Some eagle-eyed Deliveroo users have been spotting a few 'virtual restaurants' popping up on our online food delivery services over the past few year.
With the pandemic leaving many of us at home for long periods of times, many residents have been turning to services such as Deliveroo, Just Eat, UberEats and MK's very own MK Eats for their meals.
The pandemic has also led to many new takeaways and restaurants appearing on the apps, adjusting to consumer trends.
MKFM has been looking into some of these new restaurants that have appeared on Deliveroo and following some insight from listeners and research, some of these brands are coming straight from the kitchens of well-known restaurants.
When looking into these 'virtual brands', despite most of them working from the same kitchen as known popular chains, some of them serve completely different foods and menus. Others use options from their original menus to create a more niche brand.
A spokesperson for Deliveroo explained: "Virtual restaurants mean more great food for our customers. By creating new brands out of existing kitchens, restaurants can really boost their business and try new ideas without the need for expensive new premises. This concept leads to better choice for customers and stronger business growth for our partners."
Deliveroo has said that its virtual restaurants are one of the most successful innovations in the restaurant sector and are a growing part of the business. The creation of these virtual brands allows restaurants to increase revenue with bespoke menus as well as cut down on food wastage.
One of the most obvious virtual brands we came across was Fridays. This virtual brand uses the official TGI Fridays menu names and photos, just a slightly different name. There is also 'Mac Shack by Bella Italia', there's no denying where that one comes from.
However, there are many that are easy to not notice such as 'Bang Bang Burrito' and 'Blazing Bird', coming from the Las Iguanas kitchen. Both of these virtual stores offer a more direct menu with the names giving away what they offer.
Then there's 'What’s Your Katsu' and 'MiMi's Thai Kitchen', these ones were a bit harder to spot but upon research, these brands come from the Banana Tree kitchen.
Banana Tree explained to MKFM: "At Banana Tree, we specialise in Pan Asian cuisine, and since the pandemic we have been testing a few new concepts as Virtual Brands through Deliveroo. We therefore created 2 virtual brands, What’s Your Katsu and Mimi’s Thai Kitchen, which are available exclusively through Deliveroo, with the dishes prepared by our Chefs at our Milton Keynes restaurant. Those brands have been well received and we hope to continue innovating with our new ideas and concepts."
'Dynamite Chick', based at the Franzos kitchen, offers a menu of chicken wings and '12th Street Burgers & Shakes', also based at Franzo's, offers a huge menu with different types of burgers.
Deliveroo also uses its data to identify local food trends and cuisine demand to help restaurants create menus and pricing which will appeal to local audiences.
MKFM has contacted the restaurants for some information.
If you know of any other restaurants operating a 'virtual restaurant', contact us at info@mkfm.com or message us on Facebook.
