Nevada Bill Cracks Down on Impostor Restaurants on Food-Delivery Apps

Posted on: February 18, 2025, 10:32h. 

Last updated on: February 18, 2025, 10:49h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.
  • Newly proposed legislation would require food-delivery apps to work only with properly permitted restaurants in Nevada
  • The move is designed to cut down on scammers who impersonate well-known restaurants on sites like Uber Eats and Grubhub
  • Platforms that don’t comply would be guilty of a misdemeanor

One of the bills introduced by the Nevada Assembly on its first day of reconvening on Monday takes aim at ghost kitchens that impersonate Vegas restaurants on food-delivery apps.

James Trees is the owner of Esther’s Kitchen in Las Vegas and a 2020 James Beard Award semifinalist. (Image: KNPR)

Nevada Assemblymember Selena Torres-Fossett is the primary sponsor of AB 116, which proposes that food-delivery apps only work with businesses that are properly permitted by their local health authority, which in Las Vegas is the Southern Nevada Health District.

Platforms that do not would be guilty of a misdemeanor.

Impasta Syndrome

Last April, Casino.org found nearly 20 impostor websites posing as respected Sin City restaurants. Most were on Uber Eats, but some were on Grubhub and other food-delivery apps.

They included Esther’s Kitchen, which doesn’t list with any food delivery apps because of quality control concerns.

Esther’s Kitchen owner James Trees told legislators in the Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor on Monday that he found impostors that charged more than his restaurant for the same menu items and included some that he doesn’t sell.

“Basically, these people screenshotted my logo and a picture of one of the dishes of my food, and used it to promote their menu,” Trees said.

Last April, Trees — along with the owners of Gaetano’s Ristorante, Manizza’s Pizza, and BabyStacks Café — sued Uber Eats in a class-action suit designed to thwart the practice.

Though Uber Eats removed all the websites, the lawsuit sought unspecified compensation for the damage already done, as well as Uber’s 30% cut of all orders made by the impostor restaurants.

Don’t Bring Us the Bill

Several food apps testified in opposition to AB 116 on Monday, saying they faced disproportionate risk, and accusing the legislation of being vague on how often verification documents need to be submitted.

Uber submitted a proposed amendment downgrading the verification from a health permit certification to a business license, and the penalty from a misdemeanor to no more than $500. Torres-Fossett said that would do nothing to deter more copycats.

Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas) requested the platforms to submit their existing protocols for dealing with fake restaurants in writing to the committee.

California, New York, Washington, and Florida have all passed similar measures, though they punish noncompliance with fines, not misdemeanors.

Getting in Order

In the meantime, to avoid ordering from scammers in the future, it’s best to phone the number listed on a restaurant’s legit web page and ask if they deliver via the app you want to use or, even more simply, to cross-check the address on the delivery app with the one listed on Yelp, where it’s a good idea to always check a restaurant’s reviews first anyway.

The real Esther’s Kitchen is located at 1131 S. Main St. in downtown Las Vegas. Esther’s Italian Pasta Kitchen, the impostor name on Uber Eats, listed its address as 10890 S. Eastern Ave., Suite 107, in Henderson. That’s the physical address of a restaurant called NY Pizza & Bagel Café.

The address listed on Uber Eats for Gaetano’s Ristorante, a respected family-owned establishment serving Henderson, Nev. for 20 years, matched the Chinatown address of Boss Pizza, a joint with only 1.5 Yelp stars. Its address was also featured in the impostor listing for Solamente Pizza.