How DoorDash Fools Vegetarians

I was surprised to discover some unethical tactics used on DoorDash to attract vegetarians. Recently, I looked up a vegan place on DoorDash, and a new vegan Mediterranean restaurant showed up. I was excited—a new vegan place in the neighborhood that wasn’t Indian. It was very pricey. $15 for a falafel wrap. $9 for Baklava. But the food looked amazing in the images, and it was a 100% vegan menu, and the name of the restaurant had the word “vegan” on it. I ordered a couple of falafel wraps and some baklava and decided to do take-out instead of delivery.

When I drove to the location, I couldn’t find the place—there was a different Mediterranean restaurant (with a completely different name) and it did not look anywhere as upscale as was portrayed on DoorDash. I went into the restaurant to find out more, and the first thing I saw was that it is far from being vegan or vegetarian. I asked the owner if this is the same “vegan” place that’s listed on DoorDash. He said yup. I asked him why it’s listed with a different name, and why it says vegan in the name? He said he had nothing to do with it and that it was all DoorDash’s doing. I said well but that’s not fair—I ordered thinking that it was a pure vegan place. He insisted that he had nothing to do with it and that I would have to call DoorDash to find out more.

A fake restaurant was created on DoorDash—posing as vegan and upscale. Not only is this place not vegan, but it’s anything but upscale. The prices listed on the real menu were much less than what I paid on DoorDash—for the same items.

This might not be a big deal to some of you. After all, the food I ordered was still vegetarian, right? But to me, it is. When I go to a restaurant I like to check with the waiter if my food is cooked in vegetable oil, or whether it’s cooked in the same oil as the meat. It’s not easy to do this when ordering online, so I usually only order only from 100% vegetarian restaurants. That way, I don’t have to worry about whether my food was cooked in animal fat, or has oyster or fish sauce, or shrimp powder, or whatever in it. I’m sure that many vegetarians can relate. And anyway, why would a fake listing be created, unless it’s with the intention of luring unsuspecting vegetarians?

I can empathize with the challenges that restaurants are facing this year. Whether they are involved in this scam or not, I have no idea. But for the benefit of the doubt, I haven’t mentioned the restaurant’s name here. If you’re a vegetarian in the Bay Area and want to know which restaurant this is, feel free to reach out to me privately.

(Note: I haven’t verified with DoorDash if the fake listing was created by them or by the restaurant. What I do know is that the same listing is on GrubHub as well.)

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