Investigating 'Ghost Restaurants' on Seamless and GrubHub

Here's a common scenario: It's getting close to suppertime. After a long day of sports and other after-school activities, the kids are clamoring for something to eat. And you're pretty hungry yourself. But the fridge is empty, and there's no time to whip something up anyway.

So you turn to Seamless, or maybe GrubHub, two popular online sites that connect hungry diners with local takeout. But here's the thing: you may not be told where the food is actually being prepared.

A new report from our partners NBC 4 New York reveals that these delivery services are doing business with so-called "ghost restaurants," many of them with fake addresses and no permits. They might seem to be restaurants — but are really unregulated people cooking in their own homes.

Reporter Chris Glorioso, a reporter with NBC 4 and a member of their Emmy-winning I-Team investigative unit, looked into the situation, and spoke with the companies and city officials. 

"There are two issues," he said. "One is false advertising, and the other is the question of, if a consumer cannot trace back the origin of his or her food, we've got a problem, because people do occasionally get sick, people do need to find out if there are sort of larger public health questions involved with some of these kitchens."

In this interview, WNYC's Jami Floyd talks with Glorioso about the investigation, and what he found.