Bummed out servers, fishy fish specials and bathrooms so dirty you can't even be in the building. If you want to have a pleasant night out, here are 12 restaurant red flags that you should never ignore.
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00:00Bummed-out servers, fishy fish specials, and bathrooms so dirty you can't even be
00:07in the building. If you want to have a pleasant night out, here are 12
00:10restaurant red flags that you should never ignore. To be perfectly clear, when
00:16we say we expect a restaurant's servers to be knowledgeable of the menu, we're
00:20not saying they need to be as well-versed as a preacher with the
00:23Bible. Hello, welcome to Tom's Bistro. Today we have spaghetti, linguine,
00:28fettuccine, ravioli, rigatoni, bucatini, lasagna. Could you repeat that? Still, we
00:33think it's rather obvious why servers, waiters, and waitresses need to be at
00:37least moderately familiar with the menu items offered by their employer. According
00:41to ChefWorks, if a server exhibits an in-depth knowledge of the menu, it helps
00:46demonstrate that restaurant's commitment to quality and customer satisfaction. But
00:51if a server can't answer a simple question about the menu, why should the
00:55customer trust any other area of the restaurant to deliver on its promise?
00:59A good rule of thumb when choosing an expert in some manner is the more they
01:04do, the less likely they are to be great at any one thing, like restaurants with
01:09monumentally long menus. While longtime conventional wisdom often suggested
01:14consumers wanted more choices from restaurants, according to the Washington
01:18Post, that seemed to have changed during the 2010s. For one thing, an enormous
01:23number of menu options seemed to bog down many restaurants' efficiency levels,
01:28leading to longer wait times for customers. But as McDonald's chief
01:32operating officer Tim Fenton told the Washington Post in 2004, the best
01:37strategy for efficiency of service focused on having better execution on
01:41fewer products. Frankly, a smaller menu helps simplify things for employees, as
01:47Denny's chief brand officer John Dillon told CNN in 2020. So if you're eager to
01:52ensure you'll get quality food prepared in a timely manner, avoid those
01:56restaurants with far too many choices.
01:59We'd be willing to bet very few scents are more universally known than fish, for
02:04better or worse. Frankly, even fans of aquatic-based proteins may find seafood's
02:10briny smell off-putting and oppressive to their senses, particularly when it
02:15trends towards the overwhelming ammonia-like territory of rotting fish.
02:19Of course, fresh fish is sort of bizarre in the sense that it shouldn't smell
02:23particularly, well, fishy. So if the first thing you notice when entering a
02:27seafood-based restaurant is the smell of fish, you may want to hightail it out of
02:32there. Now, the smell of a fish at a restaurant doesn't mean every piece of
02:36seafood is inedible or unsafe for consumption. But as noted on Quora, when
02:41the scent is overwhelmingly fishy, there's a decent chance the seafood in
02:45question has taken a turn for the worse. If you detect anything even slightly
02:50off about the odor, follow that red flag's caution and choose another
02:54establishment.
02:55There may be no better indication of a business or company's general structure
03:00than the morale of its employees. We don't mean that a company's employees
03:04should be overly joyful or energetic at all times. But if a restaurant's staff
03:09appears outwardly bored or unhappy from the moment you enter a restaurant, it
03:13may not be worth your time or your money. Now, in recent years, according to
03:18CNN, a number of food service workers' displeasure may be attributed to
03:22lingering staff shortages and unreasonably rude customers post-COVID-19.
03:27But even before the coronavirus changed the world in 2020, the sight of a
03:32displeased restaurant staff was often a red flag for general restaurant
03:36dysfunction. Perhaps a restaurant's management displays a general lack of
03:40concern for its staff and their lives, which, in turn, leads to unhappy
03:44staff and a subpar experience for the customer.
03:48What do you recommend?
03:50I recommend that you order some food.
03:53We certainly understand restaurant staff are human beings, just like the
03:56rest of us, and won't always be thrilled to be at work. But if you notice
04:00a restaurant's employees displaying clear signs of unhappiness, don't waste
04:05your time or your money.
04:07Considering many of us are eager to find hidden gems in the world, an empty
04:11restaurant may prompt a person to give a less patronized spot a shot. And, to
04:15be sure, there's a number of potential reasons why a restaurant may appear
04:19empty to the outside eye, but is in fact doing just fine business-wise, still
04:24when you're looking for a place to dine outside of home.
04:27It may be best to hone in on a restaurant where actual customers are seen
04:30enjoying their meals. Again, we're not trying to say an empty restaurant will
04:34be empty solely because it provides a substandard dining experience to
04:38customers. After all, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a seemingly
04:43unpopulated restaurant may do more takeout than in-person business, or may
04:47simply be busy at different times of the day or week when you visit. Yet, we
04:51can't shake the feeling that if there's no one patronizing a restaurant you're
04:55considering eating at, there's a chance something's amiss inside.
05:00Unlike any business based on customer sales, a restaurant may embellish at
05:04times when it comes to its offerings.
05:06If you want the thing you love, you did it! Congratulations! World's best cup of
05:13coffee!
05:14Along those same lines, a restaurant may stretch the truth on occasion when it
05:18comes to the source of its menu items. And while many of these instances are
05:22essentially harmless, some stand out as red flags. Like a restaurant that
05:27features a fresh-caught daily fish special, despite having no body of water
05:31within a two-hour drive.
05:33Now, some on Quora believe there's little reason to trust the accuracy of a
05:37restaurant's so-called fresh-caught fish special unless you can actually see
05:43water. We wouldn't go so far as to say you need to be literally dockside to
05:46trust your fish was caught that same day, but there's no doubt an advertised
05:51fresh catch of the day from a severely landlocked restaurant is sketchy, and
05:56the issue is more about quality than safety. After all, previous frozen fish
06:00isn't inherently dangerous for consumption, but it can become unbearably
06:05mushy if not properly handled.
06:08While we don't expect absolute perfection from a restaurant, is it really
06:11expecting a lot for the building to be fairly clean and well-maintained for the
06:16customer's benefit? After all, if we wanted to eat in an unkempt area, we
06:20could simply stay at home and cook. Frankly?
06:23Then, if the exterior of a restaurant is filthy, or there's dirt, grease, or food
06:28crumbs scattered around the inside, don't give it your business. There are
06:32several telltale signs that a restaurant may be far too filthy for you to visit.
06:37According to Medical News, this includes an excess amount of trash or garbage
06:41outside, a potentially overbearing stench of mildew inside, or sticky tables.
06:46We recognize the immensely long list of areas and items to clean at a restaurant
06:51can be daunting, but if you can't stand the heat, you need to get out of the
06:55kitchen. And if a restaurant can't get its act together enough to remain clean
06:59and well-maintained for customers, you shouldn't give it your business.
07:02Full disclosure, one booth might have a booger under it. Don't ask me how I know.
07:06Okay, that's enough.
07:08In 2023, we can probably spare you a long-winded explanation about the dangers
07:14of germs, bacteria, and viruses lingering on uncleaned surfaces. There's no doubt
07:20we harbor a ton of potentially harmful microscopic organisms on our hands. So if
07:25a restaurant's menus never leave the table, they aren't likely to be very clean,
07:30meaning it may not be worth the health risk to dine there.
07:33According to Today, menus are one of the most germ-ridden items in a restaurant,
07:38largely because of the numerous pairs of hands touching it every day. Of course,
07:43this becomes particularly problematic with menus that never leave the table. Sure,
07:48restaurant staff are likely supposed to wipe down plastic menus between customers. But the
07:52hectic pace of restaurants means many staff may forgo this step in order to facilitate turnover.
07:58Since restaurant menus can be disgustingly filthy one way or another, it may be worth
08:03the time to find out how often a restaurant's menus are actually clean. And while it may be
08:08somewhat unfair to assume a menu that never leaves the table is always too dirty to touch,
08:14we generally prefer to err on the side of caution, at least when it comes to our health.
08:20Have you ever entered a truly repulsive public restroom? We'll assume the answer is yes,
08:25because you're a human being. So if a restaurant's bathroom is absolutely disgusting,
08:30you may be wise to take that red flag at face value. After all, according to WebMD,
08:35a person can become infested with any number of potentially harmful germs or bacteria in a
08:40dirty bathroom. Additionally, there's just something so incredibly unpleasant about
08:45discovering a repugnant, filth-ridden bathroom at a restaurant, and we're not alone in this
08:50assessment either. In fact, according to a 2016 Paris Interactive survey, a fairly substantial
08:57three out of ten consumers would never return to a restaurant if the bathrooms weren't clean.
09:02Clearly, then you can add us to the never-return crowd. And if you don't want to come across any
09:07unexpected restaurant bathroom discoveries yourself, you should join us there too.
09:12We fully understand the entire premise of restaurants and food-based businesses are
09:17a natural attraction for pests of all sorts. Still, when you consider the number of health,
09:22safety, and logistical issues presented by a rodent infestation at a restaurant,
09:27if you notice a number of bait stations or rodent traps in and around a restaurant,
09:31it'd be best to just stay away. Of course, the inherent presence of food products at a restaurant
09:37means it may be impossible to completely eliminate the potential for rodents to appear.
09:42And in a lot of ways, the sheer fact a restaurant appears to be taking proactive steps
09:46if said infestation occurs is better than nothing. Additionally,
09:50according to Pest Defense Ltd., rodent bait stations aren't dangerous by themselves,
09:56meaning there's little to no reason to be concerned about any sort of cross-contamination
10:00between food and poison. Still, nothing is as gross or off-putting to a potential diner
10:05than the thought or sight of a mouse or bug scurrying around a restaurant floor.
10:10So while a pest trap or bait station by a restaurant doesn't necessarily mean the inside
10:15is infested, we'd advise being safe rather than sorry when noticing that red flag.
10:21If you're at a restaurant and notice the staff doing a half-assed job when cleaning tables
10:26between customers, it's an immediate red flag — and reason enough to walk away before ordering.
10:32From dirty dishes remaining on an unbusked table for long periods of time,
10:36to staff using the same disgusting dishrags to clean every single table,
10:41few red flags are more nauseating than a table that hasn't been thoroughly cleaned.
10:46Frankly, we don't need to find a sticky substance on or around a table we've been
10:50seated at to recognize such a restaurant isn't worth dining at. Honestly, a haphazard table
10:56cleaning style at restaurants has always been a massive red flag. But in a world that's been
11:01rocked to the core by COVID-19, we wouldn't just advise eating elsewhere if a restaurant
11:06doesn't thoroughly clean its tables between customers. We'd recommend a call to the health
11:11department.
11:12While every single one of us likely recognizes we'll have to wait before we can be seated
11:17if we visit a restaurant at certain times, we also expect a restaurant to treat us with
11:23enough respect to be honest about that wait time. Frankly, our personal displeasure with
11:28inaccurate wait times isn't that difficult to fix. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review,
11:34one of the best ways to reduce customer dissatisfaction
11:38with waiting is to overestimate the expected time rather than undersell it.
11:43After all, if we get a table quicker than promised, that's exciting, but waiting longer
11:48than predicted is infuriating. According to Today, in a post-COVID-19 world, a continual
11:55staff shortage at many restaurants has led to an increase in the average length a customer
12:00needs to wait to be seated. We're not exactly thrilled at this reality, but we're also reasonable
12:06people, so if a restaurant is willing to be honest about a wait, we're more than happy
12:11to be patient.