Comments on: Ten Signs Your Next Meal Will Suck

By: christyl

christyl — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:55:42 +0000

Before you order check the bathrooms……..if they're dirty that usually means poor management and that just spells disaster in the rest of the place. I've worked in enough restaurants to know.

By: T.B.- Acai Force Review

T.B.- Acai Force Review — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:29:01 +0000

Liked the recent write-up you dropped. Keep them coming, peace. Dont stop with the posts

By: T. Bryant- Acai Force Max

T. Bryant- Acai Force Max — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:53:39 +0000

I’ll be sure to check this website/blog posts out in the future. Dont stop writin

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:57:20 +0000

Excellent additions everyone. And yea… there are definitely exceptions to some of these things.

Jenna makes a good point that in a small place it's hard to have some of the staff I mentioned. Still possible to make good food though ;)

By: Jenna

Jenna — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:02:43 +0000

Excellent list. :)

However, I wanted to point out that a lot of these signs don't apply in really small restaurants, especially those without a bar or license to serve alcohol. I work in a place that has a maximum *building* occupancy of 71; it's simply not feasible for us to have even half of the staff you mentioned as being part of a good dining experience–we'd be running all over each other.

So I'd add, as a corollary to what Jason said, you may have a bad meal if the restaurant has too many staff relative to the amount of work space available. Even if the place is busy, when things get way too crowded, no one can work efficiently. Also, if you're constantly in each other's way, you're much more likely to make mistakes because you're focusing more on not colliding with your co-workers than you are on properly making or serving the food.

By: Thrifty DC Cook

Thrifty DC Cook — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:41:47 +0000

Exception to the Five Minute Rule – I would say that the five minute rule would apply for a lot of restaurants except for Vietnamese Pho restaurants. It does not take long to assemble a good bowl of pho. The broth should have been stewing for hours so that all the flavors come together. It should only take five minutes for the kitchen to assemble the bowl with noodles, meats, veggies and to pour the delicious broth into the bowl.

By: Jenn

Jenn — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:52:23 +0000

Everyone here has described the food/service of a typical Dutch restaurant. If you're not treated rudely you should worry :)

By: Jason Sandeman

Jason Sandeman — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:55:55 +0000

Great list Nick!

A couple:

Ordering an item on the menu only to find out 10 minutes later that it was 86'd. Repeat. Seems like management does not have their shit together?

A whole wack of servers for next to no business, and service is still slow. True story: You can have a hostess, drink server, a meal server, someone to explain the menu to you, a suiter, a back server, a runner, and an expediter. The food still takes 45 min? Probably noone knows what the hell is going on.

Just one thing as well though, don't lump the kitchen in with the FOH. I can tell you honestly that I have seen hell on Earth behind the bar, but you better believe that my kitchen is spick and span. Unfortunately, it is hard to put the fear of God into a bartender! LOL

By: Bunny

Bunny — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:21:07 +0000

This is a Great list!!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:51:06 +0000

Also one caveat about specials: some restaurants have creative specials, but sometimes you have "gotta sell people this leftover stuff" specials