Netizens have been left confused after bizarre "one-dish" restaurants seemingly appeared on their Zomato delivery feed. A Reddit post has claimed that such restaurants have come up in the northern Indian union territory of Chandigarh -- offering a single dish at 'absurdly high prices'. Some of the suspicious restaurants have no reviews while others have been bombarded with negative reviews. The name of the single dishes, ranging from 'Naughty Strawberry' to 'Blue Adventure' to 'Citrus Punch' has ignited the curiosity of the masses, who floated conspiracy theories that these outlets might be fronts for drug delivery or money laundering.
"Came across some odd listings on Zomato in Chandigarh - so-called 'restaurants' that only offer a single dish, priced absurdly high. It's got me wondering: could these be fronts for money laundering or some other shady business?" read the post in the r/India subreddit.
"Has anyone else noticed similar patterns in other cities? Or does anyone have an idea what's really going on here? Would love to hear your thoughts!"
The original poster (OP) followed up with one of the restaurants by ordering the said item but received no delivery.
"I tried placing an order but it got automatically cancelled after sometime and the restaurant is now showing as closed," said the OP.
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Netizens speculate
As the post went viral, the users came up with their theories about what could have led to the emergence of such shadowy restaurants.
"Those look like flavours of juice that you put into your vapes. Pricing also looks consistent," said one user, while another added: "True. I know of an exact such operation in another city, that essentially sells vape pens/cartridges. The price is almost the same, Rs 1000- Rs 1200 per item."
"Could it be a way to deliver drugs? With price this high, only a 'few' people will order. And them few will already be aware of what it contains, i.e., drugs. Just a thought," commented a third.
One user pointed out that all the restaurants were in the same location 'Nayagaon', adding to the mystery.
