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Most people don’t think twice before grabbing a quick bite or ordering meals at a restaurant. Reading these menu items alone makes your stomach jealous, and all you probably care about is getting some tasty food right away. But the truth is, a little healthy skepticism when it comes to the restaurant business is always a good thing. Because if there’s one thing that can turn appetizing food into an unappealing mess, it's knowing the secrets of the food industry.
Getting a peek behind the curtain and learning about the nooks and crannies of the trade inevitably tells you a little about how the sausage gets made — quite literally. So when Redditor Cynically_Absurd turned to the 'Kitchen Confidential' subreddit asking, "What's an item on a menu that you'll never order and why?" the post immediately became a hit. In fact, our team at Bored Panda discovered a few similar threads that have chefs and servers dishing on the meals they’d absolutely not order under any circumstances.
So we’ve wrapped up some of the most illuminating responses by people who know what they’re talking about, and plated them out in one place for you to devour. Continue scrolling, upvote the ones you didn’t know about, and let us know what you think in the comments! And if you’re keen on some more insider knowledge, check out our previous piece where restaurant workers spill shady cost-saving secrets right here.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I'm a dishwasher at one of my local restaurants and I guess unlike other peoples' experiences my kitchen is a lot different. I myself have to clean the kitchen floor every night and I take pride in cleaning your dishes, whenever I think of half assing a job I think to myself would I want to eat off a s**t plate. The answer is no. Your silverware, I f*****g make sure that s**t is clean. Your cups I wash that s**t. The pans your food is cooked off of I make sure they are to the standards that I would want my food to be cooked off of. I don't get paid an awful lot of money even though the other dishwasher gets paid 15/hr I get paid 9/hr and I really do care about how clean everything is.
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#2
DO NOT COME IN RIGHT BEFORE CLOSING AND ORDER SOMETHING LIKE A STEAK! If the restaurant closes at 11 and you walk in at 10:50 more than likely the grill has been cleaned already and everything is put away. I realize that they are still open but in most cases the cook has already been there for 12 hours and wants to get the f**k out of there. I can't tell you how many times I witnessed the cook just throwing your nice juicy sirloin in the microwave and nuking the ever living s**t out of it.
Susy Drizel 2 years ago
I feel that customers shouldn't be allowed to order food when it is cleaning time in the kitchen.
#3
Shameless plug: I work for Five Guys and everything is fresh. No freezer. TONS of hand washing and glove changing. We clean the soda machine every day and the ice chutes. Everything is FIFO'ed including the imperishables. We have a private audit once a quarter to make sure the restaurant is crazy clean. The mushrooms come in a bag... That's about it. They aren't gross though.
This is the nerdiest post of all time. Who is this amped about the cleanliness of their chain restaurant? Me, apparently.
#4
When I worked at Subway (and this isn't true of every Subway, I hope), the ice machine was cleaned out about 3 times in my 5 years there. One time I had the luxury of cleaning it. It was filled with mold. Since then I never get ice in my drinks anywhere.
a fruity dream of delusion 2 years ago
YUCK. it may be stupid of me, but until now i didn’t really think of that being a place that needed cleaning out.
#5
Anything off of a buffet or salad bar or whatever. It took covid to make me realize exactly how gross the general population is when there’s no consequences for being so gross. I’ve had multiple people genuinely not understand why it was a problem to take the spoon from a seafood dish and use it to get some Mac and cheese or whatever. I’ve seen people lick the utensils. I’ve seen people reach in with their bare hands to get a biscuit. I’ve seen kids getting their own food and all the perils that come with that. Fuck
#6
Appetizers, just out of spite. I love onion rings, but paying $13 for an order because they’re served as a tower is ridiculous. Apps are now the price as entrees at some places
#7
I don't have anything specific to divulge, but a little general info to look out for anytime you're in a bar or restaurant.
If you're in an upscale restaurant or a big chain restaurant, order anything you want. Standards are high!
If you're ordering food in a bar/lounge environment, be aware that the person making your food is not, by an large, a chef. I can't tell you how many places I've worked where customers have sent compliments to the chef that fell on the ears of a single 22 year old student running the entire kitchen himself who had never held a cooking job before. It's an assembly line most places.
If you're in a mid level bar/lounge/grill, stay away from menu items that seems out of place. If everything on the menu is burgers, pizzas, wings, pub grub, and there's one item on the menu that's like a Lemon Pesto Lobster Fettucini, stay away from that one. Chances are it rarely gets ordered, is over priced, is poorly made, and the guy making it doesn't really know or care about what he's doing. It also probably has a ton of ingredients in it that aren't used in anything else and that noone ever checks the levels or quality or day dots of until it's actually brown and smells, and which point they just say "f**k it" and make it anyway.
This isn't everywhere, but it happens more than people realize.
#8
Unless the place is known for homemade, soups. They're mostly either canned or frozen. Just not where I want to spend my dining out dollars.
Amused panda 2 years ago
But if soup is frozen, that suggests it was homemade. And if homemade soup is frozen, it is going to keep much better than if it had been sat in the fridge for days on end.
#10
DO NOT ever get a lemon in your drink at a restaurant. Servers clean off food, touch the food screen, handle many used pens, and do a lot of other things with their hands. There isn't always time to wash your hands between taking a drink order and grabbing those lemons. It's a big source of cross-contamination
Kristi Wozniak 2 years ago
This is the most true of all! I always use a sword skewer for my fruits- and many are shocked: I reply the same to all- old or Young- "I don't finger-f**k your fruits". And get a laughed and a thank you. I wash my hands a LOT- and sanitize- but still- gross!!! Money is stripper crotch/other people boob sweat and cocaine... and I touch it all Day!!!
#11
6 oz kids steaks, we don't season them and they come frozen. I work in a restaurant where we promise our steaks are never frozen. Thinking about it, can I sue them for false advertisement?
#12
Lobster at a place not known for their seafood. Where the fuck are they gonna get lobster?
#13
On the opposite side of things...I worked at the Olive Garden for three years in college. The soup, salad, and breadsticks all come pre-proccessed just add water s**t. However, the majority of menu items were prepared fresh and monitored for temperature and quality throughout the day.
#14
This reminds me of a story my high school commercial art teacher once told the class.
If I recall, he was out with his wife at an IHOP and didn't feel like eating breakfast, so he ordered the shrimp. So everything goes okay for an hour or so and then the stomach cramps start. From the way he told it, not long after that he started his twelve hour camping trip to the bathroom and couldn't leave for fear of s******g himself.
He was a weird guy, but I digress. Don't order something completely out there at a place that specializes in something completely different.
#15
Nachos. I think spending money for cheese melted on chips is ridiculous for the what they charge.
#16
Every Taco Bell employee I've ever hung out with has always said, "Don't get steak. NEVER get steak." When someone has asked what not to order.
#17
Not a specific item but I won't get sushi at an empty sushi place or on a sunday or Monday before dinner.
#18
I'm not going to make a post about the one time I worked in some s**t hole place and some piece of s**t cook did something unsanitary or when I found a fly in the ice machine.
As a line cook of over 10 years, I will tell you if eating anywhere that is not high end. Don't order appetizers. 99% of corporate and local restaurants appetizers are frozen and made by big corporations or some off brand never heard of company.
Nearly every place you eat that has "spinach artichoke dip" it frozen in a bag and made by Nestle. Those "beer battered onion" rings you love so much, they're more than likely the cheapest pre-breaded, pre-fried, brand the restaurant can get a hold of. Love the soup at "Insert corporate place here" it's frozen in a bag and heated via steam table."
Apps are insanely overpriced and most often they are the worst thing on the menu for you health wise. However, restaurants love for you to order them because of the high profit margin.
The only real appetizers I would really suggest ordering that are made on site are normally nachos, the chips are fried when you order, and the meat is cooked right away if it's a grilled or fried meat. If it's ground beef or a braised meat then it came frozen in a bag. Whole bloom'n onions at a place like Outback, those are cut and made to order from what I understand. Also stay away from things that are out of place. If you got to a steak house and they have a chicken fettuccine Alfredo dish. More than likely it's going to be frozen and out of a bag. It may taste alright but you can buy frozen in bag fettuccine Alfredo of your own for $4 at a local grocery store.
My point to all of this is that frozen in bag foods are not much different than what you can find at your local grocer and make yourself at home. Those products are not of bad quality but they're more than likely microwaved and just a huge waste of your money. If you enjoy them, then more power to you. Keep on enjoying them, nothing wrong with that.
***TL:DR, stay away from apps, and out of place menu items.***
Yoga Kitty 2 years ago
Eating at a restaurant is, at least where I live, always much more expensive than preparing food at home - going by that logic I would never eat out. In fact, it is really not very common here and more of a social event. And if I meet friends or coworkers out for eating I also sometimes have to order the "unusual thing" out of the deepest end of the fridge because the restaurant was not my personal choice, I don't like their usual food, and I only came for the company. So what? It still has to be edible otherwise the place will be closed very quickly...
#19
I worked at a buffet (Shoney's) for a while. After witnessing first hand how nasty customers can be, and how little regard they have for spreading their germs, I will never, ever eat at any buffet.
Lesley Melville 2 years ago
Didn't realize Shoney's was a real thing and not just from Rick & Morty. lol
#20
Mussels.We get em fresh from the fishery, and still throw out 5% while cleaning em.
Five minutes after rinsing, cleaning, draining and portioning, there's still around 2cm of nasty looking brown mussel piss in the container.
A day after, the container is 1/3 full of that same salty, nasty muddy-looking piss, so they have to be drained and rinsed again (and more dead ones thrown out).
Even when properly cleaned, rinsed and drained, while cooking they leak that same shit into the pan, so you gotta be extra careful seasoning the dish, cause that nasty juice is salty as all fuck.
Fuck. Mussels.
#21
And in a similar vein..."I've heard that if you order a well-done steak you'll get an older cut of meat whose less-than-fresh qualities can be hidden by a longer cook time
AudreyS 2 years ago
If the place is decent, no one is going to " save" the older meat for well done orders... don't nobody have time for that.... also, and for god sake people, how on earth are we still caring how others eat their steaks?? Are we also still making fun of our friends for liking a Brittany spears song too?.... how exhausting.
#22
Oh, and I just remembered, quesadillas. They're my super-cheap go-to when I'm broke. I don't eat meat, so paying someone else to basically melt some cheese into a tortilla, I'm just not gonna do it.
#23
When I was 16 I worked at (INSERT LARGE SANDWICH CHAIN HERE... THANKS JARED). NEVER order the Tuna... I once found multiple flies in the tuna and my boss told me to just scoop them out. Granted each is restaurant is individually owned this may not happen but i never order tuna when going into that place anymore.
#24
ICE - NEVER GET ICE. I worked at mcdonald's and f**k was our ice gross. This is all assuming you don't like frozen bugs in your drinks.
#25
For me it's calamari and prawns, especially if it's listed as an appetizer. My first job as a prep cook was at a place that served this. We'd get bags of prawns and those frozen blocks of calamari. I would spend hours cleaning and breading. I got pretty good at shelling and deveining prawn with one run of my pairing knife, but I still hated doing it. And fingering the calamari hoods to pull out that plasticy spine and then making sure it was the spine and not just a bit of frozen ice because of course I'm having to process it while it's not completely thawed. It's the thing I've hated doing the most out of every task I've ever had to do in a kitchen (cooking or cleaning), and I refuse to order it when I see it because I remember how much it sucked.
Synsepalum 2 years ago
I'm a pastry chef, and there are things I don't like doing. However, order what you want. Do not worry about whether I like it or not. All jobs have unpleasant bits, but I want you to enjoy your experience. That's why I'm there.
#26
I've worked at some pretty low end places over the years.....but never have I seen prepared food, bread, chips, etc that's been on a table get re-used for other tables. It's a health code violation where I live. The few exceptions to that I have seen are ketchup bottles, don't use em. They're seldom cleaned and generally just re-filled. Pretty gross. Or anything that's individually packaged - coffee creamers, crackers, sugar packets and so on.
The ice thing is definitely accurate in my experience. The ice machines are very rarely cleaned and always terribly gross by the time it gets done. Most tea is sketchy as well......and if you've ever seen the speed at which a few lemons will start to grow mold, you should probably try to avoid those as well.
I worked for Perkins for a while and you generally wanna try to avoid ALL of their seafood. Also their shakes, if it's busy there's no telling what the server might do to it, especially if you've been a particularly dickish customer. One last thing, if you've sent an item back for whatever reason at a low end chain more than once, it's best to cut your losses.....it's pretty much a 50/50 chance your food is going to be intentionally "soiled" in some way, and this is especially true later at night.
KY dog mom 2 years ago
I was a busgirl at an Italian restaurant back in the 1980's. All diners were given a small basket of bread before their meal. If at the end of the meal it looked as if the bread had not been touched they would use it to make croutons. The restaurant is no longer in business and to this day I always order my salads without croutons.
#27
When I was a teenager, I used to work at McDonald's -mostly nightshift. Because of that experience, I'm very wary of what I order when I go to fast food restaurants at night. Low paid workers, little supervision, and they have to put up with a lot of c**p from customers who treat the employees very badly. One thing I don't order late at night where I'm at- any drinks that sit out. Such as sweet tea. Usually it's supposed to be refilled every so often, but it doesn't happen. It gets old, sour, and nasty. Another thing- salads. Salads might be okay, but we had several incidents where the salad dressing went bad and was included with the salad anyway, because it was late, busy, and who orders a salad at McDonalds anyway sort of attitude gave way...
Lesley Melville 2 years ago
Weird question from a non-American...Iced Tea is cold brewed tea (what kind, btw? Curious...Black tea? Green Tea? Orange Pekoe?) and sweet tea is cold brewed tea that has been sweetened....what the heck do you call sweetened iced tea like Nestea that comes from the fountain pop/soda machine?
#28
Mine for years was ranch dressing because it was one of my first tasks at my first kitchen job. I took one look at the recipe(four gallons mayo, two gallons buttermilk, five packets ranch dressing seasoning) and said, well that looks awful.
#29
I worked at an upscale, local Italian restaurant. The complimentary bread? If another table doesn't finish theirs, the 'untouched' bread goes into whatever new breadbaskets are being served. That 'freshly grated parmesan' sitting in a bowl at your table? It was probably sifted through by an unruly six-year-old. It comes from (and any leftovers go back to) a communal giant tub of grated cheese in the back.
#30
And while we're talking about sushi..."For spicy tuna sushi rolls, places often take old, less fresh tuna and add spices to cover up the bad flavor. Stick with regular tuna rolls
What do you think ?
Evy Cl 2 years ago
a lot of these are just personal preference or tied to specific locations, like your Mcdonalds in whatever-town in America might use day old burgers or something, but over here, there's rarely more than 3 burgers per kind made beforehand and waiting, unless its crazy busy....
The Problem With Censorship Is ******* 2 years ago
I couldn't even finish this thread, my God, just enjoy your damn food! All these "behind the scenes" secrets are nothing new. Yes, people are gross, but I really don't give a s**t. It keeps your immune system alert. My food won't taste any less awesome if I just happened to see someone touching it before it gets to me. And no, I am by no means a gross person. My kitchen is spotless.
Jiminy 2 years ago (edited)
Honest question, I honestly don't know any better and wonder: Are there only high end restaurants and corporate chains in the US? I always get the feeling it's either the one or the other in these posts (and honestly in movies and series too), but never a solid middle ground.
Valden 2 years ago
The solid middle ground is local dinners. Where I live, the local truck stop dinner is the best place in town.
Load More Replies...
gerard julien 2 years ago
" Restaurant Workers Expose The Worst Dishes From The Places They Work At" in USA !
Rose the Cook 2 years ago
Sorry to be the one to tell you but many of the less than hygienic practices happen in other countries, including Australia, as well.
Load More Replies...
Rubyjune 2 years ago
Wtf You order appetizers to eat with your first drink. Yea they are pricy but meant to be split.
Tristan J 2 years ago
Unless it has been agreed in advance of ordering, I would not expect to share my starter.
Load More Replies...
frog 2 years ago
I understand how gross it can be to reuse untouched food that had been previously served to another customer, but sometimes it hurts a whole lot more throwing multiple garbage bags of untouched food out. Where I work, we have so much food left over, and employees can take what they want (which is not a lot), and the rest is garbage. The cooks and chefs took the time to make all that food, and they're stressed out and exhausted by the end of their shift. They always get so annoyed or seemed disappointed when the food they prepared has to get thrown out. I don't know about fast food chains... but a lot goes into food preparation at genuine restaurants. I feel as though some of this keep and reuse c**p mentioned in the previous posts is b******t or exaggerated...
Grace Smith 1 year ago
Most of this wasn’t too bad but there were a few things that made me feel sick just reading thdm
Babbzilla 2 years ago
If you're at the airport wanting food, just go to a fast food place. You know what you're getting and it won't kill your wallet. At my airport going to a Mexican restaurant you think you're paying for yummy fresh food. Yeah you're paying jacked up airport prices for a frozen burrito from Costco. (Obviously it's not all or everywhere but it's worth noting)
Gilmore Girls 2 years ago
Well, recommendation here, but if you go to slattery's and order the chocolate tart, be prepared. I used to like dark chocolate, then I ordered that. Now, if I even have a bite of dark chocolate, I can taste it for like two hours.
Evy Cl 2 years ago
a lot of these are just personal preference or tied to specific locations, like your Mcdonalds in whatever-town in America might use day old burgers or something, but over here, there's rarely more than 3 burgers per kind made beforehand and waiting, unless its crazy busy....
The Problem With Censorship Is ******* 2 years ago
I couldn't even finish this thread, my God, just enjoy your damn food! All these "behind the scenes" secrets are nothing new. Yes, people are gross, but I really don't give a s**t. It keeps your immune system alert. My food won't taste any less awesome if I just happened to see someone touching it before it gets to me. And no, I am by no means a gross person. My kitchen is spotless.
Jiminy 2 years ago (edited)
Honest question, I honestly don't know any better and wonder: Are there only high end restaurants and corporate chains in the US? I always get the feeling it's either the one or the other in these posts (and honestly in movies and series too), but never a solid middle ground.
Valden 2 years ago
The solid middle ground is local dinners. Where I live, the local truck stop dinner is the best place in town.
Load More Replies... gerard julien 2 years ago
" Restaurant Workers Expose The Worst Dishes From The Places They Work At" in USA !
Rose the Cook 2 years ago
Sorry to be the one to tell you but many of the less than hygienic practices happen in other countries, including Australia, as well.
Load More Replies... Rubyjune 2 years ago
Wtf You order appetizers to eat with your first drink. Yea they are pricy but meant to be split.
Tristan J 2 years ago
Unless it has been agreed in advance of ordering, I would not expect to share my starter.
Load More Replies... frog 2 years ago
I understand how gross it can be to reuse untouched food that had been previously served to another customer, but sometimes it hurts a whole lot more throwing multiple garbage bags of untouched food out. Where I work, we have so much food left over, and employees can take what they want (which is not a lot), and the rest is garbage. The cooks and chefs took the time to make all that food, and they're stressed out and exhausted by the end of their shift. They always get so annoyed or seemed disappointed when the food they prepared has to get thrown out. I don't know about fast food chains... but a lot goes into food preparation at genuine restaurants. I feel as though some of this keep and reuse c**p mentioned in the previous posts is b******t or exaggerated...
Grace Smith 1 year ago
Most of this wasn’t too bad but there were a few things that made me feel sick just reading thdm
Babbzilla 2 years ago
If you're at the airport wanting food, just go to a fast food place. You know what you're getting and it won't kill your wallet. At my airport going to a Mexican restaurant you think you're paying for yummy fresh food. Yeah you're paying jacked up airport prices for a frozen burrito from Costco. (Obviously it's not all or everywhere but it's worth noting)
Gilmore Girls 2 years ago
Well, recommendation here, but if you go to slattery's and order the chocolate tart, be prepared. I used to like dark chocolate, then I ordered that. Now, if I even have a bite of dark chocolate, I can taste it for like two hours.
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