TikTok Kitchen, Say What?!

Exploring TikTok Kitchens and the Digital Evolution of Food Service Trends

 Joanne Heyob

 Lee Peterson

Estimated Read Time: 2 - 3 Minutes

It’s mid work-day in 2022. You’re (mostly) caught up on your continuous chain of emails and taking a moment to scarf down some leftovers from last night’s meal, as you scroll through TikTok for some mindless entertainment. Aha! You come across that viral baked feta pasta dish. You know, the one the robots in your phone know you drool over every time you see it in your feed. Lucky for you, TikTok’s trending dishes can be found at restaurants nearby, operating as a ghost kitchen out of existing restaurants. The TikTok Kitchen is just one of many trends we are hungry to see this year. Read on to discover what big brands such as TikTok, Chipotle, and Taco Bell are doing to change the name of the game in food service.

DIGITAL FIRST

Providing shoppers convenience and restaurants the ability to increase in-store revenue, digital restaurants represent the undeniable shift towards e-commerce across the market.

Chipotle Digital Kitchen

As part of their ongoing plan to open more Chipotlane sites, Chipotle has created a smaller footprint, digital-only restaurant with no dining room or front line for guests. The kitchen has a make line dedicated to digital orders placed through the chain’s app or website. Guests and delivery drivers collect orders through the Chipotlane or walk-up lane.

Flyfish Club

This seafood restaurant will be the world’s first members-only, private dining club where membership is purchased on the blockchain as a Non-Fungible-Token (NFT) and owned by the token-holder to gain access to the restaurant. is slated to open in the first half of 2023 in New York City.

Taco Bell

The Yum Brands restaurant opened its first digital-only restaurant in the United States in Times Square where customers will need to place a digital order ahead of their visit. The simplified design is intended to cut down square footage and do away with long, winding lines during busy times.

DELIVERY

Fueled by the 2020 pandemic, food delivery brands and apps have expanded beyond convenience portals to essential services that customer are willing to pay for. Food delivery is now a $126.9bn market worldwide, and is projected to be worth $192.16bn by 2025. (Research and Markets, 2021)

TikTok Kitchen (Grubhub)

Grubhub’s virtual dining concept will be delivery-only and will serve the social media app’s top trending dishes and drinks straight to consumers’ doors. It will be set up in existing restaurant kitchens and use their current staff. Three hundred sites are planned for its initial launch in early 2022, with another 700 sites to be added by the end of the year.

Deliveroo Pizza Paradiso

The U.K. based food-delivery company backed by Amazon is taking great strides to understand, analyze and eventually solve restaurant fulfillment pain points. They opened a one-off pizza restaurant in London with the purpose to teach Deliveroo staff how to manage a restaurant and empathize with restaurateurs.

Neolix Autonomous Dining Cars

On the streets of Beijing, Neolix’s unmanned vehicles can now be waved down much like a taxi. Users can view the offering through a transparent window of the dining car and order via a touchscreen on the exterior of the vehicle. Meals can be produced and delivered in a matter of seconds directly to the street.

As the food service landscape evolves, it’s evident that innovation is at its core. From digital-only restaurants to futuristic delivery methods, the industry is riding the wave of change. TikTok Kitchen is just the beginning–explore how these trends are reshaping the way we experience and enjoy food in the digital era.