UP THAI (Upper East Side, 1411 2nd Ave, Manhattan) — Thai / SE Asian. Case study #21. Prices compared between Up Thai’s own first-party pickup menu and the same counter’s Uber Eats storefront, both for the 1411 2nd Ave location, captured the same day.
Order a Pad Thai for pickup from Up Thai’s Upper East Side counter on the restaurant’s own ordering site and it is $19.00. Order the same Pad Thai, from the same kitchen, on Uber Eats and it is — $19.00. We priced 51 of the restaurant’s dishes side by side, from a $3 fried egg to a $42 beef short rib, and found the same thing every single time: the Uber Eats price is identical to the counter price. A Massaman Curry is $20 in both places; a Crab Fried Rice is $30; a Chicken Satay is $16; a Thai Iced Tea is $7. The markup across the entire menu is 0%.
That makes Up Thai one of a small group of restaurants in this series that has not raised its Uber Eats menu by a cent to cover the commission the platform charges it. Which means the commission comes out of Up Thai’s own pocket — not yours.
The markup
Across all 51 matched items the markup was 0% — mean, median, minimum and maximum all zero. A basket of all 51 items costs $952.00 on Up Thai’s own menu and the same $952.00 on Uber Eats. There is no cheap-item exception and no premium-item exception: the appetisers, the curries, the noodle plates, the fried rice, the chef’s-signature seafood, the salads, the desserts and the iced teas — every one is priced to the exact dollar on both platforms.
And the price the diner pays for the food on Uber Eats is the restaurant’s pickup price — the figure a customer pays walking up to the counter, before any driver is involved. There is simply no menu markup here to explain away as a delivery cost.
What the restaurant nets
When a customer orders through Uber Eats, the platform keeps a commission on the sale — a figure that can reach roughly 30% at the top of its fee structure. Because Up Thai charges the same price on Uber as at its counter, that commission lands entirely on the restaurant. Apply a 30% commission to these prices and a $19 Pad Thai returns Up Thai about $13.30 instead of $19; the $952.00 basket returns about $666.40 rather than $952.00 — roughly $286 less across the menu, and the restaurant comes out behind on all 51 of the 51 items we checked. Even at New York’s capped 15% commission, a 0% markup still leaves Up Thai netting about $809.20 on that basket — around $143 less than the counter, behind on all 51 items. With no markup at all, there is no commission rate low enough for the restaurant to break even on delivery. This is the pattern this series calls absorbing (Type B): the restaurant, not the diner, is paying the platform’s cut.
To be clear about what this is and is not. Up Thai is not overcharging anyone on Uber Eats; if anything it is the most customer-friendly pattern we find, because the diner pays the true menu price for the food. But the customer does not get off free: Uber still adds its own delivery fee, service fee and tax on top at checkout, and those are what the diner pays for the convenience. What is striking is simply where the commission falls — and here, unusually, it falls on the business.
Why it still lands on Uber
Uber sets the commission that defines the economics of every order. Most restaurants respond by lifting their in-app menu prices to recover it, so the customer pays the commission invisibly, folded into the food. Up Thai has chosen not to, and eats the cost itself — a decision that protects the diner’s price but squeezes the kitchen’s margin on every delivery order. Either way, the number that sets the floor is Uber’s, and Uber reports to merchants a “Menu Markup” metric measuring exactly this in-store-versus-in-app gap. At Up Thai that gap is zero — a fact Uber can see and the customer cannot.
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%. None of those caps require a restaurant to raise its menu prices, and none of them touch the delivery fee, service fee and tax a customer pays in the app. Up Thai’s choice to hold its Uber prices at the counter level means the commission is borne where the law assumes it might be — by the business — rather than being passed to the diner as a hidden markup. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection continues to review delivery-app fees.
| Item | Counter / first-party | Uber Eats | Markup | Shop nets @30% (vs counter) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appetizers | ||||
| Up Spring Rolls | $17.00 | $17.00 | 0% | $11.90 (-5.10) |
| Chicken Satay | $16.00 | $16.00 | 0% | $11.20 (-4.80) |
| Thai-Herbed Wings | $16.00 | $16.00 | 0% | $11.20 (-4.80) |
| Pla Muk Tod | $16.00 | $16.00 | 0% | $11.20 (-4.80) |
| Curry Puffs | $15.00 | $15.00 | 0% | $10.50 (-4.50) |
| Thai Crepe Dumplings | $15.00 | $15.00 | 0% | $10.50 (-4.50) |
| Steamed Dumplings | $14.00 | $14.00 | 0% | $9.80 (-4.20) |
| Crispy Spring Rolls | $11.00 | $11.00 | 0% | $7.70 (-3.30) |
| Salads | ||||
| Papaya Salad | $15.00 | $15.00 | 0% | $10.50 (-4.50) |
| Salad Roll | $15.00 | $15.00 | 0% | $10.50 (-4.50) |
| Green Market Salad | $12.00 | $12.00 | 0% | $8.40 (-3.60) |
| Thai Salad | $12.00 | $12.00 | 0% | $8.40 (-3.60) |
| Noodles | ||||
| Pad Thai | $19.00 | $19.00 | 0% | $13.30 (-5.70) |
| Pad Se-Ew | $19.00 | $19.00 | 0% | $13.30 (-5.70) |
| Kea Mao | $19.00 | $19.00 | 0% | $13.30 (-5.70) |
| Fried Rice | ||||
| Crab Fried Rice | $30.00 | $30.00 | 0% | $21.00 (-9.00) |
| Basil Fried Rice | $19.00 | $19.00 | 0% | $13.30 (-5.70) |
| Thai Fried Rice | $19.00 | $19.00 | 0% | $13.30 (-5.70) |
| Pineapple Fried Rice | $19.00 | $19.00 | 0% | $13.30 (-5.70) |
| Over Rice | ||||
| Krapraw Gai Sub | $22.00 | $22.00 | 0% | $15.40 (-6.60) |
| Moo Dang (Roasted BBQ Pork) | $22.00 | $22.00 | 0% | $15.40 (-6.60) |
| Curry | ||||
| Red Curry | $20.00 | $20.00 | 0% | $14.00 (-6.00) |
| Green Curry | $20.00 | $20.00 | 0% | $14.00 (-6.00) |
| Panang Curry | $20.00 | $20.00 | 0% | $14.00 (-6.00) |
| Massaman Curry | $20.00 | $20.00 | 0% | $14.00 (-6.00) |
| Entrees | ||||
| Pad Krapraw Basil | $19.00 | $19.00 | 0% | $13.30 (-5.70) |
| Cashew Nut | $19.00 | $19.00 | 0% | $13.30 (-5.70) |
| Chef’s Signature | ||||
| Beef Short Rib Panang | $42.00 | $42.00 | 0% | $29.40 (-12.60) |
| Steamed Branzino w/ Ginger & Scallion | $38.00 | $38.00 | 0% | $26.60 (-11.40) |
| Talay Thai | $34.00 | $34.00 | 0% | $23.80 (-10.20) |
| Salmon Tamarind | $32.00 | $32.00 | 0% | $22.40 (-9.60) |
| Poh Tak (Thai-Style Bouillabaisse) | $32.00 | $32.00 | 0% | $22.40 (-9.60) |
| Nam Tok | $29.00 | $29.00 | 0% | $20.30 (-8.70) |
| Up Thai Fried Rice Claypot | $27.00 | $27.00 | 0% | $18.90 (-8.10) |
| Similan Curry | $24.00 | $24.00 | 0% | $16.80 (-7.20) |
| Summer Special | ||||
| Crispy Branzino with Mango Salad | $39.00 | $39.00 | 0% | $27.30 (-11.70) |
| Pad Phed Talay | $34.00 | $34.00 | 0% | $23.80 (-10.20) |
| Soft Shell Crab Gaeng Kua | $29.00 | $29.00 | 0% | $20.30 (-8.70) |
| Pomelo Salad with Crispy Softshell Crab | $19.00 | $19.00 | 0% | $13.30 (-5.70) |
| Crispy Zaab Duck | $16.00 | $16.00 | 0% | $11.20 (-4.80) |
| Side Dishes | ||||
| Steamed Assorted Vegetables | $10.00 | $10.00 | 0% | $7.00 (-3.00) |
| Berry Brown Rice | $4.00 | $4.00 | 0% | $2.80 (-1.20) |
| Fried Egg | $3.00 | $3.00 | 0% | $2.10 (-0.90) |
| Desserts | ||||
| Trio Sorbet | $12.00 | $12.00 | 0% | $8.40 (-3.60) |
| Drinks | ||||
| Thai Iced Coffee | $7.00 | $7.00 | 0% | $4.90 (-2.10) |
| Thai Iced Tea | $7.00 | $7.00 | 0% | $4.90 (-2.10) |
| Lychee Thai Tea | $7.00 | $7.00 | 0% | $4.90 (-2.10) |
| Yuzu Lemonade | $7.00 | $7.00 | 0% | $4.90 (-2.10) |
| Thai Tea Lemonade | $7.00 | $7.00 | 0% | $4.90 (-2.10) |
| Sparkling Water (750ml) | $7.00 | $7.00 | 0% | $4.90 (-2.10) |
| Jasmine Iced Tea | $6.00 | $6.00 | 0% | $4.20 (-1.80) |
| All 51 matched items (basket) | $952.00 | $952.00 | 0% | $666.40 (-285.60) |
By the numbers
- Items matched: 51 (same description and portion, same 1411 2nd Ave counter; the $2 bottled water, the $6 juice and a few items listed on only one platform were excluded for want of an exact same-portion match)
- Markup: 0% — mean, median and range all zero across every item
- Basket: $952.00 at the counter, $952.00 on Uber Eats (identical)
- The Uber Eats food price equals the restaurant’s own pickup price, so the markup is not a delivery cost — there is no menu markup at all
- Break-even markup at a 30% commission: +42.9% — Up Thai’s markup is zero, far below it, so the counter nets well under its walk-in take on delivery
- What the restaurant nets: about $666.40 on the basket at a 30% commission (~$286 less than counter); about $809.20 even at New York’s capped 15% (~$143 less)
- Items on which the restaurant nets less than dine-in: 51 of 51 at a 30% commission; 51 of 51 even at New York’s capped 15%
- Story type: B (absorbing) — the restaurant, not the customer, pays the platform’s commission
Method
On 15 July 2026, USA Times captured Up Thai’s own prices from its first-party pickup ordering site (order.online, the restaurant’s white-label storefront on the DoorDash Commerce Platform, set to Pickup) for the 1411 2nd Ave store — the price a pickup customer pays at that counter. The same day, we captured Uber Eats list prices for the same 1411 2nd Ave store from the rendered storefront and matched them item by item against the first-party menu; every one of the 51 matched items was identical to the dollar. We matched only items with the same description and portion, used list prices rather than promotional prices, and excluded the $2 bottled water and $6 juice (whose exact counterparts we could not confirm on the Uber storefront), build-your-own or single-platform items, and cocktails. This automated run did not separately toggle the Uber storefront to Pickup to record the in-app pickup price, and did not capture the delivery fee, service fee, any New York regulatory fee, tax or tip a customer pays on top, which require a logged-in checkout; the Uber prices reported are the storefront’s list prices for the food. The “shop nets” figures are an analytical estimate that applies a 30% (and, separately, New York’s capped 15%) commission to the Uber Eats 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 Up Thai and Uber for comment and will update this report with any response. Up Thai 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 why it holds its in-app prices at its counter level — 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
- Up Thai counter / first-party prices — Up Thai (1411 2nd Ave) pickup ordering menu, captured 15 July 2026.
- Up Thai Uber Eats list prices — Up Thai on Uber Eats, captured 15 July 2026.
- Up Thai location and ordering links — upthainyc.com, reviewed 15 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.
