Seamless and GrubHub merged into one company in 2013. “Consumers need to be able to trace back where their food comes from in the event that they get sick,” Jones said. Michelle Jones, a restaurant consultant who helps keep kitchens in compliance with the law, says Seamless and GrubHub have no legal responsibility to verify names and addresses of restaurants, but the sites' may risk losing customers' trust. “We know how many lines some of the other restaurants have. 'When we have one line, it's hard to compete,' said Chen. The practice allows a restaurant to increase the chances a consumer on Seamless or GrubHub will click on one of its menus. He said it is common knowledge that restaurants on Seamless and GrubHub advertise under multiple unregistered names with multiple phone lines for the same kitchen. The manager of Abby Chinese, Gary Chen, admitted he opened the fake restaurant to keep up with other kitchens. You Can Buy a House for as Little as $1 in This NJ CityĬustomers would never know about the sanitary violations if they ordered from “Really Chinese.” 'Some people might be illegally operating from their apartment, from their home, and delivering to people in complete contravention to department of health regulation,' Menin said.Ī phony restaurant called 'Really Chinese' is a prime example of the delivery shell game. She believes some of the Seamless and GrubHub ads may actually be fronts for unregulated kitchens. Julie Menin, the city's Consumer Affairs Commissioner, said her office has also found ghost restaurants using unregistered names and false addresses. The I-Team checked 100 of New York City's top customer-rated Seamless and GrubHub restaurants and found slightly more than 10 percent of the kitchens were ghosts, meaning they had names or addresses that failed to match any listing on the city's database of restaurant inspection grades.

UPDATE: I-Team Report Forces Food Delivery Sites to Change Policiesįeel like delivery food tonight? If you order on the popular websites Seamless or GrubHub, the kitchen cooking your dinner may not be what it claims to be.

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