Dark Kitchen Glossary

Aggregators – Most dark kitchen collaborate with more than a single DSP. Sometimes it is inconvenient to handle multiple DSP screens. DSP Aggregators are software companies that aggregate all DSP orders in a single place.

Back Of House – BOH – The restaurants operations which is not exposed to sitting customer. Dark Kitchens usually consist only of BOH. The opposite of Front Of House – FOH – which includes the seating area, waiters and bar.

Cloud Kitchen – Synonym for Dark Kitchen, Ghost Kitchen.

Dark Kitchen – a restaurant which has no seating place and operates in general for the benefit of delivery or pickup orders only. Also called Ghost Kitchen.

Deliveroo – Delivery service provider based in London that operates in multiple countries outside USA.

DSP – Delivery Service Providers – External companies that enable the deliveries mostly for restaurants and Dark Kitchens. The DSPs usually generate the demand for the order as well as the delivery. They typically charge between 15-30% of the order value. There are hundreds of DSPs around the world where some of the notable ones are DoorDash, GrubHub, Uber Eats, Deliveroo & Postmates.

Ghost Kitchen – Similar term to Dark Kitchen, Cloud Kitchen.

Virtual Restaurant – Since dark kitchens do not operate a physical front their brand and reputation is usually managed online within their own website or inside other websites that generate demand for the dark kitchens. Those digital locations are the virtual restaurant in front of the actual physical location. In front of a dark kitchen could be multiple Virtual restaurant sometimes in the same vertical and sometimes in different ones.