At This Koreatown Tofu House, the Same Soup Costs More on Uber Eats — and the Restaurant Still Takes Home Less

7 min read  ·  1,494 words

By Achir Kalra, Executive Editor, and the USA Times Data Desk

BCD TOFU HOUSE (5 W 32nd St, Koreatown, Manhattan) — Korean. Case study #11. Prices compared between BCD Tofu House’s own online-ordering menu and the same restaurant’s Uber Eats storefront, captured the same day.

Order a bowl of kimchi soon tofu at BCD Tofu House’s counter on West 32nd Street and it costs $18.99. Order the identical bowl from the same kitchen on Uber Eats and it is $20.99 — two dollars more, before a single delivery or service fee is added. We priced 20 of BCD’s dishes side by side and found the same pattern on every one: the food is dearer in the app than at the counter, by an average of 6.9%. The twist is that this markup is small — small enough that, after Uber takes its cut, BCD almost certainly ends up with less money per order than if you had walked in. The customer pays more and the restaurant nets less. Only the platform comes out ahead.

The markup

Across the 20 matched dishes the markup ran from 2.9% to 10.5%, with a mean of 6.9% and a median of 5.6%. The pattern is almost mechanical. The nine soon-tofu stews, all $18.99 at the counter, are all $20.99 in the app — a flat $2.00, or 10.5%. The three savory pancakes and appetizers, $17.99 each, become $18.99 — a flat $1.00. The big barbecue plates take a flat dollar too: L.A. Galbi is $34.99 at the counter and $35.99 on Uber Eats, a 2.9% bump. A basket of all 20 dishes costs $462.80 on BCD’s own menu and $491.80 on Uber Eats.

Two things stand out about where the markup lands. First, it lands only on the food. Every canned soda ($2.99), the bottle of Poland Spring ($0.99), the Korean pear refresher ($4.99), the extra bowl of rice ($2.00) and the side of kimchi ($10.99) is listed at the exact same price in both places. The premium is reserved for the prepared dishes. Second, it is not a delivery charge. We toggled BCD’s Uber Eats page to Pickup — no courier, you fetch it yourself — and the prices did not move: the soon tofu was still $20.99. A markup that applies even when nothing is delivered is not a cost of delivery. It is a platform tax on the food itself.

What the restaurant nets: it is absorbing the cut

Here is why the small markup still matters. When a customer orders through Uber Eats, Uber keeps a commission on the order — a figure that can run to roughly 30% at the top of its fee structure. On a $20.99 bowl of tofu soup, a 30% commission is about $6.30, leaving the restaurant roughly $14.69 — well under the $18.99 it would have collected from a walk-in. To simply break even against a 30% commission, a restaurant would need to mark the dish up by about 43%. BCD marks it up 10.5%. Across all 20 dishes, by our calculation, the restaurant nets on the order of $6 less per dish on Uber Eats than at the counter; every single dish comes out below its dine-in take.

That makes BCD what this series calls a Type B, or “absorbing,” case: the restaurant is eating most of the platform’s commission itself rather than passing it all on. It is the most sympathetic version of the story and, in some ways, the bleakest. The diner still pays more than the counter price, and will pay more still once delivery, service and any regulatory fees and tip are added at checkout. The restaurant still takes home less than it would have. The only party made whole is Uber. We do not know which commission tier BCD is actually on — that is a private contract term Uber does not disclose — and at a lower tier the loss would be smaller. But at anything close to the top rate, a modest menu markup does not come close to covering the cut.

The New York context

New York City caps the core commission a delivery app can charge a restaurant at 15% for delivery, plus 3% for card processing and 5% for other services — limits the City Council first made permanent in 2021. A 2025 amendment (Local Law 79), in force through 2026, keeps that 15% floor but now lets platforms charge an additional up to 20% for optional “enhanced services” such as wider delivery zones and promotions, which can push the total a restaurant pays toward roughly 43%. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has said it is scrutinizing delivery-app “junk fees.” None of those caps touch what BCD charges you in the app: the menu markup and the consumer-side fees sit outside the commission the law regulates. That is the gap this series keeps measuring.

By the numbers

• Dishes matched: 20 (same description and portion; combo meals, build-your-own and duplicate listings excluded)
• Markup: mean 6.9%, median 5.6%, range 2.9%–10.5%
• Basket: $462.80 at the counter, $491.80 on Uber Eats (+6.3%)
• Drinks and sides: 0% markup — every beverage and side listed at the identical counter price
• Pickup on Uber Eats: same price as delivery — the markup is not a delivery cost
• Break-even markup at a 30% commission: ~43%; BCD marks up far less, so it nets about $6 less per dish than dine-in
• Dishes on which the restaurant nets less than dine-in: 20 of 20
• Story type: B — absorbing

Method

On 15 July 2026, USA Times captured BCD Tofu House’s own prices from its first-party online-ordering menu (bcdtofuhouse.order.online) for the West 32nd Street location, using the Pickup setting so the listed price equals the counter price. The same day, we captured Uber Eats list prices for the same location from the rendered storefront, and verified that Uber’s Pickup prices were identical to its Delivery prices. We matched only dishes with the same description and portion, and excluded the restaurant’s combo meals (entrée plus soup), build-your-own items, and duplicate or “original” variant listings. We used list prices, not promotional prices. The “restaurant nets @30%” column is an analytical estimate that applies a 30% commission to the Uber Eats price; it is our interpretation of the economics, not a figure disclosed by Uber, and the true commission tier for this restaurant is not public. Delivery fee, service fee, any New York regulatory fee, tax and tip are added at a logged-in checkout; this automated audit does not place orders and did not capture them. Prices can change and can vary by address; figures reflect the moment of capture.

Right of reply

USA Times contacted BCD Tofu House and Uber for comment and will update this report with any response. BCD was asked the one question that decides this story — after Uber’s commission, does it net more, less or the same as a walk-in? — and Uber was asked about its commission tiers in New York and whether it tracks the gap between in-store and in-app menu prices.

Sources

• BCD Tofu House counter / first-party prices — BCD Tofu House (5 W 32nd St) online-ordering menu, Pickup setting, captured 15 July 2026.
• BCD Tofu House Uber Eats list prices and Pickup-equals-Delivery pricing — BCD Tofu House (Manhattan) on Uber Eats, captured 15 July 2026.
• NYC delivery fee caps and the 2025 amendment (Local Law 79 / Int 762-B) — 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.