Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Ordering delivery through an app like DoorDash or GrubHub saves the trouble of cooking and lets you be a little picky — you can order from your favorite restaurant. But imagine receiving your food, sitting down to eat, and it tasting...
different. And then, following your gut, you learn that you’ve been duped by a fake, an imposter restaurant that stole its name. For many people ordering from two Japanese restaurants in San Francisco, that exact thing may have happened,
One restaurant, now styled as an izakaya called Chome, originally opened for delivery and takeout in the former location of Blowfish Sushi. Except it didn’t bother to change the name, awning, or logo at the start. Chome, operating as if it were Blowfish Sushi, served sushi to people ordering through apps like GrubHub, Postmates, DoorDash, and Uber Eats using the identity of a restaurant that closed in December 2020. Before it closed, Blowfish Sushi had been serving its neighborhood for two decades.