Upon trying to decide where to eat, people judge restaurants on many factors, from the location, to menu items and online reviews; but assessing them doesn’t stop there. From the very first moment they enter, they start evaluating their experience as a customer, which some take more seriously than others.
Those who tend to attentively judge restaurants often have personal telltale signs about their quality. Members of an online community recently shared theirs after the user u/Mabbernathy asked them what were the small details they judge a restaurant on. Redditors’ answers covered everything from napkins to hot sauce, fake plants, and TVs, and beyond. Scroll down to find them on the list below and note what details to be on the lookout for the next time you’re in a restaurant.
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If they only offer a QR code menu. I hate them and I would prefer a physical one.
If it's an Asian restaurant; how badly is the menu spelled? If it's littered with errors you know the food is going to be incredible. Bonus points if they bring you s**t you never asked for.
Not even joking, this is my criteria.
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.
For breakfast joints it comes down to the potatoes for me.
They cannot be stodgy, chalky, wet or unseasoned.
Well seasoned, crispy potatoes will always have me coming back.
The bread.
I have never had good food at a place where the bread sucks or tastes a day old.
Goes to how often they make things fresh. Anything stale means it has probably been sitting around for a while.
I often dine out alone. I live in Europe so tipping really isn't a major factor (our servers earn a living wage and get benefits), though I usually tip well anyway. How I'm treated as a solo diner has a huge impact on how I judge the restaurant. It tells me if they care more about their customers and food, or about turnover.
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.
How's the side salad? If it's a giant chunk of iceberg with a few shredded carrots and one big mealy tomato and cucumber slice I'm not really trusting the rest of their menu.
Ginormous menus on twenty pages. If you say you can cook hundred different items then you can’t cook a single one properly. Had only one exception out of this rule: one diner I like has a relatively large menu and everything on the menu was good.
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!!
If a restaurant has TVs in it, I don't go. Sounds snobby, but I've seen so many lovely restaurants ruined by a stupid flat screen. Now everyone's staring at commercials like moths to a flame instead of interacting with each other.
The trash area. This isn't always easy to see but how they treat the trash is a good indication of how the rest of the place is run. There's a place that all the locals love. Their dumpsters? A disaster zone. Total disgusting mess and on top of that there's raccoon, otter and rat s**t all over the place. I don't eat there.
On the other hand there are places that keep their area nice. Some even use soap and water to regularly scrub and clean the area. I'll eat there.
Source: Used to be a garbage man.
Beans in a Mexican place. If the beans are not good then the rest of the menu is probably not good either.
Salt and pepper shakers being full or near full attention to details
If I see french onion soup on a menu, I always order it. It's a great way to judge the general quality of the place. Is the beef stock made in-house or clearly from a base? Did they take the time to actually caramelize onions, or did they half a*s the process?
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 they use that cheap ketchup vs Heinz. Also super thin paper napkins. 👎
If Heinz ketchup is your standard of high quality.. well that says something.
My husband worked at a famous American diner (Waffle House!) when he was younger and he told me that a certain number of perfect over medium eggs is actually one of the tests they gave to cooks to move them up a grade in rank and pay.
It's actually apparently difficult to consistently nail the exact temp (firm white, runny but not raw yolk) on a poached or fried egg. It really does prove that somebody in the kitchen is paying attention.
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.
My SO is Vegan but I am not. So for us it's whether or not we can both get a good meal. And for him, is his meal actually a well thought out meal or just an impossible or beyond patty on a bun. I like when places are inclusive and still put effort into a dish.
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.
A restaurant always gets bonus points in my book if they actually have desserts that are worthwhile. Often they are good, but not as good as the gourmet chocolate store or artisan ice cream place down the street.
Do they know how to brew tea properly? A tea bag next to a mug of hot water does not count.
Okay OP, what is a properly brewed cup of tea? I mean no disrespect, I'm asking as someone who doesn't drink tea that often and has been served tea as a tea bag + hot water in every restaurant that I've been to.
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.
How clean the menus are. If I’m handed a sticky menu, I’m out
The water. Does it taste like chlorine? Does it smell like a dishwasher? Is there any odor at all as my face approaches the cup? Is the cup hot? I’ll pretty much never complain unless there’s something floating in my water or my cup has grime on it, but I am always silently judging
Will they balk when I ask for *unsweetened* iced tea?
Why would they balk? I, for one, are not crazy for the sweetened iced tea.
Small details for me are:
Clean & quality cutlery
Napkin quality
The attire and cleanliness of the employees
Lighting, decor, flooring
Chairs and tables
**The big things are**, food quality, service and clean bathrooms.
Former restaurant manager here.
I judge by the cleanliness of the windowsills, chair rails and bathrooms.
I don't use ketchup bottles that are on the tables. I try to avoid using the salt and pepper shakers too.
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?
I always order my eggs "over medium" as a test for the cook. Basically impossible to nail perfectly. I never complain if they're too runny or too hard but if they nail it I'm forever impressed
I am Dutch and mayonnaise is very present in middle scale cafe restaurants. We eat it with fries, and you get fries with 75% of dishes. Home made vs store bought mayo is a very simple indicator of the quality of the restaurant, with the worst offenders restaurants that give frietsaus (fake mayo) in a sachet/1 serving baggie. Weirdly common, big difference.
I'm not a fan of condiments, but I only like Hellmann's Mayo. I've never got on with home made.
I'm happy you put butter on the list, I'm a pastry chef and I make Cornbread and Honey Butter for the savory menu. It was a hassle to get the line cook to put the butter in the cooler overnight (I don't like the idea of never putting it away) but I want to keep it out during service so it's soft.
Places that try to pass of margarine instead of butter- nope, I'm out
My husband judges on how many times they come to refill his water. He drinks a lot while eating.
How many people look like regulars/they have a solid base of customers. Doing something right.
Also if the cook has a scowl.
If the cook or chef is heavy and has neck and sleeve tattoos, you're about to have some good food.
If it’s a breakfast place I tend to judge them based on their hot sauce brands or if they don’t have hot sauce out at all.
Mine are more service-related, as that is my background. Do they do their quality checks after you receive (any) drinks/food; do they seem to care about people at all, or are they just there to look nice and phone the rest in; do they give recommendations that aren't "just order the most expensive item on the menu lol"
Had a server at a place we used to visit quite a bit, once tell my wife, 'Don't order the specials today, It's not the kind of thing you'd like'. The fact that they paid attention to those sort of things made them top tier IMO. The owner/chef just disappeared one day under suspicious circumstances, biggest loss to independent dining.
I usually buy something simple at a new place to get a feel for it. Like Mac and cheese or a burger. I feel like if you can’t make something like that properly you’re probably not gonna execute a more complicated dish to my satisfaction.
Seriously.. A good place that cooks « complicated dish » would not serve mac and cheese… it’s quite clear most of the people commenting (Americans?) know only their restaurants that are so so far away from how it’s done elsewhere
For delis, the quality/color of their roast beef.
Do they know how to devein shrimp
I just eat the whole bloody thing except the head. But we have good quality seafood available in Australia.
Per your point #1, I hear you but it may not be their choice. I worked at a big chain restaurant in CA when I was young, and a health inspector once dinged us for keeping the butter at room temp. From then on, we had to keep it refrigerated at all times. It was ridiculous!
Can I easily grab the burger or sandwich and easily take a bite without having it fall apart? If not, then big points are deducted.
Burgers should have more width than height. No one should have to unhinge their jaw to try to take a bite.
How clean the air vents, baseboards, and under the tables are.
Also, does the soda taste like it's supposed to? Too syrupy? Too watery?
And the pettiest of all - I hate spelling mistakes on menus and business cards. One place I went to recently didn't even have the address spelled correctly. They were missing the i in the middle of the street name.
Oh no! An i was missing, the food and experience are going to be atrocious!
small detail? probably plate/dishware temperature (which can tell you a surprising lot actually)
Big one for me too! Piping hot bowl straight out of the washer for my ice cream? Nooooope. My reverse seared steak on a cold plate? *Groan*
Whether they take used silverware away between courses. Nothing like the server taking dirty silverware off your plate, putting them on the table, and expecting you to use them for the next course.
Pig. Discretely place your silverware on your bread plate. Also don’t stack your plates for the server. Read miss manners
I should never have to ask for more water. Keep that s**t filled.
I hate waiting for the check. I hate waiting for the card to be run and brought back to me.
Since this is r/cooking, here’s some cooking related ones:
- burgers should be wide, not tall
- entrees not including any sort of side or accompaniment. I ordered a filet at a local place once and it was literally just a steak on a plate. Not so much as a piece of parsley to garnish. Like give me something or make it clear when I’m ordering.
- when everything comes out at once. Especially if it is a tapas/“small plate” establishment. A good server and good kitchen know how to pace things.
For me it's how high they stack their meat. Too skimpy is cheap. Too high ruins the sandwich balance.
Also the crust on cured meats. This you can spot before ordering
Is outside the restaurant clean, you need to have pride of place and be a benefit to your block and neighborhood. Is the bathroom clean, if you don't give a s**t I assume the places I can't go are equally disgusting. Does your soup taste like msg and dehydrated vegetables, I can eat c**p in my own house.
I judge places by their water.
If I did that, I'd never go to my favourite pizza restaurant again. Their bottled water is San Pellegrino, which I detest. Being in the UK, tap water is always drinkable.
Auctioning off food when it’s brought to the table. There is a system for identifying seats around the table and I don’t want to have to try to hear someone yell menu items over the din of the restaurant, especially when there’s more then 4 people at the table.
I always note seat positions when taking orders. The problem with large parties is that they frequently switch seats. I deal with hundreds of tourists everyday. I didn't memorize your faces. I memorized that this entree goes to position 3.
Cheesus H Christos. Some of y'all need to chill. Is the place clean and the food good? If yes, get down off your throne and eat your damned dinner already.
My parents and I went to a local restaurant when I was just old enough to go to the potty unaccompanied. I came back and told Mom about all the "cool bugs" in there. Mom asked if she could see the cool bugs, too! After I proudly brought her back and point out all the neato cockroaches and silverfish, I was very surprised when Mom told Dad we needed to eat somewhere else that night.
This is San Francisco Chinatown specific (although I imagine it's the same in any big city with a Chinatown), if your choice is between an old, run down looking hole in the wall on a side street, or a fancy looking ( and mostly empty) place on the main tourist area (usually with someone standing outside shoving a menu in your face as you walk by)....go to the hole in the wall. That's where the locals go. It'll not only be cheaper, but it'll be the best Chinese food in town.
It's at the bottom, but I really like the plate temperature one. If your plate is hot, it's very likely been sitting for quite some time under a heater in the kitchen. Food isn't fresh from getting cooked. This can especially be a big deal with steak as it can get overcooked just sitting under the heater on a hot plate.
Good restaurants use plate warmers. I don't understand this comment. For me it's a sign of quality 🙂
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Not a positive but a negative. If the waiters wear tuxedos, the tablecloths are spotlessly white and perfectly creased, and the restaurant is empty - run, the food will be both expensive and awful.
In tourist towns, I look for non-tourist food on the menu. I found one of my favorite restaurants that way. All the other restaurants had shrimp scampi & paella but one restaurant had sausage & white beans (!!!) on the menu. It was 100% authentic & spectacular. Also, at the Test Kitchen in Cape Town they actually churn your butter before dinner! I remember the scene but remember nothing about the butter.
Restraint may have not the best manager ever, but a golden cook. If the restaurant managed to get such a cook, nothing else is metter. If it is impossible to do what he can, on the kitchen and with groceries provided, he will not stay long there.
A well done steak. Cooked through, but not dry and leathery. If your kitchen can do that, they're good cooks.
Cheesus H Christos. Some of y'all need to chill. Is the place clean and the food good? If yes, get down off your throne and eat your damned dinner already.
My parents and I went to a local restaurant when I was just old enough to go to the potty unaccompanied. I came back and told Mom about all the "cool bugs" in there. Mom asked if she could see the cool bugs, too! After I proudly brought her back and point out all the neato cockroaches and silverfish, I was very surprised when Mom told Dad we needed to eat somewhere else that night.
This is San Francisco Chinatown specific (although I imagine it's the same in any big city with a Chinatown), if your choice is between an old, run down looking hole in the wall on a side street, or a fancy looking ( and mostly empty) place on the main tourist area (usually with someone standing outside shoving a menu in your face as you walk by)....go to the hole in the wall. That's where the locals go. It'll not only be cheaper, but it'll be the best Chinese food in town.
It's at the bottom, but I really like the plate temperature one. If your plate is hot, it's very likely been sitting for quite some time under a heater in the kitchen. Food isn't fresh from getting cooked. This can especially be a big deal with steak as it can get overcooked just sitting under the heater on a hot plate.
Good restaurants use plate warmers. I don't understand this comment. For me it's a sign of quality 🙂
Load More Replies... Not a positive but a negative. If the waiters wear tuxedos, the tablecloths are spotlessly white and perfectly creased, and the restaurant is empty - run, the food will be both expensive and awful.
In tourist towns, I look for non-tourist food on the menu. I found one of my favorite restaurants that way. All the other restaurants had shrimp scampi & paella but one restaurant had sausage & white beans (!!!) on the menu. It was 100% authentic & spectacular. Also, at the Test Kitchen in Cape Town they actually churn your butter before dinner! I remember the scene but remember nothing about the butter.
Restraint may have not the best manager ever, but a golden cook. If the restaurant managed to get such a cook, nothing else is metter. If it is impossible to do what he can, on the kitchen and with groceries provided, he will not stay long there.
A well done steak. Cooked through, but not dry and leathery. If your kitchen can do that, they're good cooks.
