Famous for its ghost kitchens, Kitchen United is pulling out from Kroger stores around the Texas area according to a Convenience article. They say,

“The future of ghost kitchens and food halls remains unclear. Kitchen United, a prominent ghost kitchen operator that received $100 million in funding in 2022, has closed all its Kroger food halls.

“We have closed all of Kitchen United locations operating inside of Kroger,” Kitchen United said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “We appreciate its partnership and support over the years. We are currently looking to pivot back into a software business,” reported Restaurant Business.” 

Despite having a wide range of menus, the ghost kitchen heavily relied on students and unfortunately was not able to deliver and accommodate these menus altogether according to a Dallas Morning News article which says, 

“Both Kroger and Kitchen United officials said the Mockingbird location was promising because of its proximity to Southern Methodist University students. The point of the ghost kitchen concept is that people living together could place one take-out or delivered order for different kinds of foods.

The Dallas ghost kitchen opened with menus from six restaurants: Dog Haus hotdogs, Capriotti’s sandwiches, Curry UPnow Indian street food, Carl’s Jr. hamburgers, Fuku fried chicken and Monkey King noodles.

Critics of the ghost kitchen concept said the little-known branded food didn’t have a point of view and ordering pizza, nachos and chicken tikka masala from the same kitchen was confusing.”

During the pandemic, ghost kitchens, otherwise known as virtual kitchens, became a trendy and efficient way of getting food so much so that it peaked during 2021.