An Uber Eats customer reveals that several local restaurants operate out of the chain restaurants Denny’s and Chili’s.
In a TikTok with almost 3 million views as of Sunday, user Sarah Stusek (@sarahshooots) Googles the addresses of local restaurants in Uber Eats and finds out that they are housed in larger, commercial restaurants.
“My favorite thing to do is get on a delivery app and anywhere I haven’t seen before, Google the address and see what it really is and what they’re hiding,” Sarah begins. “You can do this on any food delivery app but for the ease of this video, let’s just look at Uber Eats.”
Sarah shows a screenshot of a restaurant called The Burger Den. “So here we have The Burger Den at 5501 Leesburg Pike. I’ve never heard of The Burger Den before, what’s that?” she says.
She Google searches the address. “It’s a Denny’s,” Sarah reveals, sharing a screenshot of the Google results.
She returns to the Uber Eats homepage of ‘The Burger Den’, which includes menu items such as the Build Me Up Burger, Double the Fun Burger, and the Vibe with Shrooms Burger.
“Look how convincing this is, look how fun The Burger Den is. Feel the Burn Burger, Vibe with Shrooms Burger, Spill the Bourbon Burger,” Sarah reads from the menu.
She then shows the Uber Eats homepage of another restaurant called The Meltdown, whose location is also listed as 5501 Leesburg Pike.
“Guys, it’s still Denny’s, they’re just posing as multiple different brands,” Sarah declares.
@sarahshooots ♬ original sound – sarahshooots
And the examples continue: Sarah shares a store called It’s Just Wings, located at 6601 Richmond Highway, that is really a Chili’s; a restaurant named Sunday Best Brunch Sandwiches that is actually Bottom of the Gate Cafe, a small business in Washington, D.C. Sarah reveals that Bottom of the Gate Cafe also moonlights as Breakfast in Bed Delivery on the GrubHub app.
“A lot of small businesses do it,” Sarah says.
Remarkably, in a final example, a restaurant called Billy’s Cafe poses as ‘Hatch House’, ‘Daydream Breakfast Burritos’, and ‘The Salad Dream’ on Uber Eats.
“What can’t they do?” Sarah quips sarcastically as the video ends.
There’s a name for the phenomenon Sarah is describing. Referred to as “ghost kitchens,” this model allows restaurants without a brick-and-mortar to operate out of the kitchen of a popular restaurant and are only available via a third-party delivery service like Grubhub, Uber Eats, and Postmates. As the model increases in popularity, however, there are conflicting opinions on its validity, with many people finding ghost kitchens shady and deceptive.
Some folks argue that instead of being sovereign restaurants that are simply housed in another restaurant’s physical location, ghost kitchens are actually just rebranded versions of commercial restaurants, profiting from an obscure name and local image.
In another TikTok, user HK from The Deep Dive (@deepdivenewsletter) refers to a video essay, “The Deceptive World of Ghost Kitchens” by YouTuber Eddy Burback. HK explains that Burback illuminates how many ghost kitchens are actually run by major companies and “profit from the image of local small businesses.”
In the comments on Sarah’s video, viewers were all too familiar with the deceptive quality of ghost kitchens.
“My husband fell in love with a pizza place called Pasqually’s. Ordered it all the time. We were eating Chuck E. Cheese pizza,” one user shared.
“I ordered an expensive hibachi dinner for my husband’s birthday. Went to pick it up. It was the sketchy sushi restaurant in town no one ate at,” a second person commented.
Others argued that ghost kitchens are valid places to order from, as long as they aren’t repurposing the main restaurant’s products.
“Yeah, if it’s an actual ghost restaurant with different food and not just the same items rebranded i’ll get it,” one user said.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Sarah via Instagram for more details.