Beware of Fake Restaurants on Seamless and GrubHub
If you enjoy trying new restaurants through food delivery services like Seamless and GrubHub, you can make sure the restaurant is genuine before ordering.
A recent report from NBC New York showed that just over 10% of New York’s top 100 restaurants on Seamless and GrubHub are actually “ghosts,” meaning their names and addresses do not match the listings in the city’s restaurant inspection database. … This can mean two things: either they are illegally using their potentially unclean home cooking, or they are using a fictitious name and address on GrubHub because they have low ratings or a poor health score associated with their real restaurant name.
According to restaurant consultant Michelle Jones , neither Seamless nor GrubHub are legally responsible for clarifying restaurant names and addresses, and that could get you in trouble if you are not interested in ordering sketchy food from a Class C kitchen. Moreover, although this the report focuses on the New York area, this could potentially happen anywhere, especially in other large metropolitan areas. GrubHub has released a statement saying they will start taking additional steps to vet restaurants, but for now, set aside an extra minute to test new restaurants before ordering anything. Use Google Maps and Street View to see if there is actually a restaurant at the address listed, check restaurant reviews with other services, or check with your city’s health department to see if there are any ratings or listings. You can see the full report at the link below.
Update : A GrubHub rep contacted us and posted the full statement below:
At GrubHub, we take the accuracy of our restaurant listings seriously. We are working with the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs to address this issue and remove inaccuracies from our platforms.
Going forward, GrubHub will take additional steps to validate the information provided by restaurants. Our new process includes more checks to verify restaurant names and locations. In the event of any discrepancy, we will immediately take action to correct the information or remove inaccurate restaurant data on our platforms. We also encourage advice. If you find any inaccuracies on our platforms, you can let us know at [email protected] or [email protected].
I-Team: Restaurants Use Fake Identities on Food Delivery Sites | NBC New York