If that's all they had I'd turn around and walk out.

Oh yes, 100% agreed

I've been frequenting the same Chinese restaurant for 40 years. It's owned and operated by a family from China. Whenever they have enough money, they send for more family to come over. The new family members work at the restaurant (at least until they speak better English), and the family starts saving up for the next set to come over.--- This place has excellent food and service, although it took the first pioneers time to get the cultural differences. When I was in highschool, a friend bought me a gift certificate from them for Christmas. When he went, he explained to the lady what he wanted. She didn't understand, even though her English was relatively good, so I think it's something that wasn't done in China then? Anyway, she understood the "pay now, buy later" but she wanted him to choose a meal and just pay for it. She kept asking if his friend wants vegetable. So he finally got her to understand what he wanted. She called the other two servers over, and the three of them discussed it in Chinese. Then the woman went back to the men (cooking) and explained it to them in Chinese. The three men had a conference about it, gave their decision. The woman went back to the servers and explained the decision to them, came back to the counter. She took a ticket and wrote the whole thing out on the ticket and took his money. He told me the story when he gave it to me, and suggested I bring money just in case. So when I went, it was the same woman at the counter. She knew me. I was a regular at the time. She told me I had a very nice friend. Now, this is the person who sold him the gift certificate. She took it from me, called the serving women together, and had a conference in Chinese. She then took the certificate, which SHE handwrote, to the kitchen to show the men. The had a conversation in Chinese, and gave her their verdict. She came back to speak to the other women again, and then she rang me up as normal and gave me the change from the certificate. It was so funny! When I got out of prison, a friend was going to bring me an order from that restaurant and needed the address. I checked the website, where I was slightly dismayed to see standard gift cards for sale. The end of an era.

Yesss! Upvote for good potatoes! 👍🏻

Goes to how often they make things fresh. Anything stale means it has probably been sitting around for a while.

I'm both a server and a frequent solo diner. A couple on a date is usually going to occupy that table 3 times as long. It's not like I'm going to be talking and getting to know myself. I'm just there for a good meal.

"Hello!, every pizza place"

We had a hole-in-the-wall diner near us with an historic length menu, but everything was fantastic. Gone now, thanks Megan's Diner in Ravenna, Ohio!!

And the volume on the TV is so high that you can’t have a conversation.

The indian (Goa cuisine) restaurant I went to yesterday was filled with Chinese tourists, couldn't conclude on anything

Dumpsters can attract otters? Huh. Did not know that.

but you don't find out until the next day :)

What about the restaurants (like Gordon Ramsay's) that don't even have salt & pepper on the table because they believe the chefs have seasoned the food as it should be?

I love a good French onion soup and I always order it as well. I can tell immediately if they made any short cuts and if they did I won't eat there again. I can remember every place that has good French onion soup and who doesn't. It's my favorite soup besides hot and sour soup.

If Heinz ketchup is your standard of high quality.. well that says something.

As someone who loves waffle house, my criteria for the quality of the waffle house (or at least the server I have) is do they get my order right, especially my hashbrowns. I order them covered and country (add cheese and country gravy). They usually get the covered part, but if they remember the country part, then they're actually on top of it. It's a weird as hell order, so often people forget the weird part.

That’s a good one! I will remember, thank you! Similar for me with Italian places: if the display of ANTIPASTI looks soggy, I don’t care wheather they have a wood-oven baking the pizza!

I strongly disagree. Being « inclusive » has nothing to do with the quality (or lack of) of the restaurant. It certainly can be a criteria to choose where to eat but completely independent from quality. A restaurant, a menu, is a proposition. You know what you’ll get. If it doesn’t suit you, so be it.

I don't know about you, guys, but that chocolate looks heavenly.

Loose leaf tea is a must. Even better if the tea is in a basket that can he taken out of the pot when brewed to your liking. I've been to spaces where it's just a supermarket brand tea bag tag hanging out of the pot. I didn't get tea there again. Also having a decent size jug of milk on the side. If there is enough tea in the pot for a second cup, there needs to be milk for a second cup too.

Good point

The taste or smell of water may not be the restaurant’s fault. If the restaurant serves tap water, the taste and smell may be the fault of the city — or even of Mother Nature.

Why would they balk? I, for one, are not crazy for the sweetened iced tea.

Food quality is a good sign of a good restaurant. You don’t say.

This is a good one. I recently was on vacation and we found a seemingly nice waterfront restaurant. It had a four seasons room/outdoor seating area. The windows in the four seasons room could be swapped for screens so it would be a screen room, but for some reason they still had the windows in place (maybe to keep it AC'd). The windows were GROSS. They looked like they were just dragged up from a basement... all dirty and stained, half of them had cobwebs on them. This was a pretty nice restaurant... good food, nice outdoor area. I couldn't believe how disgusting the windows were. We would have totally went back there again but didn't because of these windows. How can any restaurant manager or owner over look that?

Had no idea you could order "over medium" eggs, what is that ?

I'm not a fan of condiments, but I only like Hellmann's Mayo. I've never got on with home made.

Places that try to pass of margarine instead of butter- nope, I'm out