'Could these be fronts for money laundering or...': Chandigarh man's post over 'Fake Restaurants' on Zomato selling just one dish goes viral

Social media users in Chandigarh have raised concerns about the presence of suspected 'fake restaurants' on the food delivery platform Zomato. An X user, Nitish Anand, posted a screenshot showcasing outlets offering single dishes at unusually high prices. These outlets, with names like Naughty Strawberry, Blue Adventure, and Citrus Punch, are riddled with negative reviews and have addresses that seemingly do not exist. The strange nature of these listings has sparked speculation among users, with many questioning whether these outlets might be involved in illicit activities such as drug distribution or money laundering.

"Came across some odd listings on Zomato in Chandigarh—so-called 'restaurants' that only offer a single dish, priced absurdly high. It's got me wondering: could these be fronts for money laundering or some other shady business?" read the post on the r/India subreddit.

"Has anyone else noticed similar patterns in other cities? Or does anyone have an idea what's really going on here? Would love to hear your thoughts!"

The original poster (OP) decided to place an order from one of the listed restaurants but never received the delivery.

"I tried placing an order, but it got automatically cancelled after some time, and the restaurant is now showing as closed," said the OP.

The post quickly gained traction, with users flooding the comments to share their theories about these mysterious outlets.

"Those look like flavours of juice that you put into your vapes. Pricing also looks consistent," one user noted. Another added, "True. I know of an exact such operation in another city, that essentially sells vape pens/cartridges. The price is almost the same, Rs 1000- Rs 1200 per item."

"Could it be a way to deliver drugs? With price this high, only a 'few' people will order. And them few will already be aware of what it contains, i.e., drugs. Just a thought," speculated a third.

Adding to the intrigue, one user highlighted that all these restaurants were listed in the same location, 'Nayagaon.'

Zomato responded to the 'one dish' issue saying, "We have noticed social media conversations around single-dish restaurants listed on Zomato."

They further added, "We have identified all such restaurants that were potentially fraudulent and have delisted them from our platform. To solve this more comprehensively, we have also investigated all other restaurants which have a very limited menu on Zomato and might have listed prohibited items or worked around a way to list prohibited items."

The official X handle says, "As per our policy, all restaurants listed on Zomato need to have a FSSAI license and we also actively block items such as alcohol, cigarettes/cigars/vapes from being listed on our platform. However, the restaurants highlighted were able to game our checks by using generic food names such as, ‘Naughty strawberry’, ‘Merry Berry’."

Zomato also claims that they have further strengthened the fraud checks to proactively identify such cases to avoid similar incidents in the future.