30 Dishes People Should Stop Ordering, As Revealed By Restaurant Workers Online

My first job was washing dishes at Boston market - I had the same attitude

Yes. Here, there's often a difference between the restaurant opening ours and the kitchen opening hours. Or there's a reduced menu after 10pm or sometimes also in the afternoon between lunch and dinner time.

Or the kitchens should have proper policies. In many restaurants I know the kitchen closes roughly 30 minutes before the restaurant closes. If you get in 10 minutes before closing, you can't order anymore food, only drinks. The cleaning cannot start before the kitchen closes. Simple as that.

Yup, can just tell them no

Restaurant worker. Unfortunately most restaurants serve until closing time. It's the owners or managers fault. Not the workers or customers, (unless you come in 10 minutes to close and say 'just made good' we hate you). Sometimes the food is rushed, but most don't want to have to remake it

I've never been to a restaurant in Canada where you could order food in the last 30 minutes a place was open. They always say "drinks only because the kitchen is closed/closing now", or something to that effect. Most people here understand that you just don't go to a restaurant in the last hour they are open.

I feel that cleaning time should be after closing time.

It would be a great idea to put up a sign that states... "closing time is 11pm, please be aware that from 10.40pm we will only be able to provide cold (as in sandwiches/salads whatever) dishes. To meet rigorous hygiene protocols our grills are closed at this time for daily deep cleaning" I mean there will always be that 1 person who says "your sign says open till 11" and this way you could respond "yes but the rest of the sign also tells you clearly what you can and can't have"

Then don't let them. The simple fact is that if it says you close at 11, then you should be serving til 11. Or say last orders at 10:30 or something

Then they should close with cleaning time in mind imo...

The kitchen shouldn't start closing down before the time orders stop.

There is such a thing as “last orders” in restaurants over here, or the menu states a kitchen closing time which usually is 30 minutes before the place actually locks its doors. (The Netherlands).

I agree Susy. I also believe the president should make all capable US citizens work in a restaurant for one year.

Agreed.

Maybe a nice story before the horrid stories begin..?

Pretty standard sort of thing on this site.

I'm only at number three and am yet to see an entry that matches the title

Jiminy is right gosh dang it

Bc people are happy to hear this about Five Guys.

Number one neither 🤦🏻‍♀️

What NOT to order is anything in a place that does NOT pay attention to sanitation. I have read the food inspection reports in my local paper and some of them are VERY scary. Worst one for me is how many of them get called out for storing RAW meat right above other food, especially those not cooked before serving.

Be sure to add A1 to your burger

It's actually the number one cause of food borne illness (in Canada anyways) and it's surprising that No-one thinks of it until one either takes a food safety course, or as stated above, works in a resteraunt that has ine, and gets to see it first hand. Once I realized our ice machine at the Tim Hortons i took over was a HUGE one that we NEVER got to the bottom of, I was terrified to clean it. We ended up replacing it instead because the mold build up was ridiculous.

All ice machines are this way. Super gross, wet and dark=creepy growing stuff. We called them mushrooms and amoeba. Skin crawl

Oh yes! Water and ice gets moldy of left unchecked. In Saskatchewan, Canada (and I'm sure other places that get snow for more than 6 months of the year) every spring we have to deal with snow mold

It takes too long for the ice to build back up, and the restaurant isn't about to go out and buy enough to get thru that time period. Food costs and all that.

I stopped getting ice in my drinks years ago because ice machines are rarely cleaned.

apparently neither did they. lol water and rubber makes mold.

Cold, even freezing cold, slows down the growth of mold and bacteria, but it doesn't *stop* the growth, not for all of them - and just access to open air is enough to contaminate something. Also, ice machines necessarily have a component where the liquid water comes in to be frozen, and *liquid* water will absolutely grow stuff over time if it's allowed to sit around for a while.

and apparently neither did that Subway

Oh my gosh, yes! In the US, most local Health Departments follow the same rules for safe food service practices. There is a hook on the side of the ice machine where a special ice bucket hangs, clearly marked “For Ice Only.” It’s used to transport small quantities of ice to where it’s needed, then hung back up. It has a rounded bottom so that it can’t be set down on the floor (or anywhere else). It’s intentionally too big to fit into the opening of the bin. A designated scoop, “For Ice Only” hangs on the metal handle of the bucket, and is the only thing that’s supposed to enter the bin. Both are supposed to be washed and sanitized at least once per shift. Unfortunately, I’ve seen people use all sorts of different containers, their gloved hands, their BARE hands, and even glass drinking glasses to scoop ice. The lid is supposed to be closed when not in use. Having a glass glass, or a china plate, break anywhere NEAR an open ice bin is gonna ruin your day. Ruin several people’s day…

It very much is, I have an entire rant from a few days ago on subway.

FINISH UNTIL I GET BORED AGAIN Anyways, the wood is never cleaned I cleaned it once and it took me about a week cleaning it in between customers to get it to not come out black. I went through so many rags for it. If you are a rude customer, after you've gone to get your drink, chances are that we are in the back talking about you. I know that it's not nice, but if you threaten to call the cops on me because of inflation and taxes? Yeah I'm going to talk about you in the back. Also if you park in front of the store and stay there for an hour without coming in, we are going to be watching that car making sure nothing sus is happening. The tips that you give, all but a dollar or two out of a five dollar tip goes to us. If you asked my location for a manager, we wouldn't be able to say "okay" because we only had one and she was never there because she was the regional manager

2 out of ? Most subway workers rely entirely on the computer to do the math for them so if you try to give us the extra penny, it's just going to be more work for us to manually put in that extra penny, and it's just a hassle. A lot of the time at my subway the floor line that you can't see when ordering is FILLED with plastic gloves and sand which paper! Also, if the person is staring intently at the metal part above the glass and it looks like they're staring at your chest, they aren't. The recipie for the sandwich is right there. If you want a #10 they have to remember what meat, how much of the meat, toasted or not toasted, and all of the veggies and dressings. So I promise, they aren't staring at your chest they just have a bad memory and bad vision. Walls are never cleaned either. They are duisgusting. I cleaned them once and the rag that used was BLACK with dirt I hated it so much! And the wood part near the door for the employees to go in an out of is never cleaned either......

START 1 out of ? More about subway things because I'm bored :/ If you see an employee working with the chips unless the rack is almost empty, the chances are that the employee didn't want to make a sandwich or they were told to do so because it was too crowded in the back. Also give the workers a break! It's so hard to make 3 foot longs in 5 minutes, I had so many customers yell at me for it taking a little over 8 mins. Also the sink that is at the front of the store behind the line? It's only there to show people that we wash our hands. That's it. It is so freaking hard to put on those thin a*s gloves when your hands are wet! Almost all of your food had either touched a metal table in the back or the cutting board at the line, and it's not very sanitary and I hated it with a burning passion. The cutting board are only washed once a day, and that's at the end of the day at close. Daily temperatures are supposed to be done once a day, but if the temp is off, we can't fix it.

I was at a Chinese buffet once Magpie, and the lady next to me sneezed into about 9 plates of buffet food. After dry heaving in my mouth, I vowed never again. That was 5 years ago.

if you dont mind me asking, what does yerk mean? (not trying to be rude or anything just curious)

Entree as main course is a North American thing. To the rest of the world an entree is the starting course, and the main course is called "mains" or "main course".