Customers Found a Wild Zomato Loophole, And Restaurants Might Already Be Exploiting It — This Isn’t Just a Trick Anymore
Imagine ordering just one ₹40 roti on zomato — but secretly receiving ₹1,200 worth of food packed inside the same delivery bag.
Sounds absurd, right?
But according to growing online discussions, that’s exactly the loophole some customers and restaurants may be exploiting. The process is shockingly simple. A customer places a tiny order through the app just to activate Zomato’s delivery network. Then, instead of ordering the real meal on the platform, they directly call the restaurant and place the full order separately through UPI payment.
The restaurant packs everything together.
The rider picks it up without knowing.
The food gets delivered like a normal zomato order.
And suddenly, zomato is unknowingly handling logistics for a massive order while earning commission on just one roti.
That’s the part that makes this potentially dangerous.
Because food delivery companies survive on razor-thin unit economics. Their entire business model depends on commissions, platform fees, delivery margins, and high-volume transactions. If customers and restaurants begin bypassing the main bill while still using the app’s infrastructure, the platform essentially becomes unpaid logistics support for off-platform business.
And here’s where it gets more serious: this doesn’t even require advanced fraud or technical hacking.
It’s operational exploitation hiding in plain sight.
For restaurants, it’s attractive because they avoid losing 25–30% commission on large orders. For customers, it reduces fees, taxes, and surge pricing. Both sides save money while the platform absorbs the operational burden.
If isolated, it’s just a loophole.
If scaled, it becomes a structural threat.
Because platforms like zomato aren’t built to survive large-scale off-platform monetization riding secretly on top of their delivery fleet. The danger isn’t one customer gaming the system.
The danger is that restaurants quietly teach regular customers how to do it repeatedly.
And if that behavior spreads widely, the economics of food delivery won’t collapse dramatically.
They’ll slowly bleed from the inside.