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“Special Sauce“: Industry Workers Expose Secrets And The Biggest Rip-Offs On The Menu
Interview With Expert
Running a restaurant is no easy feat. It’s a famously tough business to profit from, with statistics showing that three out of five new restaurants close within a year, and four out of five won’t make it past five years.
To stay afloat, many resort to pricing certain menu items far above the cost of the ingredients. But not everyone is keeping quiet about it. Some workers decided to pull back the curtain on which products face the steepest markups at their establishments.
If you’re curious, you’ll find their confessions—along with other behind-the-scenes secrets—below.
More info: RedditThis post may include affiliate links.
#1
Not so much a secret but a lesser known fact...
Kirkland products, the white label brand from Costco, are independently tested to beat OR EXCEED the industry leading product in that category. Razor blades. Cookies. Cheese. Laundry pods. If it doesn’t beat the industry leader, they won’t put the Kirkland name on it.
Paula MV 11 months ago
Kirkland vodka is supposed to match Grey Goose. It is great for the price.
Wang Zhuang 11 months ago
Beat or exceed? Isn't that the same thing? I think OP meant meet or exceed.
Uncommon Sense 11 months ago
Have to admit, it’s certainly a brand I have faith in for quality and value…
Ripley 11 months ago
I'm starting to think that Costco really are the good guys. There was an article very recently that said the shareholders wanted Costco to shelve it's DE&I activities, and Costco said "nah, we're not going to do that". (caveat - I haven't fact checked this, so I can't guarantee that it's correct, but I really hope so.)
Cuppa tea? 11 months ago
Someone has to manufacture their products. Won't be surprised if at least so e of them are coming from same place as "leading brands"
Brian Carter 11 months ago
Five Costco in Oklahoma, 3 in OKC, 2 in Tulsa.
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#2
Yes, yes, yes! They are RARELY cleaned out. Like almost NEVER. Bugs, dirt, food particles, whatever.
At two previous restaurant jobs I felt bad that customers were getting gross ice (both places had a single machine), and mentioned it to my managers at the time. They both brushed it off as having better things to do with my time, so I used to "accidentally" kick the plug out of the wall in the evenings, come in the next day, and find a half-melted ice machine. I was stuck cleaning it, but it was worth it, since I felt better about the ice being served. We had to use ice from the store down the street for the rest of the day, but it wasn't like it cost the restaurants much money.
One bartender told me he would "accidentally" drop/break a glass into an ice machine to serve the same purpose if the management wasn't being cool about it. Broken glass = scoop out and dump all the ice, and might as well clean the thing since it's empty.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
Also on topic, worked behind the bar for a few years and here's the standard procedure for broken glass at the ice well on a crazy busy night. 1: Spray the ice well with the cola gun. Something dark. That tells the other servers and bartenders that the ice is bad. 2: grab the biggest cambro from the kitchen and fill it with ice. That is your new icewell until you have time to fix the icewell properly. 3: Put the cambro into the icewell. Even on a busy night it should buy you about half an hour to clear out the old ice and reclean the icewell.
rullyman 11 months ago
Fill it with ice from where? The ice is contaminated
Load More Replies... shylittlehippo 11 months ago
I solemnly swear I clean out the ice machine every Sunday at my work.
rullyman 11 months ago
It's the tools as much as the ice. The scoop is meant to be stored in flavourless sterilising solution that's changed at least every 8 hours. Many places store the scoop in the ice. Think about how nasty some people's hands are... and they touch the handle of that scoop, which touches the ice
Load More Replies... My O My 11 months ago
Off topic: does anyone know where the notifications have gone? I can't find them anymore, they've been replaced by an upload button
Pollywog 11 months ago
If you hit the drop menu and scroll down a little you'll find them.
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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
I have a degree in food science and we had a whole course on why ise is the "forgotten food". Also worked in the food industry long enough to know how nasty an ice machine can get.
Nimitz 11 months ago
This is how you know if a place is clean or not. I used to be a KM and the ice machine was on our cleaning lists. The small ice machine in the bar cleaned every week. The big ice machine in the kitchen cleaned every 2 weeks. Unplug it, scoop out the ice, spray it down with sani, wipe it out, remove the trays and put them through the dishwasher, reassemble, plug back in.
BrownEyedPanda 11 months ago
Not unlike the ice machines in hospitals. That ice is nasty-tasting, especially in water. Ask me how I know. 🫤
#3
My husband used to work in a gastro-pub in a well-to-do area where it was the only option.
The baked Camembert. It was literally the Camembert from Aldi. £1 each. Baked and sold for £15 to share.
Everyone was convinced it was some really posh continental fine cheese with a special Camembert oven or some s**t. Nope, they could do the exact same thing at home for a pittance of the price.
Owen 11 months ago
This has just convinced me to go buy some camembert. Even though I probably already have too much cheese.
HF 11 months ago
You pay for the work done by the restaurant and for convenience, not mainly for how expensive the ingredients are.
PeepPeep the duck 11 months ago
A lot of people don’t get this, and a restaurant I worked in also used the $1 aldi cheese for the cheese boards 😂 but cracker barrel for chedder, so we evened it out
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Debby Keir 11 months ago
On holiday in Croatia and first night went out for a meal - every single 'special' was stuff that had been 'on offer' in my local (UK) Aldi a few days before we'd come away. On asking, I was told that the only Aldi round there was about 50km away, so the locals had no idea!
Cuppa tea? 11 months ago
Nothing wrong with Aldi's camembert - or anything else. Actually the original camembert is not great for baking, as it's too soft and runny. For baking you need slightly firmer texture so it won't end up almost saucy.
cecilia kilian 11 months ago
It is a good way to use the ones that have not , and will not mature.
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Ace 11 months ago (edited)
I'd need to check, but yeah, probably the cheapest for a small whole one would be at least a couple of euros. But artistic licence, right? Oh, and in the UK they still apply EU labelling regs, so if it said it was Camembert, it was Camembert.
Load More Replies...The thought of starting a restaurant carries a sense of romance. There’s a certain beauty in creating a space where people can gather, share meals, and make lasting memories. But when it comes to making money, the reality is far less charming.
Net profit margins typically range from 0 to 15 percent, with most averaging just 3 to 5 percent—not the most inspiring numbers. So, unless you’re dreaming of failure, pricing has to be smart enough to keep the doors open.
#4
I'm not a chef by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have a small BBQ business. I've had some people call me out on my pricing for say, pulled pork. They even say, "I saw pork shoulder at Kroger's for $1.99/lb". I tell them that is great, but I source slightly higher quality than commodity pork. Aside from the meat cost, there is the cost of that fresh ground pepper and other seasonings. Then the cost of wood and propane for my smoker, which wasn't cheap, and right now I'm trying to figure out how to replace it with bigger, better, because it is falling apart. The cost of wrapping material. The cost of the sauce that comes with it (homemade from scratch). Let's not mention the minimum of 8 hours I had it in the smoker, watching it carefully, then letting it rest for the right amount of time before shredding. Oh then there is the knowledge base it takes to do it right, which took many years of crappy BBQ that only I ate to get here. But absolutely, you could buy commodity shoulders at the store and replicate for a fraction of the price. And they should.
Andi 11 months ago
How long does it take to 'knock-out' one of your paintings? About two days in total. And how much do you sell them for? About two hundred Guineas. Over two hundred pounds for two days work!!? No sir, a lifetimes. (Whistler Vs Ruskin, look it up, interesting)
MushroomHead22 11 months ago
"I saw pork shoulder at Kroger's for $1.99/lb" - thats nice. go make it yourself and tell me how bad it was.
ILoveMySon 11 months ago
I don't have a smoker anymore but OP is absolutely correct. I am happy to pay for pulled pork.
#5
Not a chef and I don't work in food service anymore, but I went to a highly praised Italian restaurant in my area, and got a pistachio cannoli. But it was actually peanuts with green dye. F**k them for insulting my eyes, intelligence, and taste buds.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
Anyone else old enough to remember when pistachios were bright red?
Jrog 11 months ago (edited)
It was an uniquely american thing. It was done to hide the natural blemishes and defects on the fruit, that the americans found unappealing, and they were dyed with a petrol-derivate colorant, Red#3. Red#3 is a well known carcinogenic, it has been outlawed in Europe since the early 1990s and in most of Asia since the 2000s, but it still legal for food in the USA due to pressure from candy makers because it's cheaper than the alternatives. Another mighty success story for American Capitalism, yayyy!
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Damned_Cat 11 months ago
That's called adulterated food and it's definitely against restaurant health code. Any substitutions must be disclosed and the product cannot be represented as the real thing. That's why you see thing labeled "honey sauce" if the honey is cut with corn syrup, or "pecan nut blend" when it's not 100% pecans, or "olive oil blend" when it's partly some other oil. That restaurant is just courting trouble if someone gets sick or dies because they didn't know they were eating peanuts.
Mary Kelly 11 months ago
Unless the restaurant has a pastry chef, almost all deserts are bought frozen at a restaurant supply store...and they taste like it...
#6
Maybe not a "secret secret" but just not something people realized.
At Wendy's, the cooked burgers that don't get sold, those go into a pot in a refrigerator, and they get made into TOMORROW's chili.
The crispy chicken that doesn't get sold today? Those go into a pot in the fridge and those get made into TOMORROW's crispy chicken salads.
Back when Wendy's had a salad bar ... the burger buns that are going stale at the end of a day? Those got made into tomorrow's garlic bread on the salad bar.
None of this is unsafe, all of this is approved by the department of health, and none of this is a trade secret ... but I bet you didn't realize that.
Just stopping by 11 months ago
Didn't know this but I'm so happy they aren't just throwing it away
Kabuki Kitsune 11 months ago
That was the premise behind why Dave wanted Wendy's to do that. He previously worked with Col. Sanders of KFC fame, and in discussions with the Col, he picked up some tricks which could help him lower the overall cost of his products. By reusing items which hadn't sold, he cut his overhead in supplies down considerably.
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n75mk9nk2n 11 months ago
This one I actually approve of. It's repurposing food that would otherwise be wasted. Perfectly edible, perfectly safe, and profitable for everyone involved.
Alfred Wessex 11 months ago
That’s if they didn’t put in the burgers that dropped on the floor and unused/uncooked meat at the end of the day. The pot sits under the grill 24/7 uncovered, open for mice, rats and cockroaches. IF they did it right, it wouldn’t be bad. They don’t. I would get in trouble for throwing out floor burgers or putting the container in the walk in.
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Uncommon Sense 11 months ago
Yeah, I’m actually cool with all of this. It’s being practical and sensible, reducing waste whilst not undermining quality. Most of us safely reuse leftovers and I’d probably support a restaurant that did this as opposed to one that wasted tonnes every day. As long as it’s repurposed in a timely manner in line with food safety standards, it makes absolute sense to me. Besides, some things taste better a day later (lasagne for one! So much better than fresh out the oven).
To learn more about what it takes to keep a restaurant on its feet, Bored Panda spoke with Humbat Mamedov, a waiter at Street Pizza in Riga, Latvia, ranked among the top 50 pizzerias in Europe. With over four years of experience in hospitality across multiple countries, he had plenty of insights to share about the industry.
According to Humbat, some menu items are noticeably more profitable than others. Coffee, for instance, can have a markup of 300-400%, while wine can be highly lucrative for places that promote it as a specialty.
“In Italy or Spain, wholesale wine prices can start at under a euro per bottle, with many costing just a few euros, while a 150ml glass at a restaurant can sell for 5 euros or more—though, of course, the quality plays a role,” he explained.
Pizza is also a top contender for strong profit margins since it relies on simple, inexpensive ingredients. “The dough has a long shelf life, and if it doesn’t get used up, it can easily be turned into bread, baguettes, or other baked goods to serve in the restaurant, which reduces waste significantly,” said Humbat.
#7
Most of our desserts are purchased from the Wal-Mart directly across the street then marked up 500%. For the price of a couple of pieces of cheesecake, you could just go across the street to Wal-Mart after your meal and buy a whole one.
We just drizzle a bit of chocolate or raspberry sauce on it so that it doesn't look exactly like the one from Wal-Mart.
Also, a smoker outside the building doesn't mean your barbecue is fresh. Most of it is frozen. Sometimes we just throw logs on there so it *looks* and *smells* like we're barbecuing. Homey, we made that s**t two days ago. That's just wood you're smelling.
elmortero 11 months ago
As a smoker, I can 100% confirm that my presence outside a restaurant does not tell you anything about the quality/freshness of items sold in that restaurant :-)
Nicole Weymann 11 months ago
To me that's skirting fraud. If I pay a restaurant for food I expect them to make it. These expectations have their limits (ice cream outside of a gelateria, for one, or french fries), but I'd feel cheated going to a specialty restaurant and finding out they serve ready meals and convenience food at artisan prices. Then again entering a place with 60+ diverse items on the menu expecting stuff to be made from scatch is optimistic at best.
Joanne Earle 11 months ago
Walmart bakery items are the WORST. I have never gotten a single one that was good.
E Weisenfeld 3 months ago
He didn’t say Walmart baked it, he said he bought it from Walmart. Walmart sells things that they don’t make themselves too.
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#8
Nothing.
Some items might have higher margins than others, but at the end of the day staff wages (everywhere but the USA), utilities, tax, rates, rent etc all need to be paid, plus making a profit which is part of the point after all.
So no your glass of coke, bottle of wine, portion of chips etc is *not* a rip off.
If you care so much about the wholesale cost then a restaurant is not for you, stay at home.
PhaseWitFact 11 months ago (edited)
The minimum wage for tipped employees in the United States is $2.13 per hour. So, in America anyway, people go to restaurants and pay inflated prices for food and then pay the employees too via tips. The expected tip is 20-25% of the bill. ETA Due to this and the fact that I know how to cook, I rarely eat out.
IORN 11 months ago
I will never understand why they don't just factor the wages into the food prices. In the end the client pays the same money.
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Mental Liberals 11 months ago
Many of things Are a rip off! Sorry...you don't need to charge 2x what a bottle of wine costs for a single glass!!
Nimitz 11 months ago
I remember being a KM. We would get a nightly printout of our cost breakdowns. Food cost target was to be kept below 17% and labour costs were 9% on a slow night, 12% on a busy night max. The owner's son was in charge of our 5 stores, in addition to the managers and an ops manager for al 5 stores. Guy didn't actually work, just showed up to meetings. My store would make $50-60k profit every month, the other stores had similar margins. Meanwhile wages were as low as possible. And once they learned how to exploit the temporary foreign worker program, they stopped hiring locals, bought a 4 bedroom house, brought in 19 TFWs and made them all cram in there together. Successful restaurants are often owned by scum
Kelly Scott 11 months ago
Restaurants are complaining they'll have to close if they pay minimum wage. But they're going to end up closing anyway because at this rate, they won't have any customers left to eat in them.
#9
Back when I was a fry cook, some customers thought they were being slick and would order unsalted fries to make sure they got fresh ones. Us cooks would just put already salted fries back into the fryer to wash the salt off.
Cpt. Christan "Panda Bombero" 11 months ago (edited)
As long as my fries are crispy, not soggy, I do not care if they are: re-dipped, re-dunked, refried, re-heated, etc. Please just ensure that I am being served hot and crispy fries.
Adam Belaire 11 months ago
Likewise for us who actually don't want salt, if putting the fries back into the fryer will get rid of all the salt, it doesn't bother me. I don't care if my fries are fresh or not, I just want no salt.
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Damned_Cat 11 months ago
Fries should be double fried for perfect crispness. The origin story of French fries says that they were invented by someone who was just trying to reheat some single-fried potatoes that had gone cold. He tossed them back in the hot oil and found that the potatoes were much tastier after the second frying.
MushroomHead22 11 months ago
yeah you think they think theyre slick but really theyre making you work more and making you believe that you are the one who is slick.
Apachebathmat 11 months ago
My son had a part time job at McDonald’s when he was at university, if anyone asked this he would say “sure, it’ll be about 10 minutes as we need to use up this batch first” they would always just take what was available
marcelo D. 11 months ago
And that would make them crispy again. So, they were , in fact, being sly, cause they didn’t get soggy fries
The Doom Song 11 months ago
I used to work in a restaurant. The amount of times the chips were dunked back into the deep fryer....
A restaurant’s earnings have to cover much more than food alone. Rent, utilities, ingredients, and, most importantly, the staff who keep everything running smoothly all factor into the costs. For waiters, the job can be especially stressful.
“Working in food service is tough because you have to deal with all kinds of people and personalities—both among staff and guests,” Humbat shared. “To me, handling guests is the most demanding part. A lot depends on the restaurant itself, the concept, and the audience it’s designed for. But guests and their moods can have a huge impact on your day—they can either lift your spirits or completely throw you into a spiral of endless stress.”
“One of the biggest challenges is that in many restaurants, the workday officially starts at 11 or 12, but that doesn’t mean you can just show up at noon and everything will be fine,” he added. Waiters need to arrive at least 30 minutes early to change, review the shift plan, and restock essentials like utensils, plates, salt, and pepper.
The physical demands are equally intense. “You’re on your feet the entire shift. Breaks aren’t really a thing—if you’re lucky and it’s not busy, you might get 10-15 minutes for a meal,” said Humbat. “Sometimes, the only chance to eat is grabbing a quick bite between tasks during the busiest moments.”
#10
My ex use to work at Applebees. She told me that everything you eat there is pre-packaged and just microwaved once you order it, including the ribs and steak.
Dragon mama 11 months ago
There Is a big difference between a chef and a lime cook though and therefore a big difference between Applebee's and a restaurant.
Gianna B D 11 months ago
Yeah, a chef can cook lots of foods while a lime cook can only cook one fruit that, honestly, shouldn't be cooked in the first place.
Load More Replies... Kabuki Kitsune 11 months ago
This isn't exactly true. So, while the various portions of meats are pre-packaged, they're not cooked in a microwave. Steaks, for example, are pre-packaged uncooked to control portion size, and are opened just prior to cooking on the grill. Ribs, which are pre-packaged, come sauced and almost completely cooked. This is because to cook them fully takes multiple hours. So they're removed and placed in an industrial sized air fryer to finish the cooking process. Same goes for cooked vegetables. It's not a microwave, as the OP believed.
Jonas Fisher 11 months ago
I worked at Applebees for a few years in the 90s. Unless things changed a lot, I would actually vouch for Applebees. Very clean. Lots of clear rules about old food and cross-contamination. And, things really were cooked. On a busy night, that grill would be packed with meat for hours on end. Yeah, some stuff is microwaved, but comparatively very little.
BrownEyedPanda 11 months ago
Trust me, things changed a lot. I have NEVER had a good experience at an Applebee's. Burgers that were 80% bread, cold food, indifferent servers, even being overcharged for my meal was/is a regular thing at the ones in my area.
Load More Replies... George Costanza 11 months ago
This is partly the consumers' fault. Chain restaurants exist because people want the same exact food prepared the same exact way every time they go to that chain restaurant. So the food has to be prepared in huge quantities in advance in some mega-kitchen and just reheated for each patron. There would be too much variability if each restaurant actually cooked each dish to order, so they don't.
Upstaged75 11 months ago
I thought everyone knew this. They definitely don't make the food on site.
#11
Starbucks supervisor here. There is no secret menu, and we're not trained to make those viral TikTok drinks. Some of the more common ones, like a Cotton Candy Frap, the baristas might know, but don't bank on it. If you want us to make something 'off-menu,' have the recipe handy. As a side note, many of those drinks also rely on seasonal ingredients, so you should have a backup choice ready.
KatSaidWhat 10 months ago
tik tok drink? "Sir, this is a Wendy's". Also, please see the menu on the wall.
#12
Not really food but I reported my work for watering down the liquor all the while charging $10 a beer and $12-18 for a single and double shot (hotel.)
Cant wait to have these scummy f***s loose the only thing making that shithole worth anything.
Mike F 11 months ago
There's an apocryphal story about a bar in Detroit that used to do that. The story was that the heat went out during the night and some of the liquor bottles froze and broke because the owner had added so much water.
Alfred Wessex 11 months ago
Which bar? I quickly came up with a list in my head that I could imagine would do this. The Mercury Bar is the only place in Detroit that serves decent alcohol.
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no Adhesivness2020 11 months ago
Carnival Cruise. First hour on the ship, drinks were good. After that, 50% water.
Nimitz 11 months ago
The place I used to work at got in trouble for this. The beer was untampered, but our cocktails were all watered down. Not because of corrupt business practices though, because the staff were stealing booze, lol. We had to buy proof scales to check the hard stuff wasn't being watered down
Katie Barnes 11 months ago
MANY bartenders (and some honest managers) here where I live in Canada admit that their bars/pubs water down the hard alcohol to increase profit. It's super common where I am according to those I know in the industry.
However, as guests, we have the power to make life easier for restaurant workers—and it doesn’t take much effort or extra money (though tips are always appreciated).
“The core of it all is basic politeness,” said Humbat. People in the service industry deal with rude or entitled customers daily, so a little kindness can go a long way. “Honestly, I think everyone should spend a year working in food service instead of the army. You’ll get both physical and psychological training here.”
If you expect it to be a hectic day for the restaurant, like a weekend or holiday, coming prepared with a reservation helps immensely. “And when the restaurant is about to close, it’s best to leave 10-15 minutes before the doors actually shut,” Humbat advised. “After that, the staff still has to clean the entire dining area and prepare it for the next day, which takes at least another 30 minutes.”
“Also, please don’t say, “I know the owner,” to get special treatment,” he said. “So do we. It’s the most ridiculous line when you’re trying to push for something after being told no. No means no.”
Being thoughtful isn’t complicated. Have patience, be understanding when things don’t go perfectly, and remember—the restaurant wants you to have a great experience, but that only works when you do your part too.
#13
Not a chef but I went to an Italian restaurant and ordered the $7 garlic bread entree, when it came out i nearly died, it was a $2 Woolworth's garlic bread loaf.
My Nonna would have actually had a heartattack if she was eating with us.
Jrog 11 months ago (edited)
FYI: Garlic bread is NOT an Italian thing. If you see that BS served in an "Italian" restaurant, you know it's fake. If you find that in Italy, you know that is a tourist place. The OG version is called "bruschetta" and is a grilled slice of sourdough bread scraped with garlic, and loaded with tomato and a drizzle of oil. Anything else is about as Italian as a sushi with with bolognese sauce and tofu.
#14
Health inspection is really kind of a sham. Health inspectors tend to inspect all the restaurants in an area around the same time. When the inspector shows up at one restaurant the manager will typically notify the other restaurants in the area. I worked at a Taco Bell. When we got a call from the BK down the street that the health inspector was there, we knew he would be showing up at our place sometime in the next week. We would call in extra people to do a deep clean of everything. It did not matter that most of the year every time we hosed out under the fryer or food prep lines, we drowned hundreds of roaches. When the health inspector showed up everything was clean, so we still had a 100% on our health inspection.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
They're never 100%. The health inspector always finds something. I've seen them knock a place for rust on a metro rack. Didn't matter the only thing on the rack were cardboard boxes full of to-go containers.
quentariel 11 months ago
Ours docked us one point (among others) when our freezer was too warm. Well, obviously it was because were filling it at that moment, and he clearly saw that. And I would like to see a freezer that stays colder than -18°C when the door is open. Another point went on a puddle on the floor, which was next to a ice machine that I was washing. That inspector could try to rinse something with a hose without spilling a drop of water anywhere. I'm wholeheartedly encouraging health inspections, but i wish they would have some common sense too.
Load More Replies... Nimitz 11 months ago
I remember one time the health inspector was someone the owner used to pick on in high school. There was a 2 inch hole near the ceiling on one wall in the prep area, and some crumpled receipts under one of the lines, and some gunk on the pipes under the dishpit (you had to get down on your back and reach up to find them). The inspector shut us down. No bugs or pests, just those issues and we had to close and scrub the entire place from top to bottom. Served him right though. The owner was an a*****e
MegDragon 11 months ago
This happens a lot, yes. I would say it all depends on which inspector you get. Some of them couldn’t care less, warn you they’re coming, and take a cursory glance around. Others are hard nose to the point of unreasonable and tick off points to feel alive, I guess. The best one I ever met clearly cared about her job and spent some of her time educating the staff.
Zena 11 months ago
A friend of mine said that when he got his first job as an engineer in a manufacturing plant, when the auditor/inspector was due to arrive, his manager told him that they would find 3 minor infractions. He hastily assured his manager that they would find no infractions at all because he would make sure everything was perfect. His manager said: No, they WOULD find 3 infractions and it was his job to ensure that they were minor, not major. He explained that if they didn't find anything, they would keep digging deeper until they did; let them find 3 minor issues and they'd be satisfied that they had done their job and leave. Probably transfers to health inspectors.
#15
Not a chef but I worked at a Japanese for a while and we had this thing called a Volcano roll. It cost $7.25. A California roll there cost $3.75. The Volcano roll was a Cali roll cut into the shape of a triangle and topped with spicy mayo that has been heated up with about $.10 worth of fish, literally just a few bits. You are much better off ordering a Cali roll and paying $.50 extra for spicy mayo on the side and asking them to heat it up.
I had one guy come in with a girl and he ordered a couple of regular rolls like spicy tuna and yellowtail, along with a Volcano roll. When served in the restaurant, unless they ask us, we would put the sauce on top so it looked nice, like a Volcano. When I brought that roll over he was like, "Oh, I didn't know you guys put the sauce on, I've only gotten it for pick up and the sauce is always on the side. I don't really like it, could you bring me one one without it?" I tried not to laugh and said sure. I went back and the sushi chef asked what was wrong. I told him that he didn't like the sauce and want one without it. He laughed and said alright, so he took a Cali roll, cut it up, and put it on the plate. I brought it back to the guy and he was super pumped.
Basically this guy paid $7.25 for a roll that would have cost him $3.75 and me and the sushi chef got to split a free volcano roll. Normally I would have just told him about it, but the dude was being pretty arrogant the entire time, I'm guessing to act like he was a sushi expert to impress the girl he was with.
Owen 11 months ago
It does exist. Try some peri-peri hot mayo. It's good stuff. Quite popular in the UK.
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#16
We serve "hot fresh baked pretzels" for $8.95.
We get em by the case frozen. Roughly $75 per box. 100 per box. We get 33 orders per box and one to eat while figuring out math.
33 orders X $8.95 = 295.35.
So profit is 220.35 (minus the cost).
So with that 220.35 we pay the electric, gas, rent, taxes, staff, equipment, etc. And thats assuming we sell all 33 orders of pretzels. Stan my line cook eats an order. Boom, down to 32. Jose burned an order. Down to 31. Barb sneaks one home in her purse. 30 orders. 3 pretzels are broken in the box. Down to 29. So our 220.35 just went down to 184.55 pretty quickly...and very easily.
Russ Kincade 11 months ago
The math isn't mathing in the last paragraph, but we get the picture.
azubi 11 months ago
How does it not? I reckon you should pull the sale price from the profits for each pretzel, because they are already paid for by the owner? 220,35 - 4*8,95 = 184,55... please help me If I am wrong.
Load More Replies... #17
Not a chef but, in the UK if your restaurant is licensed to serves alcohol you legally have to provided free drinking water, but what they can do is charge you for the glass.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
If they're charging for the glass, I'm taking the glass home with me.
rullyman 11 months ago
You can get free glasses by going for a walk on a weekend morning. People leave the pub holding their drink absentmindedly, and end up abandoning the glasses all along the street. I used to live in Camden (north London) and stocked my whole kitchen this way!
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Mary English 11 months ago
I've never once been charged for tap water in the UK - and it's all I drink when I go out.
UKGrandad 11 months ago
This is slightly misleading. The cost of washing tableware is included in the price of the goods purchased or is accounted for in the service charge (not often seen in the UK). However, UK law states that licensed premises have to provide potable water free of charge to anybody who requests it regardless of whether they are actually purchasing anything, so the businesses are entitled to apply a service charge for the use of a glass where the customer is not making a purchase - people walking in off the street just to get a drink of water. I've never heard of any place actually applying the fee, but even if they did, you can avoid it by simply taking in your own water bottle; the business cannot refuse to fill it for you and cannot charge you for it.
Apatheist Account2 11 months ago
In what way is this "not the actual photo" of a glass of water??
AsylumWalker 10 months ago
They mean its not a photo from the original poster
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Aileen Grist 11 months ago
I'm in the UK and that's never happened to me. When I've asked for tap water it's always been free.
#18
We have a dessert, homemade donut holes, tossed in sugar and drizzled with Nutella for $10. It's leftover pizza dough deep fried. A 45lb bag of flour is $18, so you do the math.
Shits tasty as f**k tho!
#19
The only thing that is fresh and healthy, not pre-made, bagged and/or frozen at like all fast food places is the tomatoes.
Upstaged75 11 months ago
If you're eating fast food you're probably not worried about fresh tomatoes.
Load More Replies... Orange Panda 11 months ago
Generally lettuce isn't messed with either. The iceberg lettuce chunker we had at my old restaurant was cool!
Irene Bucior 3 months ago
Chipotle has fresh everything. Even Avocados are inspected for quality when they get to the store. They don’t have food freezers, so nothing is frozen except ice. Food tastes good too. No, I never worked there but I know someone who did.
#20
Candy man here. We left chocolate out in display cases for months on end. When my friends came by to the store I told them to avoid it at all costs.
LB 11 months ago
Dust? It's exposed to air (in the picture, anyway) so I'm going to assume it's less sanitary then chocolate stored in some kind of wrapper.
Load More Replies... Damned_Cat 11 months ago
We have a candy chain called See's. They put the different chocolates on display in little dishes, but when you buy the candy, they're taking it from fresh boxes behind the counter.
Orange Panda 11 months ago
Yup. I recommend the key lime truffles. Sounds crazy, but they're delicious!
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#21
We buy tiny wine bottles for $7 and sell for $37.
Spaghetti Factories house wine is Franzia box wine.
Kabuki Kitsune 11 months ago
Those tiny bottles are, quite often, required by city ordinances more than a company being cheap. The reasoning behind it, as I understand it, is portion control. Specifically, each of those small bottles has a set amount in it, and is only used for the one person having the drink. So mixed drinks can have their alcohol values closely monitored, preventing over pouring, or under pouring. IE more alcohol in the drink, or less. With wines, it makes it more difficult for a person to over consume and drive intoxicated, as for each time they request a new glass of wine, a new small bottle must be opened. So restaurants and bars can closely monitor how much someone is drinking, and if it becomes excessive, they can easily cut off a patron.
Nimitz 11 months ago
Here's a secret. If the "house blend" actually tastes good, it's cause we took a cheap bottle of wine and buzzed it in the blender, the poured it into a decanter. The aeriation will make even a s****y bottle of wine taste good. Try it at home and save money. Even the cheapest wine on the shelf will taste pretty good after it's been given the treatment.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
The tiny single serve sparkling wine bottles I see at brunch for mimosas drive me crazy. You can get sparkling and regular wine in kegs and not waste all that glass.
#22
Not really a rip-off, but there's an Italian place nearby that serves a deliciously savory dipping sauce called Bagna Cauda. $13 gets you about an 8 oz crock of it and 6 soft breadsticks to dip. I googled it and it's just melted butter with anchovies and a little sour cream melded in. I made a fondue pot of it for New Year's Eve. Super easy, inexpensive, and impressed the hell out of our guests.
Jrog 11 months ago (edited)
Except the "recipe" is wrong and it's not just that easy. The true recipe calls for a hour long slow cooking, requires a complex preparation for the anchovies (that must be thoroughly washed, cleaned, bathed in wine, dried and mashed), maceration of the garlic in milk, and uses high quality EV oil instead of butter.
rullyman 11 months ago
$13 for that doesn't sound bad. Butter has gone up in price a lot in the past 3 years. Remember you're paying for labour and restaurant overheads too!
PhaseWitFact 11 months ago
Yeah, but in the US, customers are paying for most of the wait staff salaries. Not much labor cost in the menu items.
Load More Replies... C B Jones 11 months ago (edited)
I do this dish all the time, my gran would make it when I was a kid. We are Piedmontese, so we did the Piemont version : basically dipping raw and cooked veggies in a hot olive oil, garlic and anchovy sauce. Man I miss this. Edit: Ok I am definitely preparing one over the week-end. 2nd edit: cooked it on Sunday, gave some to my 4-year-old who loved it. Brought leftovers to work and currently getting ready for massive hatred from my colleagues when I'll put my lunchbox in the microwave :D
cecilia kilian 11 months ago
It is delicious. My mom got the recipe from Sunset or Gourmet magazine during the fondue craze (US, 70s).
Load More Replies... Uncommon Sense 11 months ago
Sod the cost - melted butter and anchovies. Sounds like the work of the devil. 🤮
Katie Barnes 11 months ago
Your devil is invited to dinner at my place with his anchovies and melted butter any night of the week!
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Toothless Feline 11 months ago
Upvote for B5! That episode was the first thing that came to mind when I saw Bagna Cauda.
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Shannon McNamee 11 months ago
That is not even close to true Banga Cauda... Yeesh, not sure what site you went to, but true Bagna is a pain to make and takes a good deal of prep time.
Mary Kelly 11 months ago (edited)
garlic, EVOO, anchovies...no sour cream...and, that is a pic of fondue
Kelly Scott 11 months ago
I was paying $6 for a little bitty wrapped foil of Boursin cheese. The recipe for it calls for 2 8oz packages of cream cheese, a stick of butter, 1 1/2 tsps of garlic powder, 3 Tbls of Parmesan cheese, salt, parsley, and chives. This makes about 4 of those little wrapped foils and tastes pretty much the same.
#23
I worked in a fancy country club ($25K initiation fee, then $7K/year in the 90s). A slice of "homemade" cheesecake was $7 each on the menu. One of the sous chefs stopped by the Giant Food grocery store every day on the way to work to pickup a whole cheesecake for about $5.
🇳🇬 Asi Bassey 🇳🇬 11 months ago
Well, if you pay 25k just to get in I don’t think the cost of cheesecake would be that much of a deal.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
I'm assuming $7 a slice for the $5 cheesecake that is split at least 8 ways so $56 total sale and $49 profit. So that's like almost 1000% profit.
#24
We used to sell a house-made drink with a ton of stuff we could make behind the bar for basically nothing. The cost to us, per pour, was $1.89. We sold it for $12.
Granted, that kind of thing allows us to sell expensive things for far less than other places, which actually pissed off the guys up the street from us who were selling the same products for a good deal more. So usually when you're getting ripped off via a particular item, it's letting you get something good for less. Take salad, for example. Nothing about mixed green should cost $11, but when everyone and their mother eats one, we can sell that ahi tuna steak for $24 instead of $28.
I love doing this with beer. Yes, Peroni on draft is going to cost you $6, even though our pour cost is about $1.25. But that means I can put up that log of Alesmith Speedway Stout and it will also cost you 6 bucks instead of 8 or 9. Basically - the cheap s**t should cost a ton so the expensive stuff isn't so bad.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
That's how most places work. My usual hangout after work used to $1 tacos. They did that for over a decade. They finally raised the price this year to $1.50. They also had to implement a "No tacos to go" rule because people were buying a dozen tacos at a time to-go. They were losing money on the tacos but as long as people were buying drinks they made money. To-go tacos were losing them money. They also did $2 pints until this last year for happy hour so their drink prices were not high.
Matthias Fischer 11 months ago
Yeah... No. Everyone running a business doesn't do that for goodwill. They do it to make money. I don't believe this.
#25
I'm not a chef but a victim. I was at a moderately well regarded seafood restaurant and ordered lobster tails stuffed with clams, what I ended up with was lobster tail SHELLS that had been completely emptied of the lobster meat (where did it go??) and stuffed with a mixture of breadcrumbs and minced clams that tasted like they were straight out of a can. $26 for what was essentially a lobster-shaped loaf of clam-bread. After jabbing it with my fork for a minute looking for the actual lobster tail, I called the waiter over and whispered "I think you forgot something?", and he tells me no, you were served exactly what you ordered.
Trista JW 11 months ago
I disagree with this poster about being a victim at all, it sounds like they got exactly what they ordered. I have no damned idea how anyone could expect lobster tail MEAT to be stuffed with clams.
Lee Gilliland 11 months ago
It would taste awful and the textures would not mix.
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Catlover129 10 months ago
I come from Boston, a city known for its fresh seafood and of course its lobster. Almost every restaurant offers a baked stuffed lobster tail on its menu. It comes with the lobster meat! No one in their right mind is ever going to knowingly and willingly order a lobster tail thinking all they are getting is the shell. That is absolutely insane.
#26
Expensive city here. The biggest ripoff that customers have to pay for is the exorbitant rent restauranteurs owe to their landlords. Restaurants typically make less than 6% profit margin.
#27
Keep in mind that to make money, we have to bump up everything by at least 300% to keep the doors open. More on some stuff. Less on others. That being said when you're picky kid just wants pasta and butter and we charge you $8.95 for it...thanks.
As a chef it's all about food costs. We often play distributors off each other to keep the costs down. And there's always more than one distributor.
The one thing you don't make any money on is chicken wings. I know you're thinking "man, why are they so expensive". The demand is exceeding the supply right now. There's only so many chickens out there. Plus we need oil to fry them, power to run the fryer, money to pay the guy that fries them, celery is expensive lately, blue cheese, the server that brings them to you gets paid...it all gets factored into it so remember that this Super Bowl when you're wallet takes a hit.
We make our money in the front of the house on the booze though. As a dad trying to make ends meet, I don't get how people can now go out and pay $10 bucks for a 12oz glass of beer. I drink for free after hours, but couldn't afford to get drunk at a bar these days! We had bars with nickel beer night when I was in school. Granted it was Icehouse or Busch, but dang.
Kelly Scott 11 months ago
What I can't figure out is, because of the bird flu (what I'm being told), eggs are in short supply and horribly expensive. I saw a dozen yesterday priced at $8. But chicken itself? No problem.
Solomon Dang-Goldberg 11 months ago
Laying birds and meat birds are 2 different animals. Laying g Hiroshima take about 5 or more months to stay Laying, meat birds are butchered at maybe 12 weeks. But on the brightside, new egglayers generally give more double yolks.
Load More Replies... #28
Not a chef, but former waitress. Used to work in this restaurant where specialty was a seafood pasta. Each order cost the restaurant just $3 but they charged $24.
Damned_Cat 11 months ago
None of these mark-ups are a surprise. When you watch any of the "restaurant rescue" TV shows, the rescuer always explains to the owner how to correctly mark up the price of a dish. Apparently, markup is not just based on cost and overhead, but also the expected price for the type of restaurant (i.e. family dining atmosphere or posh vibe) and the area they are in.
Kabuki Kitsune 11 months ago
So... was this the first time OP was introduced to 'markup'? Markup is the amount added to the cost price of goods to cover overhead and profit.
Katie Barnes 11 months ago
I don't think that's the problem, I think it's the extent of the markup. To my understanding (and it varies greatly by dish, I know) your food cost should be marked up 3-5 times food cost (300-500%) to cover those costs. This is much more than that. My numbers may be out of date but 800% seems a bit excessive.
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Wendy Hamilton 11 months ago
This is why they should be able to pay their servers a fair wage.
#29
Not a chef but a food distributor. Desserts. So many places claim house made pies, fresh baked cookies...Nope. frozen frozen frozen, thawed, then baked. Then they try to charge 7 bucks a slice.
Aileen Grist 11 months ago
I used to run a pub in the UK and found in the cash and carry 2 makes of pies - both savoury and dessert - one called Home Made and one called cooked by us. We didn't sell food but I've always been wary since of places with signs saying Home made pies and pies cooked by us.
Nimitz 11 months ago
We would buy large frozen New York style cheesecakes, pre-sliced into 12 pieces, for $18 wholesale and drizzle them with a little raspberry syrup and put them on a plate that looked like a painters palate. $12 per slice. Our "chocolate explosion" was the same thing. It was the job of the closing shift to take the next day's cakes out and put them in the fridge for defrosting
#30
At any fast-food drive-thru, the speaker box hears everything from when you pull up until after you drive off. If you talk c**p about us, we hear it. If you are arguing with your other passengers or on the phone, we hear that, too.
#31
Dude MAYONNAISE.
We bought that s**t in for €12,50 (that's $15) And we served it in these small cute dish/tray for €0,50.
We could do almost 500 of these servings. That is €250 ($300)
That's 20 times the original value. Thát is inappropriate and is the reason why I go against the system and eat my fries
**NO SAUCE**.
rullyman 11 months ago
Again, labour cost. It takes time to decant a huge tub into tiny tubs, and if they are ceramic pots, they'll be getting washed too. That takes human hands. (This doesn't mean I approve of charging for mayo)
Nimitz 11 months ago
No, there's no labour cost, since it's an ingredient that's already being used in the food. The mayo et al comes in bags and the prep cooks just snip a corner and fill a cambro with it and put it in the fridge. I'm a former KM. We'd sell a 70 mL cup of mayo, ranch, bbq, etc for $3. Our food cost was covered by using some of them as ingredients. A side of anything is pure profit.
Load More Replies... Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
One of the few things the USA is still doing right is free condiments. Mayo? Ketchup? Hot Sauce? we give it away for free with your order.
Carl Roberts 11 months ago
You haven;t been to a pizza place recently, have you? Or a fast food place. Most places are now charging for sauces. Ketchup & mustard are probably the only 2 that are still free.
Load More Replies... #32
Not a chef but a baker.
Cake balls.
They're maybe 1 inch by 1 inch (rolled in a ball and dipped in icing) but we sell them for $1.65 each.
We sell a quarter sheet cake (most common size) for $20. We sell 1 dozen cake balls, which is maybe 1/3rd the cake, for $19.8
Libstak 11 months ago
Some people just want a small treat, buying a whole cake can mean 1/2 gets trashed. I pay for small treats because i know im not wasting good food, its a balancing act.
Ms.GB 11 months ago (edited)
Cake pops are yummy and you aren't eating an entire slice of cake. Im not a big dessert person, most times I just want a taste of a couple bites so it's perfect. By the time you're like "This is getting too rich" it's gone.
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#33
Soda Pop. $3 a glass for $0.10 of product.
Nimitz 11 months ago
That is literally the cost breakdown. A BIB (bag in a box) of syrup is $20 and makes about 250 glasses of pop. The restaurant I used to work at spent about $300/mo on CO2. Ice is about 1 cent per serving. About 10-20% of the earnings from most profitable restaurants comes from selling you a bottomless glass of sugar water
Kabuki Kitsune 11 months ago
Yeah, I've been looking through several of these and think the people posting them don't have a good understanding of how markup works in a commercial setting.
Load More Replies... Nicole Weymann 11 months ago
Yupp, that's the drinks department for you: little work, huuuuge mark-up. Compared to that food (unless you count microwave ready meals) has a feckton more effort put into it. But if you started to price the items on the menu according to that you'd end up with 0.50 € coke and 15 € Burgers or 25 € pasta dishes. The system survives because most people have at least one drink with their meal - and nobody is willing to pay for "overpriced" food.
#34
I used to work at a local taco shop in a college town. People went ape s**t for the food there even after they graduated. The nostalgia was so strong, we shipped DIY boxes of the ingredients around the country to people that wanted it. It was just a box with bulk taco meat, cheese, lettuce, and the (very cheaply) restaurant-made hot sauce and "white sauce" (which people went berserk for, but it was literally just mayo, milk, salt, and pepper). You could also get hoagie buns because grinders were also really popular there.
You could make the same exact same food with grocery store ingredients for cheaper. There was seriously absolutely no reason to order the restaurant's food to ship.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
WTF is white sauce for a taco? IS that how they make tacos in like Utah or some other place is so white I have to wear sunglasses in January?
Ms.GB 11 months ago
I made enchiladas last night and drizzled them with thinned out sour cream that I kinda make the same way. Sour cream, milk, taco seasoning and lime juice...sometimes add some cotija and blend it up.
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#35
Not a chef, but if a takeaway in the UK serves multiple things, you can garauntee only one of those things is any good.
and it's never the pizza.
#36
Not exactly a 'chef', but I package baking/cooking mixes for a kitchen supply shop. They're very proud of their stuff, sometimes even calling it gourmet. Some of it we put together by scratch...but some not so much.
The other day for example I was scooping premade Krusteaz pancake mix into little bags described 'gourmet pancakes from our family recipes'.
Mike F 11 months ago
TBF, Krusteaz makes really good pancakes. Toss in a bit of cinnamon and damn that's good eating!
Kiss Army 9 months ago
I am allergic to cinnamon... but I make mine with cream soda instead of water and they are so light and fluffy with just a hint of vanilla taste... YUMMY!
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Kelly Scott 11 months ago
I wonder if that is Krusteaz approved. I mean, they spend the time and effort to make a product, but I'm not sure they wouldn't be just a little irritated that someone else is taking their product and calling it their own. I can see a lawsuit coming down the line there.
#37
I used to work at one of the quickservice restaurants at The Mouse™️. Bottled water cost like close to $5 after tax, but if you asked for a cup of water we’d give you a HUGE cup of water for free. Not a small plastic cup but the same cups we use for medium soda orders. The only reason bottled water would be worth it is if you didn’t like the taste of the cupped water, but it never made much of a difference to me.
#38
If you ever go to Bertucci's just know it is the most overpriced dining experience you will ever have. You could make the equivalent of every single menu item could be made for less than a quarter of the shown price. Ever gotten Tuscan vegetables? Its 12.99 (iirc) on the menu, it is 3 slices of eggplant, a scoop of tomatoes, a scoop of zucchini pieces and some artichoke. actual cost 35 cents.
#39
Not a chef, but our favorite restaurant now charges $16-$19 *each* for a regular "well" drink (i.e. "gin and tonic") and over $20 each for a standard "call" drink, such as a "Beefeater martini."
At those prices, the drinks often cost as much or *more* than the entrees.
#40
When ever my SO orders olives for the table it annoys me. all they have to do is take them out of the jar and put them in a bowl.
#41
Not a chef, but a cook. At my restaurant the menu says you get three pieces of breaded chicken in a wrap... But you only get two.
#42
I was a line cook at Panera Bread. A grilled cheese was upwards of $7.
Literally just put a slice and a half of cheese on bread, and panini pressed it.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
If it comes with a side of tomato soup, I'm OK with that, otherwise FO.
Kabuki Kitsune 11 months ago
Try it with a slice of tomato on the cheese too.
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#43
We sell a cheesy bread, which is 8 pieces with provolone, asiago, romano shake and optional garlic for 4 dollars. It became extremely popular, so the company started selling half cheesy breads, with 4 pieces each, for 3 dollars.
Literally you get half the food for 75% the price of a full.
#44
I cook at a nice resort in a tropical location, and just as a general head's up to tourists and travelers: if the restaurant you're eating at seats a large amount of people, or it looks like they do some pretty high volume; chances are most of the food you're getting is frozen and not, "made fresh".
#45
Avocado Toast.
Like, holy s**t. It's cheap bread. Cheap toppings. A cheap f*****g dressing. The only thing that cost is avocado's themselves. But the f*****g dish is like $20. The margin is easily a solid 13-15 dollars depending on the season. And people eat the s**t up.
As far as trend foods the only one I'd say gives you a similar margin for equal investment is the "Kobe" slider. American wagyu, like 2-3oz patties all sold for like, again, $20. Wild.
Ange Marsden 11 months ago
I eat it a lot because it's often the only vegan option on the menu
Ms.GB 11 months ago
I like to make avacado toast at home. It's just mashed avacado on toast but I sprinkle that everything bagel seasoning on top. It's my favorite quick breakfast.
Load More Replies... SheamusFanFrom1987 11 months ago
I could (and probably would) make all of you Avocado Rice for no charge, but you're gonna have to BYOSD (Bring Your Own Side Dish). Reason: Avocado Rice mainly gets its taste from lime aka sour AF (pardon me French).
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
LOL remember back in the first Trump years, There was a huge West Coast Avocado shortage. I think it was around 2018. Me and my friends were joking about smuggling them in across the border. Pretty sure it was right after the quinoa shortage.
#46
We make Ice tea and sell it on tap. Its really good, but its just Orange Pekoe, simple syrup, water, and lemon juice. The stuff prints money.
Kabuki Kitsune 11 months ago
It's sweet tea. Southerners will go out of their way to find that stuff.
#47
From my *very* brief stint working in a gastro-pub...
Wines are by far the biggest rip off.
Think back to the mid-noughties:
The same wines that you could buy for £8 a bottle would be sold for £15. The mid-range at £22 (bought for £10). High end would extend up to £80 a bottle. These never cost more than £20 each in bulk. Then there's the champers, £120 a bottle bought for £25 from the cash and carry.
For functions, you could get discount or bring your own. Corkage (a fee for the staff to serve you the wine you brought with) was between £5 and £10 a bottle, depending on the size of the party.
#48
My roommates and I were at Denny's. One guy orders the "Hot tea" for $2. He got a mug of hot water and a bag of lipton.
He was pissed.
rullyman 11 months ago
It's $2. You wanted a royal doulton teapot with a hand knitted cosy, packed with loose leaf from Ceylon? Get real
Debby Keir 11 months ago
I'd expect a 'proper' tea bag (no tag and previously stored in an airtight container) with BOILING hot water. You can't make tea without BOILING water - otherwise it's just p*ss.
Load More Replies... Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago (edited)
Lipton? God they couldn't even spring for Stash? Lipton is what you make ICED TEA out of.
#49
Pasta anything.
Nimitz 11 months ago
Yeah. I used to be KM of a place nice pizza/pasta place with high end bar food. Two people on prep for 4 hrs was all that was needed to keep the place running. We'd cook up the pasta for the day (penne, spaghetti, linguini, lasagna) dunk them in the ice bath when al dente, then portion them out. Later the pasta line empties the portion into a basket, puts it in boiling water for 1 minute while they heat up the sauce in an induction pan, then toss it all together, plate, and garnish. The profit margin is massive. Even scallop and prawn fettuccini alfredo with white wine was about $2.40 food cost for a $23 dish
#50
Mcdonalds a McDouble is a Big Mac without the middle bun and Mac sauce just tell them to add Mac sauce for like 40 cents.
#51
Short-rib flatbread pizza. We take leftover short rib from the previous night, shred it, put it on $0.05 worth of flatbread with a sprinkle of cheese and some diced red onion, and ship it out for $11.45. It's literally $10 profit.
And people love it. We sell easily 20-25 every night as hot apps.
#52
Noodles are pretty cheap to buy in bulk. A bowl at a restaurant can be anywhere from $8-$16.
Damned_Cat 11 months ago
We're talking Asian food, right? You know what? They can just take my money because no matter how hard I try to make any kind of authentic Asian food at home, it never tastes as good as my favorite restaurants. There are somethings you just have to leave to the experts.
#53
I used to cook at a seafood restaurant and without a doubt it was the lobster rolls. We used hardly any filler in them, basically all lobster and i still couldn't believe what we were selling them for.
#54
Sushi chef. Cucumber or avocado rolls. Less than a handful of rice, one half sheet of nori, and about 1/4 of an avocado or it's equivalent in cucumber. No idea why anyone gets these, the spicy vegetable roll is dope.
#55
Not a chef, and not a restaurant, but movie theater popcorn has one of the HUGEST markups.
#56
Special sauce (siracha and mayo) = $1.00
Ask for siracha and mayo = FREE.
#57
Where I used to work sold a pint of pepsi for £4.
It made me sad.
Thirsty family comes in and orders a pint of cola each for the parents and a half each for 3 kids? £14. That's 2 hours wage for me.
Debby Keir 11 months ago
It really annoys me that 'sodas' cost as much as an alcoholic drink in a pub. If you're in a party at least one will be the designated driver, but their drink often costs as much as a pint.
Soton_Sherpa 11 months ago
When I ran pubs in the UK, if we knew someone was designated driver, they got free fizzy drinks and a voucher for a free drink for when they were next in.
Load More Replies... #58
Our cup of soup is the same size as our bowl but the bowl costs 30 percent more.
#59
As a caterer, almost everything is a rip-off. One example that stands out are the tiny votive candles that are occasionally placed on tables at a fancy event. These little things are used numerous times and they charge $3/candle. Doesn't seem like much until every table has 3 candles and there are 28 tables. Now we're talking over $250 for candles. China service is another fine example that I won't go into detail.
#60
I worked in a big fancy restaurant. Makes about 20k a day. They microwave everything. Fresh steamed veggies? Nuked. Warm pie? Microwaved. Everything they can they microwave.
What do you think ?
Multa Nocte 11 months ago
"Shocking secrets"! Oh dear, is Bored Panda turning into a scandal sheet?
Myoviridae 11 months ago
Similar comment to most here. When I go to a restaurant, I know I am paying for the food/drinks, rent, and service costs (including servers, cooks, dishwashers). The decision I make to go to a restaurant is whether the food/drinks/etc are worth my money for all of those services and for me to have a good time with the people I am dining with. If so, then they get my money for a job well done.
Kabuki Kitsune 11 months ago
It seriously seems like 90% of these, are a result of people not understanding how markup works in a commercial setting. I mean, prices aren't as arbitrary as they seem. The restaurant or bar needs to cover their operating costs, which includes employee wages, structure rent, utilities, supply costs, licensing costs, in some cases their business loan payment, and then profit for the business. Those extra costs will add quite a bit to the overall cost to the consumer. So sure, while a 'bowl of noodles' may only cost the consumer 3 dollars to buy and make at home; a restaurant has to cover all those other costs, and the same bowl at a restaurant is going to cost markedly more.
KatSaidWhat 10 months ago
This really depends on supply/demand. I work for a private medical practice, we have a small in house "pharmacy". Some items are not marked up much, some are wtf eye watering mark up (antibiotics) - and yet still cheaper than the local pharmacy.
Multa Nocte 11 months ago
"Shocking secrets"! Oh dear, is Bored Panda turning into a scandal sheet?
Myoviridae 11 months ago
Similar comment to most here. When I go to a restaurant, I know I am paying for the food/drinks, rent, and service costs (including servers, cooks, dishwashers). The decision I make to go to a restaurant is whether the food/drinks/etc are worth my money for all of those services and for me to have a good time with the people I am dining with. If so, then they get my money for a job well done.
Kabuki Kitsune 11 months ago
It seriously seems like 90% of these, are a result of people not understanding how markup works in a commercial setting. I mean, prices aren't as arbitrary as they seem. The restaurant or bar needs to cover their operating costs, which includes employee wages, structure rent, utilities, supply costs, licensing costs, in some cases their business loan payment, and then profit for the business. Those extra costs will add quite a bit to the overall cost to the consumer. So sure, while a 'bowl of noodles' may only cost the consumer 3 dollars to buy and make at home; a restaurant has to cover all those other costs, and the same bowl at a restaurant is going to cost markedly more.
KatSaidWhat 10 months ago
This really depends on supply/demand. I work for a private medical practice, we have a small in house "pharmacy". Some items are not marked up much, some are wtf eye watering mark up (antibiotics) - and yet still cheaper than the local pharmacy.
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