LOMBARDI’S PIZZA (Nolita, 32 Spring St, Manhattan) — Italian / Pizza. Case study #41. Prices compared between Lombardi’s own online-ordering menu (list/pickup price, which is the counter price) and the same shop’s Uber Eats storefront, both for the 32 Spring Street location, captured the same day. Lombardi’s Uber Eats page also carries a Pickup toggle; the pickup price matched the counter price we used as the baseline.
Order an Original Margherita from Lombardi’s — the coal-oven room on the corner of Spring and Mott that has billed itself as America’s first pizzeria since it took out a license in 1905 — from the shop’s own online menu and it is $22.00. Order the exact same pie on Uber Eats and it is $22.00. Not a cent more. Do it again with the Rustic Double Pepperoni ($28.00 and $28.00), a Buddy’s Cake Boss pie ($30.00 and $30.00), a calzone ($18.00 and $18.00), Grandma Grace’s Meatballs ($13.00 and $13.00) — and the pattern holds all the way down the menu. We matched 22 items, and on every one of them the Uber Eats price is the shop’s own counter price to the penny.
This series usually documents the opposite: a delivery menu quietly inflated to claw back the commission the platform charges. Lombardi’s does not do that. Not a single item moves — not one of the 22 pizzas, calzones, appetizers, salads, pastas or the chicken parm we checked — so a basket of all 22 items rings up at the identical $458.00 whether you order at the counter or through Uber Eats. On the food, Lombardi’s charges delivery customers exactly what it charges everyone else.
The receipt
Charging the same menu price is not the same as delivery being free — and it is emphatically not the shop coming out ahead. On Uber Eats the delivery costs come on top of an unchanged menu, not inside it. Take that $22 Margherita. It travels onto Uber Eats at $22.00 — the same as the counter. On top of that Uber adds a service fee (a percentage of the subtotal) and a delivery fee, both of which a customer sees only at a signed-in checkout; then New York’s 8.875% prepared-food tax (about $1.95, which a walk-in pays too) and, if the customer tips the standard 10% we apply across this series, roughly $2.20 more. The identical $22 pie is already near $26.15 out the door on tax and tip alone, before Uber’s service and delivery fees push it higher. None of that is a menu markup — Lombardi’s adds none. It is Uber’s fees, stacked on a price the shop chose not to raise.
The markup
Across the 22 matched items the delivery markup on the food was, on average, 0% — a mean of +0.0%, a median of 0%, and a mode of exactly 0%. There is no range to report: every single item, all 22 of them, is priced to the cent. A basket of all 22 items costs $458.00 at the counter and $458.00 on Uber Eats: the same money. This is as flat as this series has recorded. Lombardi’s Uber Eats menu simply is its counter menu.
What the shop nets
Here is why charging the same price is the shop losing money on every delivery order, not breaking even. When a customer orders through Uber Eats, the platform keeps a commission on the sale. To come out level with a walk-in, a shop would need to mark its delivery menu up by about +42.9% at a 30% commission — or about +17.6% even at New York’s capped 15%. Lombardi’s marks up nothing. So the full weight of the commission lands on the kitchen. At New York’s capped 15% commission, the $458.00 delivery basket leaves the restaurant about $389.30 — roughly $69 less than the $458.00 the same items bring in at the counter. If the store pays a higher effective rate for wider delivery and promotion — New York’s 2025 amendment lets a restaurant opt into add-ons that can push the total toward roughly 30% or more — it keeps about $320.60, some $137 less than the counter. On all 22 of the 22 items, the shop nets less selling through Uber Eats than selling the same item at its own counter, at either rate. This is the pattern this series calls absorbing (Type B) in its purest form: most absorbers at least mark the menu up part-way to blunt the commission. Lombardi’s does not mark it up at all — it eats the entire cut, and the delivery customer is the rare one who is not overpaying on the food.
Why it still lands on Uber Eats
Lombardi’s sets its own menu prices; Uber Eats does not. But Uber sets the commission and the consumer fees, and a shop that lifts its delivery menu by zero — when it would take 40%-plus to recover the cut — is choosing to absorb all of it. That choice protects the delivery customer from the recovery pricing other restaurants use; the trade-off is that Lombardi’s keeps far less on every delivery sale than on a walk-in. It does not make the customer’s bill cheap, either: the service fee, delivery fee, tax and tip still stack up at checkout — none of which appears in the identical menu prices above. And it does not make the platform’s take disappear. Uber still collects a commission from the restaurant and a stack of fees from the customer on the very same order; the only thing missing from Lombardi’s version is the hidden menu markup. On this order the shop loses margin, the customer pays fees, and the platform is the one party made whole.
The New York context
New York City caps the core commission a delivery app can charge a restaurant at 15% for delivery, plus 5% for other listing and marketing services and 3% for card processing — limits the City Council first made permanent in 2021. A 2025 amendment, signed into law after the platforms sued and settled, now lets restaurants opt to pay an additional up to 20% for “enhanced services” such as wider delivery zones and top-of-search placement, which can push the total a restaurant chooses to pay toward roughly 43% — the same figure a shop would need to mark up its menu just to break even. Lombardi’s marks up nothing and holds every pie at the counter price. The Mayor’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection continues to review delivery-app fees.
| Item | Counter price | Uber Eats | Markup | Shop nets @15% cap (vs counter) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pizza | ||||
| White (Ricotta) Pizza | $24.00 | $24.00 | 0% | $20.40 (-3.60) |
| Original Margherita Pizza | $22.00 | $22.00 | 0% | $18.70 (-3.30) |
| Vegan Pizza | $22.00 | $22.00 | 0% | $18.70 (-3.30) |
| Specialty Pizza | ||||
| Buddy’s Cake Boss Pizza | $30.00 | $30.00 | 0% | $25.50 (-4.50) |
| Meatball, Ricotta, Garlic Pizza | $30.00 | $30.00 | 0% | $25.50 (-4.50) |
| Pancetta & Corn Pizza | $30.00 | $30.00 | 0% | $25.50 (-4.50) |
| Sausage, Peppers & Onions Pizza | $29.00 | $29.00 | 0% | $24.65 (-4.35) |
| Rustic Double Pepperoni Pizza | $28.00 | $28.00 | 0% | $23.80 (-4.20) |
| Calzones | ||||
| Calzone | $18.00 | $18.00 | 0% | $15.30 (-2.70) |
| Appetizers | ||||
| Eggplant Sicilian Style | $14.00 | $14.00 | 0% | $11.90 (-2.10) |
| Grandma Grace’s Meatballs | $13.00 | $13.00 | 0% | $11.05 (-1.95) |
| Tomato & Mozzarella | $13.00 | $13.00 | 0% | $11.05 (-1.95) |
| Bruschetta on Rustic Bread (4 pcs) | $11.00 | $11.00 | 0% | $9.35 (-1.65) |
| Salads | ||||
| Caesar Salad | $15.00 | $15.00 | 0% | $12.75 (-2.25) |
| Classic Iceberg Wedge Salad | $15.00 | $15.00 | 0% | $12.75 (-2.25) |
| House Salad (Spring Mix) | $13.00 | $13.00 | 0% | $11.05 (-1.95) |
| Pasta | ||||
| Eggplant Sicilian & Rigatoni | $23.00 | $23.00 | 0% | $19.55 (-3.45) |
| Rigatoni & Meatballs | $23.00 | $23.00 | 0% | $19.55 (-3.45) |
| Fettuccine Alfredo | $20.00 | $20.00 | 0% | $17.00 (-3.00) |
| Ravioli | $20.00 | $20.00 | 0% | $17.00 (-3.00) |
| Tagliatelle & Basil Pesto | $20.00 | $20.00 | 0% | $17.00 (-3.00) |
| Chicken | ||||
| Chicken Parmesan | $25.00 | $25.00 | 0% | $21.25 (-3.75) |
| All 22 matched items (basket) | $458.00 | $458.00 | 0% | $389.30 (-68.70) |
By the numbers
- Items matched: 22 (same description and portion, same 32 Spring St location; pies matched pie-to-pie, calzone to calzone, pasta to pasta; slices, drinks, desserts, beverages and any add-on or build-your-own items excluded)
- Delivery markup on the food: mean +0.0%, median 0%, mode 0% — all 22 of 22 items priced to the cent, no range
- Basket: $458.00 at the counter, $458.00 on Uber Eats — identical to the cent
- Break-even markup at a 30% commission: +42.9% (about +17.6% even at the capped 15%) — Lombardi’s 0% is far below both
- What the shop nets: about $389.30 on the basket at New York’s capped 15% (~$69 less than the counter); about $320.60 at a 30% effective rate (~$137 less)
- Items on which the shop nets less than the counter: 22 of 22 at the 15% cap; 22 of 22 at 30%
- Story type: B (absorbing), in its purest form — a 0% markup means the shop absorbs Uber’s entire commission; the delivery customer pays fees and tip, not a higher menu
Method
On 16 July 2026, USA Times captured Lombardi’s own current prices from the shop’s online-ordering menu for the 32 Spring Street location, using the list (pre-discount) price, which is the price a customer pays ordering pickup at the counter with no delivery cost attached. We cross-confirmed that baseline against the Pickup toggle on Lombardi’s own Uber Eats storefront, where the pickup price matched. The same day we captured Uber Eats list prices for that 32 Spring Street store and matched them item by item. We matched only items with the same description and portion (pizzas pie-to-pie, calzone to calzone, salads and pasta like-for-like), used list prices rather than promotional prices, and excluded slices, drinks, desserts, beverages and any add-on or build-your-own items. Across the 22 matched items the Uber Eats prices were identical to the shop’s own counter prices to the cent; we report the prices as captured. The fee description in the receipt is illustrative: Uber’s exact service and delivery fees depend on the order, address and Uber One membership and require a logged-in checkout to confirm, which this automated audit did not place; New York’s 8.875% prepared-food tax and a standard 10% driver tip are applied for the out-the-door figure. The “shop nets” figures are an analytical estimate that applies New York’s capped 15% (and, separately, a 30% effective) commission to the Uber price; they are our interpretation of the economics, not figures disclosed by Uber, and the true commission tier for this store is a private contract term that is not public. Prices can change and can vary by address; figures reflect the moment of capture.
Right of reply
USA Times contacted Lombardi’s and Uber for comment and will update this report with any response. Lombardi’s was told plainly that it is not the target of this story — and was asked the one question that decides it: after Uber’s commission, does it net more, less or the same as ordering at the counter, and is holding its Uber Eats menu at the exact counter price a deliberate choice. Uber was asked about its commission tiers in New York, how it discloses its service and delivery fees to customers, and whether it accepts that on an order like this the customer funds the fees while the restaurant funds the entire commission.
Sources
- Lombardi’s own menu prices (counter/pickup) — Lombardi’s online-ordering menu, 32 Spring St, captured 16 July 2026.
- Lombardi’s Uber Eats list prices — Lombardi’s Nolita on Uber Eats (32 Spring St), captured 16 July 2026.
- NYC delivery fee caps and the 2025 amendment — NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, delivery fee caps, reviewed July 2026.
This report is part of a USA Times series auditing food-delivery pricing. Prices were collected by USA Times on the date noted, compared item by item against the restaurant’s own current menu, and reviewed by an editor before publication.
