It’s Time To Leave: 30 Dining Warning Signs, Shared By People Online

I know a place like this. It's a divey diner that sells Greek/USA/Latino that specializes in hangover food. They do quite well for themselves. Eggs and booze at 9am kind of place. Good place in a pinch.

actually there was for many years near me a really good Japanese and Mexican place, which had both types of Cuisine. The Chef Owner was Half-Mexican, Half Japanese, immigrant from Mexico. His Mexican Mother and Japanese Grandmother taught him how to cook, and he executed both perfectly, as well as some very good fusion dishes.

Only place acceptable is a New Jersey rt.40 diner! Looking at you Mallaga....

A limited amount of this is ok, the aim being to satisfy the extra picky one in the family group who didn't want to tag along to begin with. There's a wonderful Viet Thai place in town that has a few "American" items mostly aimed at kids, for obvious reasons. They are a fallback, not a focus.

Usually they aren't good at ANY of the genres they cook. You'd think just by random chance they'd at least be good at one of them, hah

My husband was a cop. He, and his colleagues, whilst investigating, entered a Chinese restaurant only to find an employee sitting on the toilet peeling prawns (shrimp).

Even when I'm at home I wash my hands twice if I'm cooking. Once in the bathroom and a second time before I start handling food. I worked in a Bakery and cafe, you wash your hands before you put on your gloves and again when you take them off. Between, working with food and in a lab, I spent 25+ years with my hands in Latex and Nitrile gloves and have FDA, OSHA and the Health Department regulations engraved in my brain.

This happened to me in Belgium. Ordered some food to go (specifically Indian because I'd been blocked up and needed some fiber). My then boyfriend went to the bathroom for a while. When he came out he said, you're not going to be blocked for much longer, the cook didn't wash his hands. 🤪

What if they have a sink in the kitchen? Unlikely, but possible

If one word could describe this situation, it is definitely "Yuck"! Reminds me of that scene in "Johnson Family Vacation". Jason Mamoa had a small part in this movie as well.

Depends, there are places I go that are divy as hell that have good food. There's a weird intersection between bars that are patronized by old punks/metalheads and really good food. Maybe the bathrooms are like that to scare off the trouble...

About the only thing that might contradict this is if the place is slammed when you visit the loo, and the mess is clearly customer-caused and recent, then it might be otherwise OK. But if the dirt in the corners and on the ceiling vents is caked on, then it's a hard no from me.

When, as a student, I worked as a server in a high-end place, we always had a meal before opening and it was prepared by the chef and his team. We did not pay for it.

Some of the best restaurants I've eaten in were where the server was clearly excited about the food, and when we asked them what their favorite dish was, it was usually something from left field and if we tried it, it was absolutely fantastic. Especially when it was ethnic. Thai Pom in Portland Maine - server recommended the Spicy Crispy Duck. It absolutely f*****g slapped.

When I am covering for someone's break in the Wine and Spirits department, or working a rare shift in there, I can't recommend what I don't understand. XD Raised Mormon, so wtf do I know about booze personally? I can tell you what sells best and where stuff is, an anecdotal opinions, recommendations, or stories from other customers I feel I can pass on, but I don't have the personal knowledge or know-how. It is mostly gibberish to me.

I know a lot of bars here that do exactly that deliberately. We have a blue law here that requires any place that serves booze to server five hot food dishes. At least one must be vegetarian. A lot of places offer overpriced TV dinners and tell people to order from the burrito cart around the corner.

Ask your server what they have off the menu.

Yep, left a comment to this extent for a place recently. I have no fault for the poor overworked girl trying to handle everything herself. My scolding was for leaving the place so understaffed. Mom and I waited 20 minutes and still, no drinks, no asking what we wanted to order, nothing. I could tell the girl was being pushed to her limits, and that's not her fault, but it shows very poor taste for the establishment.

This is great information and extremely helpful. Thank you so much for sharing.

This is all very good information. Thank you for sharing!

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If you're a health inspector, perhaps try spelling correctly.

Goes for things like sauce bottles, or salt and pepper if they are on the table.

This is an aspect of Bob's Burgers I really like, how the kids are regularly tasked with cleaning the menus.

Had a waitress, when we asked about clams, tell us there were just three types ( she meant species ) of clams. We did not order any seafood.

Here, here!

We walked out of Flutie's at the Plainridge Park Casino b/c we were seated and ordered drinks. Those arrived a half hour later. They never took our food order so we left. The place was empty. They didn't even seem surprised to see us leave.

HAd a place like this in Montana. Watched the wait staff f**k around on their phones for about 5 minutes- while my food sat in the window the entire time. I said something about it when they did bring the food the said "Here" dropping the plates on the table. I made a scene when I went all batshit crazy on them. The wait staff was all college girls who appeared to think their s**t didn't stink. It stunk.

You're going to some bad restaurants.

#1 Not busy during mealtimes

If it is a neighborhood Chinese takeout, there better be at least 90 items or more on that menu. The menu must be worn down. The cooks in the back all must be yelling in one of the chinese dialects, etc

That indicator is never wrong. Sometimes, uncontrollable sh*t happens that isn't restaurant affiliated. It is the speed of cleanup that is the determining factor.

Where are you eating???

OMG, that was the pub last night. Two of us went in just before leaving and it was the fastest turnaround as we were both practically retching. Our fault for not going at the restaurant before.

Hahaha. There's a place by my house now that if you ordered a plate of nachos...well that's your meal. It's SOOO MUCH! And they're good too :)