I know, right?? Somewhere at about 8:20 Reef ceo said something like 'we democratized the restaurant industry because we removed start-up capital' just let the concepts of "Democracy" and "capital" marinate for a minute... If you need to, meditate and over stand what we are hearing 🥺
I see nothing wrong with what wok wok is doing. Everyone had to pivot during the pandemic. As long as the place is clean and the food is good I don’t see the issue.
This. As long as the standard is high, thats fine. My issue is here in the UK we have fields full of shipping containers that are behind huge metal fences, and their health ratings are super super low, but because they are virtual restaurants no one ever sees this.
No one restaurant can make that many different cuisines well out of the same kitchen. It's the "buffet effect", if you will, where the quality of all the different types of food are flattened to a reliable, reproducible state.
@@ProzacPreacher Or, and stick with me because this is an absolutely crazy idea...what if I was able to order restaurant-quality food from a restaurant that makes one kind of food? I know, revolutionary stuff.
That has already happened a long time ago, covid just pushed restaurants into doing this because they were forced to be closed and delivery was basically the only option. They already had invested into a commercial kitchen, they already had the staff so why not do this. Pre covid there were already commercial kitchens that exclusively did this.
In some cities they have industrial kitchens for popular restaurants just for delivery. I think it's a good idea because it lets restaurants serve customers without having to worry about delivery drivers.
Let me sum up their philosophy “make the customer feel like they have a choice”. Seems like a shady business model but seeing all the restaurants fail this past year I understand where it came from.
@@dingbatdeliverer6067 that's like a lot of places, no? Walk into any fast food burger places, they're all basically cheeseburgers with different amount meat and like if it includes bacon or whatnot. Any milk tea place, the milk tea is different flavor and different amount of sugar/ice. But basically tea + milk
This is why I order from restaurants I know actually exist and have had good experiences with before. If they suddenly add 25 new restaurants to your area that’s an obvious tell.
I live in Brooklyn, there are thousands upon thousands of places I can get to deliver to me. I would never even notice 25 new restaurants, new places open and old places close in this city every single day
Can’t stand this. I feel like the quality of the restaurants are going down and this is probably a contributing factor. Who wants to pay nearly 30% in fees and tips for food that is lesser quality? People need to snap out of it.
@@-Anjel I agree. My personal view is I’d rather spend on quality than convenience. Especially considering it takes so long to get the orders many times. I’ve seen people think they hit the jackpot finding a “new” restaurant and think it’s the best most authentic thing, I doubt they all know it’s like this.
@@ktsterlin9304 Your quality time doesnt mean sh1t to others people,so convenience will win out in long run since most majority of people rather spend their 'own quality time' on something else other than wasting time dining in
Ghost kitchens already exist in Asia and the UK for 10 years - lower costs - don't have to deal with guests - not dealing with weird business laws regarding placement
True. I once ordered a really tasty looking steak for about 25€ (germany) and was awaiting something spectacular. (For reference, in a really good steakhouse I was at, the good stuff started at about the same price, for this delivery company that was their top of the line steak). Finally, the doorbell rings. I get the box, put its contents onto my table and think it looks kind of funny, cut it open and.. it's dead, someone put it into a pan and then went for a break or something. Rubbish. Leather. It also tasted like it was frozen quite badly. At a later look, the restaurant offered everything - from pizza, pasta, steaks, chinese, indian.. and a lot more i forgot. Cursed be that day I learned that the hard way. On a positive note, my cat didn't mind it.
Agreed that the mix of dishes is a risk, but I would not think they tote allergen free foods and risk being shut down for crosscontamination. Those who suffer from severe food allergies know that unless it is explicitly mentioned, crosscontamination is always a risk. Food poisoning and lack of consistency? Huge kitchens can be clean and consistent. It needs more organization, but it can be done. I guess the market and authorities will decide...
@@jesusbalderas329 That is the dumbest comment. How is that restaurant more high risk than another one in terms of food poisoning? if anything, they probably have faster food turn over rate which leads to more fresh ingredients. This is why you need to go to school, to think critically. lmfao idiot
Their goal isn't to help the restaurant industry, but instead to control it. The virtual brands these companies create are owned by the companies, not the restaurants. Therefore, if these companies suddenly raise their cut percentages, change their rules, or let another restaurant work under the same virtual brand, the restaurants have no choice but to accept since if they decide to opt-out, the companies can get another restaurant to work under that virtual brand and its business as usual. Restaurants lose out on the brand power, reputation, and customers they helped garner for the virtual brand since they don't legally own the brand. The companies end goal is to OWN virtual restaurants and to have an endless supply of disposable workers to cook the food. That's the only way these companies can make this business model scalable and increase their profit margins by ultimately cutting out the real restaurants altogether.
But the restaurants are making the food? And people are always going to still want to dine in too. The question is what's the bottom line for the restaurant? And your missing the fact that virtual companies are competing with each other too
@@jerrygraves6531 The purpose of a virtual restaurant is that the physical restaurant no longer exists in online marketing. The terms of agreement typically prohibit the real restaurant from advertising that they are the ones creating the dishes sold by the virtual restaurant. As a result, customers are compelled to order directly from the virtual restaurant, bypassing the real restaurant. Even if the real restaurant decides to end its participation in the business agreement, they are legally prohibited from acknowledging that they created those dishes. In such cases, the virtual company will simply engage another restaurant to prepare the same dishes. So, when it comes to virtual restaurants going up against other virtual restaurants, if it ever reaches that stage, it basically means they've already won and completely kicked out real restaurants from the game.
honestly, when it's a hard time, that does not mean monopolize, it means making sure everyone including yourself is good. This type of buzinezz putz a lot of prezzure on the cookz and delivererz for the idea the bozz came up qith. Also clearly the quality is not az good anymore. Zo really are spreading themselves thin. By other comments from people who actually order from ghost rezt. customers are disappointed and the workers are probably stressed dealing with 15 menus. There is a way to be successful without rezzing everyone out.
I work in a Thai restaurant. That kitchen looked so familiar it made me smile. We do Door Dash but only under the restaurant's name. The app definitely helped a lot during the pandemic. It's interesting to see this concept of a kitchen using more than one name. I dont think our owner would do something like it because he has worked hard to make the advance of the NAME of the restaurant. He has done a good job of listening to the complaints as well as the compliments and it is working for him. We are always busy and being a small kitchen, we would be overwhelmed by a huge increase in orders. To all the restaurants who have had to deal with covid, I wish all success.
Thank you! Mine will operate the second brand under the same roof by this month in Bali. The first is specialty in curry, the second is cinnamon rolls. God bless your place and works too!
They'll succeed but its not right that if reviews trash bad food, they can pretend to be a different restaurant. I'm hoping eventually people stop ordering from Uber Eats altogether with enough bad experiences from workers and customers. But if Amazon succeeded with this business model, Uber eats will too. We are a society of convenience on a race to the bottom.
If you didn’t know it was a problem then seeing this didn’t change that. If you’ve never felt like you’ve been screwed then what does it matter if the place you ordered from has 10 other restaurants online. If you enjoy the food that should be all that’s required of the experience.
not necessarily a problem, even if it often is. A virtual kitchen (obviously) has its benefits, and if they provide good food, what's the problem? Though I do think there should be a clear distinction. Besides that, I don't see any issue.
Apps are expensive but they allow restaurants to offer delivery without employing dedicated delivery workers. When restaurants do have in house delivery they typically have set zones so if you’re 2 miles away you can’t order delivery but with the delivery app if a driver is willing to take the order you can get it delivered to you. The old days of calling and getting a busy signal trying to order for delivery were quite annoying. How much the fees should be is up for debate. The companies fight for market share but are in the red sometimes. Personally I recommend ppl to just go to pickup or eat in the restaurant.
I think this video is great in a marketing and business point of view, but they didnt ask any worker of this industry. As a food worker (chef, line cook) that worked my ass during this pandemic, I saw way too much work being added to an already back breaking schedule. I´m in south america, Brasil, and the fact that in pre-pandemic I was working 50 to 60 hours weekly and now during pandemic I´m working about 70 hours without a raise in my pay, sucked the life out of me. Currently burned-out for being a chef of 6 operations in one single restaurant, I´ve developed a PTSD thing where I shake when I hear the printer spiting orders... so Yeah successs and not a single stepback...
My brain does not like it out of instinct. Like if it’s just major fast food chains I don’t mind, but I’m beginning to understand it. Still do not like being led to believe that 10 seemingly distinct restaurants are actually 1 place. Everything is becoming a food court, but worse
Not a foodie but agree quality has to suffer when 1 kitchen is (trying) to produce 15 distinct types of cuisine. They’d need to triple their dishwashers to avoid cross-contamination.
Maybe Roald Dahl was onto something; if my picture can be pixelated across the world to FaceTime. Maybe, just maybe, a chocolate bar can come through the tv!
Ever since I started cooking my own meals I can’t stand eating fast food or restaurant food because 98% of the time it taste like crap and makes me feel like crap… it’s sad that nowadays people can’t cook for tasty meals for themselves.
Please keep in mind most people are not physical able to prepare their own meals or simply cannot cook, you gotta look at it from all views not just you cooking at home and it’s easy for you to do so everybody should be able to, doesn’t work that way.
@@DiN0x33 almost all of the food coming from these places are highly processed and are designed to taste good through a lot of sugars, salt and don’t provide any natural fiber.. yeah i understand that people with disabilities can’t cook for themselves but that doesn’t mean they should be reliant on this unhealthy food. The world lacks community and trust to cook for each other outside of restaurants. I’ve worked for so many food companies and just because the food visually looks good doesn’t means it’s not 2 days expired, been dropped on the ground but still used, and so many other disgusting things are wrong with it.. which is why I will never work in that industry again.. but to each it’s own 🙂
The reason why companies fought so hard to prevent visual representation of salt sugar via spoon images. It's easy to manipulate the total sugars via per serving that no one reads and small fonts. If people actually saw their food being prepared they would start cooking too.
Drawback: *Quality* Idk bout anyone else but i learned how to cook during the shut down. Restaurants were loosing my business with their major lack in quality already anyway. Now i can make my own sesame chicken. I don't want a burger from a hole in the wall sushi place hiding behind a "virtual" (fake) logo.
I operate approx 25+ virtual brands on Long Island, NY . This video was spot on but the market saturation for lot of the brands are crazy. The companies providing these brands to restaurants will give a 1.5 mile radius to the same brands. If some of these brands don’t maintain consistency it will severely impact the consumers thinking of purchasing food from ghost kitchen. Local health/building departments have not caught on to the “virtual ghost kitchen” movement yet and are giving a hard time to newer ghost kitchens as contact tracing is tough if someone were to get sick. Long ways to go until this will be adapted correctly
Honestly, even brick and mortars tend to "shutdown and rebrand" every few years to get that new kid on the block bump. Club owners did it all the time. This is just all about scalability. If you can only get so much market share offering a single "brand" or experience in person, but online you get to be multiple things to multiple potential customers, that's wonderful. As long as you have the facilities, staff, capacity, it doesn't make any sense to operate under-capacity out of choice just because of how things "used to be". Adapt or die.
That's been a thing for a long long time. You can open up a company, sell electronics that you buy from a wholesaler that will put your brand logo on the device and the box and ship it direct to your customer. Boom, you're an electronics seller and you never even touch the product.
Virtual kitchen are taking off because if they get to many bad reviews, they go down and back up the next day… new name, new photos, new fake reviews! This video shows the good side for the most part. There is also the ability to sell the same food under different names and different price points. That’s why I go to the store, and no matter where I’m watching you make my food. Because I can heat stuff up at home! Lol
Pretty genius idea to be honest. I always get suspicious of restaurants with too many items on their menu, but this essentially allows kitchens to be constantly operating while still retaining the marketing of a small specialty restaurant for each of their options.
As ubereats/Doordash delivery driver the last 5months I remember I went to pickup order at this bodega. Address was correct I go in and dude would not make the food and give me order cause name was wrong we went back’n’forth for like 10mins called customer service. He was so pissed and wrong I was like dude wth 😂...he was so convinced I had wrong location when he the only bodega on the black. This video explains that concept they have so many screens and random names but all coming from one location/kitchen
They are being greedy not aiming to pay some 2 or more workers, like in a callcenter. I did THAT job for a restaurant using only Whatsapp. I took reservations and the menu. People didn't noticed I was in another province, and in MY ROOM or answering from the bathroom lol they thought i WAS at the resto. That's homeworking, and did it 1 year before the pandemic, but then in March 2020 it all went shutdown....I lost that job. I wish I could do this for someone in any part of the world, it doesn't need you to be there at the kitchen. The only thing is when the clients want to talk to you and push an incoming call! Because people were accustomed to do it classic old way.... I'll do this even if they pay me 5 USD per day.....
Shopping: online Working: online Dining: online Seeing the doctor: online Dating: online Sex: online Education: online Entertainment: online Socializing: online Meetings: online The matrix is here. Is this what we all want?
Exactly. You better be damn good at your job that you have working from home, because in a few years people will be competing for it around the world. And if they can do it cheaper than you your ass is gone
that's pretty interesting. The issue i have with this concept is 1) it misleads consumers 2) it makes competitiveness even worse and thus kickstarts a wave of more similar businesses that kill off smaller ones that can't keep up. But those smaller ones are often family owned or very niche and thus really have a different kind of value, sentimental or not, and that gets lost with these type of virtual restaurants. I think it's cool for restaurants to have these options and if this concept helps businesses stay afloat during challenging phases than it's great. But usually any concept that provides more profit is one to stay. So it feels kinda icky. Don't know how to feel about it. Mostly feeling a bit used, lmao.
This is pretty common in China. There is actually restaurant that only sells through the app. Ghost restaurant that only sell through the Internet. Gotta adapt to the future and circumstances.
And food delivery is super cheap and fast in China. It’s extremely commonplace among regular people. You’d be surprised how advanced China is in this aspect..
A part of the benefit is that the app can rebrand the restaurant, apealing to customers from different demogrphics many times over with zero added cost.
As a rural southerner from a small town I say it's not happening fast enough ...no longer having to endure my nosey arse neighbors would be a Godsend lol...
The ghost kitchen food sucks though, is what they are saying. A kitchen, btw, is definitely not a kitchen. The food they are making doesn't really matter with the kitchen though. Its' the food quality, staff quality, staff amount, little knowledge of what they are making, etc.
Is Good in a way that people can start their business from their own home Kitchen. I may do that, always wanted to create a Brazilian/Peruvian Restaurant.
I work for Deliveroo part time and when I first started, I always wondered...what place is this?! Luckily, the instructions showed where to go to pick up the food and they were from the same sets of restaurants.
I love this guys hustle. In a perfect world, I like it when a restaurant does a smaller menu, but it’s understandable for him to pivot in this way and if he’s already got the equipment, why not?
I live in the country in the blue mountains. Delivery apps don't work out here and we're stuck in lockdown. Everyone is starving here. Least my weed dealer deliveres. 🤣🤣🤣
This is also and excellent way to do market research for when business is back to normal, if that ever happens and restaurants get more walk-in business in NYC.
Rip Anthony Bourdain, ur up there in the big sizzling Skillet in the sky, may ur meat always be tender and your sauces forever be the perfect consistency. In the name of the head chef, the sous chef, and the holy line cooks, amen
It's a sad reality. I understand the business owner's perspective on the profit but the entire concept is the total opposite of what a restaurant should be.
Less jobs, more people, more people projected to live longer pass a 100, increase in prices across the board. Hmmm I hope society doesn't fall on itself.
The way you could cheat the tax system is crazy with this concept. 15 business that don't exist. 15 business you could claim to game the system. The IRS will be on this soon, if not already.
I was using door dash for a while, then one day went out to pick up my food and was shocked at how much cheaper it was. Just go pick it up, if you're in the city.
this is very common all over china. So many places set up a restaurant that is for delivery apps only. There are even giant buildings with hundreds of different delivery restaurants all within the same location.
Restaurants learned to combine their ingredients in different ways, to provide more options for their customers. Then they advertise the cuisines online through new branding. This is a win-win. It doesn't cause a staff shortage; the opposite is true. It just shifts the labor away from servers and more toward the kitchen, marketing and delivery.
this kind of situation only really started gaining more visibility because of the pandemic but I'm sure this has been on going on for awhile lol. Remember when Chuck-E-Cheese was in the news for trying to sell their pizza under a different name lol?
i have too much anxiety to talk on the phone so if i can order online, youre more than likely to get my business. mobile ordering really does change everything.
Great doc that explored this. Fyi when you were walking from fuku those pants you were wearing were awesome. Any chance someone can tell me the make or brand.
If you cant see the product you wont know if its fresh. Virtual restaurants allow the restaurants to get away by cutting corners and using subpar produce, thus increasing profits.
I recently ordered some wings one night on Uber Eats from a Wing-Stop-ish place, and decided to pick it up since I was in the area. To my surprise, the Wing-Stop-ish restaurant I thought I'd be picking it up from was a actually corner store. Funny enough, I noticed the concept a few years back when a guy ran 4 different pizza restaurants out of his home using store brought frozen pizza but this here is a different animal and the same beast (R.I.P. Kobe Bryant) This world is something else
Weird, interesting. Literally none of that here in the Santa Clarita Valley of So-California. But curious if it will start, I'll pay attention and see.
Some of the spots that are ghost kitchens are actually really good though, no lie. Also, some businesses rent units out in a single place and allow small business restaurants to run an operation with little overhead.
Yeah but consumers don't really want to pay what this stuff costs to run. Remember all these costs are being pushed on the little guy either working on the app or getting business through the app.
@@larryhughes4058 ...that one little guy, with 9 iPads... It seems to me that we all gotta start producing the calories we consume instead of just consuming the empty calories someone else provides.
@@larryhughes4058 No, yeah I get this I am just stated that I am absolutely sure if a restaurant just started to deliver they would not use these apps to order. Extra fee's and item price inflation the restaurant would probably make more money doing its own deliveries, they should just hire guys that currently make pennies on these apps. Win win consumer worker owner.
This ghost kitchen or cloud kitchen have a chance of higher profitability. As because the expenses would reduce as compared to any other conventional restaurant. This virtual kitchens could easily exclude expenses related to the space, employees (waiters) and other tangible items (table & chair).
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If one the ghost restaurant gets too many bad reviews they'll just shut it down & rename it.
Wok
Wok Wok
Wok Wok Wok
Wok Wok Wok Wok
Good point
there goes the institutional reputation
Genius innit?
@@ReeseL4D wkwkwkwkwk
"1 person with 9 iPads doing the work of 15 separate restaurant staffs" just blew my mind for a moment...
I know, right?? Somewhere at about 8:20 Reef ceo said something like 'we democratized the restaurant industry because we removed start-up capital' just let the concepts of "Democracy" and "capital" marinate for a minute... If you need to, meditate and over stand what we are hearing 🥺
15 is exaggerated number for that restaurant lol
We are putting ourselves out of work, in the name of convenience and profit.
Exaggerated, sure. But, still impressive.
Now yall know why the food is basic and mostly sucks.
I wanted to hate this so bad, but I just love the Wok Wok guy.
Same
He’s honest, no BS. Hope his business does well, very smart and hardworking.
Hate the consumerism silicone Valley bs guy, love the wok wok guy.
the wok wok guy is an honest grubber. cant hate that
Came here to say the same thing. He's transparent, adaptable, and hard working. What's not to like?
THE PROBLEM IS SOME PLACES USE FAKE PICTURES AND REVIEWS. Negative reviews and real pictures are removed 😡
Yep, what you expect vs what you get is completely different.
eventually word of mouth will triumph through collective experience sharing in social media.
@@khairulhelmihashim2510 Doesn't look that way so far. Why do apps like Yelp or reviews on Google Maps thrive then?
It happens on mail order brides as well
Definitely a lot of fake pictures for sure. Especially from bodega.
I see nothing wrong with what wok wok is doing. Everyone had to pivot during the pandemic. As long as the place is clean and the food is good I don’t see the issue.
This. As long as the standard is high, thats fine. My issue is here in the UK we have fields full of shipping containers that are behind huge metal fences, and their health ratings are super super low, but because they are virtual restaurants no one ever sees this.
@@dannywhite132 thats what reviews are for?
No one restaurant can make that many different cuisines well out of the same kitchen. It's the "buffet effect", if you will, where the quality of all the different types of food are flattened to a reliable, reproducible state.
@@chinafunnycrazyvideos4078 yeah but if the food is standard for a takeaway, no one will ever know that they have a 1 star health rating etc
@@ProzacPreacher Or, and stick with me because this is an absolutely crazy idea...what if I was able to order restaurant-quality food from a restaurant that makes one kind of food? I know, revolutionary stuff.
The Wok Wok guy is using 100% of his brain to run business ! Haha I actually feel impressed by him! Lol
Same, I never feel inspired by business people, this is a first.
Dude Got Me Starving and The Kitchen is A Good Environment
You have no idea. . As a customer who has tried 20 times to order something different but its all the same restaurant with 30 different names.
It's called scamming
Actually hes probably using 10% of his brain ir so
Ghost Kitchens are a common place soon. But then the high delivery fees and Hygiene is another issue
krplus.net/bidio/mNewn5ycc43OcqQ.
Dawg, did u see the $1.99 delivery fee?
@@nicovalenzuela4044 5.99 in my country to 10.99
Trust me they work the price into everything else how is it possible for it to be that cheap?
Uh, no...
Soon ghost kitchens will be like big warehouse like industrial kitchens like Amazon does with delivery
We will live in a soulless environment soon enough
That has already happened a long time ago, covid just pushed restaurants into doing this because they were forced to be closed and delivery was basically the only option. They already had invested into a commercial kitchen, they already had the staff so why not do this. Pre covid there were already commercial kitchens that exclusively did this.
It’s already the case. Cloud Kitchens where I live have 12+ under one roof
I think the people who order Deliveroo all the time aren’t the people who go out all the time.
In some cities they have industrial kitchens for popular restaurants just for delivery. I think it's a good idea because it lets restaurants serve customers without having to worry about delivery drivers.
Let me sum up their philosophy “make the customer feel like they have a choice”. Seems like a shady business model but seeing all the restaurants fail this past year I understand where it came from.
They technically do have a choice though? Wok Wok is offering a variety of different cuisines
tps://krplus.net/bidio/hs5peo-kkZrQYpyfttps://krplus.net/bidio/hs5peo-kkZrQYpw
It´s a great analogy on American democracy
@@dingbatdeliverer6067 that's like a lot of places, no? Walk into any fast food burger places, they're all basically cheeseburgers with different amount meat and like if it includes bacon or whatnot.
Any milk tea place, the milk tea is different flavor and different amount of sugar/ice. But basically tea + milk
TACO BELL: same food, your choice is the configuration
This is why I order from restaurants I know actually exist and have had good experiences with before. If they suddenly add 25 new restaurants to your area that’s an obvious tell.
I live in Brooklyn, there are thousands upon thousands of places I can get to deliver to me. I would never even notice 25 new restaurants, new places open and old places close in this city every single day
...right, I live in Yonkers but if I see the same place that has Mr. Beast burgers has Tyga Bites and George Lopez tacos I ain't from there.
Especially with those ridiculous names they're coming up with.
but is the food good, that's all that matters
@@silverblue73 Eat your health goodbye.
Can’t stand this. I feel like the quality of the restaurants are going down and this is probably a contributing factor. Who wants to pay nearly 30% in fees and tips for food that is lesser quality? People need to snap out of it.
I wouldn't get my hopes up.
Not from wok wok😂
Convenience, for some it's worth it.
@@-Anjel I agree. My personal view is I’d rather spend on quality than convenience. Especially considering it takes so long to get the orders many times. I’ve seen people think they hit the jackpot finding a “new” restaurant and think it’s the best most authentic thing, I doubt they all know it’s like this.
@@ktsterlin9304 Your quality time doesnt mean sh1t to others people,so convenience will win out in long run since most majority of people rather spend their 'own quality time' on something else other than wasting time dining in
Ghost kitchens already exist in Asia and the UK for 10 years
- lower costs
- don't have to deal with guests
- not dealing with weird business laws regarding placement
yeah, this has been in Australia for years. Lots of commercial kitchens that deliver with no in-dining.
The more the menu the less the quality and Taste. That's what I see in a lot of Restaurants
nice analysis 👍
@@pallabdey4438 Thanks
you most welcome 😊
Yeah thats what this sounds crappy to me.
True. I once ordered a really tasty looking steak for about 25€ (germany) and was awaiting something spectacular. (For reference, in a really good steakhouse I was at, the good stuff started at about the same price, for this delivery company that was their top of the line steak).
Finally, the doorbell rings. I get the box, put its contents onto my table and think it looks kind of funny, cut it open and.. it's dead, someone put it into a pan and then went for a break or something. Rubbish. Leather. It also tasted like it was frozen quite badly. At a later look, the restaurant offered everything - from pizza, pasta, steaks, chinese, indian.. and a lot more i forgot.
Cursed be that day I learned that the hard way. On a positive note, my cat didn't mind it.
Over the last year this has happened a lot where I live. One thing that concerns me is allergen cross-contamination.
Food poisoning very possible.
Very true and consistency
Agreed that the mix of dishes is a risk, but I would not think they tote allergen free foods and risk being shut down for crosscontamination. Those who suffer from severe food allergies know that unless it is explicitly mentioned, crosscontamination is always a risk.
Food poisoning and lack of consistency? Huge kitchens can be clean and consistent. It needs more organization, but it can be done. I guess the market and authorities will decide...
@@jesusbalderas329 That is the dumbest comment. How is that restaurant more high risk than another one in terms of food poisoning? if anything, they probably have faster food turn over rate which leads to more fresh ingredients. This is why you need to go to school, to think critically. lmfao idiot
Don't have allergies then. People with allergies should be naturally selected out, defective waste of life.
It's no different than Olive garden using a microwave or a sauce out of the bag , but the commercial is a guy in Italy cooking your food ,
RIP hospitality workers
Everyone besides cooks yeab
so true the foundation of that employment sector is being challenged
Remember "they dont want to work" signs apparently ppl are too lazy to work at restaurants
@@akiraasmr3002 No, restaurant workers are underpaid and overworked. The pandemic just made it worse.
They can do food delivery job!
Their goal isn't to help the restaurant industry, but instead to control it. The virtual brands these companies create are owned by the companies, not the restaurants. Therefore, if these companies suddenly raise their cut percentages, change their rules, or let another restaurant work under the same virtual brand, the restaurants have no choice but to accept since if they decide to opt-out, the companies can get another restaurant to work under that virtual brand and its business as usual. Restaurants lose out on the brand power, reputation, and customers they helped garner for the virtual brand since they don't legally own the brand. The companies end goal is to OWN virtual restaurants and to have an endless supply of disposable workers to cook the food. That's the only way these companies can make this business model scalable and increase their profit margins by ultimately cutting out the real restaurants altogether.
Well said
That seems true, but the wok wok guy is also hoping the customers will find the physical location. So both sides have some hope of gaining from this.
But the restaurants are making the food? And people are always going to still want to dine in too.
The question is what's the bottom line for the restaurant?
And your missing the fact that virtual companies are competing with each other too
@@davidchen5066he's also getting more customers
@@jerrygraves6531 The purpose of a virtual restaurant is that the physical restaurant no longer exists in online marketing. The terms of agreement typically prohibit the real restaurant from advertising that they are the ones creating the dishes sold by the virtual restaurant. As a result, customers are compelled to order directly from the virtual restaurant, bypassing the real restaurant. Even if the real restaurant decides to end its participation in the business agreement, they are legally prohibited from acknowledging that they created those dishes. In such cases, the virtual company will simply engage another restaurant to prepare the same dishes. So, when it comes to virtual restaurants going up against other virtual restaurants, if it ever reaches that stage, it basically means they've already won and completely kicked out real restaurants from the game.
I love the Wok Wok Boss. He’s a real hustler. I wish him well. These are difficult times.
because we're all competing for the same crumbs
Not for him. He's essentially running 10 food chains which is booming!
honestly, when it's a hard time, that does not mean monopolize, it means making sure everyone including yourself is good. This type of buzinezz putz a lot of prezzure on the cookz and delivererz for the idea the bozz came up qith. Also clearly the quality is not az good anymore. Zo really are spreading themselves thin. By other comments from people who actually order from ghost rezt. customers are disappointed and the workers are probably stressed dealing with 15 menus. There is a way to be successful without rezzing everyone out.
I work in a Thai restaurant. That kitchen looked so familiar it made me smile. We do Door Dash but only under the restaurant's name. The app definitely helped a lot during the pandemic. It's interesting to see this concept of a kitchen using more than one name. I dont think our owner would do something like it because he has worked hard to make the advance of the NAME of the restaurant. He has done a good job of listening to the complaints as well as the compliments and it is working for him. We are always busy and being a small kitchen, we would be overwhelmed by a huge increase in orders. To all the restaurants who have had to deal with covid, I wish all success.
Thank you! Mine will operate the second brand under the same roof by this month in Bali. The first is specialty in curry, the second is cinnamon rolls. God bless your place and works too!
I kinda feel like this is just a genius loophole that will eventually be regulated.
I don't see how it would be regulated. They're operating in regulated kitchens with people who are trained for food safety.
@@Sulfen I’m sure there will be a line item for universal service charge coming soon with 10 other fees.
As long as the businesses are making more money and paying more in taxes it won't. Just gonna proliferate.
They'll succeed but its not right that if reviews trash bad food, they can pretend to be a different restaurant. I'm hoping eventually people stop ordering from Uber Eats altogether with enough bad experiences from workers and customers. But if Amazon succeeded with this business model, Uber eats will too. We are a society of convenience on a race to the bottom.
There are commercial kitchen licenses, it doesn't mean they have to have sit down area.
I didn't even realize this was a problem. Good to know.
Delivery apps in general suck though. Also are expensive as hell with all the fees.
If you didn’t know it was a problem then seeing this didn’t change that. If you’ve never felt like you’ve been screwed then what does it matter if the place you ordered from has 10 other restaurants online. If you enjoy the food that should be all that’s required of the experience.
not necessarily a problem, even if it often is. A virtual kitchen (obviously) has its benefits, and if they provide good food, what's the problem? Though I do think there should be a clear distinction. Besides that, I don't see any issue.
Apps are expensive but they allow restaurants to offer delivery without employing dedicated delivery workers.
When restaurants do have in house delivery they typically have set zones so if you’re 2 miles away you can’t order delivery but with the delivery app if a driver is willing to take the order you can get it delivered to you.
The old days of calling and getting a busy signal trying to order for delivery were quite annoying. How much the fees should be is up for debate. The companies fight for market share but are in the red sometimes.
Personally I recommend ppl to just go to pickup or eat in the restaurant.
Soon every place will have their own "delivery" system. Going inside a store will be a thing of the past. No extra fees.
Stop stepping on my job lol
I think this video is great in a marketing and business point of view, but they didnt ask any worker of this industry. As a food worker (chef, line cook) that worked my ass during this pandemic, I saw way too much work being added to an already back breaking schedule. I´m in south america, Brasil, and the fact that in pre-pandemic I was working 50 to 60 hours weekly and now during pandemic I´m working about 70 hours without a raise in my pay, sucked the life out of me. Currently burned-out for being a chef of 6 operations in one single restaurant, I´ve developed a PTSD thing where I shake when I hear the printer spiting orders... so Yeah successs and not a single stepback...
True on all levels...especially the PTSD part...I literally sometimes wanna just smash the printing machine when I hear tickets come out
Just got out of the restaurant industry after 9 years. Needless to say I do not miss chits coming out of the printer.
Hope you take care of yourself, and start something of your own so that you can manage your work and private life better.
Exactly. The owner of WokWok likely couldn't find workers that were willing to accept the low pay offered. People are always looking for work.
suffering from success
My brain does not like it out of instinct. Like if it’s just major fast food chains I don’t mind, but I’m beginning to understand it. Still do not like being led to believe that 10 seemingly distinct restaurants are actually 1 place. Everything is becoming a food court, but worse
Not a foodie but agree quality has to suffer when 1 kitchen is (trying) to produce 15 distinct types of cuisine. They’d need to triple their dishwashers to avoid cross-contamination.
@@gr8dvd Not just that, but any given cook is only going to be good at a few specific dishes. Everything else is going to suck.
this is why I enjoy going to a place in person even if its take out.
"What will you be having tonight, sir?"
"One holographic meatloaf please..."
Maybe Roald Dahl was onto something; if my picture can be pixelated across the world to FaceTime. Maybe, just maybe, a chocolate bar can come through the tv!
"Turning food into feed." Now that is a quote!
What does this mean?
@@NeelSandellISAWESOME Downgrading meals to garbage you eat to survive, like what they give farm animals.
@@bksst Thank you.
What to write in a gravestone
Turning people into cows!
Denny’s does the same thing, the burger den and the meltdown are just Denny’s gross food rebranded
Yup
Can't blame Dennys, Hooters, and Applebees for tricking people into paying premium for their food. Got to respect the hustle.
Denny's is the worst. They were the first place I ever ordered from Uber eats back in 2016. Steak tasted like rubber.
@@Dave.... imagine ordering steak from a Denny’s and expecting it to be good 🤣🤣🤣
You should know better, Denny's is for people who drive trucks and need a place that's open 247.
Ever since I started cooking my own meals I can’t stand eating fast food or restaurant food because 98% of the time it taste like crap and makes me feel like crap… it’s sad that nowadays people can’t cook for tasty meals for themselves.
Please keep in mind most people are not physical able to prepare their own meals or simply cannot cook, you gotta look at it from all views not just you cooking at home and it’s easy for you to do so everybody should be able to, doesn’t work that way.
I agree with you. 🌱🌱🌱
@@DiN0x33 almost all of the food coming from these places are highly processed and are designed to taste good through a lot of sugars, salt and don’t provide any natural fiber.. yeah i understand that people with disabilities can’t cook for themselves but that doesn’t mean they should be reliant on this unhealthy food. The world lacks community and trust to cook for each other outside of restaurants. I’ve worked for so many food companies and just because the food visually looks good doesn’t means it’s not 2 days expired, been dropped on the ground but still used, and so many other disgusting things are wrong with it.. which is why I will never work in that industry again.. but to each it’s own 🙂
The reason why companies fought so hard to prevent visual representation of salt sugar via spoon images. It's easy to manipulate the total sugars via per serving that no one reads and small fonts. If people actually saw their food being prepared they would start cooking too.
@@DiN0x33 garbage, being able to cook a decent nutritious meal is a very basic life skill.
Drawback: *Quality*
Idk bout anyone else but i learned how to cook during the shut down. Restaurants were loosing my business with their major lack in quality already anyway. Now i can make my own sesame chicken. I don't want a burger from a hole in the wall sushi place hiding behind a "virtual" (fake) logo.
This is not an industry. It's a marketing tactic.
I operate approx 25+ virtual brands on Long Island, NY . This video was spot on but the market saturation for lot of the brands are crazy. The companies providing these brands to restaurants will give a 1.5 mile radius to the same brands. If some of these brands don’t maintain consistency it will severely impact the consumers thinking of purchasing food from ghost kitchen. Local health/building departments have not caught on to the “virtual ghost kitchen” movement yet and are giving a hard time to newer ghost kitchens as contact tracing is tough if someone were to get sick. Long ways to go until this will be adapted correctly
Honestly, even brick and mortars tend to "shutdown and rebrand" every few years to get that new kid on the block bump. Club owners did it all the time.
This is just all about scalability. If you can only get so much market share offering a single "brand" or experience in person, but online you get to be multiple things to multiple potential customers, that's wonderful. As long as you have the facilities, staff, capacity, it doesn't make any sense to operate under-capacity out of choice just because of how things "used to be".
Adapt or die.
🍷👍
I imagine this turning out like cheap chinese electronics sold with different names for the same product.
Agreed
Don't give them any ideas ;D
That's been a thing for a long long time.
You can open up a company, sell electronics that you buy from a wholesaler that will put your brand logo on the device and the box and ship it direct to your customer. Boom, you're an electronics seller and you never even touch the product.
Sears did that decades ago.
Perfect analogy.
The Wok Woks work ethics is epicable. Talk about rolling with the punches. He is brilliant for doing this. Wow!
Virtual kitchen are taking off because if they get to many bad reviews, they go down and back up the next day… new name, new photos, new fake reviews! This video shows the good side for the most part. There is also the ability to sell the same food under different names and different price points. That’s why I go to the store, and no matter where I’m watching you make my food. Because I can heat stuff up at home! Lol
That’s why recognition of chefs per say is important I feel like
You are so hyperbolic. Pros still outweight cons
Pretty genius idea to be honest. I always get suspicious of restaurants with too many items on their menu, but this essentially allows kitchens to be constantly operating while still retaining the marketing of a small specialty restaurant for each of their options.
Great interviewer! Down to Earth and personable, please bring him back for more segments!
As ubereats/Doordash delivery driver the last 5months I remember I went to pickup order at this bodega. Address was correct I go in and dude would not make the food and give me order cause name was wrong we went back’n’forth for like 10mins called customer service. He was so pissed and wrong I was like dude wth 😂...he was so convinced I had wrong location when he the only bodega on the black. This video explains that concept they have so many screens and random names but all coming from one location/kitchen
They are being greedy not aiming to pay some 2 or more workers, like in a callcenter.
I did THAT job for a restaurant using only Whatsapp.
I took reservations and the menu. People didn't noticed I was in another province, and in MY ROOM or answering from the bathroom lol
they thought i WAS at the resto. That's homeworking, and did it 1 year before the pandemic, but then in March 2020 it all went shutdown....I lost that job.
I wish I could do this for someone in any part of the world, it doesn't need you to be there at the kitchen. The only thing is when the clients want to talk to you and push an incoming call! Because people were accustomed to do it classic old way....
I'll do this even if they pay me 5 USD per day.....
Shopping: online
Working: online
Dining: online
Seeing the doctor: online
Dating: online
Sex: online
Education: online
Entertainment: online
Socializing: online
Meetings: online
The matrix is here.
Is this what we all want?
My hands are tired
Exactly. You better be damn good at your job that you have working from home, because in a few years people will be competing for it around the world. And if they can do it cheaper than you your ass is gone
It's already happening
You can buy drugs online. FedEx is the largest distributor of illegal drugs.
Hell No! But… I guess we must adapt
I love that you covered this! I noticed a restaurant in my area doing the same thing during the pandemic. So smart!
That wok wok guy sounds like he’s from my home back in Malaysia…keep hustlin my guy
yep, he's either Malaysian or Singaporean. either way, love to see it.
that's pretty interesting. The issue i have with this concept is 1) it misleads consumers 2) it makes competitiveness even worse and thus kickstarts a wave of more similar businesses that kill off smaller ones that can't keep up. But those smaller ones are often family owned or very niche and thus really have a different kind of value, sentimental or not, and that gets lost with these type of virtual restaurants.
I think it's cool for restaurants to have these options and if this concept helps businesses stay afloat during challenging phases than it's great. But usually any concept that provides more profit is one to stay. So it feels kinda icky. Don't know how to feel about it. Mostly feeling a bit used, lmao.
This is pretty common in China. There is actually restaurant that only sells through the app. Ghost restaurant that only sell through the Internet. Gotta adapt to the future and circumstances.
Yeah I'd be a little more concerned about modeling things after China.
@@RickR69 China is just ahead of us in every way
And food delivery is super cheap and fast in China. It’s extremely commonplace among regular people. You’d be surprised how advanced China is in this aspect..
@@onlyfacts4999 and the quality is always good...
@@WorshipDaKing good enough for Apple
A part of the benefit is that the app can rebrand the restaurant, apealing to customers from different demogrphics many times over with zero added cost.
Vice content is getting good again. Whatever you are doing please keep it up.
With every recession we’re living in a world that gets more and more impersonal.
As a rural southerner from a small town I say it's not happening fast enough ...no longer having to endure my nosey arse neighbors would be a Godsend lol...
@Whia Didju incel
capitalism will not love you back and is only a race to the bottom
This feels illegal but is completely legal
Being a doordasher it's really interesting to know exactly why the same restaurant goes under 4 or 5 differnt names. It's just a new marketing arena
krplus.net/bidio/mNewn5ycc43OcqQ.
What part of it feels illegal? (Genuine curiosity)
It's a fraud eat fraud world now buddy! Everything around you is a SCAM of some sort
@@AdamEdwardsDBZ it feels like a undercover drug racket where you can't let people find the truth behind the establishment.
mind blowing and innovative!! love the concept
Among the best examples of learning to adapt with your surroundings to come out ahead during a crisis like the pandemic. Props
Honestly props to these guys making it work. If you’re doing people good and treating your staff well then more power too ya
There's nothing wrong with this as long as the food is good and as-advertised. A kitchen is a kitchen.
The ghost kitchen food sucks though, is what they are saying. A kitchen, btw, is definitely not a kitchen. The food they are making doesn't really matter with the kitchen though. Its' the food quality, staff quality, staff amount, little knowledge of what they are making, etc.
Nice video, I like your style. Good job and thank you for doing this.
Great video thanks for the insights.
I used to tell servers i got mad at when working in kitchens that i cant wait til they are replaced by an iPad
Perhaps you should be replaced lmao
Is Good in a way that people can start their business from their own home Kitchen. I may do that, always wanted to create a Brazilian/Peruvian Restaurant.
Yeah
I work for Deliveroo part time and when I first started, I always wondered...what place is this?! Luckily, the instructions showed where to go to pick up the food and they were from the same sets of restaurants.
I love this guys hustle. In a perfect world, I like it when a restaurant does a smaller menu, but it’s understandable for him to pivot in this way and if he’s already got the equipment, why not?
McDonald’s gonna be like, “the fun bun” and “the chicken kitchen”
The term "ghost kitchen" sounds so much more interesting than the concept actually is.
I live in the country in the blue mountains. Delivery apps don't work out here and we're stuck in lockdown. Everyone is starving here.
Least my weed dealer deliveres.
🤣🤣🤣
My ass your starving, 3 week lockdown and you are upset. Stay in the mountains
@@stevengomez4897 He doesn't seem too upset, I mean what with the laughing emojis and all, just an observation
Tell your plug to start making some chicken wings to sell along with the bud haha
There is something called “cooking”. Put the bong down and google it.
Are you in South Africa?
This is also and excellent way to do market research for when business is back to normal, if that ever happens and restaurants get more walk-in business in NYC.
They are like private chefs cooking exactly what you want to eat so it's nothing wrong with it.
Anthony Bourdain would be so sad
Rip Anthony Bourdain, ur up there in the big sizzling Skillet in the sky, may ur meat always be tender and your sauces forever be the perfect consistency. In the name of the head chef, the sous chef, and the holy line cooks, amen
Pretty sure he was a bit sad regardless..
Amazing concept!!
Awesome video! Keep going!!!!!🤙🏽
It's a sad reality. I understand the business owner's perspective on the profit but the entire concept is the total opposite of what a restaurant should be.
This new generation is changing a lot of things for the worse lol
Illusion of choice
Less jobs, more people, more people projected to live longer pass a 100, increase in prices across the board. Hmmm I hope society doesn't fall on itself.
Value produced is still increasing. The real problem is inequality.
it's almost as though you should die when you run out of money in America
Great piece! Lets see more reports from this guy!
A lot of restaurants are already on this wave , but me as a cook I love this. Just making to go orders would be great !
The way you could cheat the tax system is crazy with this concept. 15 business that don't exist. 15 business you could claim to game the system. The IRS will be on this soon, if not already.
Wouldn't they all fall under the "parent" business company?
One llc -15 dbas
Definitely legal- Biz 101
Reef Kitchens is literally a horrible company. They will take over 9 months to pay their vendors
Great reporting.
Brilliant concept
I was using door dash for a while, then one day went out to pick up my food and was shocked at how much cheaper it was. Just go pick it up, if you're in the city.
You can tell the wok wok guy has a good heart
Mad respect for the savvy restaurant owner making it work 👏
Very informative. I really like the owner. Honest and no frills about him.
“ I don’t see a draw back” yeah, nothing is ever just good bub
They should at least be transparent about who they are
Totally fascinating.
this is very common all over china. So many places set up a restaurant that is for delivery apps only. There are even giant buildings with hundreds of different delivery restaurants all within the same location.
Restaurants learned to combine their ingredients in different ways, to provide more options for their customers. Then they advertise the cuisines online through new branding. This is a win-win. It doesn't cause a staff shortage; the opposite is true. It just shifts the labor away from servers and more toward the kitchen, marketing and delivery.
this kind of situation only really started gaining more visibility because of the pandemic but I'm sure this has been on going on for awhile lol.
Remember when Chuck-E-Cheese was in the news for trying to sell their pizza under a different name lol?
Very smart.. Good to see some people have learned to overcome the challenges presented to them.
I saw outback doing a mini outback menu as well. But it was so unique it seemed something new in and of itself
So basically like how Amazon is filled up with Ali Baba junk, but with restaurants.
As long as these ghost kitties are sanitary, ill continue to buy from them.
i have too much anxiety to talk on the phone so if i can order online, youre more than likely to get my business. mobile ordering really does change everything.
Great doc that explored this. Fyi when you were walking from fuku those pants you were wearing were awesome. Any chance someone can tell me the make or brand.
If you cant see the product you wont know if its fresh. Virtual restaurants allow the restaurants to get away by cutting corners and using subpar produce, thus increasing profits.
I recently ordered some wings one night on Uber Eats from a Wing-Stop-ish place, and decided to pick it up since I was in the area. To my surprise, the Wing-Stop-ish restaurant I thought I'd be picking it up from was a actually corner store.
Funny enough, I noticed the concept a few years back when a guy ran 4 different pizza restaurants out of his home using store brought frozen pizza but this here is a different animal and the same beast (R.I.P. Kobe Bryant)
This world is something else
Weird, interesting. Literally none of that here in the Santa Clarita Valley of So-California. But curious if it will start, I'll pay attention and see.
my work was very busy during covid, operated similar to wok wok
I would never use a thrid party service to order my food
It's called a takeaway 🤦♂️
Props to being so transparent tbf
Some of the spots that are ghost kitchens are actually really good though, no lie. Also, some businesses rent units out in a single place and allow small business restaurants to run an operation with little overhead.
The problem is most of the restaurants don't deliver themselves
True. The food that comes is trash.
Yeah but consumers don't really want to pay what this stuff costs to run. Remember all these costs are being pushed on the little guy either working on the app or getting business through the app.
@@larryhughes4058 ...that one little guy, with 9 iPads...
It seems to me that we all gotta start producing the calories we consume instead of just consuming the empty calories someone else provides.
@@larryhughes4058 No, yeah I get this I am just stated that I am absolutely sure if a restaurant just started to deliver they would not use these apps to order. Extra fee's and item price inflation the restaurant would probably make more money doing its own deliveries, they should just hire guys that currently make pennies on these apps. Win win consumer worker owner.
This ghost kitchen or cloud kitchen have a chance of higher profitability. As because the expenses would reduce as compared to any other conventional restaurant. This virtual kitchens could easily exclude expenses related to the space, employees (waiters) and other tangible items (table & chair).
just like canned/packaged food we buy from grocery stores, except it's cooked and delivered to your doorstep.
Love it. Really awesome stuff.
wok wok looks delish... will try if i ever get to visit nyc!!!