When ordering through food delivery apps like Meituan, Ele.me, and JD.com, it’s easy to accidentally place orders with pure delivery-only stores. Compared to such stores, brick-and-mortar restaurants that offer dine-in services tend to have better guarantees for ingredient freshness and standardized cooking practices.
Today, I’ll share some tips to identify pure delivery-only stores on food delivery apps.
Note: The term “delivery-only stores” in this article specifically refers to small individually operated delivery-focused outlets. Meanwhile, branded chain stores that primarily focus on delivery services require evaluation based on separate criteria.
Table of Contents
| Category | Pure Delivery-Only Stores | Dine-In Restaurants |
| Store Format | Kitchen-only (no dining seats) | Kitchen + dining seating |
| Location | Often in low-rent, non-street-front areas (e.g., office basements, residential buildings), 10–30㎡, no need for street visibility. | Prioritize foot traffic and street frontage (e.g., malls, commercial streets), with dine-in space, over 50㎡. |
| Sales Channels | Exclusively through delivery apps (Meituan, Ele.me, JD.com) | Dine-in service + delivery apps |
| Ingredient Management | Some use near-expired ingredients or pre-processed items to cut costs, leading to lower freshness and quality stability. | Higher ingredient turnover due to dine-in demand; stricter freshness and quality controls (especially for chains). |
| Regulatory Oversight | Operating in concealed locations (e.g., repurposed residential buildings or warehouses), making routine inspections harder for authorities. | Visible storefronts enable easier regulatory inspections. |
| Compliance | Some small delivery-only stores may lack proper qualifications (e.g., missing/expired licenses). | Strict reviews for dine-in eligibility; higher likelihood of complete and publicly displayed licenses. |
In the merchant listings on food delivery apps like Meituan and JD.com, if a store lacks labels such as “Dine-In Available” or “Dine-In Restaurant,” it can generally be identified as a pure delivery-only store.
These labels require platform verification: they are either confirmed by Meituan or JD.com through big data analysis, or added only after merchants upload real-world videos/photos of their dine-in environment and pass official reviews. Thus, their credibility is relatively high.
Pure delivery-only stores do not offer dine-in services, so they do not have tables or chairs for customers to dine on-site.
As a result, such merchants either choose not to upload store photos on delivery apps, or if they do, the photos only show the general exterior of the store—with no visible dining tables or chairs.
Therefore, if a merchant has not uploaded any store photos on the delivery app, or if the uploaded photos contain no dining tables or chairs, it is highly likely to be a pure delivery-only store.
However, there’s a caveat: some merchants do upload photos of their store interior and dining furniture, but a closer look reveals that while the signboard displays their own store name, the advertisements or logos on the interior walls belong to other establishments. This is clearly because the merchant has altered the store signboard using tools like AI or Photoshop.
Typically, dine-in restaurants close around 9 PM or 10 PM.
In contrast, pure delivery-only stores often extend their hours to capture the late-night market, staying open from 10 PM until 2 AM. Especially in commercial districts or around office buildings, some even operate 24/7 to cater to late-working crowds.
If a store on the platform shows availability for orders deep into the night, it is highly likely to be a pure delivery-only store.
These are the methods to distinguish between pure delivery-only stores and dine-in restaurants on food delivery apps.
While 100% accurate judgment isn’t guaranteed, a comprehensive analysis combining the above points can significantly increase the probability of avoiding pure delivery-only stores.
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