Hospitality workers reveal: these signs in restaurants are serious red flags
Hospitality workers have their secrets. Things they can only know from their teachers at culinary school and from practice. Sometimes they let the cat out of the bag. For example, they tell us exactly which dishes we should never, ever order in a restaurant. But there are many more red flags in the hospitality industry. 22 hospitality workers share situations in restaurants where all your alarm bells should start ringing like crazy. If you experience any of the following situations, walk firmly towards the exit.
Red flags in restaurants:
1. ‘The first thing they tell you at culinary school when they teach you about food safety is: if you walk into a seafood restaurant and smell fish, leave. No, RUN.’
2. ‘Carpet on the floor is a massive red flag. Yes, it muffles sound and doesn’t get slippery, but it’s one of the most disgusting things in a restaurant ever. You can never vacuum it completely properly, and I know they never cleaned the carpet in the restaurant where I worked.’
3. ‘If a restaurant has a one-page menu, that’s a good sign. It means their chefs have become specialists and really nail every dish on the menu. But does a restaurant have a menu with dozens of pages? Then it’s often not much good.’
4. ‘If a restaurant offers a gigantic menu, you can assume that EVERYTHING was frozen before it was prepared.’
5. ‘Always ask where the oysters come from. If they don’t know, your alarm bells should start ringing. That’s not a good sign — and it applies to all types of seafood.’
6. ‘The limes sitting in your pitcher of water are dirty and filthy nine times out of ten.’
7. ‘Stay away from buffets and salad bars. Often, they’re the same things being replenished over and over again. Super gross.’
8. ‘No matter how well a buffet is managed, it’s never completely hygienic. It’s simply really impossible to keep a buffet 100% clean.’
9. ‘If you can immediately get a table during the busiest hours, that’s usually not a good sign.’
10. ‘If you order a dish that normally takes a long time to prepare and it’s in front of you in no time, it was definitely pre-cooked.’
11. ‘Catch of the day restaurants had better have an ocean or lake within a few kilometres of them. If they advertise fresh fish from Alaska and you’re not in Alaska, chances are your fish isn’t fresh.’
12. ‘Red flag: if there are photos of food on the menu that clearly aren’t from the restaurant.’
13. ‘If you see fruit flies flying around the restaurant: get out of there. It means the kitchen is downright filthy.’
14. ‘If you’re in a busy neighbourhood but the restaurant itself is empty, that’s not a good sign.’
15. ‘Every teacher at culinary school says the same thing: if something is listed incorrectly on the menu, they’re doing it on purpose. They do it so they don’t have to sell you the “real thing”.’
16. ‘If the menus are super dirty and look as if they’ve never been cleaned, the whole place is probably dirty and has never been cleaned.’
17. ‘In a restaurant, I always look at how the staff interact with one another. If they all seem to enjoy being there and can coordinate well, it often means there’s a good system and everything runs smoothly there. And that often also means: good food.’
18. ‘Keep a close eye on the staff. If most of the team often looks grumpy, the food probably isn’t great either. Staff don’t care about the product if they aren’t treated well.’
19. ‘Don’t order fish on Sundays. Most restaurants receive their fish deliveries on Mondays and Thursdays. Fish stops being fresh quickly, and especially not on Sunday — three days after delivery day.’
20. ‘If you ask the waiter what a particular dish is like and the answer doesn’t seem sincere, that’s a major red flag. They know what’s happening in the kitchen, know the complaints and know which dishes they should worry about when they bring them to the guests.’
21. ‘I always look for dust in a restaurant. Dust on the ceiling tiles or in the openings of the air conditioning. Lots of dust = not good.’
22. ‘What does the place smell like? Does it smell like delicious food? Then the food is probably delicious too. But if it smells like perfume or something sterile, that may be a sign that they’re trying to hide something unpleasant.’
Read also:
- Watch out: this is how hospitality workers get back at annoying guests
- 10 painfully recognisable situations for everyone who has worked in hospitality
- Ka-ching: these tricks make you order more in a restaurant
Source: BuzzFeed
