It seems like you can’t go a week in the restaurant industry these days without hearing about a new virtual brand.
The online-only, delivery-focused concepts have been popping up everywhere since the pandemic began. They claim to help restaurants generate incremental revenue by allowing them to add a second (or third, or fourth) concept to their operation without a corresponding spike in overhead.
The idea has taken off, especially while dining rooms were closed or limited and more customers flocked to delivery apps during the pandemic. An unofficial Restaurant Business count identified nearly 200 individual virtual brands, and there are certainly more.
But something feels a little superficial about the astounding growth, the punny names and flashy logos designed to game delivery app algorithms. It has led many to wonder about the actual food. Is it good? Is it consistent? Is it worth ordering, especially when there are so many other options?
Six RB editors decided to find out. Over the past month, we tested four well-known, widely available virtual brands. Our goal was pretty simple: To determine whether they’re any good.
We hope that our feedback as both industry experts and consumers will be useful for restaurants that have added virtual brands or are thinking about it.
First, some background on the test:
The brands
- Another Wing. Created by hip-hop artist DJ Khaled in partnership with ghost kitchen provider Reef.
- Grilled Cheese Society. One of more than a dozen concepts offered by virtual brand company Nextbite.
- Man Vs. Fries. Began as a Bay Area pop-up and has since expanded virtually.
- MrBeast Burger. Created by Virtual Dining Concepts and YouTube mega-star MrBeast.
The process
We rated each brand across three categories: The appearance of the food, the taste of the food, and the likelihood that we would order it again. We used a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the most positive and 1 being the most negative. (Scroll down to see our scores.)
We also kept track of how much we paid (possibly to the chagrin of our employer). And we gave an overall assessment of the experience.
We tried to choose brands that were available in all of our respective markets (New York City, Long Island, Chicago and Minneapolis). This proved hard to do. Some brands got more input than others, but each had at least three testers.
We came up with four main takeaways.
MrBeast Burger
The food wasn’t bad …
In general, we thought the food from these brands was average to good.
MrBeast Burger got high marks, earning an average score of 3.6 for taste. (Those of us who tried its Impossible Burger weren’t as crazy about it.) Man Vs. Fries also outperformed in this category.
No brand received lower than a 3 on taste except Another Wing, which was mostly panned. Editors thought its fries were particularly bad, calling them “flaccid and flavorless” and “the worst I’ve ever had.”
Some of the food was cold when it got to us, which is a risk with any delivery order. For the most part, it arrived close to the estimated time, suggesting that operations were running smoothly at the kitchens they came from.
It tended to be in decent shape when it was delivered, too. Most of us thought it looked average to good after we unwrapped it.
Another Wing
… But it wasn’t worth the price.
Our biggest gripe with these brands was value. A meal for a family of four from Another Wing cost more than $92. One of us paid $42 for a grilled cheese combo from Grilled Cheese Society. A single burrito from Man Vs. Fries set another back $34.
Those prices include taxes and delivery fees, but not tips, so the totals were ultimately even higher.
That said, the prices seemed to be in line with other nearby restaurants. A burger and fries from MrBeast Burger in Chicago cost one of us $20.63 on DoorDash. The same delivery order from Shake Shack was $19.26.
A pair of chicken wing and tender combos from Another Wing cost $29.21. At Wingstop, a similar order was $33.54.
The prices at Man Vs. Fries seemed to be the most out of sync with competitors. A burrito from its Chicago location cost $34.14, while a burrito from Chipotle cost $22.34. (Though it’s worth noting that a Man Vs. Fries entree could feed a small army.)
Man vs. Fries
These comparisons aren’t perfect because prices vary across markets and delivery apps. The bottom line, though, is that given the combination of food and price, most of us said we’d rather order from somewhere else. Which brings us to our next big takeaway.
We’re unlikely to order from these brands again.
Even though we liked some of the food, none of us were enthusiastic about getting it again. MrBeast Burger was the most likely brand to receive repeat visits, but that’s not saying much: It earned an average of just 2.4 in that category, and got no higher than a “maybe” from any of us.
For some of us, value was the main barrier. “Given the amount we paid for the wings it was just not great at all,” wrote Jonathan Maze of his Another Wing experience.
For others, it was the fact that there are restaurants nearby that offer the same thing. “There’s no reason to go with MrBeast Burger when I could get comparable fare delivered by any number of the many restaurants in my town,” Peter Romeo wrote.
And in some cases, the food was just not up to snuff. “The next day, I made my own (far superior) grilled cheese and had it for lunch with my leftover soup. Perfection,” wrote Heather Lalley regarding Grilled Cheese Society.
Grilled Cheese Society
This is not a good sign for virtual brands. Like any restaurant, they’ll need repeat customers to be viable long-term. Sure, they might be able to attract first-timers with catchy names or celebrity tie-ins—but will those people come back again after trying the food at these prices?
The ordering process was hit or miss.
An underlying theme in our reviews was that ordering from virtual brands can be a headache.
We ran into a number of weird glitches. Grilled Cheese Society’s website, for instance, had no menu descriptions and only allowed some of us to select gluten-free bread when we ordered. (Those problems seem to have been fixed since.)
Availability was also an issue. Three of the four brands we tried weren’t offered in Romeo’s suburban market just outside of New York. And his attempts to order from the one brand he could get—MrBeast Burger—were repeatedly foiled because it didn’t have regular hours. Instead, the host restaurant was turning the concept on and off as traffic dictated.
The ability to throttle orders is one of the benefits of virtual brands for restaurants. But Romeo discovered how frustrating it can be for customers.
“Clearly loyalty won’t build for a brand that’s available on a hit-or-miss basis,” he wrote. “Nor can the operation get the full benefit of a positive word-of-mouth reputation.”