New York, NY – Despite assurances from the food delivery sites Grub-Hub and Seamless that they would overhaul their restaurant verification process following an I-Team investigation that unearthed dozens of “ghost” eateries, a follow-up by the news team reveals that at least one “ghost” kitchen is still operating, this time at the expense of a midtown Kosher bistro.
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NBCNEWYORK.com (http://bit.ly/1UJD9TR) reports that the scam began to unravel when an I-Team rep ordered food from Seamless-sponsored Mike’s Bistro Asian Fusion said to be located on West 72nd Street.
When the I-Team got to the address, they found an empty restaurant with only an old Mike’s Bistro sign and a “For Lease” placard in the window.
With prior knowledge that Mike’s Bistro on 72nd Street was not listed on the city’s Department of Health grading website, an I-Team member placed an order of edamame and vegetable dumplings from the number on the suspicious Seamless listing.
Within minutes a man riding a bike came up 72nd Street with the order.
When pressed, the man could not reveal where the food was cooked and a callback to the restaurant ended quickly when the I-Team rep began asking questions.
In reality, the old Mike’s Bistro moved over a year ago to 54th Street and is operating as a Kosher eatery.
When shown the food, Mike’s Bistro manager David Zinstein said, “This is definitely not my food. We try to hold a very high standard. Especially in the Kosher world — which has to be Kosher food … anything saying Mike’s Bistro could affect our business.”
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Lesson: people need to be more careful with hechsharim! Who knows how many Jewish people order from mikes bistro and got food from some non-kosher place?
Lesson: everyone knows mikes bistro is not Asian fusion and if you look at the offerings it is clearly not kosher food. Good job by the I team, but please don’t knock Kosher consumers for mistakes they never made. If you must knock someone, make it the thugs going to jail every day for taking significant sums of money for beating up recalcitrant husbands.