If you’re looking for answers, “Ask Reddit” is the place to go.
Granted, the majority of knowledge you’ll find there is somewhat random and oddly specific, but every once in a while you’ll spot a golden nugget of helpful wisdom gleaming among the rest.
In one particular instance, an account that’s since been deleted once posited the question,
“Chefs, what red flags should people look out for when they go out to eat?”
The user wanted to know what should prompt someone to leave a restaurant based on any of the 5 senses.
While many chimed in, it was restaurant workers and chefs who had the most interesting answers.
Here’s the advice that gave us food for thought.
1. Something’s fishy
“The first thing they told us in culinary school when you’re learning the basic rules for food safety standards is if you enter a seafood restaurant and smell fish, leave.”
“I always say, if you enter a seafood shop or restaurant, it should smell like the ocean. Mostly like fresh air and saltwater. That means everything is fresh. If it smells like fish, it starts to become bad and if it starts, it is gonna be bad very fast!”
2. Salty chefs
“If employees try to argue with you about food quality in order to dissuade you from sending something undercooked back, just leave. It means they have a cook who can’t take criticism and your chances at getting a sneezer are greatly increased.”
3. Big menus are suspect.
“If a restaurant has a HUGE menu… It’s all frozen.”
4. Porous surfaces
“Not a chef but worked in food a lot. Carpet. Yeah it’s quieter and doesn’t get slick, but it is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen. I saw them pull it up when they remodeled (and put in more carpet). Vacuuming only goes so far in a restaurant and I know they never, ever shampooed it.”
5. Spicy waitstaff
“Cook for a small Mexican restaurant here. I always look for how the staff interact with each other. If they all seem to enjoy being there, and coordinate well, more often than not it’s because everything is running smoothly and they have a good system, which usually means they know what they’re doing and you can expect good food. That’s how it always is for the smaller, family-run restaurants I frequent anyway, which I believe always have the best food.”
6. Recommending what’s not good.
“I’ve worked in restaurants for over a decade. A couple years in the kitchen and the rest as FOH.
If your server’s response to “how is the [item]” seems disingenuous, that’s a big red flag. We know what goes on in the kitchen, we know the complaints, and we know which items to stress over when we deliver them. Servers who pause or seem uncomfortable with that question generally equates to a menu full of stuff we wouldn’t eat even as a free shift meal.”
7. Inordinately fast food
“Cook at a fancy casual fine dining restaurant here. If your food is out impossibly fast, it’s probably something to be concerned about. I’m talking ordering an entree and it’s out in like 10 minutes. This usually means it’s already been cooked and they just have to reheat it. Now something like a salad, okay that shouldn’t take any time at all, but you want to make sure your lettuce (or whatever green it is) is still crunchy and fresh, otherwise it’s been made before and has been sitting.”
8. The smell of grease
“This is late but I clean kitchen exhaust systems. If you walk in a restaurant and can smell grease walk out. That means the place isn’t clean. From the exhaust system to cooking equipment. We clean some places where grease drips off the hoods onto cooking surfaces.”
9. “Cutesy” names for ordinary dishes
“In Culinary school currently and every single Chef Instructor says the same thing, if its misspelled on the menu it’s on purpose and it’s so they don’t have to sell you the real thing a prime example is “Krab Cakes.'”
10. Crusty cutlery
“I’ve done bartending/waitressing for a few years, here’s my list:
Check your cutlery, most cutlery barely gets washed, it gets rubbed with soap, sprayed with water and chucked in a dishwasher, it’s then meant to be polished with hot water when it’s brought to the table set up area, this is where we actually check it for leftover grime. If your cutlery is gross, chances are your wait staff aren’t doing their job properly.”
Well, there you’ve heard it from the horse’s mouth! Recognize any of the warning signs on the list? Please, do tell.
Learn more restaurant red flags here.
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