A ghost kitchen is a kitchen that cooks only for delivery and collection. It has no dining room and often no shop front: customers find it on a delivery app or a website, and the food leaves by rider. You will also see it called a dark kitchen, a cloud kitchen or a delivery-only kitchen.
The main types
- A restaurant's own extra brand. An existing restaurant uses spare kitchen time to cook a second menu under a different name, sold only on delivery. A curry house might run a burger brand from the same kitchen on weeknights.
- A delivery-only site. A business rents a small kitchen, often in a unit away from the high street, and sells only through delivery apps and its own website.
- A shared kitchen. Several brands rent stations in one large site, sharing the building and sometimes the equipment.
Why restaurants try them
- Lower rent. A kitchen unit costs far less than a high-street dining room.
- No front of house. No waiting staff, no tables to turn.
- Quick to test an idea. A new brand can start on an existing menu's ingredients and stop if it doesn't sell.
- Reach. A kitchen can serve a wider area than walk-in customers would come from.
The catches
- Delivery app commission. Most orders come through apps that take a share of each order, which squeezes margins on cheaper food.
- No passing trade. Without a shop front, every customer comes through an app ranking or your own marketing.
- Food that travels. Some dishes go soggy or cold in twenty minutes. Menus need testing in the box, not on the plate.
- Several tablets. Running more than one brand on more than one app can mean a counter full of tablets, each beeping at once.
Rules to check in the UK
A ghost kitchen is a food business like any other:
- Register with your local council at least 28 days before you start trading, and expect a food hygiene inspection and rating.
- Check planning permission with the council before using a unit as a kitchen, especially for extraction and late-night deliveries.
- Give allergen information for every dish. Delivery customers must be able to get it before they order and when the food arrives.
- Each brand still needs a clear business name and address behind it, so customers and inspectors know who cooked the food.
Rules change, so confirm the details with your council's environmental health team.
Running the orders
The kitchen is where a ghost kitchen succeeds or fails. The things that help most:
- One screen for every order. Orders from every app and your own website on one kitchen display, rather than retyping them from separate tablets.
- Your own ordering page alongside the apps, so regulars can order without the commission.
- Sold-out items hidden quickly, everywhere at once.
- Packaging and labels checked at the pass, especially allergens.
Where Café QR fits
Café QR gives you your own online ordering page for collection and delivery, with UK postcode delivery zones and no commission per order, and a kitchen display system that shows each order as it arrives. Delivery-app orders can join them on the same screen through Deliverect or Otter, with your own account with them. Café QR does not list you on a delivery marketplace and has no live rider tracking, so you still use the apps or your own drivers for that.