Restaurant horror stories.

[Monkeyleg]

I've worked commercial refrigeration repair for 30 of the last fifty years. Commercial reach in boxes, walk in coolers & freezers. You REALLY don't want to know.

 

I had put some examples here but decided they were too much.

Oh, yeah. My ex-BIL did a lot of plumbing and HVAC work at restaurants, and has some horror stories.

Of course, I worked as a dishwasher at a "family" restaurant when I was in high school. Here are some of the  highlights:

1. "Dirty Dave" made the 1000 Island dressing. He'd start with the usual ingredients, then for flavor he'd spit in the pot a few times. He'd take a black, greasy rag that was used to clean the floors and stir the dressing with it. He threw in other stuff, but I forget what.

2. We'd get the chicken in 50 pound boxes, frozen. We'd unload them to the basement, then have food fights with the wings, thighs, breasts, etc. When we were done, we'd run the pieces through the dishwasher to clean them up before breading. Did the same with steaks, too.

3. One night at the soda fountain/ice cream station, the cockroaches came in waves like you see the Viet Cong do in the movies. It was like a sea of brown.

There was more, but nothing beats what happened at a drive-in restaurant in Downers Grove, IL.  A friend of my best friend worked there. Another guy used to put "his own secret sauce" on burgers. I think you know what I mean.

[cambeul41]

There is said to be a Chinese saying, "If you would enjoy your food, stay out of the kitchen." And I have been in a few Chinese kitchens that lend truth to that.

However, I am not too put off because I love Chinese food and prefer restaurants that cater to an Asian clientele, so I just stay out of the kitchen.

[Tallpine]

Germs at home are your own germs.

[lee n. field]

Germs at home are your own germs.

And those of your family.  And pets.

[lee n. field]

[Tallpine]

And those of your family.  And pets.

I must have an over active immune system like BSL.

And to my knowledge the critters haven't caught anything from me.   

[lee n. field]

I must have an over active immune system like BSL.

And to my knowledge the critters haven't caught anything from me.   

Not worried either, myself.  Unless somethings really awful with your own personal environment, your body's used to it.

[Marnoot]

Most of the germs at home are ones you're accustomed to, but any salmonella/etc. cross-contamination from raw chicken/etc. at home will make you just as sick as the same at a restaurant. Always best to play it safe with raw meat.

[geronimotwo]

Oh, yeah. My ex-BIL did a lot of plumbing and HVAC work at restaurants, and has some horror stories.

Of course, I worked as a dishwasher at a "family" restaurant when I was in high school. Here are some of the  highlights:

1. "Dirty Dave" made the 1000 Island dressing. He'd start with the usual ingredients, then for flavor he'd spit in the pot a few times. He'd take a black, greasy rag that was used to clean the floors and stir the dressing with it. He threw in other stuff, but I forget what.

2. We'd get the chicken in 50 pound boxes, frozen. We'd unload them to the basement, then have food fights with the wings, thighs, breasts, etc. When we were done, we'd run the pieces through the dishwasher to clean them up before breading. Did the same with steaks, too.

There was more, but nothing beats what happened at a drive-in restaurant in Downers Grove, IL.  A friend of my best friend worked there. Another guy used to put "his own secret sauce" on burgers. I think you know what I mean.

i never understood what could make someone disrespect anothers food in that manner.

[lupinus]

i never understood what could make someone disrespect anothers food in that manner.

It's called being an ahole.

[TommyGunn]

Oh, yeah. My ex-BIL did a lot of plumbing and HVAC work at restaurants, and has some horror stories.

Of course, I worked as a dishwasher at a "family" restaurant when I was in high school. Here are some of the  highlights:

1. "Dirty Dave" made the 1000 Island dressing. He'd start with the usual ingredients, then for flavor he'd spit in the pot a few times. He'd take a black, greasy rag that was used to clean the floors and stir the dressing with it. He threw in other stuff, but I forget what.

2. We'd get the chicken in 50 pound boxes, frozen. We'd unload them to the basement, then have food fights with the wings, thighs, breasts, etc. When we were done, we'd run the pieces through the dishwasher to clean them up before breading. Did the same with steaks, too.

3. One night at the soda fountain/ice cream station, the cockroaches came in waves like you see the Viet Cong do in the movies. It was like a sea of brown.

There was more, but nothing beats what happened at a drive-in restaurant in Downers Grove, IL.  A friend of my best friend worked there. Another guy used to put "his own secret sauce" on burgers. I think you know what I mean.

GROSS!

I think I'm gonna avoid this thread from now on............

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

never  never EVER piss off the folks cooking your food or serving you

when i see folks who do i stay away



first job as a tweener was dishwasher in chinese place.  i was in my 40's before i ate chinese i didn't cook myself again

[JN01]

Five second rule.  Besides, why should the restaurant pay for something that was obviously your fault?  You were there, so it was your fault. 

Speaking of the five second rule, if you are sitting on the toilet, eating a sandwich, and you drop it on the floor, does the rule still apply? 

I was in Goldsboro, NC years ago and went out for a fancy dinner with a bunch of friends.  Quiet, lovely decor, dimly lit with candles at the tables, fancy table settings with more forks than you know what to do with, you know the kind of place.  They bring us a basket with a loaf of bread in it.  Even in the candle light, something about it looks funny.  I pick it up, and one whole side and the bottom of the loaf are covered with green mold.

[lupinus]

It's always fun when someone whose never been in the back of a restaurant has the curtain opened for the first time 

My first job was dish boy/deli bitch in a deli in NJ. The Greek dude that owned the place about stroked out when I dared to throw away a tomato that I dropped, which then rolled under the irrc fryer, I fished out and found it was covered in an unidentifiable gooey substance, and that I then had the balls to throw his money into the trash. Not speaking Greek I'm not sure most of what he called me, but I do believe it involved my questionable lineage going back as least a dozen generations, and probably a few generations worth of my spawn, and took quite some time for him to get through. I also had to fish it out of the garbage, rinse it off of the goo and garbage nastiness, and put it back in the bin that would be sliced the next day for use on subs.

Far as I know only two people came close to dieing over the incident, me almost getting beat to death with a spatula and the owner from almost having a coronary. Luckily he calmed down before either came to pass.

[Pharmacology]

This is one of the good things about Austin.  There are plenty of places run by food dorks that I just trust.
My favorite fast food place,  Top Notch is just the right balance of clean, with big ass windows into the kitchen/dish washing area.


As someone who once set down a bowl of soup while hiking in the guadalupe mountains,  then picked it up and kept eating even though bugs had gotten into it,  I really couldn't give too much of a *expletive deleted*.

It has nothing to do with "good" or "bad" food, it has to do with a pervasive and prevailing myth of "Chinese restaurants use (insert favorite pet species here) in their food".  It is an epic logic fail on multiple levels which no amount of reason, objectivity, or fact seems to deter.  The only remaining option is to ridicule the ridiculous.
Also, food being "good" or "bad" is purely subjective unless you are speaking in the context of food safety.  Unfortunately people tend to equate their personal perception of the food as directly correlating to the food's health risk when all it really means is they don't personally like it.
Brad

So, people's subjective, qualitative opinions of chinese restaurants fails to pass your subjective, qualitative assessment of opinions.

Got it.  

[mtnbkr]

I was in Goldsboro, NC years ago and went out for a fancy dinner with a bunch of friends.  Quiet, lovely decor, dimly lit with candles at the tables, fancy table settings with more forks than you know what to do with, you know the kind of place.  They bring us a basket with a loaf of bread in it.  Even in the candle light, something about it looks funny.  I pick it up, and one whole side and the bottom of the loaf are covered with green mold.

Which restaurant?  Most of my family is in/around Goldsboro.

Chris

[JN01]

Man, I don't remember- it was almost 30 years ago.

[mtnbkr]

Hell, then we've probably eaten there before.   

Chris

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Oh and the delusion the high end or foodie places are "different" is just that. Delusion

One of the big hotels in dc got written up. For their cats. Live ones. That they let in the kitchen. To cntrol the rats and mice

damn phone

[vaskidmark]

Oh and the delusion the high end or foodie places are "different" is just that. Delusion

One of the big hotels in dc got written up. For their cats. Live ones. That they let in the kitchen. To cntrol the rats and mice

damn phone

At least they were trying.  Having worked in kitchens I gotta give props for just trying.

stay safe.

[Pharmacology]

Oh and the delusion the high end or foodie places are "different" is just that. Delusion
One of the big hotels in dc got written up. For their cats. Live ones. That they let in the kitchen. To cntrol the rats and mice
damn phone

Austin's a little different.   Unless the nerds packed into 10 square feet of food truck are masters of sleight of hand, they're not doing anything funny to my food.  LOL.

Other places, like I said, I could give a hoot.  Anything short of bodily fluids is mostly out of sight out of mind.

[Levant]

I was in a national chain steakhouse with a salad bar a few months ago.  I walked to the salad bar and watched a cockroach crawling across the salad.  I called the manager and he saw the roach and refused to shut down the salad bar.