How Ghost Kitchens Have Saved Restaurants

You’ve probably heard the term ‘ghost kitchen’ throughout the last year of the pandemic, or even seen just how dramatically these kitchens have helped to save the industry over this time through delivery-only services. Since restaurants were told to close their doors and the first lockdown began back in March 2020, ghost kitchens grew in popularity and enabled many restaurants to continue their service in a COVID-safe manner. 

In simple terms, ghost kitchens are restaurants without the usual dining options you’d expect. They work through a delivery-only service, meaning customers can order what they want and have it delivered via takeaway services such as UberEats and Deliveroo. Not only have ghost kitchens kept businesses afloat during the past year of uncertainty, but they have also helped many households get restaurant quality food in the comfort of their own homes and support their favourite restaurants in the process.

Ghost kitchens have provided a lifeline for businesses

Some restaurants simply could not afford to keep running due to the effects of the pandemic, but for those who have managed to stay afloat, ghost kitchens have been a much needed lifeline to enable takeaway services to continue and keep money coming in. Many restaurants that didn’t offer takeaway services normally made the switch and sought the help of ghost kitchens to save their businesses.

However, choosing ghost kitchens were seen to cause some issues for restaurants:

– Interaction between restaurant and customer could be lost due to ghost kitchens operating solely through online takeaway services.

– Restaurants needed to keep an eye on their online reputation. Bad reviews can have a significant impact, potentially turning new customers and loyal customers elsewhere.

– Delivery services may provide much different customer service to what a restaurant would usually provide, meaning there is a risk of customers not getting the experience they would expect from a restaurant on a normal day.

However, with the pandemic leaving some restaurants with little choice, they’ve had to take the plunge and deal with what comes their way. In the bigger picture, ghost kitchens are giving restaurants a chance to keep running when times are tough, the majority of which has proven to be successful. 

They’ve helped to lower operating costs

Without having a physical restaurant to run, many restaurants have turned to ghost kitchens to not only continue to offer their services to loyal customers, but to also save money on operating costs. As well as this, new menus and food offerings can be changed with ease by updating information on their chosen delivery sites.

They’ve allowed restaurants to meet/exceed online demand

With a high proportion of diners using take away apps to order food, many restaurants have seen an increase in orders and exceeded usual demand for their meal offerings. Many have thrived online, which will in turn make their move back to a physical restaurant much smoother if they haven’t haven’t already done so.

Allow Swift to help you create the ultimate commercial kitchen

Whether you run a ghost kitchen or you’re sprucing up your restaurant kitchen upon reopening, we’re the team to get your space where you want it to be. We have four decades of experience in commercial kitchen design and installation and we love nothing more than helping kitchens get the best equipment to provide an unrivalled experience for their customers.

Find out more on our website or feel free to book an appointment by calling the Swift team on 0121 505 4001.