dark kitchen

Formed in analogy to the term dark store (“online retail distribution center”), as this type of operation likewise serves outside customers through online ordering.

dark kitchen (plural dark kitchens)

1. (appliance, neologism) A commercial kitchen where restaurant-style meals are cooked for delivery.

   Synonyms: ghost kitchen, ghost restaurant, cloud kitchen

   Coordinate term: dark store

   • 2015, Shonali Advani, “Mast Kalandar owner Spring Leaf Retail investing in delivery only kitchens to boost MK Dabbawala”, in Economic Times‎:

     “We were using some of our restaurant kitchens, but are now investing into more delivery-only or ‘dark’ kitchens, as we were not able to service the growing demand,” Jain said.

   • 2018 June 5, Sarah Finch, “The rise of the dark kitchen”, in Disruption Hub‎, archived from the original on 6 June 2020:

     As a result of unfavourable market conditions for bricks and mortar restaurants, dark kitchens, also known as ghost restaurants, are becoming more common.

   • 2019 April 23, Rebecca Wearn, “Does your dinner come from a ‘dark kitchen’?”, in BBC News‎:

     Dark kitchens make huge sense for the burger brand Boo. Set up by Arif Palejwala and his brother-in-law in Leicester, they have reached three other cities without having to find premises or fork out.

   • 2020, Isabelle Hanet, “What is a dark kitchen?”, in Deliverect‎:

     It is the success of online ordering players such as Uber Eats, Glovo, Just Eat and many more that paved the way for dark kitchens.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see dark,‎ kitchen.
   • 1998, Herrick Kimball, The Kitchen Consultant, Taunton Press, →ISBN, page 86:

     [I]f your dark kitchen adjoins a room with an abundance of natural light, it might work to remove the separating wall to let some of the light in  […]

   • 2006, Poppy Z. Brite, Soul Kitchen: A Novel, Crown, →ISBN, page 237:

     He was already fleeing back through the dark kitchen, banging his hip on the steel countertop, […]

• dark factory

• ghost kitchen on Wikipedia.Wikipedia