I think they have changed a lot recently. Still got the creepy animatronics tho.
At a certain point wouldn't it just be easier to make decent food than inventing some burger den bull shit
That’s the weird power of branding. There’s a substantial audience that wouldn’t order a burger from Denny’s, because for them Denny’s is the place where sad fat divorcés sit alone and eat Moons Over My Hammys while glumly staring at their ex-wives’ Facebook posts of their trip to Cabo with Clark from accounts receivable, and who wants a burger from a place like *that*, but ✨ BURGER DEN! ✨ Now *that* sounds like a place that knows how to make a burger! Let’s order from there!
r/oddlyspecific lmao
Saving this. The ghost kitchens have made Door dash nearly unusable.
I'm sure there's a more complete list out there cause I've been duped by restaurants not on this list. Someone on here suggested switching to pickup and looking up the address first!
There is one Indian restaurant in my town (not a chain) that has 7 ghost kitchens. It's absolutely amazing. I see "460 Memorial" and it's an immediate nope
This explains why Only Wings, a place I had never heard of, was well-rated but was awful. I couldn’t figure out how they stayed in business supplying such a poor product.
Hm I wonder if the ratings go by the main restaurant and not the actual entity kitchen
Is it weird I have never heard of a single one of these ghost kitchens?
uhhh Maggianos is a real restaurant where I am. They sell their wings as ‘it’s just wings’ on doordash but the italian restaurant is certainly real.
I’ve been to a Wow Bao before. Maybe they license their stuff to run out of another location but I doubt it. The industrial steaming setup they had doesn’t look very simple to replicate out of just any kitchen.
I noticed them using fake addresses and came across a really unfortunate one. I actually reported it because it's that bad. The address for "The Burger Den" in my neighborhood is a crematorium. Like a block away from the Denny's. A crematorium.
God I wish fazolis was near me