--- title: Your Seamless Food May Not Actually Be From a Restaurant description: NBC New York found that "ghost kitchen" restaurants on Seamless and Grubhub are using fake names and addresses to lure more customers. authors: - name: Alicia Adamczyk url: https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 201 covers: - Business - Banking - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/aliciaadamczyk former_staff: true published: '2015-11-12T20:18:31.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T07:33:24.000Z' section: Business tags: - Food & Drink word_count: 416 canonical: https://money.com/seamless-fake-restaurants/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![The Seamless app is displayed on an Apple Inc. iPhone 5 in Tiskilwa, Illinois, on April 2, 2014.](https://img.money.com/2015/11/151112_em_seamless.jpg) *The Seamless app is displayed on an Apple Inc. iPhone 5 in Tiskilwa, Illinois, on April 2, 2014.* You get home late, exhausted from a long day at work, with just one thing on your mind: Flopping down on the couch with Netflix playing while you devour takeout from your favorite restaurant. But if you order on popular delivery apps like Seamless or Grubhub, there's a chance the "restaurant" you're ordering from doesn't even exist. That's the report from NBC New York, whose I-Team [investigated New York's 100 top-rated](http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Seamless-Restaurant-Grubhub-Fake-Eatery-Unregulated-Kitchen-Investigation-I-Team-New-York-City-344708652.html) restaurants on the two apps. They found that over 10% of the listings are "ghosts," "meaning they had names or addresses that failed to match any listing on the city's database of restaurant inspection grades." In fact, when the I-Team visited the addresses associated with some of the Seamless and GrubHub listings, they found vacant buildings — no pizza or Chinese food in sight. Julie Menin, the city's Consumer Affairs Commissioner, told NBC New York that the "restaurants" listed in the apps could just be normal people operating out of their homes and apartments, completely disregarding health department standards. But it's perhaps more likely that the same restaurant has multiple listings on the same app, using made-up names and addresses and preparing the food all at one location. When the team questioned the owners of "Really Chinese," which they couldn't find a physical store or permit for, the "owner" admitted to opening a fake restaurant, and that it's "common knowledge" that the same restaurant appears under multiple names in the apps. One reason they would do this? Their real restaurants may have bad reviews from customers, or the health department. Read more at [NBC New York's website](http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Seamless-Restaurant-Grubhub-Fake-Eatery-Unregulated-Kitchen-Investigation-I-Team-New-York-City-344708652.html). And maybe stick to cooking tonight. UPDATE: A GrubHub Inc. (which owns GrubHub and Seamless) spokeswoman responded to clarify that restaurants mentioned in the story have been removed from the platforms. She added: > At GrubHub, we take the accuracy of our restaurant listings seriously. We are partnering with New York’s Department of Consumer Affairs to address this issue and remove inaccuracies from our platforms. > > Going forward, GrubHub will take additional steps to verify the details restaurants provide. Our new process includes more checks to validate the name and location of restaurants. Should any discrepancies arise, we will take immediate action to correct information or remove inaccurate listings of restaurants on our platforms. We're also encouraging tips. If you spot any inaccuracy on our platforms, you can alert us at[restaurants@grubhub.com](mailto:restaurants@grubhub.com) or [restaurants@seamless.com](mailto:restaurants@seamless.com). **Read Next: [Your iPhone Keeps a List of Everywhere You've Ever Been. Here's How to Delete It](https://money.com/iphone-map-knows-everywhere-youve-ever-been-how-to-delete-it/)** ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/seamless-fake-restaurants/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "E-Commerce", "item": "https://money.com/e-commerce/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Your Seamless Food May Not Actually Be From a Restaurant" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/seamless-fake-restaurants/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/seamless-fake-restaurants/", "name": "Your Seamless Food May Not Actually Be From a Restaurant", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-11-12T20:18:31.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/seamless-fake-restaurants/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/seamless-fake-restaurants/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T07:33:24.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Your Seamless Food May Not Actually Be From a Restaurant", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/11/151112_em_seamless.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1402, "caption": "151112_EM_Seamless" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alicia Adamczyk", "url": "https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/alicia-adamczyk/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2016/01/alicia-headshot-2.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "email": "alicia.adamczyk@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/aliciaadamczyk" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-11-12T20:18:31.000Z", "description": "NBC New York found that \"ghost kitchen\" restaurants on Seamless and Grubhub are using fake names and addresses to lure more customers.", "abstract": "NBC New York found that \"ghost kitchen\" restaurants on Seamless and Grubhub are using fake names and addresses to lure more customers.", "@id": "https://money.com/seamless-fake-restaurants/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T07:33:24.000Z", "wordCount": 416, "keywords": [ "Food & Drink" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Business", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "E-commerce", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce" ] } ] } ] } ```