Order Mighty Quinn’s barbecue for pickup at its Gowanus counter and again on Uber Eats, and the same 45 items cost about a fifth more on the app — a markup baked into the food price itself, before a single delivery or service fee is added.
By Achir Kalra, Executive Editor, and the USA Times Data Desk
MIGHTY QUINN’S BBQ (433 3rd Ave, Gowanus, Brooklyn) — Steakhouse / BBQ. Case study #8 in our food-delivery pricing audit. We compared the restaurant’s own online-ordering menu against its Uber Eats storefront, item by item, on 15 July 2026.
The markup
Across 45 dishes matched by exact name and portion, Uber Eats prices ran a mean of 23.1% and a median of 20.1% above the counter. The single most common markup was exactly 20%. The full $338.53 counter basket became $406.08 on the app — a 20.0% premium — and that is only the food.
The average is pulled up at the small end: a $0.99 dipping sauce becomes $1.49 on Uber, a 51% jump. But the pattern holds straight across the menu. A $14.95 brisket sandwich is $17.95. A $14.50 half chicken is $17.50. A $3.50 square of cornbread is $4.95. A $4.95 side of mac & cheese is $6.25. Only two of the 45 items — a 90-cent dinner roll and one dipping sauce — cost the same on both.
What the restaurant nets
New York City caps the commission a delivery platform can charge a restaurant at 15% of the order, a limit the City Council made permanent in 2021. Mighty Quinn’s marks its Uber menu up by more than that cap — and that produces an unusual result for this series. Because a roughly 20% markup outruns a 15% commission, the restaurant appears to clear slightly more per item on delivery than at its own counter: by our calculation about 15 cents a dish, and roughly $6.64 across the sampled basket, netting more on 35 of the 45 items.
That is the opposite of what we found at Han Dynasty in the East Village, where a thin markup left the kitchen absorbing part of the fee. We are reporting the Mighty Quinn’s figure plainly, and we have put it to the restaurant. The menu price on Uber is set by Mighty Quinn’s, not by Uber, and we have asked whether the delivery markup is intended to cover the commission, the cost of packaging and remakes on missed orders, or something else. Outside New York, where platforms commonly charge about 30%, the very same menu would net the restaurant less on 39 of 45 items — a reminder of how much the city’s cap changes the math.
Why it still runs through Uber
Two things are true at once. The restaurant sets the price, and under New York’s cap it is made whole. But the customer still pays the premium — about a fifth on the food — and then pays Uber again in the delivery and service fees layered on at checkout. The markup is not a delivery charge: it sits inside the food price. In this series we have found that markup is a platform premium rather than a cost of driving — at Katz’s Delicatessen, Uber’s pickup price matched its delivery price to the cent. Uber measures this gap for merchants, reporting a “Menu Markup” figure to restaurants, and does not disclose it to the diner, who simply sees a higher number than the one printed on the counter menu.
Every dish we compared
| Dish | Section | Counter | Uber Eats | Difference | Markup | Restaurant nets @15% cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extra BBQ Sauce | Sauces | $0.99 | $1.49 | +$0.50 | +51% | $1.27 (+$0.28) |
| Extra Chipotle BBQ Sauce | Sauces | $0.99 | $1.49 | +$0.50 | +51% | $1.27 (+$0.28) |
| Extra Chile-Lime Sauce | Sauces | $0.99 | $1.49 | +$0.50 | +51% | $1.27 (+$0.28) |
| Extra Honey-Chile Sauce | Sauces | $0.99 | $1.49 | +$0.50 | +51% | $1.27 (+$0.28) |
| Extra Carolina Mustard Sauce | Sauces | $0.99 | $1.49 | +$0.50 | +51% | $1.27 (+$0.28) |
| Extra Ranch | Sauces | $0.99 | $1.49 | +$0.50 | +51% | $1.27 (+$0.28) |
| Cornbread | Sides | $3.50 | $4.95 | +$1.45 | +41% | $4.21 (+$0.71) |
| Burnt End Baked Beans | Sides | $4.95 | $6.25 | +$1.30 | +26% | $5.31 (+$0.36) |
| Roasted Sweet Potatoes w/Candied Pecans | Sides | $4.95 | $6.25 | +$1.30 | +26% | $5.31 (+$0.36) |
| Mac & Cheese | Sides | $4.95 | $6.25 | +$1.30 | +26% | $5.31 (+$0.36) |
| Broccoli Salad | Sides | $4.95 | $6.25 | +$1.30 | +26% | $5.31 (+$0.36) |
| Cinnamon Bun Bread Pudding | Dessert | $4.95 | $6.25 | +$1.30 | +26% | $5.31 (+$0.36) |
| Mac & Cheese Fritters | Sides | $7.95 | $9.75 | +$1.80 | +23% | $8.29 (+$0.34) |
| Chicken Power Bowl | Bowls | $17.95 | $21.95 | +$4.00 | +22% | $18.66 (+$0.71) |
| Brussels Sprouts | Sides | $4.50 | $5.45 | +$0.95 | +21% | $4.63 (+$0.13) |
| Jasmine Rice | Sides | $4.50 | $5.45 | +$0.95 | +21% | $4.63 (+$0.13) |
| Slaw | Sides | $4.50 | $5.45 | +$0.95 | +21% | $4.63 (+$0.13) |
| Pickled Veggies | Sides | $4.50 | $5.45 | +$0.95 | +21% | $4.63 (+$0.13) |
| Half Chicken | Meats | $14.50 | $17.50 | +$3.00 | +21% | $14.88 (+$0.38) |
| French Fries | Sides | $4.95 | $5.95 | +$1.00 | +20% | $5.06 (+$0.11) |
| Spicy Crispy Chicken Sandwich | Sandwiches | $9.95 | $11.95 | +$2.00 | +20% | $10.16 (+$0.21) |
| BBQ Crispy Chicken Sandwich | Sandwiches | $9.95 | $11.95 | +$2.00 | +20% | $10.16 (+$0.21) |
| Honey Crispy Chicken Sandwich | Sandwiches | $9.95 | $11.95 | +$2.00 | +20% | $10.16 (+$0.21) |
| Carolina Mustard Crispy Chicken Sandwich | Sandwiches | $9.95 | $11.95 | +$2.00 | +20% | $10.16 (+$0.21) |
| Brisket Sandwich | Sandwiches | $14.95 | $17.95 | +$3.00 | +20% | $15.26 (+$0.31) |
| Spare Ribs | Meats | $14.95 | $17.95 | +$3.00 | +20% | $15.26 (+$0.31) |
| Brisket Power Bowl | Bowls | $19.95 | $23.95 | +$4.00 | +20% | $20.36 (+$0.41) |
| Pulled Pork Sandwich | Sandwiches | $12.95 | $15.50 | +$2.55 | +20% | $13.17 (+$0.22) |
| Kick’n Chicken Sandwich | Sandwiches | $12.95 | $15.50 | +$2.55 | +20% | $13.17 (+$0.22) |
| Spicy Crispy Chicken Bowl | Bowls | $12.95 | $15.50 | +$2.55 | +20% | $13.17 (+$0.22) |
| Sausage Link | Meats | $10.45 | $12.45 | +$2.00 | +19% | $10.58 (+$0.13) |
| Sausage Sandwich | Sandwiches | $10.95 | $12.95 | +$2.00 | +18% | $11.01 (+$0.06) |
| Spicy Wings | Meats | $10.95 | $12.95 | +$2.00 | +18% | $11.01 (+$0.06) |
| BBQ Wings | Meats | $10.95 | $12.95 | +$2.00 | +18% | $11.01 (+$0.06) |
| Carolina Mustard Wings | Meats | $10.95 | $12.95 | +$2.00 | +18% | $11.01 (+$0.06) |
| Dirty Fries | Sides | $12.75 | $14.95 | +$2.20 | +17% | $12.71 (−$0.04) |
| Loaded Potato | Sides | $11.95 | $13.95 | +$2.00 | +17% | $11.86 (−$0.09) |
| Bottled Soda | Drinks | $3.95 | $4.50 | +$0.55 | +14% | $3.82 (−$0.13) |
| Chocolate Fudge Brownie | Dessert | $3.50 | $3.95 | +$0.45 | +13% | $3.36 (−$0.14) |
| Snickerdoodle Blondie | Dessert | $3.50 | $3.95 | +$0.45 | +13% | $3.36 (−$0.14) |
| Cinnamon Roll Blondie | Dessert | $3.50 | $3.95 | +$0.45 | +13% | $3.36 (−$0.14) |
| Bottled Water | Drinks | $2.75 | $3.00 | +$0.25 | +9% | $2.55 (−$0.20) |
| Dirty Brisket Bowl | Bowls | $13.95 | $14.95 | +$1.00 | +7% | $12.71 (−$1.24) |
| Rolls | Sides | $0.90 | $0.90 | +$0.00 | +0% | $0.77 (−$0.14) |
| Extra Chipotle Aioli | Sauces | $1.49 | $1.49 | +$0.00 | +0% | $1.27 (−$0.22) |
By the numbers
- Dishes compared: 45
- Mean markup: 23.1%
- Median markup: 20.1%
- Most common markup: 20%
- Range: 0% (dinner roll; one dipping sauce) to 50.5% (dipping sauces)
- Counter basket vs Uber basket: $338.53 → $406.08 (+20.0%)
- New York City commission cap: 15%
- Breakeven markup at a 30% commission: 42.9%
- Items where the restaurant nets more than counter under NYC’s 15% cap: 35 of 45
Method
Counter prices are the restaurant’s own Pick-Up prices from its first-party online-ordering system (order.mightyquinnsbbq.com/GOW/gowanus), captured live on 15 July 2026; because Mighty Quinn’s runs that ordering itself, commission-free, the pickup price equals the counter price. Uber Eats prices are the storefront’s delivery list prices, read from the store page’s structured data the same day; we used list prices, not any promotional discount. We matched only dishes with the same name and portion. We excluded the two- and three-meat samplers, family and kids meals, and the custom rice bowl (build-your-own combinations with no fixed price to compare), meats sold by the pound (portion-configurable), and fountain soda and iced tea (Uber returned no comparable single price). We did not place an order: delivery and service fees vary with cart, address and tip and require a logged-in checkout, which we did not complete, so this piece measures the food markup only. The “restaurant nets” figures apply New York City’s 15% commission cap to the Uber price and are our analysis, not a figure disclosed by Uber or the restaurant.
Right of reply
Mighty Quinn’s BBQ was contacted for comment through its Gowanus location, and Uber was contacted at press@uber.com. We asked Uber for its commission rates by plan tier in New York, whether it tracks a “Menu Markup” metric and its citywide average, why that figure is not disclosed to consumers, and whether it accepts that the customer funds both the food markup and the checkout fees. Any response will be added here.
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.
