Virtual restaurant

A virtual restaurant, also known as a ghost kitchen, cloud kitchen or dark kitchen, is a food service business that serves customers exclusively by delivery and pick-up based on phone and online ordering.[1] Virtual restaurants are stand-alone businesses that either operate out of an existing restaurant's kitchen or from a separate kitchen set-up away from a restaurant.[2] By not having a full-service restaurant with a storefront and dining room, virtual restaurants can economize by occupying cheaper real estate.[3][4] The reduced space lowers overall overhead and operational costs, thus yielding higher profit margins, as the price of the food provided is typically not changed.[5] The virtual restaurant's single kitchen format allows for multiple brands to share kitchen space.[6]

Background

Rebel Foods pioneered the cloud kitchen business,[7] launching its first cloud kitchen in 2015 and converting to an exclusively cloud-kitchen model in 2016.[8][9]

With the rise of urbanization and an increasingly busy lifestyle, the demand for food delivery services in the United States has surged, resulting in a shift from traditional dining experiences to ordering food online.[10][11] Virtual restaurants gained significant notice during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when many restaurants were either completely idle due to restrictions on public dining, or curtailed significantly as very low numbers of patrons were permitted to be served on-premises even as the situation recovered.[12]

Function

The lack of a physical customer service location allows companies to experiment with new menus, brands, and concepts with ease and low risk. Menus can be adjusted to match current trends or target multiple demographics with a variety of cuisines.[13] The online nature of ghost kitchens makes it possible for virtual restaurants to track customer data and analytics through the food ordering process and make data-driven decisions. They can track the popularity of items, wait times, and customer feedback via ratings and adjust their menus accordingly.[4]

Criticism

Ghost restaurants have been criticized for unpleasant working conditions, cramped and windowless kitchen spaces, and acting as fronts for other restaurants.[20][21][22]

In the United Kingdom, restaurant operators The Restaurant Group and Casual Dining Group were criticised in 2019 over a lack of transparency regarding virtual restaurant brands. The companies were found to be operating several virtual brands which sold similar or identical food to their more popular high-street brands.[23][24]

List of associated chain restaurants

Several virtual restaurant brands have associated brick-and-mortar locations. The following are virtual restaurants known to use ghost kitchens.

See also

• Dark store
• Concession stand
• Food truck
• Virtual Dining Concepts