Pim Techamuanvivit was managing her San Francisco Thai restaurant, Kin Khao, Saturday night around 8:30 p.m. when she got an unexpected call. A customer was wondering when food from his order on the online food delivery company Seamless was coming, as he had been waiting 45 minutes.
“I think you must be confused because I don’t do delivery,” Techamuanvivit told him.
Techamuanvivit said the man then asked, “So what are you doing on Seamless?”
The restaurateur soon discovered that her restaurant had a page on both Seamless and Grubhub, another online food delivery company that merged with Seamless in 2013. The delivery sites listed her restaurant and its address with a menu that she does not serve, including pad Thai and, of all things in a restaurant that specializes in lesser-known Thai regional cuisine, Vietnamese pho.
“It’s outrageous. They can’t get away with this. They can’t totally fake a restaurant that doesn’t do delivery and go pick up food from, I don’t know, some rat-infested warehouse somewhere and deliver to my guests,” said Techamuanvivit, who added that she intends to sue Seamless.
A spokesperson for Grubhub said at midday Sunday that the company would soon respond to a request for comment.
The Chronicle reviewed the email the customer received from Seamless confirming his order for drunken noodles and Thai-style fried noodles (which Kin Khao doesn’t serve).
The restaurant was still on the delivery sites as of Sunday morning. In addition, Yelp’s listing for Kin Khao also offered delivery for a fee, and the delivery site Door Dash offered delivery from Nari, Techamuanvivit’s newer and more upscale Japantown restaurant, which also doesn’t offer delivery or takeout orders. A Grubhub ad offering delivery from Kin Khao is the first listing in a Google search for Kin Khao.
Bay Area restaurants have previously voiced criticism against food delivery companies like Grubhub for what they deem too-high delivery fees and feeling forced to partner with them to maintain competitiveness. Seamless and Grubhub did not immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.
Techamuanvivit said she briefly offered delivery for Kin Khao via Caviar, another online service, after the restaurant first opened in 2014, but during lunch only. She discontinued the service mostly because she couldn’t be sure of the quality of the food when the customers ultimately received it, and because it was a hassle, she said.
“The food is not the way that I want the food served,” she said. “I just prefer that somebody come in and sit down and have a proper meal.”
She did, however, put in an order for some food from the restaurant that Seamless claims is Kin Khao for Sunday around lunchtime. It’s due to arrive at 12:45 p.m.