Cooking a nice dinner is hard so don't be too hard on yourself if the rice is a little gummy and the chicken is a little dry. That is, if you're not charging people money for it, of course. If you are, they expect quality. Or at the very least, to not have food poisoning.
To find out how to spot places that can't promise these things, a now-deleted user posted a question to Reddit, asking "Chefs, what red flags should people look out for when they go out to eat?" And they responded.
Continue scrolling and check out some of the most upvoted replies.
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The first thing they told us in culinary school when you're learning food safety is: If you enter a seafood restaurant and smell fish, leave
XxcontaminatexX is one of the people who replied to the post. "I've only been a cook for [about] seven years now," the humble Reddit user told Bored Panda.
"From what I've seen during this time, restaurants should pick up the slack when it comes to product dates."
In fact, that's exactly the red flag XxcontaminatexX mentioned in their initial comment. "The first thing they told us in culinary school when you're learning food safety is: if you enter a seafood restaurant and smell fish, leave."
When the menus are super dirty and never cleaned, that means everything is super dirty and never cleaned
In culinary school, every single chef instructor says the same thing: If it's misspelled on the menu, that's on purpose. It's so they don't have to sell you the real thing. A prime example is 'krab cakes'
To save their supplies from the bin, restaurants may freeze them. And this isn't necessarily a red flag! Contrary to popular belief, not all frozen foods are bad for you, and many frozen ingredients can be a key part of a healthy meal.
The act of freezing doesn't make food healthy or unhealthy—a lot depends on the nutritional content of the food that gets frozen. Frozen fruits and vegetables, for example, can be just as nutrient-dense as their fresh counterparts.
Edward Meier, a former Chef in Resorts at Myrtle Beach and Mackinac Island, said restaurants might freeze their food for other reasons too. "By freezing food you can cook it in quantities large enough to keep the cost per portion reasonable," Meier explained. "Cooking in large quantities then portioning and freezing it, you can hold it ready for service, cutting prep time to the minimum needed to reheat it."
If a restaurant has a one-page menu, that's usually a pretty good sign. It means their line cooks have become specialists and can usually nail all the dishes listed. Conversely, if a restaurant has a giant, multi-page menu, that's a gigantic red flag
We have a sushi place me where the chef gives you free samples of future dishes. This usually means they take pride in their work and want to see peoples reactions before committing it to the menu.
Developing a relationship with a particular sushi restaurant/chef will get you all kinds of tasty morsels.
Meier said that most restaurants try to cook from scratch at time of service whenever possible. But some foods take much more time to prepare for service. "For example, you go to an Italian restaurant with a friend who orders pasta primavera while you want lasagna. The pasta dish can be assembled and served relatively quickly but making one serving of lasagna from scratch would take much longer and cost per unit would be high. Whether you make the pasta order wait on the lasagna to go out together or serve the pasta and make the lasagna eater wait on service so they are forced to watch the other customer eat while they wait, you are not going to have happy customers."
'Catch of the day' restaurants better have a lake or an ocean within a 50-mile radius. If they are advertising fresh-caught Alaskan salmon and you aren't in Alaska, chances are that [thing] is not fresh
If the area is busy but the restaurant is empty, that’s usually a bad sign.
"By making lasagna in large quantities then portioning and freezing it, the loss in flavor is minimal but being able to heat it up while the pasta dish is cooked fresh means both orders can go out at the same time," the former chef said. "This way the customers eat as soon as possible, making them happy and turning the table over quicker so you can serve more people sooner. Win win. It also means the cost of making the lasagna is cost effective meaning you can charge less but still have a profit margin high enough to justify offering it on the menu."
I guess, the important thing to remember when looking out for red flags in restaurants is you have to be mindful. Serious issues aside, use your best judgement and if you're unsure about something, you can always ask the staff about it.
I always look for how the staff interact with each other. If they all seem to enjoy being there, and coordinate well, more often than not it's because everything is running smoothly and they have a good system, which usually means they know what they're doing and you can expect good food
No matter how well managed a buffet is, it can never be sanitary. It is not reasonably possible to run a sanitary buffet business
this is probably the only advice i will ignore, as long as it *looks* sanitary i will continue living in blissful ignorance and shoveling my face with mountains of cheap tasty food
This is late but I clean kitchen exhaust systems. If you walk in a restaurant and can smell grease walk out. That means the place isn’t clean. From the exhaust system to cooking equipment.
We clean some places where grease drips off the hoods onto cooking surfaces.
If employees try to argue with you about food quality in order to dissuade you from sending something under cooked back, just leave. It means they have a cook who can't take criticism and your chances at getting a sneezer are greatly increased.
I had a terrible experience at one restaurant. I ordered a chicken schnitty with gravy, which is what I order from most restaurants so I am pretty familiar with how it should taste. Anyway I had a few bites and all I could taste was fish. My mum mentioned something to the waitress who then proceeded to speak to the chef. The chef stormed out and rudely spoke to us demanding what the issue was, accusing me of lying and said it was impossible for it to taste like fish and I have obviously never had a chicken schnitty before. He argued with my mum for a good 5 mins. He refused to make a new one or refund my money and went back to the kitchen thinking it was all over. Well my mum stormed into the kitchen and wouldn't leave until we got a refund for my meal. My mum also emailed corporate of our experience and turns out that chef had a few complaints and the restaurant closed a couple of months later.
Ask where your oysters come from. If they don’t know, you don’t want them. Same for most seafood.
When my boss (the owner) used to host and people would complain to her about the hour wait on Saturday night at 7pm and then threaten to leave, she would tell them, "If the restaurant you choose does not have a wait on a Saturday night, you may not want to eat there." And then turn her biggest sh*t-eating grin on them
Watch the wait staff. If the majority of them seem disgruntled or upset, things probably aren't great. They probably don't care about your food if they aren't being treated fairly.
Pastry chef here. As much as people say avoid specials, I can't speak for everyone but at least in desserts/breakfast pastries, if you see something new its worth trying. Chances are it's something the chef has been working on for weeks on their own time, there's a lot of love and effort put into it.
Also, the standby if the menu is a book, it's probably not great.
The biggest thing to keep an eye on though imo is the staff. If there's pissed off people, get out as fast as you can obviously. If everyone is kinda apathetic and not talking to each other much, get out. That's also a shitty environment, everyone is probably really passive aggressive, and that's going to show. If people seem genuinely good with being there even if it's busy or if there's playful ragging going on, that's where you want to be. The better the staff gets along, the better everthing in the place runs.
Best post here yet. I loved making the special of the day, and would often base it on what I wanted to have for dinner (not that I ever made an actual full meal for myself, lol).
Pro tip: Look up the health inspector reports for your county.
We have the recent code posted on a placard in the window. Generally, an A is what you need. For authentic Chinese, you will rarely find better than a B, because of the way they age foods like duck. For other places, a lower rate could mean visible insects, or water that isn't hot enough to sanitize dishes.
Used to work in a fancy kitchen. Any place that is charging more than $25 for a chicken entree is a goddamn scam.
But it’s hyper local farm to table organic free range cruelty free no-antibiotic vegetarian fed chicken that lived a long and happy life and it’s name was Betsy.
Easy way to tell if Mexican food will be good. If the salsa is bad, then the food is likely bad.
Mexican places that take pride in their salsa take the same pride in their food. If you get the watery, tomato sauce with chips then more than likely the food will be uninspiring.
The best Mexican restaurants I've been to have all had these things in common: Quite a few of the staff spoke Spanish or were of Mexican descent. The salsa was not only delicious, but they served it as a free side along with a basket of homemade tortillas. They were very patient to explain the menu items (usually with Spanish names) since their cuisine isn't commonly found north of the border (and explain why they don't sell chili or wet burritos.)
If you order a meal that should take a long time to cook and it comes out very quickly, it’s been pre-cooked
Greek cuisine can be pre-cooked and it's ok. Like mousaka, pastitsio, fasolada
I have a family member who’s worked in multiple different restaurants, and they always advise me never to get drinks with ice because too many places don’t keep their ice machines cleaned because it’s so often overlooked compared to other kitchen equipment
Don’t order fish on Sundays. Most places get their fish deliveries on a Monday and on a Thursday. Fish goes off fairly quickly, and on a Sunday it’s really not great
Never order the bouillabaisse/cioppino/seafood stew if it's being run as a special. That means the chef has a lot of old seafood to get rid of and is putting it all in a flavorful broth to hide the taste
One particular kitchen I worked in had a maxim when it came to deciding what to do with meat that had been hanging around a while - “If in doubt, curry it” 😳
I recently went to a new-ish barbecue place.
I knew the moment I opened the menu it was going to be awful.
The place had at least 120 things on the menu that run the gamut from burgers to Lobster Thermidor. When you see that, you know it's going to be terrible. It means they're trying to do everything rather than focusing on a smaller range of things and doing it very well.
As I suspected, it was terrible.
If it's not one of those all-nationalities-in-one restaurant where they cook the food at specialised preparation areas, it is likely the food will be sub-par... The whole notion of "specialising" is that you focus on one quisine. I don't expect to get Italian food at an Asian (in the UK, Indian/Pakistani) restaurant...
How does the place actually smell? Does it smell like good food? Then it likely is. But if it smells like perfume or something sterile? That could be a sign that they are trying to hide something unpleasant
Seeing fruit flies. Fruit flies are an indication of a dirty kitchen
Stay away from buffets and salad bars. A lot of the time it is the same stuff that just gets refilled over and over. Super gross.
My buffet nightmare isn't just the food... it's the people. I went to place once and went in to wash my hands before eating. There was this dude taking a dump in one of the stalls. Gets up, doesn't flush, never washed his hands either, and walks straight out and to the buffet and picks up the tongs. I noped out of there.
When there are pictures of food on the menu that clearly aren't from the restaurant
If the bathroom is a mess, the kitchen is a mess aswell.
Not necessarily, you could have a meticulous chef and just poor waiting or cleaning staff
If your server’s response to 'How is the [item]?' seems disingenuous, that’s a big red flag. They know what goes on in the kitchen, they know the complaints, and they know which items to stress over when they deliver them
Sometimes when you work in customer service you may sound ingenuine because you're trying to sound perky when your feet hurt :)
There's a Chinese restaurant in my town with a sign out front that says: "Clean food. And fresh." I still can't help but wonder why they would bring that up unprovoked.
Maybe want they wanted to say translated badly into 'Clean food. And fresh'? I often find non English restaurant menu's have clumsy English on them
Carpet is a red flag. Yeah, it's quieter and doesn't get slick, but it is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in restaurants. Vacuuming only goes so far in a restaurant and I know they never, ever shampooed the one at my place
If a pitcher of water touches your glass, it has also touched everyone else's glass. Also, if you can't see them pour your water, there's something wrong
Wut my drinks always served already poured in, what kind of fancy-ass place is this?
If there is different cuisines on the same menu. It usually means it's not gonna be good.
I don't trust that people can do Japanese and Italian in the same kitchen.
I know a restaurant that does multiple food cultures, whih would ordinarily be bad. But. This place is HUGE, like four restaurants size huge, and all of the kitchen space is on show. Each cuisine is being handled by different chefs from that culture - the Indian food by Indian chefs, the Chinese by Chinese chefs, French by French chefs. Very highly rated with very experienced specialised chefs.
I was a chef for four years. Honestly, if you’re ever curious, go hang out near the back door/ trash cans.
If it’s a good restaurant, it’ll look like a regular back door trash can area. If it’s somewhere you shouldn’t eat, it’ll look like a goddamn disaster zone.
Cooks who can’t keep up in the kitchen can’t keep up with breaking down boxes and taking out garbage, so they just throw stuff outside and deal with it later. Full sized, not-collapsed boxes, garbage bags not in the dumpsters, food waste leaking out of orifices, etc.
A messy outdoors is a reflection of a poorly run kitchen indoors.
Also if you never see a cook go out to take a smoke break, they’re inside and overwhelmed.
Not likely to go outside to check the alleyway behind a restaurant but I appreciate the logic...
Remember the specials always look and sound great, Most likely a leftover. Trying to get rid of it. Did it myself as a chef for years.
If there are to many items on the menu. If you have 50 combo choices, man you know half that stuff is frozen, old, canned etc. Nothing is gonna be great like an In-N-Out burger. It's all gonna be 'meh'
I honestly don't even mind if it's frozen, old, or canned. As long as it doesn't kill me and tastes relatively good, who am I to complain? If I wanted fresh home-cooked food I'd buy and cook my own food.
If you are seated right away during peak hours, that is a red flag. The common folk aren't eating there, and for a good reason
There are too many variables that would affect this for it to be a reliable cause of concern.
I look for dust. Dust on the ceiling tiles or in the air-conditioning vents. I also have a habit of running my finger along chair frames after I sit down to check for dust.
I’ve worked in restaurants for over a decade. A couple years in the kitchen and the rest as FOH.
If your server’s response to “how is the [item]” seems disingenuous, that’s a big red flag. We know what goes on in the kitchen, we know the complaints, and we know which items to stress over when we deliver them. Servers who pause or seem uncomfortable with that question generally equates to a menu full of stuff we wouldn’t eat even as a free shift meal.
A GOOD sign is when servers hang out and eat at the restaurant post-shift. Generally we are getting a discount but not free food - if we are spending our nightly tips on it, it’s worth it.
what if it's a new server that doesn't know all the dishes yet or the server is exhausted and unable to properly fake enthusiasm?
It’s a good idea to avoid restaurants that sound like snapplecheese
If it’s an Italian place and they serve butter with their bread. Not a red flag, but really nice/authentic places serve bread with oil and vinegar.
If the'res a window that goes into the kitchen and there's a microwave in there.
some advice is good but when i'm eating out i'm obviously not expecting a perfect level of cleanliness and as long as the food doesn't kill or make me sick i'm okay
Agreed, basics like does it smell weird, are the menus visibly dirty, does it have a recent certificate of cleanliness are quickly done.
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How much time do they think we have on our hands to do an investigatory piece on every place we may potentially eat.
It’s just a few things here and there that you have to look out for. It’s always good to be mindful of what you put in your body.
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some advice is good but when i'm eating out i'm obviously not expecting a perfect level of cleanliness and as long as the food doesn't kill or make me sick i'm okay
Agreed, basics like does it smell weird, are the menus visibly dirty, does it have a recent certificate of cleanliness are quickly done.
Load More Replies... How much time do they think we have on our hands to do an investigatory piece on every place we may potentially eat.
It’s just a few things here and there that you have to look out for. It’s always good to be mindful of what you put in your body.
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