Guides
Getting ghost kitchen products right the first time
Four criteria to score seventeen named ghost kitchen products and formats: transit tolerance, shared prep, peak fit, ticket, with a matrix for your own kitchen.
What to take away
- This page ranks nothing, because no ranking of ghost kitchen products survives contact with a particular kitchen, radius, and platform. It lays out seventeen named formats and the four criteria that decide which of them work for you.
- Transit tolerance is the first filtera format whose food does not arrive well is out regardless of demand.
- Shared prep and peak fit are what decide whether a format adds revenue or just adds load.
- Score each format on your own numbers using the matrix below; the matrix is the deliverable.
- Test a format for two weeks on one platform before you promote it.
Customers on a delivery app compare listings, not formats. Operators compare the format underneath: a single branded burger, a family bundle, a lunch drop, a late-night menu. Each one makes its own demands on the pass, the fryers, and the tablets.
The seventeen rows below name the brands delivery-only kitchens copy most often, from MrBeast Burger to Wow Bao's licensed bao program. They are not ranked. The order changes with each kitchen's binding constraint, and any page that ranked them would be describing somebody else's constraint.
The four criteria
- Transit tolerance. Does the food arrive as designed after the longest trip in the radius, sealed, in the container you can afford?
- Shared prep. What share of the format's prep list already exists in the kitchen?
- Peak fit. Does the format sell into hours the kitchen has free, or into the hour that is already full?
- Ticket and contribution. After the platform's commission comes off gross under its current terms, and after food, packaging, and packing minutes, what is left per order and per minute of peak?
Score each from 1 (poor) to 5 (strong) from your own test data. A format with a 1 on transit is out; among the rest, the sum ranks them for your kitchen.
Four criteria to score 1-5
- Transit tolerancearrives as designed
- Shared prepshare already in kitchen
- Peak fitsells into free hours
- Ticket and contribution per order
- Ticket and contribution per peak minute
- Score 1 poor to 5 strong
- Any 1 on transit is out
Seventeen named ghost kitchen formats
| Named format | Transit | Shared prep | Peak fit | Ticket | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MrBeast Burger (Virtual Dining Concepts), single virtual brand | Varies by dish | Full | Dinner peak | Mid | The baseline; everything else is measured against it. Launched in November 2020 with about 300 host kitchens, selling smashed burgers, fries, and cookies cooked to a licensed spec. MrBeast sued the operator in 2023 over food quality and control of the brand. |
| It's Just Wings (Brinker International), multibrand kitchen | Same as its brands | High if designed so | Fills idle hours | Sum of brands | Tablet load at peak is the hidden cost. Cooked on the existing fryers at Chili's and Maggiano's, so no new buildout; wing combos typically run $10 to $14. |
| Salted, delivery-only lunch menu | Usually good, shorter dishes | Medium | Weekday midday | Low to mid | Office density in the radius decides it. Founded in Los Angeles in 2016; bowls and salads sold only through delivery, from a short menu in small kitchens. |
| Guy Fieri's Flavortown Kitchen (Virtual Dining Concepts), delivery-only dinner menu | Varies | Full | The busiest hour | Mid to high | Competes with your own other brands. Launched in January 2021 across roughly 300 host kitchens with burgers, chicken, and pasta. |
| Panda Express Family Feast, family meal bundle | Uneven cooling in volume | High | Weeknight dinner | High | Needs bag space and hot-holding. A bundle sized for four to six; expect about $35 to $45 in most markets as of 2026. |
| ezCater, corporate catering drop | Long staging | Medium | Weekday lunch | High | Ask the health authority about staging and labeling. Restaurants list office catering menus; ezCater collects the order and pays the restaurant after a commission. |
| Insomnia Cookies, late-night menu | Forgiving foods only | Medium | After midnight | Mid | Staffing is the constraint. Founded in 2003 near the University of Pennsylvania; stores deliver warm cookies into the early hours. |
| Sweetgreen, health-positioned brand | Salads travel well, dressings do not | Low unless designed | Lunch and early dinner | Mid | Claims about health are advertising claims. Bowls typically run $12 to $17 as of 2026; dressings go on the side because they wilt greens in transit. |
| Crumbl, dessert brand | Melting and crushing | Low | Rides on other orders | Low | Best as an add-on, not a listing. A rotating weekly menu of six cookies, typically $4 to $6 each as of 2026. |
| Dunkin', beverage brand | Leaks and ice | Low | Add-on | Low | Cold chain in a hot bag. Cold drinks are a large share of sales, a medium iced coffee typically runs $3 to $5 as of 2026, and lids leak under a stacked bag. |
| Sweetgreen Outpost, retail pickup shelf | None, customer collects | Varies | Off-peak | Varies | Different permit questions; ask first. Launched in 2018; branded shelves sit in office buildings and hospitals, and customers collect pre-ordered food at a set time. |
| Danny Trejo's Tacos (Virtual Dining Concepts), creator collaboration brand | Same as the dish | Varies | Launch spike, then decay | Mid | Endorsements must disclose the relationship. Launched in 2020; the taco and burrito menu runs in host kitchens and sales fall away after the launch press. |
| Franklin Junction host kitchen, restaurant overflow kitchen | The host's food | The host's prep | Host's peak | Host's ticket | You are the capacity, not the brand. Started in 2018 to match restaurant brands with hosts that have spare capacity; hosts cook to licensed specs and take a share of each order. |
| Chick-fil-A's Little Blue Menu, menu testing pilot | Deliberately varied | Low | Off-peak only | Any | A format for learning, not earning. Opened in Nashville in 2023 and later in Georgia; the delivery-only kitchen tests wings, burgers, and items that are not on the standard menu. |
| Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, seasonal virtual brand | Depends on the season's food | Medium | Short window | Mid | Retire it on a date set in advance. Back every fall since 2003, typically $5 to $7 for a grande as of 2026, and it leaves the menu when the winter drinks arrive. |
| REEF Kitchens, shared production service | Bulk, not portions | High | Off-peak | Wholesale | Different customer, different rules. Founded in 2013; converts parking lots and other real estate into delivery-only hubs where brands rent shared production space. |
| Wow Bao's dark kitchen license, franchise virtual brand | Set by the franchisor | Set by the franchisor | Set by the franchisor | Set by the agreement | Read the agreement's commission and fee terms first. Founded in Chicago in 2003; hosts license the bao and potsticker menu, buy frozen product, and steam to order. |
Fill the four score columns from your own kitchen: your dishes, your containers, your radius, your platform's terms. The words in the table are starting hypotheses, not results.
Seventeen formats scored side by side
Named format
- MrBeast Burger
- Varies
- It's Just Wings
- Same as brands
- Salted
- Usually good
- Flavortown Kitchen
- Varies
- Panda Express Family Feast
- Uneven cooling
Transit
- MrBeast Burger
- Full
- It's Just Wings
- High
- Salted
- Medium
- Flavortown Kitchen
- Full
- Panda Express Family Feast
- High
Shared prep
- MrBeast Burger
- Dinner peak
- It's Just Wings
- Idle hours
- Salted
- Weekday midday
- Flavortown Kitchen
- Busiest hour
- Panda Express Family Feast
- Weeknight dinner
Peak fit
- MrBeast Burger
- It's Just Wings
- Salted
- Flavortown Kitchen
- Panda Express Family Feast
What the scores cannot tell you
The matrix does not know your rating trend. A format that scores well on paper but adds two late orders an hour at peak lowers the rating on every listing you run. Your listing is your storefront.
The products and packages guide explains why one binding constraint, usually the pass or the tablets, decides which format is safe to add. Run any format two weeks on one platform, then read refunds and ratings before promoting it.
Where the formats interact
- Add-ons such as Crumbl cookies and Dunkin' iced drinks ride on orders that already exist. They raise the ticket without adding a trip, and the profitability sub-article shows why contribution per packing minute favors them.
- Lunch and late-night formats, Salted and Insomnia Cookies among them, fill hours a dinner brand leaves empty, which is the honest reason to run more than one brand. The expansion and market guide covers when adding a format is the right next step versus widening the radius or adding a platform.
- Bundles and drops, from the Panda Express Family Feast to an ezCater office order, change packaging. The packaging guide covers containers for volume, and the markets article covers which radius types carry the office density that a lunch drop needs.
Rules that apply to formats, not dishes
- Any claim in a listing, including "healthy", "fresh", or a creator's endorsement, is an advertising claim. The Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance for small business requires claims to be truthful and substantiated and endorsements to disclose material connections.
- Formats that stage food, sell at retail, or produce in bulk raise different questions with the health authority. Find yours through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's directory of state retail food codes and agencies and ask before launching the format.
- Scoring needs data, and the data is platform statements and refund logs. The Internal Revenue Service's page on what records a business should keep describes keeping documents that support income and expenses; those same documents are your format evidence.
Common questions
Which format is most profitable?
For your kitchen, the one with the highest contribution per minute of peak after commission, which the matrix scores and this page cannot know. Across kitchens there is no answer.
Can I run all seventeen?
No kitchen can, and no tablet operator can. Most stable ghost kitchens run two or three formats that share prep and fill different hours.
Do customers care about the format?
They see a listing and a rating. The format matters to them only through what arrives and how long it took.
How do I test a format cheaply?
One platform, two weeks, a short menu, and a radius small enough that transit is never the reason for a bad rating.
