Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
Going to a restaurant nowadays is a gamble – if it’s a place you’ve never been before, you’re either about to have a very enjoyable experience or regret stepping foot out of the house altogether. And the latter case can get seriously disappointing, which is likely part of the reason why people seem to be dining out less.
Though, some people have found ways to prevent disappointing restaurant experiences. They know the red flags to be on the lookout for so they can leave before someone tries to ruin their night, or their tastebuds. On the list below, you will find some of such red flags, so read them attentively and feel free to share your two cents in the comments if you know of red flags others usually fail to notice.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
An overly diverse menu.
No, I don't think you are experts at Italian AND Mexican AND Japanese AND American BBQ.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 month ago
I know a place like this. It's a divey diner that sells Greek/USA/Latino that specializes in hangover food. They do quite well for themselves. Eggs and booze at 9am kind of place. Good place in a pinch.
RELATED:
#2
I remember years ago in a Chinese restaurant we'd never been to before, I went to use the bathroom before our food came. I used it, then an employee (looked like a chef) came in, and as I was washing my hands, he used the toilet. By the time I was done, he was done, and he left without washing his hands.
I left the bathroom and saw our food on the table, told my wife and kids what happened, and we told the waitress what happened and left abruptly without eating. I felt obligated to let some other tables know what happened too, which I felt weird doing but also morally obligated to do so.
Yuck.
Single Spinner 1 month ago
My husband was a cop. He, and his colleagues, whilst investigating, entered a Chinese restaurant only to find an employee sitting on the toilet peeling prawns (shrimp).
#3
“I won’t eat in a restaurant with filthy bathrooms. This isn’t a hard call. They let you see the bathrooms. If the restaurant can’t be bothered to replace the puck in the urinal or keep the toilets and floors clean, then just imagine what their refrigeration and work spaces look like.”
— Anthony Bourdain.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 month ago
Depends, there are places I go that are divy as hell that have good food. There's a weird intersection between bars that are patronized by old punks/metalheads and really good food. Maybe the bathrooms are like that to scare off the trouble...
#4
When the server can't recommend the food. A good restaurant not just allows the servers to eat the food, but likes it when they do so they can give educated feedback.
I always like seeing a table of servers having their shift meals and the table is laid out with all the good stuff and they are enjoying the food and each other - it means the food is really good and they don't work for a******s, which is something I like in a restaurant.
Victor Botha 1 month ago
When, as a student, I worked as a server in a high-end place, we always had a meal before opening and it was prepared by the chef and his team. We did not pay for it.
#5
Health Inspector weighing in.
If the front is sorta dirty, decor items kinda broke, bathrooms kinda need a good cleaning, and the corners and under the tables have napkins or crumbs, you can be damn sure the kitchen is dirty. What really goes on in a dining room? A kitchen is busy, stuff gets dropped, and when things get busy they cut corners. If they've started cutting corners where customers can see, then I'd bet money they are cutting corners in the kitchen.
If you can feel heat, steam, or sometimes even just kinda greasy cooking smells coming from the kitchen then their ventilation system isn't working or is inadequate. It should always be pulling air from the dining room and pushing it out the roof or the back of the restaurant. And if the ventilation isn't working and they cook grease bearing foods, then that grease is collecting on the vent hood, the walls, and the fire suppression system in the hood. That grease collects on surfaces, accumulates dust from the air, and then drips back into your food. And I've seen that grease, and it's absolutely disgusting black sludge.
And probably the last reliable way tell you're in a bad restaurant from a customer's viewpoint would be the wait staff. I've noticed there are two kinds of flustered when a restaurant get's busy. There's the in-control-but-busy kind of flustered where they are rushed but still courteous and attentive to their customers, and then the cooks-are-messing-up-and-now-everyone-is-pissed-and-things-are-spiraling-out-of-control kind of flustered. If a staff is in control, then they aren't making mistakes and they aren't potentially contaminating the food. A restaurant gets busy every single day, they should be able to handle when they get a wrench or two in their system, and if they can't, they will start to make mistakes.
There are a number of other things, but most of those would be circumstantial.
Edit: Coworkers found me. It's my best comment and now I've gotta cut and burn. Adios.
Midoribird Aoi 1 month ago
Yep, left a comment to this extent for a place recently. I have no fault for the poor overworked girl trying to handle everything herself. My scolding was for leaving the place so understaffed. Mom and I waited 20 minutes and still, no drinks, no asking what we wanted to order, nothing. I could tell the girl was being pushed to her limits, and that's not her fault, but it shows very poor taste for the establishment.
#6
Sticky/greasy menus. If they can’t clean the menus down, they’re not cleaning much else.
#7
I went to a restaurant a couple weeks ago that was called Somethingsomething Sushi and Oyster Bar. In their menu it had a section for fresh oysters, with a blurb that said "Ask us about our daily oyster offerings." When our waitress came over to ask us if we'd like to order appetizers, we asked what the daily oysters were. She said "Yes, we have oysters today." When we asked her to clarify on the kind of oysters, she made some vague comment about the fact that they just came in that morning and she didn't know. We asked if they were east coast or west coast and she just shrugged.
If your server cannot tell you anything about the raw food you are about to eat, that is a bad sign and you should not eat that thing.
#8
Hardly any customers are there but it takes a ton of time to get served or order food.
#9
You walk in and the staff don’t stop chatting to each other to greet or seat you. And then when they finally notice you they seem annoyed that you interrupted their gossip session. Then they don’t bring a menu or take your drink order, but don’t seem to be doing much else.
Just turn around and walk out. They just failed the easiest part of hospitality and probably aren’t going to do a great job on the other parts.
Glenn Cuneo 1 month ago
HAd a place like this in Montana. Watched the wait staff f**k around on their phones for about 5 minutes- while my food sat in the window the entire time. I said something about it when they did bring the food the said "Here" dropping the plates on the table. I made a scene when I went all batshit crazy on them. The wait staff was all college girls who appeared to think their s**t didn't stink. It stunk.
#10
Tons of menu items. Greasy/dirty menu. Not busy. If you see kitchen clutter in the dining area. Bad Smells. Poor lighting.
#11
Go to their bathroom and see how well kept it is . that should tell you everything you need to know about the place .
PS:This trick also works for anywhere .
Snazzy Smurf 1 month ago
That indicator is never wrong. Sometimes, uncontrollable sh*t happens that isn't restaurant affiliated. It is the speed of cleanup that is the determining factor.
#12
When the not-quite-clean smell from the restrooms somehow permeates the entire place.
#13
A buddy of mine uses the "nachos rule." In this rule, you order something basic like nachos. Depending on the quality and quantity of toppings you can infer a lot about how well the place is run- like whether the owners are cheapskates or not just by whether there's enough cheese, olives, and other toppings; which can roughly translate to how they may be cheapskates towards other meals, staff, and running the place in general.
Aileen Grist 1 month ago
Not many places in the UK offer Nachos. I'm 70 and have never had them - unless a bag of Doritos counts. Never seen them for sale.
#14
My husband and I joke that the food at Waffle House won’t be good if there isn’t a staff member outside smoking. 😂.
Snazzy Smurf 1 month ago
Waffle House is a staple. Sometimes it is the only thing that manages to remain open when everything else is shut down for various reasons.
#15
The Denny’s near my house has had a “Help Wanted: Servers and Kitchen Help”sign for about 6 months. If it’s a bad place to work, don’t bother dining there.
#16
A row of proudly displayed excellent hygiene certificates... That stop a few years ago.
Snazzy Smurf 1 month ago (edited)
If you don't report the bad it doesn't exist. That is according to one high ranking individual. 🤷
#17
Look at the salt and pepper shakers. If they are clean someone cared enough to check.
Aileen Grist 1 month ago
And if they have salt and pepper in them. Either bunged up tops or nothing in them is a bad sign
#18
This is a bit of a different one, but ask about their allergy policy.
A good restaurant who cares about their customers will have a strict policy in place and educate all staff on it. It should include using seperate knives, prep boards, and designating a specific staff member to check every ingredient while preparing that dish. They may also have a specific station. But they absolutely will have a policy and the wait staff should know it immediately.
A poor restaurant will have staff that 'will go check'. Maybe they're new? But it's not a great sign.
Edit: a word.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 month ago
Don't mess with allergens. You will be sued out of existence.
#19
I went to a Chinese food restaurant once, the "Happy Dragon". When we got in, the place was empty save for one woman dining alone in a booth. There was no hostess or waiters around so my SO and I stood there for a while waiting to be seated and wondering what to do. We thought maybe they were in the back or something and they'd be out shortly.
About 5 minutes later, the woman in the booth stands up, wipes her mouth with a napkin, and then grabs 2 menus, walks over to us and says "Table for 2?".
I think when you have to wait for the waitress to finish dining before you're served, that's a bad sign. Also it unsurprisingly was total s**t food and for too much money. One of the worst restaurant experiences I've ever had. BEWARE HAPPY DRAGON!
#20
If the employees take their aprons with them into the bathroom.
If you can see into the kitchen, and you see the cooks, watch for sweat dripping into food, not changing gloves/washing hands between raw meats and other food, and how clean the area is. If it is busy, it won't be pristine, but it shouldn't be disgusting.
If the menu either has pages of choices, or a wide variety of ethnic foods (like cheeseburgers, sweet and sour chicken, and escargot all on the menu for instance), usually the food that isn't ordered often is old, and close to if not expired.
#22
If they sell steak, but won't cook it rare.
If they're doing this, it's most likely because they're unsafe, because they're selling frankensteak, meat assembled with meat glue to reassemble more expensive cuts.
You can eat rare steak because the fibers are dense enough to not allow bacteria to penetrate deeply, so a sear is enough to make a steak safe. This is the same reason you need to fully cook chicken, because the fibers are all fluffy, and let bacteria really get in there. But, if you've made frankensteak, you're incorporating external surfaces into the interior of the cut, which can't be properly cooked at anything short of medium well. So, if they refuse to cook a steak rare, I refuse to eat there, because it's very strongly indicative of shady business practices.
It goes without saying, don't order rare steak from someplace you suspect would do this and wouldn't care of you got sick, but if they're worried you might get sick from a rare steak, don't order a steak there at all.
#23
Dirty bathroom, dirty silverware, and sticky floors. These all give me hesitation or fits depending on how bad they are.
WindySwede 1 month ago
Having the cutlery placed with the part that goes into the mouth, upwards. In a container. And you can't take one without touching others..! 🤨
#24
Once I saw someone barfing outside of an Old Country Buffet. I thought that was an appropriate indication of what the food situation was inside.
#25
As a Canadian Went to a bar/restaurant in USA where the waiters and bartender were exercising their right to “open carry” it didn’t exactly make me feel like I was in a safe place. Though some of my American friends would argue it was the safest place to be.
#26
From experience of the restaurant I worked in:
If its slow (less than half of the tables full) and there is more than one dirty table with nobody stopping to clean it, run.
If your plate is hot on the edges but only warm or cool in the middle, its been microwaved.
If any hot dip, sauce, or gravy has a film within a minute of it hitting your table it has been sitting in the window for at least 5 minutes.
If you see a female server cleaning the men's restroom during business hours then the bathroom will be filthy. The female servers I worked with barely gave it any attention when they were forced to clean it they just wanted to do the bare minimum and gtfo.
Check glassware because 9/10 times in our restaurant they were barely rinsed let alone sanitized. Check for fingerprints, lip marks or lipstick marks, or chips.
Speaking of: chipped dishes or glasses will never be completely clean. They're unsanitary and bacterial landmines.
Midoribird Aoi 1 month ago
My female self and my female coworkers work harder than any of the men to keep the bathrooms sparkling at my store location, thank you very much! XD
#27
You’re literally the first people there after opening and there are food stains all over the table, only one napkin is provided for the table and the place is totally silent except for a smoke alarm chirping.
#28
Grand Opening sign out front for over a year.
#29
When ever a waitress, or any representative asks you, or insists, that you fill out a customer satisfaction survey. I will never return simply because I was pestered for submitting one.
Peter Bear 1 month ago
You do realize that some staff don't really have a choice, right? They're told to ask for surveys from their boss, who in turn is told to do it by their boss, and so on up the chain until you find the jerk whose bonuses depend on those surveys. None of which bonus ever gets to the poor frontline employee who just got yelled at because they didn't get enough surveys.
#30
At a new restaurant, I will order something simple that still requires cooking. I'll order somthing like fries (with or without gravy) or a plate of rice. If they mess that up, then I have no reason to believe they can make anything more complex.
What do you think ?
Warren Peece 1 month ago
Bored Panda Staff: "Let's post this list every week. It's easier than finding new content."
Serena Myers 1 month ago
Be kind. It's the weekend. BP need their time off too. Seriously, the amount of rehashed articles from years ago is getting worse!
Warren Peece 1 month ago
Bored Panda Staff: "Let's post this list every week. It's easier than finding new content."
Serena Myers 1 month ago
Be kind. It's the weekend. BP need their time off too. Seriously, the amount of rehashed articles from years ago is getting worse!
Related on Bored Panda
