Can I sell food on DoorDash or Uber Eats without a restaurant?

Yes. None of the three asks for a dining room. They ask for a business, a menu and a kitchen licensed to sell food. DoorDash answers the kitchen half itself, in the FAQ under its guide to delivery-only restaurants, where the question is "Do I need my own kitchen to start a delivery only restaurant?"

Uber Eats puts its test as four questions a team member reviews. The second is "Is your store a licensed business that sells prepared food or essentials/convenience items?" A restaurant is not on that list. A license is.

A commercial kitchen, with a permit for the address you cook at. DoorDash's guide says "A delivery-only restaurant needs the same licenses as any restaurant business" and names four: a business license, a food service permit, health department approval and food handler certifications for staff. It adds a timeline first-time sellers rarely plan for: "Approvals can take four to eight weeks, so start the paperwork before you plan to open."

Uber Eats says what it does with the license. At sign-up it tries to match your business name and address against government licensing databases, and may ask for the license itself. Then comes the sentence that matters if you rent your kitchen:

In a shared kitchen the delivery address is the kitchen's address, because that is where the driver picks up, so the permit you upload has to carry it. Whether you hold your own permit there or cook under the operator's is a question for your county health department. None of the three platforms publishes an answer. Uber also lists what it turns away, and two items catch new sellers:

More than a restaurant with a sign out front, because your listing is the only place a customer ever sees you, and DoorDash will mark it. Its help center gives a store a virtual kitchen badge if any one of three things is true: "The brand has no established brick and mortar store", "The store does not provide a dine-in option for customers", or "The store operates out of a commissary or shared kitchen". A seller with no restaurant meets all three.

DoorDash does not say the badge and its Virtual Brand Quality Requirements share a definition, so plan for both. Those requirements ask for at least 8 food items, a header image no other brand uses, and a distinct real photo on every item, set out in the ghost kitchen guide.

Both big apps will send a photographer. Uber's virtual restaurant sign-up asks for "Menu photos, or if you don’t have menu photos, a few dates you’ll be available to have SmartShoots come and take some photos of your menu items". DoorDash offers a free shoot with a limit on where the photos may be used, covered in the guide to the free DoorDash photoshoot.

Where a platform is silent, ask it in writing before you sign a lease. A sentence from support is worth more than a guess, including mine.

I started MenuPhotoLab for exactly this stage: a real kitchen, a full menu and no photo budget. You take the photos on your phone in the kitchen you rent. MenuPhotoLab fixes the light and the background and prepares the sizes for each app. I never generate food or change what is in the container, because the photo has to be what your customer receives.