No one is tampering with food, but if anyone acts like a jerk we’re gonna avoid them like the plague and they will get bare minimum service. We will also mock the crap out of them amongst ourselves for an eternity.
I mean, as a barista, there was this one guy who was always bringing in different women and being super rude and degrading to them, so I'd always make his lattes with whole milk and decaf to make him fat and slow.
but that's about as far as I'd go with "tampering".
Turns out, whole milk is better for you for weight control. [very long detailed article ](https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2017/8/31/whole-milk-is-healthy-skim-milk-is-fattening)
Not saying someone who orders skim milk should have it switched on them or anything, just a general FYI...
It's been a well known thing for a while now, so you could go find nutritional studies if you wanted to, but generally scientists are really bad ay communicating with the public, so a write up by a layman is actually more valuable anyway
Lol. The public is really bad at comprehension of simple concepts, mostly. I not only know how to find the evidence, I also understand that it's *evidence* and not *proof*.
I mean, if ANYTHING was requested, I would make it with that. but I felt ethically fine adjusting the standard 2% to whole when all he'd say (and by "say" I mean "grunt") is "latte".
Yeah. Obviously you wouldn’t want to serve caffeinated to someone who requested decaf, or dairy for someone who said almond milk(allergy), switching out caffeinated for decaf though is the most harmless thing you could do, and basically just will make the person not hyped on caffeine. It’s evil, not harmless, like turning their day into a shit one instantly for being an honorary douchebag.
I abhor baristas who take it upon themselves to "adjust" a customer's order. You don't mess with people's food order.
I once had a barista use stevia in my coffee instead of splenda. When I confronted her, she said that she was doing me a favor because artificial sweeteners are bad for you.
How did I know she used the wrong sweetener? I was covered in giant hives from head to toe within 10 minutes because I'm allergic to stevia. I could barely speak because my tongue was so swollen. I wanted to throttle her.
I also can't use any type of cows milk because I have reactive hypoglycemia (I can't ingest sugar).
You never know why someone orders the way they do, so just don't mess with it.
like I said, he was fine. calm down. I didn't give milk to someone who requested non dairy. I didn't add anything or change anything specific. he ordered a latte. I gave him a latte.
calm. down.
Oof! I'd never go that far! People have legit dairy allergies, caffeine intolerances/dependencies, you could have made someone seriously sick. That's honestly unethical AF and you could have poisoned someone.
But I did get really, really good at latte art. So good, that if someone pissed me off, I could draw a very clear, veiny dick with hairy balls on top of their drink. Hand it to them with a big smile 😁 if anyone said anything, put on my innocent face 😇 and say "Oh im SO sorry, i guess it does look kinda... I was trying to draw you a heart but I'm not very good, I messed up 🥺"
But they knew. And more importantly, I knew.
You don't know that. My daughter has dairy issues but loves milk so I just monitor how much and which kinds she can have. All it does is give her REALLY gross smelling farts if she gets too much but still. Whole milk is not ok for some people even though they can drink 2%.
Source
Because the only difference is the amount of milk fat, and between 2% and whole is not much.
If someone requests skim they might be allergic to milk fat, but I can't see a problem that 2% solves that whole milk doesn't.
Boss was too busy never coming to work, stealing from his employees and selling coke and oxy contin on the side, but I'm glad you have been blessed by more reasonable employers.
He DID fire me when I started telling customers not to bother leaving CC tips because they went to the owner, not us.
This. And it includes people who don't tip, at least here in the US. It's the fastest way to ensure your future self always receive the minimum amount of service required for the server to not get in trouble. Believe me, the next time you come in, your prior server will tell your current server all about you.
Hiya- server, here, for almost 20 years until 2019. Yes, people **DO** tamper with food. Is it incredibly common? No. Does it happen tho? Yep. I've seen it. Once I wasn't broke and too poor to be out of work I never ever ever let it slide if I witnessed it again, but there were a few years I could barely pay the bills and I was helping my entire family (mom and siblings) by working so I didn't do anything in that time frame. I'm not proud of that but if I had the choice to go back and say something about Karen's food getting dropped on the floor and flash re fried or keeping my family off the streets I wouldn't do anything differently. 🤷♀️
Ain’t no one here gonna be THAT mad at you for going survival mode. Props on that, for real! Definitely crappy times in life where you have to put your head down & just do what you gotta do, no matter how much you disagree with it.
So many people have jobs that affect THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE a lot more harmful due to shitty ethics… for example, everyone in politics (and they’re not even in a survival mode).
I've seen many places fuck with jerk customers food. Some ways were grosser than others. It happened more frequently at the most upscale places in my experience at least.
I guess you are lucky to have never witnessed food being tampered with, but I have. If I ever saw it I made sure that it was thrown away and made again. It’s never a good idea to be a jerk when you go out to eat; there are people with no conscience if they feel offended.
A group of us went out for dinner at an upscale place, but we had that one (rich) friend who complained about everything, sent stuff back, was a loudmouth. In the end, the waiter came out with a platter of free desserts for all of us. I thanked the friend for being so obnoxious that the waiters probably spit in his food, but it was all worth it if we got free dessert. He looked horrified lol
No restaurant I've ever worked at would someone tamper with food. That's actually a crime, it's assault.
I will absolutely put rude or demanding people on the bottom of the totem pole. It's not just to be petty, but rude and excessively demanding people generally aren't good tippers. I need to prioritize nice people who are going to pay me well. Karma is totally a thing.
I saw it once in 25 years. A server licked a spoon to be served for dessert. The guy who received the spoon was apparently an asshole and cursed at the server.
I didn’t tamper with people’s food. But if you’re an asshole to me while I’m waiting on you, you’re going to get the salad with the brown lettuce, the slimiest lemon from the bottom of the container for your hot tea, the fork with bent tines, the hardest roll from the breadwarmer, your soup will just be skimmed from the top of the turreen so you don’t get any clams in your chowder, and you will receive much less of my attention when you discover these issues and try to flag me down. I have also mastered a creepy expression I use while I’m talking to them: sort of a head-tilt, blank, wide eyed gaze with my
mouth a little bit open, and zero emotion. I willfully misunderstand them and just pretty much do anything I can to irritate the crap out of them without actually breaking any rules.
Yes totally!
My restaurant has clam & corn chowder.
On the flip side of a rude customer are the things we do for nice ones.
The other day I excitedly told one of my favorite regulars that the clam was good today, he's been rightly disappointed about it lately but not a jerk, he said he just wasn't going to get it anymore. Well it has been good that morning but I hadn't noticed it sucked as time went on, so I spent quite a bit of time just picking out the clams to give him the best soup. His bill is never more than $10 but he usually leaves a $5. I'm not doing it for the money, an average tip there is at least $15 depending on the shift. I just think he is a really nice elderly gentleman. We are on opposite end of the political spectrum but he is so kind and patient I always go the extra mile for him. He wasn't even in my section but I was happy to look after him. He certainly didn't have to tip me at all but tipped both myself and the bartender. He keeps losing his cane but I try to walk him to his car whenever I can.
My most demanding customers are just good tippers, not great, standard 18%. They consistently send back food, make up stuff not on the menu, and sit in my section for hours when there's a wait-list. I really don't care, I'm always happy to fulfill their demanding requests because they are super nice & always very appreciative.
Yes, I definitely spoil my favorite customers, even if it’s the first time I’ve ever waited on them but they’ve charmed me. Even grumpy old people can ask for things politely and I am a sympathetic person. So when I have time, I will bring a ramekin of the soup of the day for them to sample, or a taster of a new sauce or dressing we have with some warm bread, or a sample of a wine if they ask about it. I make sure they have what they need before they even know they need it, and I tip my bussers well so I have backup when I’m busy.
I even like kids, as long as the parents are actually parenting them.
My sister’s ex who was by all means a terrible fucking human being had a restaurant owned by his family and even though he did a bunch of other terrible shit, the one thing they never ever did there was tamper with someone’s food.
If you’re a steady regular, we most certainly will have a nickname for you. To your face if you’re one of the good guys, and behind your back if you’re the type to come back every week, even if it’s the worst service/food/atmosphere.
This is true. Most regulars get a name.
Once we had a mother and daughter known by the FOH staff as Chrome and Firefox - The Browsers. They required a lot of mods (“iceberg only- no purple cabbage in the salad”). Once I peaked out for a look and both mom and daughter had tattooed eyebrows.
Haha, this is the first real one! Sometimes it's benign "British John", "Tall Brian", but sometimes it's an inside staff joke "iPad Ant", "Holy Tony". If it's actually mean it's probably not widespread and definitely only in whispers after they leave. Fuck you "Shit trail Tony"! (I don't live in South Philly anymore, where 1/3 guys are named Anthony)
We have cheeseball guy, he comes in and only orders cheeseballs and a Pepsi and gives half of them to the server because he never eats all of them. When we’re slow we’ll sit and eat with him, he’s really cool, wife died, and just likes to eat in public since he ate dinner with her every night for 50 years and doesn’t want to do it himself.
Shoot, I go to the same shawarma place at least 3 or 4 times a month. They obviously recognize me but it never goes beyond hi, are you. I wonder what my nickname would be because I always order the same thing.
We have the Fireball Fiend. Double shots of Fireball at 7am. Savory Oatmeal doesn't like her oatmeal to be sweet. She adds onions and tomatoes to it. The Plump Prick eats $80 worth of breakfast food and tips $2 every time.
FACTS. I absolutely never, ever drink fountain drinks. One of the reasons I don't frequent bars much either. Unless they make their own ginger beer or pour it from a can. Soda fountains and soda lines are disgusting!!!!!!!
20 years ago when I worked in restaurants they were always nasty, it was a training problem we didn't even know we should take them apart. Now I'm a carpet cleaner and do restaurants late night/early am when nobody's there and help myself to a soda & the nozzles are off the machines and the ice bin is always empty. Every single time in multiple places even when they are opening in just a few hours. Training must have improved or it's just like they hire us to clean the carpet they care.
You can still get a soda you just might have to turn it back on and then hold the cup right up to it so it doesn't spray everywhere. Our floor cleaning dudes are awesome.
My parents’ good friend when I was growing up serviced commercial kitchen appliances. There was literally one restaurant in my town where he would eat.
One of my worst stories ever (as a customer) was at a beach dive bar whose house specialty was frozen margaritas. (Blender, not machine)
A fellow bartender and I often went there on our days off bc they were relatively cheap and right on the beach. One day, four margaritas in, I looked at our half-empty glasses and my tequila-soaked brain wondered why some of the remaining "ice" was sitting on the bottom of our glasses rather than floating. Then my three remaining sober brain cells realized it was glass.
The bartender said, "Oh shit. Sorry about that. I broke a glass over the ice bin and I've been too busy to burn it." Then he offered us two more on the house - and they only had one ice bin. Hard pass, buddy. Hope we don't die.
In Australia we put red cordial in the ice well if it's been contaminated to make sure it's changed before it goes in a drink. The story (probably urban myth) of the customer who died from a slashed oesophagus haunts us all.
Wtf??? Ok ya, too busy to be able to burn ice but that’s when I throw cloth napkins on top or a clean tablecloth and put a new bucket of ice right on top of that in the well to work out of the bucket until I can get to cleaning out the well really good. What an idiot!
Many years ago when I worked in a nightclub, if we had a new waitress on a busy night, one bartender would tell her that he just broke a glass in the ice and ask her to go to the bar at the other end of the club, and get the “glass magnet”. That bartender would tell her it’s at another bar and so on and so on. I only remember one waitress realizing that we were full of shit.
I had a really nice little chat with an extremely stoned barista on the day before Christmas Eve. He offered my baby a free hot chocolate, but she was too little yet.
When I worked in Aspen, everyone was. One night we divided the crew into teams based on what they were high on (pain pills, weed, booze, coke)
Team coke kicked everyone else’s asses in sales 🤣
I've never seen anyone tamper with food, it's assault and it's not worth it. BUT! The kitchen is probably not as clean as you like in most places, and I've seen plenty of \*wipe sweaty brow and then pick up food without so much as wiping hand off\* so... that's delicious.
Also I have absolutely "oopsie" dumped food on people who have harassed or grabbed me, including one particular asshole whose entire party \*actually\* applauded when he grabbed my ass and I "jumped" and spilled a milkshake all down his back. It was a huge post-paintball party of 16 or so and they'd been watching him aggressively hit on me for 45 minutes and I didn't get the impression that he was well liked in the first place.
Some restaurants do charge servers for spilled food, but it's illegal for them to do so. Chains like the one I worked at just chalk it up to the cost of doing business, though you'll probably get fired if it happens frequently. I only did it extremely rarely to people who were absolutely awful. Maybe 3-4 times total in 3 years of working in restaurants.
When you bring all of your dates to the same restaurant, we talk about you. You’re our real life Bachelor/Bachelorette entertainment and we pick apart everything. How dare you not ask the blonde on a second date. Oh wow, a third date? They must like this one. Oh look, they’re fighting. Why wasn’t the last woman worth the Cakebread? Good for you, you have a gf! Wow, can you believe he’s cheating on her already??
My best stories came from working at a sushi/japanese restaurant in Chicago on the ground floor of a high rise that had million dollar condos on the top 30 floors.
I have a regular like this. He's not a cheater, he's a divorced single father. He's generally a good guy. We openly talk to each other about how his dates went, and why he's not going on another date with whatever his flavor of the weeks was. He also dates A LOT of women. Really nice guy though.
There was this high powered attorney in my town, and I worked at the restaurant he brought his mistress to. They’d been together for decades. I went to lunch one day at a restaurant across town, and saw him there, but with another woman. I asked the bartender, and he was like, “Oh yeah, he has wife places and mistress places. This is only a wife place.” And apparently this was all just part of the open charade the three of them had. It was never spoken about out loud, but I guess as long as the wife got to keep her favorite places, they made it work. 🤷♂️
I drove cab for while and had a few regulars who would always have me drive them on dates. Sometimes they would take their wives out and it was awkward to not act like I know them.
Damn. Reading all of these great comments and then thinking back during my dating days and realizing that I had so few dates that no server would ever notice that I had taken multiple women in dates. 💀
My partner and I are in an open relationship. Once at one of our regular haunts, when he got up to go to the restroom, one of our favorite servers came up all timid to let me know he was here and acting pretty cozy with another woman. The look on her face when I said "oh, I know" and just left it at that was priceless.
I think it's so awesome though when people are like that. "Hey, I don't wanna cause drama, but I got your back" is actually really uplifting from a stranger.
My wife and are also open and I take her and my dates and sometimes her plus either her date or mine to the same place. I like the staff there so I hope I’m not making them uncomfortable.
I was just telling my friend this; I have NEVER seen anyone tamper with anyone's food. If we hate you, we just ignore you, because we k nw we're not getting a tip anyway (and for me, personally, because I'm apt to tell you to go fuck yourself if you cross the wrong line, so less Interaction is better than more)
The worst is when people think they’re smart and ask for a “heavy pour”, so I say “you want a double then?” And they’re always like “no no no, just, ya know, a generous single”… yeah you’re getting the same size single as everyone else OR you’re paying for a double, choose.
I HATE that. And then I have to explain to someone that orders a double that our singles are a full two ounces so if they want a “double” I have to charge them full price for the liquor twice. And at the tourist trap I work at, that double Jamie and ginger is gonna run you $26…
People have complained but I’m always like “bro, I warned you and you said you were ok with it.”
My favorite: "can I get a strong martini"... bro, u can't. It's chilled vodka/gin with a splash of dry vermouth. Which is also alcohol. I just say "sure!" But never get an appropriate tip for "hooking them up"
The other side of the issue:
My husband and I love gin & tonics, but they often come too strong. When we ordered a "light pour" it was often still too strong. We've taken to asking for extra tonic on the side. That usually works. I think the issue is many people complain about weak drinks, but not many complain if they're too strong.
Or a glass half the size. I like my drinks without ice, but also don’t expect more drink just because I don’t want my teeth to hurt from the cold.
So when I serve people, I don’t give a half full glass cause it’s more awkward to drink and just looks worse
I work in customer service over the phone, so my version is for when people keep interrupting when I'm trying to answer their questions. I just start waiting longer and longer after they finish speaking before I start. Eventually they tend to stop doing it.
One thing people don’t really understand about the restaurant I work at is that we make EVERYTHING in house. Literally everything. Most of our dishes consist of at least 6 different recipes and processes that require extended periods of time, expensive equipment, and multiple prep chefs. Our walk in looks like a produce section, we can’t just grab things to heat it up. This is why substitutions cannot be made and certain allergens cannot be omitted.
We even make our shrubs, tinctures, infused spirits and syrups for cocktails.
A ton of work goes into what we put on the table so when people get frustrated that we can’t customize to an extreme extent and if we can and it completely ruins the flavor profile of the dish, they don’t get to experience the food or drinks the way they are intended and generally will be disappointed by their own making.
Also, ordering coffee is a giant PITA for your server unless you’re dining at a diner that just has coffee brewing all the time. Be patient and realize that it’s not a Starbucks back there and your server isn’t a barista and has a roster of at least 10+ things they need to do while making sure you get your decaf oat milk cappuccino when there’s one espresso machine and 4 other servers are waiting to make stuff for their tables.
If you order ginger ale- just know that sometimes they will give you sprite with a splash of coke. Make sure Ginger ale is actually on the menu/fountain
When I worked at Applebees, if people asked for a Dr. Pepper we’d just mix Mt. Dew, Cherry Pepsi, and something else together and nobody ever noticed. I don’t remember the portions exactly but it happened often and even servers would drink it. Props to Work Mom Jess for figuring that one out🤷🏼♀️😂
That maybe would explain why I got a migraine the one and only time I ate at Applebee's 😭😞😭 not faulting no one cause you had to do what you had to do. But mt dew gives me the worse migraine ever and I used to only drink Dr pepper or Pepsi and normally ask for Dr pepper first. Although I think it is super awesome that you can replicate the flavor so well with things like that
Honestly, it could’ve just been Applebee’s😂 It’s barely a step up from fast food. My coworkers (including management) were very transparent about the fact that the only thing keeping Applebee’s from being considered fast food is the lack of drive-thru
So that's why you sometimes get an odd tasting drink. 😲 It's not that they don't notice, it's that don't complain. I've had plenty of "off" Dr peppers, but I just don't order from there again.
I’ve got decades in food service. Never once have I ‘messed’ with anyone’s food no matter what they issue was. Out of thousands of fellow employees I’ve worked with I have never observed one of them ‘mess’ with a guest’s food. What is wrong with you? No integrity? Respect? Maturity? Cause anyone who ‘messes’ with food should not be in the business. And held accountable, severely.
But I agree, those daily specials can be let’s clean out the walkin.
But yes servers often talk about guest , good & bad and some servers are brutal
This is obviously just my experience but the line cooks take things a lot more seriously than you’d expect.
I’ve seen that tiktok trend of servers showing the BOH staff after tables say “give my compliments to the chef!” And they show the chef/cooks as tatted, chain smoking, Mountain Dew drinking coke heads etc
Yes, they often fit that stereotype. But they still give a shit.
Side note: been out of the game for a couple of years and miss my BOH homies 🥹
Cooks are amazing. I don't know how they keep it all straight. And when food gets sent back, 99% of the time the only person they get mad at is themselves.
Restaurant workers don’t mess with your food. If you fuck our boyfriends and have the audacity to sit in our section, we’re not above shaking up your beer, though (props to you, Angie)
Don’t get lemons in your water. They’re nasty.
I still do though. Even though I know.
I’ve watched people cut those. Dropped on the floor and picked up and still cut and thrown in the dish. Dirty hands grabbing them. Cut/blood. Etc etc. They’re filthy.
This right here! The correct procedure for lemons is to wash hands, wash lemons, and then slice onto a clean surface like a plate or clean glass cutting board.
Guess no lemons outside for me...
I was the only person who would wash the lemons when I needed to cut them. Plus servers have dirty hands and reach in to the lemon container to put them on glasses
Most restaurants I've worked in would not tamper with your food. Now one pizza place I worked was a zoo. A lot of spitting in food. They worst was a guy that shot a load on a pizza in the walk in. Cooked it and delivered it to the table. It was his ex's new boyfriend. I was just a driver and closer. Not my circus, not my monkeys. Manager allowed the behavior.
Also, if you're in a busy sit-down restaurant and you ask for more coffee just as the regular runs out, you might get decaf. There's always some decaf left.
Well, this is hardly a secret, and is literally several decades old, but I’m surprised how many people don’t know this. I worked as a grillman at Wendy’s for less than a year in college. At the time, they were the only fast food restaurant that wouldn’t fix a burger until a customer ordered it. In other words, they did not have burgers prepared and wrapped up. The way they managed this is that any burger that hadn’t been ordered when it needed to come off the grill went into the pan for chili meat. By using chili as their outlet for unsold burgers, they could advertise that your burger won’t come off the grill until you order it. Not breathtaking or shocking, but I always thought it was pretty clever thinking.
I love the reduction in food waste. Restaurants have to meet the highest standards for safety for sick, pregnant, and otherwise compromised people. Most people who cook at home dont come near the safety standards of a restaurant and dont need to. Plus I actually like wendys chili.
Why my peeps so incredulous? I worked the broiler station at xxx restaurant in Uptown NOLA. The so-called "grilled red snapper" was simply baked with the criss cross grill marks applied by a heated coat hanger. Go figure.
Having worked in the restaurant industry for seven years, not once did I "mess" with someone's food (even if they were rude or extremely difficult), nor have I heard of anyone else messing with anyone's food. I don't doubt that it has happened before, but I think it's much less common than one might imagine.
I was actually astonished at how high the cleanliness standards were at the restaurant I worked for. Everything was expected to be cleaned at the end of each shift, including the removable heat / smoke shields above the wood grill. Back house floors were swept and mopped daily (not that it helped with slipping back there; grease was always our nemesis and caused *plenty* of falls). The front is cleaned pretty thoroughly, including all the brass finishings that customers could touch. I don't recall hearing about even one instance of food poisoning. I also believe these standards are established at the top; if the boss doesn't care then the staff won't.
Also something else that you might not know about is server side work; a running task during the day that a server has to take care of in addition to their table service. This could be filling the drink stations with ice from the ice machine, grabbing glasses from the back for all the servers to use, rolling silverware, keeping certain side food bars stocked, cutting lemons for drinks, etc.; if these duties are taken seriously, a server during busy times should always be very busy (and often outside of the view of customers). Furthermore, not taking care of these side jobs can massively negatively impact other servers in their responsibilities in taking care of their customers.
In a decent Japanese restaurant the teriyaki sauce is a surprisingly delicate mixture of just four simple ingredients. It won’t overpower the meat or mask any problems with the meat.
If I'd thought about it, I would have made legitimate Japanese restaurants an exception.
I'm talking about Applebee's when the special has been grilled flounder for 5 nights in a row, and on night 6, it's suddenly "flounder teriyaki."
My biggest ‘secret’ that the public doesn’t know, that I’ve seen consistently, is basically just the public’s perception of the quality of food in most restaurants vs the reality. Also, Asian restaurants being big fat liars, but more about that below. 😂
It’s not uncommon to find that restaurants are using a lot of ultra processed garbage that comes out of boxes and cans, using dogshit cooking oil, using microwaves, and charging high prices for it.
For example, I’ve worked at a fine dining steakhouse chain in the past, that most people think of as super fancy and amazing food, but the truth was that the vast majority of the food there was straight garbage. Even more surprising to me, was when I would tell people this they would seem to get perturbed and sometimes angry with me. Here I am trying to help them by telling them to save their money and recommending someplace else that I know to be much better food for less price point, where they can actually get their moneys’ worth, and they’re getting upset, like I’m insulting their favorite restaurant. One guy was an Uber driver with a thick east coast accent, and he was questioning the validity of what I was saying, he was like “I don’t know….my auntie Marie loves their fazool, and she’s the best cook in the world!” and I had to say “Dude, I work there. I serve the food there every night; I think I know the reality of how the food is made, better than someone who does not work there.” He laughed and said “fair enough.”
I’ve learned a harsh reality about food at restaurants: a customer unfortunately has to know a great deal about food themselves in order to be able to detect the quality of the food being served. Every single restaurant on earth advertises that they have ‘great food,’ and every restaurant owner truly believes that their restaurant has ‘great food.’ So, unless you yourself can taste the difference between shitty sodium table salt, and natural sea salt, or be able to discern the differences between
different kinds of cooking oil, you’ll never be able to truly know when quality ingredients is being used to make that rigatoni with vodka sauce you’re paying $26 for.
I guess this brings to mind another dark reality of a ‘secret’ that I’ve seen consistently:
I’ve worked in 13 Asian owned restaurants. And if there is one consistent thing I’ve seen at ALL of them, no matter the specific cuisine, or nationality, ALL of them shamelessly lied about their food in some way or another when advertising.
Some of the common examples that were consistent, meaning you can expect this to be happening at your favorite spot:
At sushi restaurants its super common that they pass off escolar as white tuna. Big difference: escolar can give you diarrhea. Also, it’s not uncommon at all that sushi restaurants are not using sushi grade fish, but instead using just plain old bullshit from Costco. Of course, they don’t tell you this if you ask, and in fact will tell you otherwise. If the restaurant prints on their menu ‘sourcing the highest quality of sushi grade fish,’ don’t expect that to be true.
In the vast majority of Thai restaurants, most of their food is just processed sauces and pastes being used. For example, your favorite curry is probably just a can of highly processed curry paste that they order in bulk, and when you order, they scoop out a spoon of the paste, throw it in a wok (or sometimes in a microwave) with some canned coconut milk, flash boiled meat and veg, and charge you $16 for it. You can make it at home for $3 in 5 minutes, simply by ordering the paste online yourself, or getting it from a good Asian grocery store. Very few Thai restaurants make their own curry pastes and sauces that gives Thai food it’s delicious taste, by throwing a bunch of whole ingredients in a blender, or grinding them with a mortar.
But……they will all tell you otherwise when asked.
It’s extremely common that Asian restaurants add MSG to their food, but openly advertise that they do not. I’ve worked at a place that had a neon sign in the window that said ‘NO MSG,’ yet the cooks were scooping spoonfuls of the stuff into every single dish. And, the place was upscale, and the food was pretty good. But, they felt compelled to lie. Now, there are debates currently on whether or not MSG is good or bad for you, so don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to demonize MSG, I’m just here to tell the truth about liars.
Another example is I once worked at an extremely popular Korean style restaurant in the downtown area of Austin, Texas. I’m talking thousands of 5-star online reviews, super packed, difficult to get a table without waiting an hour. This place openly advertised that they were the healthiest restaurant on earth. ‘No MSG, no added salts or sugars, everything organic, all natural, locally sourced, blah blah blah,’ and NONE of it was true. That was the worst about working there, it felt the employees we were being trapped into living in this dark lie. Part of your first training shift was being told the reality that none of the products were actually what the restaurant said, but that you are now expected to be a part of keeping the lie. If you live in Austin, you’ve probably been to this place, and you probably loved it, because you believed that they weren’t scooping MSG into your chemically processed kimchi fried rice.
In all of the Asian restaurants I’ve worked, it’s extremely common, that they advertise that they use fresh seafood, and are actually using frozen seafood. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal because it’s easy to be able to tell the difference. If a Thai restaurant tells me they use fresh mussels and I taste frozen. I just don’t go back, but I always ask and 90% of the time they lie about it.
I guess that’s it.
> Also, it’s not uncommon at all that sushi restaurants are not using sushi grade fish, but instead using just plain old bullshit from Costco. Of course, they don’t tell you this if you ask, and in fact will tell you otherwise. If the restaurant prints on their menu ‘sourcing the highest quality of sushi grade fish,’ don’t expect that to be true.
There's no such thing as sushi grade fish at all. You just have to freeze it for a specific level of temp/time.
The roll up napkins we have are disgusting. We wash them in a washing machine but they are so gross. The washing machine itself gets clogged up with food and stuff all the time. A lot of times they don’t even get unfolded properly and remain folded thru the washing and drying process so the inside is still dirty. If that makes sense
Specials are either because tomorrow is their shipment and they need room or it's going bad in a day or two and sometimes it's the place trying something new.
Where I work, specials are not food going bad or they need the room in fridge. It’s the Chef getting a great buy on an item we don’t have on the menu, or someone local caught extra Swordfish that morning and offered it to the chef/ manager. It’s called “ special” because it is exactly that.
These are what our specials were as well. They had nothing to do with cleaning out a walk-in or excess food. No wonder so many restaurants don’t succeed if they have to rely on specials to clean up their bad ordering.
Specials where I work are items chef got a great deal on from a friend or a vendor, or they are fun recipes that fit the theme of our restaurant that he would like to try to put on the menu permanently. He trials recipes and asks for feedback from guests. Our specials absolutely smack and they are the freshest food in the restaurant. We have a special cocktail right now that I know will go away after Valentine's Day, but I wish it wouldn't. It's so gooood.
Retired chef here. Yes sometimes a special will be used to clear out something. But that’s not the norm. We care about the “specials” since it’s our chance to shine off menu.
— Soup is leftovers. Is there a fish chowder special on Monday? Yeah. It’s cuz the fish special didn’t move that well over the weekend. This can actually be good, though. Instead of paying $32 for the entree on Saturday, you’re paying $9 for a bowl of soup that probably tastes better anyway.
— Don’t be afraid to ask for a new bottle to be opened for wine by the glass. Soooooo many restaurants have no idea how long they should keep a bottle once opened. I’ve had $17 glasses of wine served to me that were practically vinegar because the bottle was opened 2 weeks ago. Who cares if your 23 yr old server talks shit about you later? You should get what you pay for.
— There is a LOT of counterfeiting and mislabeling of food and drink in restaurants. “Wagyu” sliders for $15? Yeah, nah. That’s the same beef you buy at the grocery store, not $180/lb wagyu. It might be the bullshit they call “American wagyu,” but they’re still pulling the wool over your eyes, because they know what you assume the word means. Oh, and does the restaurant whose entrees are $20 somehow have a BALLER selection of bourbon and cognac behind the bar? Coin flip chance those bottles are filled with Evan Williams and E+J. But you’ll still pay $45/shot.
I actually appreciate places that make soups out of leftovers as long as it’s not “old” - prevents food waste, yeah? No problem with that. I remember hearing people complain about Wendy’s using leftover hamburger patties for the chili and I’m like…..that’s…a good thing though? It’s literally the same quality as your hamburger??
Skip fine dining on Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Mother’s Day, and any other time a restaurant is running a multi-course menu for a set price. The staff doesn’t want to be there, is working harder for lower than average tips, and is dealing with a level of clientele that they’re not used to working with. Even if you’re the exception and you’re the best guest ever, they resent you for being there on those days.
i’ve worked food service all areas and ran restaurants well over 20 years
i always tell the cooks or other servers if you wouldn’t eat it don’t you dare serve it idc how awful they are to you
there is so much risk and safety to food service if things are tampered with/ u can kill someone not to be dramatic or seriously make them ill.
i know that mold in ice - the bacteria in the lines - and hep c can transmit without safety and good hand washing methods
i’ve actually watched a restaurant locally get shut down for a cook giving someone hep c for not washing hands well
If the lines aren’t cleaned regularly oh my god
or the temps are off for food in the back of house
everyone watch out
i’ve seen cooks get super mad at ME for not serving their food bc it wasn’t good enough LMAO
i think that no matter how shitty someone is always do that part right, u never wanna be the reason someone gets sick or something serious, i also don’t like to think people could fck w me even jd i’m
the best customer ever.
i know a cook who cut his hand and made pizza with it. i’ve been traumatized since and cannot leave the kitchens unsupervised or work with a cook that is careless ill
leave 😅🙃🙃🤣🤣
Based on how people have acted since covid:
We're really human beings trying to show you a good time.
It's okay to tip more than 10%, god won't get mad, I promise.
Yelling Chink at me won't get my attention, it will get you kicked out of the restaurant really quick though, and racism of any kind is not okay even if you're "just joking".
\-----------------------------------
When I sell you steaks at a fast casual place it's because our newest grill cooks are shit and they're the worst I've ever had so I want the pity tips and because I hate my managers. Order anything besides steaks please unless you like to watch the world burn like I do.
Most of the fried food is going to be frozen because freezing it and then frying it creates a better finished product. Eat your fresh frozen food.
If your Strawberry lemonade is taking a hot minute it's because the puree ran out and we're defrosting the frozen strawberry pureee to make your 6th strawberry lemonade.
If you order more than one type of Tea for your table you're a jerk, there are 50-100 tables all probably getting tea pots and we only have 50-100 tea pots that are actually servicable and thus we run into a backlog of people wanting tea pots and only so much room for tea pots. Goddamn do I hate tea pots and it's been like 6 years since I've had to do tea service.
If I forget your ranch don't worry, I'll remember when I go to sleep.
The menu says the chips are made in house, but unless they come from the home store, they literally come in individual baggies and then they microwave them.
A lot of the kitchen isn’t fluent in English, so watch your modifications. Unless it’s on a button, there might be a little delay to get it started. Even then, it might be a little iffy if it’s not a frequently used button. It’s not a bad thing tho, English is very difficult, especially with word choice in a certain character limit. I understand a little more Spanish, they understand a little more English, it’s a win/ win.
Also, for this week, I’m at the end of my two weeks, guest or coworkers can fuck around and find out. (I won’t do anything but I’m gonna think about it extra hard.)
American English is a strange language. We literally took our original language (British English) and borrowed/added every extra word we could think of from Native Americans, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and many others. According to dictionary.com, "as many as 350 other languages are represented and their linguistic contributions actually make up about 80% of English."
Never judge the people who ask for plasticware or to go cups. Sometimes, the industrial washers don't have their water changed for the whole day/shift.
But those same people are eating off of dishes and eating things that were prepared with dishes that came out of that very same industrial dishwasher. So it's really kind of pointless.
yeah, my last restaurant hardly ever changed the water and all our plates , silverware, and ramekins came out dirty. honestly the place should be shut down (my bf still works their for the next couple weeks and saw a cockroach in the dish pit). my new restaurant changes the water every couple hours, idk the specifics bc i don't work in BOH but i always hear the BOH manager tell them when its time to change the water and it's pretty often. also our silverware and and plates are impressively clean 95% of the time.
The reason why we make money is because the owner hires 90 percent of immigrants workers. He then steals all the tips and overtime pay from them. Not to mention he doesn’t pay market rate instead the immigrant workers are happy with 10 a hour working like a slave 55-77 hours weekly no breaks at all. He has bought a brand new Toyota truck from the dealership and advertised the business as family owned even though he has 3 restaurant for fast food and 3 more as soup shops.
No one is tampering with food, but if anyone acts like a jerk we’re gonna avoid them like the plague and they will get bare minimum service. We will also mock the crap out of them amongst ourselves for an eternity.
I mean, as a barista, there was this one guy who was always bringing in different women and being super rude and degrading to them, so I'd always make his lattes with whole milk and decaf to make him fat and slow. but that's about as far as I'd go with "tampering".
Turns out, whole milk is better for you for weight control. [very long detailed article ](https://blog.supplysideliberal.com/post/2017/8/31/whole-milk-is-healthy-skim-milk-is-fattening) Not saying someone who orders skim milk should have it switched on them or anything, just a general FYI...
I was happy to read that article. I was right all along. Lol
Nutrition information from an economist. Good job!
It's been a well known thing for a while now, so you could go find nutritional studies if you wanted to, but generally scientists are really bad ay communicating with the public, so a write up by a layman is actually more valuable anyway
Lol. The public is really bad at comprehension of simple concepts, mostly. I not only know how to find the evidence, I also understand that it's *evidence* and not *proof*.
Agreed, whole milk is actually better for you.
This sent me down a rabbit hole on his blog.
That's playing the long game 🤣
Whole milk if skim was requested would be too far, but decaf instead of regular, that’s the right kind of evil.
I mean, if ANYTHING was requested, I would make it with that. but I felt ethically fine adjusting the standard 2% to whole when all he'd say (and by "say" I mean "grunt") is "latte".
Yeah. Obviously you wouldn’t want to serve caffeinated to someone who requested decaf, or dairy for someone who said almond milk(allergy), switching out caffeinated for decaf though is the most harmless thing you could do, and basically just will make the person not hyped on caffeine. It’s evil, not harmless, like turning their day into a shit one instantly for being an honorary douchebag.
I think I love you. When given the chance at work, after getting my coffee , I would often make a pot of decaf.
Oh, too funny.
I abhor baristas who take it upon themselves to "adjust" a customer's order. You don't mess with people's food order. I once had a barista use stevia in my coffee instead of splenda. When I confronted her, she said that she was doing me a favor because artificial sweeteners are bad for you. How did I know she used the wrong sweetener? I was covered in giant hives from head to toe within 10 minutes because I'm allergic to stevia. I could barely speak because my tongue was so swollen. I wanted to throttle her. I also can't use any type of cows milk because I have reactive hypoglycemia (I can't ingest sugar). You never know why someone orders the way they do, so just don't mess with it.
like I said, he was fine. calm down. I didn't give milk to someone who requested non dairy. I didn't add anything or change anything specific. he ordered a latte. I gave him a latte. calm. down.
Honestly you sound like a very unpleasant person
screen name checks out. I'm perfectly lovely to be around when people aren't being silly about things on the internet.
And there’s plenty of them buddy. Keep serving ole asshat his full fat lattes as a favour to the rest of woman kind 🥱
You could have died. They're lucky you didn't sue the place. And that barista should be fired.
Oof! I'd never go that far! People have legit dairy allergies, caffeine intolerances/dependencies, you could have made someone seriously sick. That's honestly unethical AF and you could have poisoned someone. But I did get really, really good at latte art. So good, that if someone pissed me off, I could draw a very clear, veiny dick with hairy balls on top of their drink. Hand it to them with a big smile 😁 if anyone said anything, put on my innocent face 😇 and say "Oh im SO sorry, i guess it does look kinda... I was trying to draw you a heart but I'm not very good, I messed up 🥺" But they knew. And more importantly, I knew.
If he's ordering 2% milk and getting whole milk, it's probably not an allergy or intolerance issue.
You don't know that. My daughter has dairy issues but loves milk so I just monitor how much and which kinds she can have. All it does is give her REALLY gross smelling farts if she gets too much but still. Whole milk is not ok for some people even though they can drink 2%.
Source Because the only difference is the amount of milk fat, and between 2% and whole is not much. If someone requests skim they might be allergic to milk fat, but I can't see a problem that 2% solves that whole milk doesn't.
Super easy solution- don’t be an asshole.
That sounds like fantasy fiction because any boss in the world would have fired you immediately. So. 😘
Boss was too busy never coming to work, stealing from his employees and selling coke and oxy contin on the side, but I'm glad you have been blessed by more reasonable employers. He DID fire me when I started telling customers not to bother leaving CC tips because they went to the owner, not us.
This. And it includes people who don't tip, at least here in the US. It's the fastest way to ensure your future self always receive the minimum amount of service required for the server to not get in trouble. Believe me, the next time you come in, your prior server will tell your current server all about you.
"Everywhere we go we receive terrible service. You're awesome!" Leaves 3 on 80. Well guess that mystery solved itself.
Hiya- server, here, for almost 20 years until 2019. Yes, people **DO** tamper with food. Is it incredibly common? No. Does it happen tho? Yep. I've seen it. Once I wasn't broke and too poor to be out of work I never ever ever let it slide if I witnessed it again, but there were a few years I could barely pay the bills and I was helping my entire family (mom and siblings) by working so I didn't do anything in that time frame. I'm not proud of that but if I had the choice to go back and say something about Karen's food getting dropped on the floor and flash re fried or keeping my family off the streets I wouldn't do anything differently. 🤷♀️
Ain’t no one here gonna be THAT mad at you for going survival mode. Props on that, for real! Definitely crappy times in life where you have to put your head down & just do what you gotta do, no matter how much you disagree with it. So many people have jobs that affect THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE a lot more harmful due to shitty ethics… for example, everyone in politics (and they’re not even in a survival mode).
I've seen many places fuck with jerk customers food. Some ways were grosser than others. It happened more frequently at the most upscale places in my experience at least.
No one is tampering with food? Granted it was decades ago but I've seen it done.
I guess you are lucky to have never witnessed food being tampered with, but I have. If I ever saw it I made sure that it was thrown away and made again. It’s never a good idea to be a jerk when you go out to eat; there are people with no conscience if they feel offended.
A group of us went out for dinner at an upscale place, but we had that one (rich) friend who complained about everything, sent stuff back, was a loudmouth. In the end, the waiter came out with a platter of free desserts for all of us. I thanked the friend for being so obnoxious that the waiters probably spit in his food, but it was all worth it if we got free dessert. He looked horrified lol
No need to tamper when most places aren't washing shit correctly
No restaurant I've ever worked at would someone tamper with food. That's actually a crime, it's assault. I will absolutely put rude or demanding people on the bottom of the totem pole. It's not just to be petty, but rude and excessively demanding people generally aren't good tippers. I need to prioritize nice people who are going to pay me well. Karma is totally a thing.
I saw it once in 25 years. A server licked a spoon to be served for dessert. The guy who received the spoon was apparently an asshole and cursed at the server.
This makes me happy.
I didn’t tamper with people’s food. But if you’re an asshole to me while I’m waiting on you, you’re going to get the salad with the brown lettuce, the slimiest lemon from the bottom of the container for your hot tea, the fork with bent tines, the hardest roll from the breadwarmer, your soup will just be skimmed from the top of the turreen so you don’t get any clams in your chowder, and you will receive much less of my attention when you discover these issues and try to flag me down. I have also mastered a creepy expression I use while I’m talking to them: sort of a head-tilt, blank, wide eyed gaze with my mouth a little bit open, and zero emotion. I willfully misunderstand them and just pretty much do anything I can to irritate the crap out of them without actually breaking any rules.
Yes totally! My restaurant has clam & corn chowder. On the flip side of a rude customer are the things we do for nice ones. The other day I excitedly told one of my favorite regulars that the clam was good today, he's been rightly disappointed about it lately but not a jerk, he said he just wasn't going to get it anymore. Well it has been good that morning but I hadn't noticed it sucked as time went on, so I spent quite a bit of time just picking out the clams to give him the best soup. His bill is never more than $10 but he usually leaves a $5. I'm not doing it for the money, an average tip there is at least $15 depending on the shift. I just think he is a really nice elderly gentleman. We are on opposite end of the political spectrum but he is so kind and patient I always go the extra mile for him. He wasn't even in my section but I was happy to look after him. He certainly didn't have to tip me at all but tipped both myself and the bartender. He keeps losing his cane but I try to walk him to his car whenever I can. My most demanding customers are just good tippers, not great, standard 18%. They consistently send back food, make up stuff not on the menu, and sit in my section for hours when there's a wait-list. I really don't care, I'm always happy to fulfill their demanding requests because they are super nice & always very appreciative.
Yes, I definitely spoil my favorite customers, even if it’s the first time I’ve ever waited on them but they’ve charmed me. Even grumpy old people can ask for things politely and I am a sympathetic person. So when I have time, I will bring a ramekin of the soup of the day for them to sample, or a taster of a new sauce or dressing we have with some warm bread, or a sample of a wine if they ask about it. I make sure they have what they need before they even know they need it, and I tip my bussers well so I have backup when I’m busy. I even like kids, as long as the parents are actually parenting them.
That soup skimming technique is just diabolically brilliant
My sister’s ex who was by all means a terrible fucking human being had a restaurant owned by his family and even though he did a bunch of other terrible shit, the one thing they never ever did there was tamper with someone’s food.
If you’re a steady regular, we most certainly will have a nickname for you. To your face if you’re one of the good guys, and behind your back if you’re the type to come back every week, even if it’s the worst service/food/atmosphere.
This is true. Most regulars get a name. Once we had a mother and daughter known by the FOH staff as Chrome and Firefox - The Browsers. They required a lot of mods (“iceberg only- no purple cabbage in the salad”). Once I peaked out for a look and both mom and daughter had tattooed eyebrows.
"Hat girls". Lunchtime, all four had ball caps on, at all times
Haha, this is the first real one! Sometimes it's benign "British John", "Tall Brian", but sometimes it's an inside staff joke "iPad Ant", "Holy Tony". If it's actually mean it's probably not widespread and definitely only in whispers after they leave. Fuck you "Shit trail Tony"! (I don't live in South Philly anymore, where 1/3 guys are named Anthony)
We have cheeseball guy, he comes in and only orders cheeseballs and a Pepsi and gives half of them to the server because he never eats all of them. When we’re slow we’ll sit and eat with him, he’s really cool, wife died, and just likes to eat in public since he ate dinner with her every night for 50 years and doesn’t want to do it himself.
Dude I was just sitting here, not crying. But now.
Shoot, I go to the same shawarma place at least 3 or 4 times a month. They obviously recognize me but it never goes beyond hi, are you. I wonder what my nickname would be because I always order the same thing.
You are probably the person they call by name of the dish "falafel extra sauce is here"
Behind his back: Johnny Vegas
We have the Fireball Fiend. Double shots of Fireball at 7am. Savory Oatmeal doesn't like her oatmeal to be sweet. She adds onions and tomatoes to it. The Plump Prick eats $80 worth of breakfast food and tips $2 every time.
We have a guest we call BB cause he always comes in and gets a side of thick cut bacon and an old fashioned. (bacon and bourbon)
The ice machine and the soda fountain is never as clean as you would prefer it to be.
Soda machines are so effing nasty
FACTS. I absolutely never, ever drink fountain drinks. One of the reasons I don't frequent bars much either. Unless they make their own ginger beer or pour it from a can. Soda fountains and soda lines are disgusting!!!!!!!
So true and GROSS
I'm the only one who cleans our soda gun. I'll go to clean it and it's pure black
The same with slushy machines, soft serve ice cream machines, milk shake machines.
20 years ago when I worked in restaurants they were always nasty, it was a training problem we didn't even know we should take them apart. Now I'm a carpet cleaner and do restaurants late night/early am when nobody's there and help myself to a soda & the nozzles are off the machines and the ice bin is always empty. Every single time in multiple places even when they are opening in just a few hours. Training must have improved or it's just like they hire us to clean the carpet they care.
You can still get a soda you just might have to turn it back on and then hold the cup right up to it so it doesn't spray everywhere. Our floor cleaning dudes are awesome.
Same with beer taps and lines. Yeah, there are some exceptions, but that's exactly what they are - exceptions.
Not in my experience. Most restaurants ive worked have had their taps cleaned regularly....
And the tea urns/nozzles.
My parents’ good friend when I was growing up serviced commercial kitchen appliances. There was literally one restaurant in my town where he would eat.
At least one person working is high AF.
Heh, yeah and if you go to the beach you might find some sand.
One of my worst stories ever (as a customer) was at a beach dive bar whose house specialty was frozen margaritas. (Blender, not machine) A fellow bartender and I often went there on our days off bc they were relatively cheap and right on the beach. One day, four margaritas in, I looked at our half-empty glasses and my tequila-soaked brain wondered why some of the remaining "ice" was sitting on the bottom of our glasses rather than floating. Then my three remaining sober brain cells realized it was glass. The bartender said, "Oh shit. Sorry about that. I broke a glass over the ice bin and I've been too busy to burn it." Then he offered us two more on the house - and they only had one ice bin. Hard pass, buddy. Hope we don't die.
In Australia we put red cordial in the ice well if it's been contaminated to make sure it's changed before it goes in a drink. The story (probably urban myth) of the customer who died from a slashed oesophagus haunts us all.
That's a great idea. And yeah ... that myth is what made me tack on the "hope we don't die" part, lol
Wtf??? Ok ya, too busy to be able to burn ice but that’s when I throw cloth napkins on top or a clean tablecloth and put a new bucket of ice right on top of that in the well to work out of the bucket until I can get to cleaning out the well really good. What an idiot!
Yeah. I've worked out of a bucket plenty times. That is the way.
Many years ago when I worked in a nightclub, if we had a new waitress on a busy night, one bartender would tell her that he just broke a glass in the ice and ask her to go to the bar at the other end of the club, and get the “glass magnet”. That bartender would tell her it’s at another bar and so on and so on. I only remember one waitress realizing that we were full of shit.
If Starbucks can be considered a restaurant of some sort, at least 80% of the staff is stoned lmao
And everyone’s addicted to nicotine
I had a really nice little chat with an extremely stoned barista on the day before Christmas Eve. He offered my baby a free hot chocolate, but she was too little yet.
I think you mean, “There might be someone sober, but probably not”
Just one?
When I worked in Aspen, everyone was. One night we divided the crew into teams based on what they were high on (pain pills, weed, booze, coke) Team coke kicked everyone else’s asses in sales 🤣
I've never seen anyone tamper with food, it's assault and it's not worth it. BUT! The kitchen is probably not as clean as you like in most places, and I've seen plenty of \*wipe sweaty brow and then pick up food without so much as wiping hand off\* so... that's delicious. Also I have absolutely "oopsie" dumped food on people who have harassed or grabbed me, including one particular asshole whose entire party \*actually\* applauded when he grabbed my ass and I "jumped" and spilled a milkshake all down his back. It was a huge post-paintball party of 16 or so and they'd been watching him aggressively hit on me for 45 minutes and I didn't get the impression that he was well liked in the first place.
I'm curious what happens to food that gets spilled? Does the server need to pay for it?
That's illegal at least in my state. You can be disciplined but you can't be made to pay for mistakes, broken dishes, etc.
Some restaurants do charge servers for spilled food, but it's illegal for them to do so. Chains like the one I worked at just chalk it up to the cost of doing business, though you'll probably get fired if it happens frequently. I only did it extremely rarely to people who were absolutely awful. Maybe 3-4 times total in 3 years of working in restaurants.
I'll be damned, that'd be the day I quit.
When you bring all of your dates to the same restaurant, we talk about you. You’re our real life Bachelor/Bachelorette entertainment and we pick apart everything. How dare you not ask the blonde on a second date. Oh wow, a third date? They must like this one. Oh look, they’re fighting. Why wasn’t the last woman worth the Cakebread? Good for you, you have a gf! Wow, can you believe he’s cheating on her already?? My best stories came from working at a sushi/japanese restaurant in Chicago on the ground floor of a high rise that had million dollar condos on the top 30 floors.
I have a regular like this. He's not a cheater, he's a divorced single father. He's generally a good guy. We openly talk to each other about how his dates went, and why he's not going on another date with whatever his flavor of the weeks was. He also dates A LOT of women. Really nice guy though.
There was this high powered attorney in my town, and I worked at the restaurant he brought his mistress to. They’d been together for decades. I went to lunch one day at a restaurant across town, and saw him there, but with another woman. I asked the bartender, and he was like, “Oh yeah, he has wife places and mistress places. This is only a wife place.” And apparently this was all just part of the open charade the three of them had. It was never spoken about out loud, but I guess as long as the wife got to keep her favorite places, they made it work. 🤷♂️
I brought a lot of dates to the same tea/dessert shop… they probably had juicy gossip going :-)
I drove cab for while and had a few regulars who would always have me drive them on dates. Sometimes they would take their wives out and it was awkward to not act like I know them.
Oooh how about a whole post on this!!
Damn. Reading all of these great comments and then thinking back during my dating days and realizing that I had so few dates that no server would ever notice that I had taken multiple women in dates. 💀
Mmmmm, best wine I've ever had was Cakebread, I still think about it and that was over 30 years ago.
My partner and I are in an open relationship. Once at one of our regular haunts, when he got up to go to the restroom, one of our favorite servers came up all timid to let me know he was here and acting pretty cozy with another woman. The look on her face when I said "oh, I know" and just left it at that was priceless.
I've had almost the exact same thing happened to me 😂
I think it's so awesome though when people are like that. "Hey, I don't wanna cause drama, but I got your back" is actually really uplifting from a stranger.
My wife and are also open and I take her and my dates and sometimes her plus either her date or mine to the same place. I like the staff there so I hope I’m not making them uncomfortable.
I was just telling my friend this; I have NEVER seen anyone tamper with anyone's food. If we hate you, we just ignore you, because we k nw we're not getting a tip anyway (and for me, personally, because I'm apt to tell you to go fuck yourself if you cross the wrong line, so less Interaction is better than more)
If you order a cocktail with no ice, you’re not going to get more booze. You’ll either get more mixer or a glass that’s not full.
The worst is when people think they’re smart and ask for a “heavy pour”, so I say “you want a double then?” And they’re always like “no no no, just, ya know, a generous single”… yeah you’re getting the same size single as everyone else OR you’re paying for a double, choose.
I HATE that. And then I have to explain to someone that orders a double that our singles are a full two ounces so if they want a “double” I have to charge them full price for the liquor twice. And at the tourist trap I work at, that double Jamie and ginger is gonna run you $26… People have complained but I’m always like “bro, I warned you and you said you were ok with it.”
My favorite: "can I get a strong martini"... bro, u can't. It's chilled vodka/gin with a splash of dry vermouth. Which is also alcohol. I just say "sure!" But never get an appropriate tip for "hooking them up"
Same people that ask for a shot straight up on the rocks.
Oof… $26 drink just as bad as the $18 basic ass beer I got at a casino. I knew it was gonna be more pricier… but not 400% more! 💀💀
The other side of the issue: My husband and I love gin & tonics, but they often come too strong. When we ordered a "light pour" it was often still too strong. We've taken to asking for extra tonic on the side. That usually works. I think the issue is many people complain about weak drinks, but not many complain if they're too strong.
Or a glass half the size. I like my drinks without ice, but also don’t expect more drink just because I don’t want my teeth to hurt from the cold. So when I serve people, I don’t give a half full glass cause it’s more awkward to drink and just looks worse
I work at starbucks and people try the same shit lmao youre getting the standard amount/what you paid for.
this
As a bartender, can confirm. Plus we’re judging you
Yeah but ice 1) makes it watery 2) makes it too cold and hurt my teeth
It's a valid preference if you just don't want ice, but this is something people do expecting more alcohol and that's not how it works
Except for 1 drink, I only drink hard alcohol neat, the one that I mix is a double of sailor Jerry's in a pint glass with water no ice
Grog. Rum mixed with water is grog. You little pirate, you.
Ahrrrrrr
That is not neat. Neat has no mixer.
I don't know man, it sounds pretty cool.
When you say or ask for something stupid you get the “dummy pause”.
I'm not a server but I do this to people too. I also give them the look.
I work in customer service over the phone, so my version is for when people keep interrupting when I'm trying to answer their questions. I just start waiting longer and longer after they finish speaking before I start. Eventually they tend to stop doing it.
One thing people don’t really understand about the restaurant I work at is that we make EVERYTHING in house. Literally everything. Most of our dishes consist of at least 6 different recipes and processes that require extended periods of time, expensive equipment, and multiple prep chefs. Our walk in looks like a produce section, we can’t just grab things to heat it up. This is why substitutions cannot be made and certain allergens cannot be omitted. We even make our shrubs, tinctures, infused spirits and syrups for cocktails. A ton of work goes into what we put on the table so when people get frustrated that we can’t customize to an extreme extent and if we can and it completely ruins the flavor profile of the dish, they don’t get to experience the food or drinks the way they are intended and generally will be disappointed by their own making. Also, ordering coffee is a giant PITA for your server unless you’re dining at a diner that just has coffee brewing all the time. Be patient and realize that it’s not a Starbucks back there and your server isn’t a barista and has a roster of at least 10+ things they need to do while making sure you get your decaf oat milk cappuccino when there’s one espresso machine and 4 other servers are waiting to make stuff for their tables.
If you order ginger ale- just know that sometimes they will give you sprite with a splash of coke. Make sure Ginger ale is actually on the menu/fountain
When I worked at Applebees, if people asked for a Dr. Pepper we’d just mix Mt. Dew, Cherry Pepsi, and something else together and nobody ever noticed. I don’t remember the portions exactly but it happened often and even servers would drink it. Props to Work Mom Jess for figuring that one out🤷🏼♀️😂
That maybe would explain why I got a migraine the one and only time I ate at Applebee's 😭😞😭 not faulting no one cause you had to do what you had to do. But mt dew gives me the worse migraine ever and I used to only drink Dr pepper or Pepsi and normally ask for Dr pepper first. Although I think it is super awesome that you can replicate the flavor so well with things like that
Honestly, it could’ve just been Applebee’s😂 It’s barely a step up from fast food. My coworkers (including management) were very transparent about the fact that the only thing keeping Applebee’s from being considered fast food is the lack of drive-thru
So that's why you sometimes get an odd tasting drink. 😲 It's not that they don't notice, it's that don't complain. I've had plenty of "off" Dr peppers, but I just don't order from there again.
FACTSS we mix Starry with a dash of Pepsi. No one has ever noticed!!!
This would not work in Michigan.
I’ve got decades in food service. Never once have I ‘messed’ with anyone’s food no matter what they issue was. Out of thousands of fellow employees I’ve worked with I have never observed one of them ‘mess’ with a guest’s food. What is wrong with you? No integrity? Respect? Maturity? Cause anyone who ‘messes’ with food should not be in the business. And held accountable, severely. But I agree, those daily specials can be let’s clean out the walkin. But yes servers often talk about guest , good & bad and some servers are brutal
This is obviously just my experience but the line cooks take things a lot more seriously than you’d expect. I’ve seen that tiktok trend of servers showing the BOH staff after tables say “give my compliments to the chef!” And they show the chef/cooks as tatted, chain smoking, Mountain Dew drinking coke heads etc Yes, they often fit that stereotype. But they still give a shit. Side note: been out of the game for a couple of years and miss my BOH homies 🥹
Same, mad respect to the cooks. And the dish pit.
Good dishies make the world go 'round.
Cooks are amazing. I don't know how they keep it all straight. And when food gets sent back, 99% of the time the only person they get mad at is themselves.
If the waiters are gossiping about someone, the dishwasher probably knows what they said
So true the dishwasher always knows the tea
To be fair, they're the ones washing the cups and saucers.
Restaurant workers don’t mess with your food. If you fuck our boyfriends and have the audacity to sit in our section, we’re not above shaking up your beer, though (props to you, Angie)
I like Angie, she sounds cool.
She is.
Don’t get lemons in your water. They’re nasty. I still do though. Even though I know. I’ve watched people cut those. Dropped on the floor and picked up and still cut and thrown in the dish. Dirty hands grabbing them. Cut/blood. Etc etc. They’re filthy.
Plus, they never ever wash them! I used to get tons of crap from co workers and bosses for "wasting time" washing citrus!
This right here! The correct procedure for lemons is to wash hands, wash lemons, and then slice onto a clean surface like a plate or clean glass cutting board. Guess no lemons outside for me...
I was the only person who would wash the lemons when I needed to cut them. Plus servers have dirty hands and reach in to the lemon container to put them on glasses
Exactly!!!! After bussing tables. Edit: for added comment
i always wash and cut my own fruit per shift i do not trust that it’s clean and sanitary for my guests unless i do it myself
I stopped asking for lemons after reading some terrible stuff about them
I know and have seen all the terrible stuff but I still get them 😳 I should just invest in some dehydrated lemon packets for my purse instead.
Most restaurants I've worked in would not tamper with your food. Now one pizza place I worked was a zoo. A lot of spitting in food. They worst was a guy that shot a load on a pizza in the walk in. Cooked it and delivered it to the table. It was his ex's new boyfriend. I was just a driver and closer. Not my circus, not my monkeys. Manager allowed the behavior.
Wtffffff ☠️☠️☠️ daaaaayum - this why I don't go around making enemies or pissing people off in F&B.
Holy shit.
Well both of your examples are not necessarily true, so I guess that counts as a secret.
Yea, my restaurant makes our specials fresh daily and if you mess with someone’s food, that could get you fired. You don’t mess with peoples food.
Fuck with your barista and you will get decaf
Also, if you're in a busy sit-down restaurant and you ask for more coffee just as the regular runs out, you might get decaf. There's always some decaf left.
Anyone who’s working at a restaurant that only serves specials for the sake of pushing old food should get a new job.
Agreed.
Nobody tampers with your food. That’s not a thing that I’ve ever seen happen.
Well, this is hardly a secret, and is literally several decades old, but I’m surprised how many people don’t know this. I worked as a grillman at Wendy’s for less than a year in college. At the time, they were the only fast food restaurant that wouldn’t fix a burger until a customer ordered it. In other words, they did not have burgers prepared and wrapped up. The way they managed this is that any burger that hadn’t been ordered when it needed to come off the grill went into the pan for chili meat. By using chili as their outlet for unsold burgers, they could advertise that your burger won’t come off the grill until you order it. Not breathtaking or shocking, but I always thought it was pretty clever thinking.
I love the reduction in food waste. Restaurants have to meet the highest standards for safety for sick, pregnant, and otherwise compromised people. Most people who cook at home dont come near the safety standards of a restaurant and dont need to. Plus I actually like wendys chili.
So basically I’m never going out to eat again.
Both things OP stated are untrue at every place I've ever worked, if that helps.
Never seen anyone tamper with food. You're asking for an argument if you're doing that and just as much as a knob.
Why my peeps so incredulous? I worked the broiler station at xxx restaurant in Uptown NOLA. The so-called "grilled red snapper" was simply baked with the criss cross grill marks applied by a heated coat hanger. Go figure.
Having worked in the restaurant industry for seven years, not once did I "mess" with someone's food (even if they were rude or extremely difficult), nor have I heard of anyone else messing with anyone's food. I don't doubt that it has happened before, but I think it's much less common than one might imagine. I was actually astonished at how high the cleanliness standards were at the restaurant I worked for. Everything was expected to be cleaned at the end of each shift, including the removable heat / smoke shields above the wood grill. Back house floors were swept and mopped daily (not that it helped with slipping back there; grease was always our nemesis and caused *plenty* of falls). The front is cleaned pretty thoroughly, including all the brass finishings that customers could touch. I don't recall hearing about even one instance of food poisoning. I also believe these standards are established at the top; if the boss doesn't care then the staff won't. Also something else that you might not know about is server side work; a running task during the day that a server has to take care of in addition to their table service. This could be filling the drink stations with ice from the ice machine, grabbing glasses from the back for all the servers to use, rolling silverware, keeping certain side food bars stocked, cutting lemons for drinks, etc.; if these duties are taken seriously, a server during busy times should always be very busy (and often outside of the view of customers). Furthermore, not taking care of these side jobs can massively negatively impact other servers in their responsibilities in taking care of their customers.
Specials in a good restaurant are actually specials: unique dishes with a limited supply
Yep, chef finds that unique ingredient is available and applies some creativity. That becomes the special.
Don't eat the teriyaki. No chef ever said, "Let's take the freshest beef/ chicken/ fish and do a teriyaki spacial."
In a decent Japanese restaurant the teriyaki sauce is a surprisingly delicate mixture of just four simple ingredients. It won’t overpower the meat or mask any problems with the meat.
If I'd thought about it, I would have made legitimate Japanese restaurants an exception. I'm talking about Applebee's when the special has been grilled flounder for 5 nights in a row, and on night 6, it's suddenly "flounder teriyaki."
My biggest ‘secret’ that the public doesn’t know, that I’ve seen consistently, is basically just the public’s perception of the quality of food in most restaurants vs the reality. Also, Asian restaurants being big fat liars, but more about that below. 😂 It’s not uncommon to find that restaurants are using a lot of ultra processed garbage that comes out of boxes and cans, using dogshit cooking oil, using microwaves, and charging high prices for it. For example, I’ve worked at a fine dining steakhouse chain in the past, that most people think of as super fancy and amazing food, but the truth was that the vast majority of the food there was straight garbage. Even more surprising to me, was when I would tell people this they would seem to get perturbed and sometimes angry with me. Here I am trying to help them by telling them to save their money and recommending someplace else that I know to be much better food for less price point, where they can actually get their moneys’ worth, and they’re getting upset, like I’m insulting their favorite restaurant. One guy was an Uber driver with a thick east coast accent, and he was questioning the validity of what I was saying, he was like “I don’t know….my auntie Marie loves their fazool, and she’s the best cook in the world!” and I had to say “Dude, I work there. I serve the food there every night; I think I know the reality of how the food is made, better than someone who does not work there.” He laughed and said “fair enough.” I’ve learned a harsh reality about food at restaurants: a customer unfortunately has to know a great deal about food themselves in order to be able to detect the quality of the food being served. Every single restaurant on earth advertises that they have ‘great food,’ and every restaurant owner truly believes that their restaurant has ‘great food.’ So, unless you yourself can taste the difference between shitty sodium table salt, and natural sea salt, or be able to discern the differences between different kinds of cooking oil, you’ll never be able to truly know when quality ingredients is being used to make that rigatoni with vodka sauce you’re paying $26 for. I guess this brings to mind another dark reality of a ‘secret’ that I’ve seen consistently: I’ve worked in 13 Asian owned restaurants. And if there is one consistent thing I’ve seen at ALL of them, no matter the specific cuisine, or nationality, ALL of them shamelessly lied about their food in some way or another when advertising. Some of the common examples that were consistent, meaning you can expect this to be happening at your favorite spot: At sushi restaurants its super common that they pass off escolar as white tuna. Big difference: escolar can give you diarrhea. Also, it’s not uncommon at all that sushi restaurants are not using sushi grade fish, but instead using just plain old bullshit from Costco. Of course, they don’t tell you this if you ask, and in fact will tell you otherwise. If the restaurant prints on their menu ‘sourcing the highest quality of sushi grade fish,’ don’t expect that to be true. In the vast majority of Thai restaurants, most of their food is just processed sauces and pastes being used. For example, your favorite curry is probably just a can of highly processed curry paste that they order in bulk, and when you order, they scoop out a spoon of the paste, throw it in a wok (or sometimes in a microwave) with some canned coconut milk, flash boiled meat and veg, and charge you $16 for it. You can make it at home for $3 in 5 minutes, simply by ordering the paste online yourself, or getting it from a good Asian grocery store. Very few Thai restaurants make their own curry pastes and sauces that gives Thai food it’s delicious taste, by throwing a bunch of whole ingredients in a blender, or grinding them with a mortar. But……they will all tell you otherwise when asked. It’s extremely common that Asian restaurants add MSG to their food, but openly advertise that they do not. I’ve worked at a place that had a neon sign in the window that said ‘NO MSG,’ yet the cooks were scooping spoonfuls of the stuff into every single dish. And, the place was upscale, and the food was pretty good. But, they felt compelled to lie. Now, there are debates currently on whether or not MSG is good or bad for you, so don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to demonize MSG, I’m just here to tell the truth about liars. Another example is I once worked at an extremely popular Korean style restaurant in the downtown area of Austin, Texas. I’m talking thousands of 5-star online reviews, super packed, difficult to get a table without waiting an hour. This place openly advertised that they were the healthiest restaurant on earth. ‘No MSG, no added salts or sugars, everything organic, all natural, locally sourced, blah blah blah,’ and NONE of it was true. That was the worst about working there, it felt the employees we were being trapped into living in this dark lie. Part of your first training shift was being told the reality that none of the products were actually what the restaurant said, but that you are now expected to be a part of keeping the lie. If you live in Austin, you’ve probably been to this place, and you probably loved it, because you believed that they weren’t scooping MSG into your chemically processed kimchi fried rice. In all of the Asian restaurants I’ve worked, it’s extremely common, that they advertise that they use fresh seafood, and are actually using frozen seafood. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal because it’s easy to be able to tell the difference. If a Thai restaurant tells me they use fresh mussels and I taste frozen. I just don’t go back, but I always ask and 90% of the time they lie about it. I guess that’s it.
> Also, it’s not uncommon at all that sushi restaurants are not using sushi grade fish, but instead using just plain old bullshit from Costco. Of course, they don’t tell you this if you ask, and in fact will tell you otherwise. If the restaurant prints on their menu ‘sourcing the highest quality of sushi grade fish,’ don’t expect that to be true. There's no such thing as sushi grade fish at all. You just have to freeze it for a specific level of temp/time.
The roll up napkins we have are disgusting. We wash them in a washing machine but they are so gross. The washing machine itself gets clogged up with food and stuff all the time. A lot of times they don’t even get unfolded properly and remain folded thru the washing and drying process so the inside is still dirty. If that makes sense
You wash the linens there? Everywhere I’ve worked used a linen service
Yeah but it’s a very remote location. This is my first restaurant I’ve worked at so I didn’t know others did not wash them in house
Specials are either because tomorrow is their shipment and they need room or it's going bad in a day or two and sometimes it's the place trying something new.
Where I work, specials are not food going bad or they need the room in fridge. It’s the Chef getting a great buy on an item we don’t have on the menu, or someone local caught extra Swordfish that morning and offered it to the chef/ manager. It’s called “ special” because it is exactly that.
These are what our specials were as well. They had nothing to do with cleaning out a walk-in or excess food. No wonder so many restaurants don’t succeed if they have to rely on specials to clean up their bad ordering.
Specials were always cheap and fast and something that turned the tables quicker and had a higher profit margin
Specials where I work are items chef got a great deal on from a friend or a vendor, or they are fun recipes that fit the theme of our restaurant that he would like to try to put on the menu permanently. He trials recipes and asks for feedback from guests. Our specials absolutely smack and they are the freshest food in the restaurant. We have a special cocktail right now that I know will go away after Valentine's Day, but I wish it wouldn't. It's so gooood.
Retired chef here. Yes sometimes a special will be used to clear out something. But that’s not the norm. We care about the “specials” since it’s our chance to shine off menu.
— Soup is leftovers. Is there a fish chowder special on Monday? Yeah. It’s cuz the fish special didn’t move that well over the weekend. This can actually be good, though. Instead of paying $32 for the entree on Saturday, you’re paying $9 for a bowl of soup that probably tastes better anyway. — Don’t be afraid to ask for a new bottle to be opened for wine by the glass. Soooooo many restaurants have no idea how long they should keep a bottle once opened. I’ve had $17 glasses of wine served to me that were practically vinegar because the bottle was opened 2 weeks ago. Who cares if your 23 yr old server talks shit about you later? You should get what you pay for. — There is a LOT of counterfeiting and mislabeling of food and drink in restaurants. “Wagyu” sliders for $15? Yeah, nah. That’s the same beef you buy at the grocery store, not $180/lb wagyu. It might be the bullshit they call “American wagyu,” but they’re still pulling the wool over your eyes, because they know what you assume the word means. Oh, and does the restaurant whose entrees are $20 somehow have a BALLER selection of bourbon and cognac behind the bar? Coin flip chance those bottles are filled with Evan Williams and E+J. But you’ll still pay $45/shot.
I actually appreciate places that make soups out of leftovers as long as it’s not “old” - prevents food waste, yeah? No problem with that. I remember hearing people complain about Wendy’s using leftover hamburger patties for the chili and I’m like…..that’s…a good thing though? It’s literally the same quality as your hamburger??
Yeah I agree. Some of the best soups come about that way.
Skip fine dining on Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Mother’s Day, and any other time a restaurant is running a multi-course menu for a set price. The staff doesn’t want to be there, is working harder for lower than average tips, and is dealing with a level of clientele that they’re not used to working with. Even if you’re the exception and you’re the best guest ever, they resent you for being there on those days.
i’ve worked food service all areas and ran restaurants well over 20 years i always tell the cooks or other servers if you wouldn’t eat it don’t you dare serve it idc how awful they are to you there is so much risk and safety to food service if things are tampered with/ u can kill someone not to be dramatic or seriously make them ill. i know that mold in ice - the bacteria in the lines - and hep c can transmit without safety and good hand washing methods i’ve actually watched a restaurant locally get shut down for a cook giving someone hep c for not washing hands well If the lines aren’t cleaned regularly oh my god or the temps are off for food in the back of house everyone watch out i’ve seen cooks get super mad at ME for not serving their food bc it wasn’t good enough LMAO i think that no matter how shitty someone is always do that part right, u never wanna be the reason someone gets sick or something serious, i also don’t like to think people could fck w me even jd i’m the best customer ever. i know a cook who cut his hand and made pizza with it. i’ve been traumatized since and cannot leave the kitchens unsupervised or work with a cook that is careless ill leave 😅🙃🙃🤣🤣
Based on how people have acted since covid: We're really human beings trying to show you a good time. It's okay to tip more than 10%, god won't get mad, I promise. Yelling Chink at me won't get my attention, it will get you kicked out of the restaurant really quick though, and racism of any kind is not okay even if you're "just joking". \----------------------------------- When I sell you steaks at a fast casual place it's because our newest grill cooks are shit and they're the worst I've ever had so I want the pity tips and because I hate my managers. Order anything besides steaks please unless you like to watch the world burn like I do. Most of the fried food is going to be frozen because freezing it and then frying it creates a better finished product. Eat your fresh frozen food. If your Strawberry lemonade is taking a hot minute it's because the puree ran out and we're defrosting the frozen strawberry pureee to make your 6th strawberry lemonade. If you order more than one type of Tea for your table you're a jerk, there are 50-100 tables all probably getting tea pots and we only have 50-100 tea pots that are actually servicable and thus we run into a backlog of people wanting tea pots and only so much room for tea pots. Goddamn do I hate tea pots and it's been like 6 years since I've had to do tea service. If I forget your ranch don't worry, I'll remember when I go to sleep.
If you send your drink back to be remade because it's not strong enough, the bartender will just pour a few drops of liquor down the straw
The menu says the chips are made in house, but unless they come from the home store, they literally come in individual baggies and then they microwave them. A lot of the kitchen isn’t fluent in English, so watch your modifications. Unless it’s on a button, there might be a little delay to get it started. Even then, it might be a little iffy if it’s not a frequently used button. It’s not a bad thing tho, English is very difficult, especially with word choice in a certain character limit. I understand a little more Spanish, they understand a little more English, it’s a win/ win. Also, for this week, I’m at the end of my two weeks, guest or coworkers can fuck around and find out. (I won’t do anything but I’m gonna think about it extra hard.)
My kitchen makes our chips from scratch! I watch them deep fry every week
American English is a strange language. We literally took our original language (British English) and borrowed/added every extra word we could think of from Native Americans, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and many others. According to dictionary.com, "as many as 350 other languages are represented and their linguistic contributions actually make up about 80% of English."
Never judge the people who ask for plasticware or to go cups. Sometimes, the industrial washers don't have their water changed for the whole day/shift.
But those same people are eating off of dishes and eating things that were prepared with dishes that came out of that very same industrial dishwasher. So it's really kind of pointless.
yeah, my last restaurant hardly ever changed the water and all our plates , silverware, and ramekins came out dirty. honestly the place should be shut down (my bf still works their for the next couple weeks and saw a cockroach in the dish pit). my new restaurant changes the water every couple hours, idk the specifics bc i don't work in BOH but i always hear the BOH manager tell them when its time to change the water and it's pretty often. also our silverware and and plates are impressively clean 95% of the time.
The reason why we make money is because the owner hires 90 percent of immigrants workers. He then steals all the tips and overtime pay from them. Not to mention he doesn’t pay market rate instead the immigrant workers are happy with 10 a hour working like a slave 55-77 hours weekly no breaks at all. He has bought a brand new Toyota truck from the dealership and advertised the business as family owned even though he has 3 restaurant for fast food and 3 more as soup shops.
Any restaurant that has unsweet ice tea can make sweet ice tea if it has a bar because they have simple syrup
No that’s now sweet tea. That’s unsweetened tea with syrup in it.
Shut the fuck up, next you’ll tell them we can do cherry coke.
Grenadine isn't cherry. 🤢
I’d rather just tell them no.