Good/bad restaurant advice

Master

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As somebody who worked in the hospitality industry for years and loved every second of it (sorry haters), I can tell you first hand which restaurants are worth your money and which aren’t.

Allow me to be your guide on this journey.

First off, any mom and pop, or Greek owned places I would avoid at all costs. 95% of the time it’s Cysco products, which is the cheapest shit you can buy that usually is garbage found off trucks with limited if any refrigeration, and quality is non existent.

Do you buy bacon where every strip is the same size and shape? That’s cysco.

If the server is still printing out a ticket that’s hand written, what do you think the kitchen looks like? Greek restaurants use that open access POS code that’s been around for decades and hasn’t been updated in over ten years. If they cannot give the server an easy program to use, why would they spend money on quality products?

The open kitchen.

If there are walls that separate the dining room from the kitchen in 2022, don’t eat there. Chances are the cooks aren’t wearing gloves, somebody is sleeping in the back, or the cooks stole a bottle from the bar and are doing shots between orders. If you can’t see the cooks, the front of the house shouldn’t see you, period.

Never give your credit card to a server or bartender. Ever. Ppl have swipes on their phone now and only need a photo of the number to steal all your info. If you start a tab, use your drivers license.

Beer.
Unless you want to get sick, ask the bartender when was the last time the lines were cleaned. Draft lines should be cleaned every single day. No exceptions other then buying bottle. If there’s stoppers on the drafts, that means there’s fruit flies. Walk out. Clean bars with clean lines don’t need to put stoppers on the taps.

Worst places I’ve worked;

Cheesecake Factory- hands down the filthiest place I have ever worked in my entire life. Food left out was covered in roaches in less then a minute. The expo would flick the roaches off the window while waiting for food. When I saw a roach on my shoe once, I walked out.

Outback- another filthy place. They have a company come in and clean the back and if they don’t show up, fuck it, just work with days old food all over everything. Somebody took home a salt grinder that was broken and was fired over it. The guy took it home to fix it but was still fired.

Ginos East- but I think that’s a Chicago thing. Their gimmick was you could draw on the walls. So you bring your family and have to sit in a booth with crudely drawn porn by your pizza. It also had a smoking room. I’d never eat at a restaurant that had a smoking room.
They also, the owner, put in a draft line system DIY and crossed all the lines up so nobody knew what beer was coming out which draft for a week. And he never fixed it. The cooks were awesome tho.

I’ll add on later. There’s more honest truths to be told.
 

Iggy McLulz

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Isaac’s food used to be fantastic but last night I was seriously disappointed after telling my man to order from there after hyping it up. The sandwiches barely had anything on them compared to being piled high with whatever was supposed to be on the sandwich. I’m my defense it has been a couple years since I’ve had their food.
 

Scooter

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I haven't been to Isaac's in years. We used to go to the one by the Galleria Mall but that was 20 years ago. LOL They have one at South York Plaza but it has been probably 5 years or more since I got food from there. Every time I think about going to Isaac's, I go to the pizza shop instead. I'm hooked on that place.
 
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Master

Master

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Issacs has to be a southern or eastern thing, no? It’s not Midwest.

But back to restaurants

McDonalds are actually spotless so long as they haven’t been a staple location for decades. This might be because the head quarters is located here in the suburbs,tho.

If you walk into a fast food place and smell grease, walk out. None of the McD’s out here have that stench unless it’s been there forever.

Food courts, just like malls, are a dying breed. You couldn’t pay me to eat at a food court. The chances the food has been sitting somewhere outside a refrigerator are relatively high. I worked at too many of them to know what actually goes on. Actually all restaurants connected or in malls are bad.

The cleanest place I ever worked? Coopers Hawk winery. You could eat off the damn floors it was that clean. Well before the pandemic that place was head and shoulders that much better then the pack but they also had the most down to earth owner you could ever want for a boss.

When a new group of servers were in training I was waiting for a tables food and the teacher was going on and on about the stores cleanliness when I let out “put don’t tell them you sucked my dick in the parking lot, you filthy bitch” and all the bartenders started laughing hysterically and the manager was like “omg you didn’t just say that, did you?”.

That place was spotless. I have nothing but high praise for the place.

Hospitality is such a roller coaster life. I’m glad I’m in management now.
 

Flynn

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We went to Katz's Deli in NYC and that place was a mad house. It took us 45 minutes to finally get to where we could order their world famous pastrami sandwich. I tell you all, it was worth the wait, money and standing in line. I've never seen a sandwich piled high with soo much protein. The bread was only included as a condiment.

Here's some good advice: Don't go there when they first open. Don't go there at lunch time. Go there 2 hours before they close and the line and wait won't be as long.

Here's some bad advice: Go up to the order taker after standing in line for 45 minutes and act like you still don't know what you want and see what happens.
 

Cookie Monster

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Never give your credit card to a server or bartender. Ever. Ppl have swipes on their phone now and only need a photo of the number to steal all your info.


This is one of the truths I serve up, never pay for hot food on a card when out.

I have many others like dont go to fish n chip shop evening when just opened, may get reheated chips from lunch.

Dont let a waiter table you near doors or walkways, drafts, you are not there to make their life easy.

reply to "Is everything OK?" after the first few mouthfuls is "why? what are you worried about?".

Dont be frightened to ask waiter for recommendations, it makes them feel good and you may find some gems.

Generally speaking busy places are good places.
 
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Master

Master

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I totally agree with recommendations.

If the place is semi upscale there’s sure to be a daily special and if it’s, say fish, or veal, it’s probably something that was brought in that day.

I once worked at a place where the owner was hooked into the rackets and a lot of mobsters would eat there. The food was great, but if some dago slapped his girlfriend in front of everyone you sure as shit didn’t step in.

I was a babe to that shit until somebody who will remain nameless was eating at the bar and told the bartender the veal was tough. She was sweating bullets and at the time I didn’t know why. All I said was “no problem, I’ll go get you a new one” and the guy turned into Two Gun Tommy from Goodfellas with his “yeah you Irish prick, go get me another one”
(I’m not Irish, btw)

When I went into the back the bartender was like “ he kills ppl, Kevin, you shouldn’t have said that”. Then, I got worried. After hearing that this guy cuts ppl up in front of their kids who wouldn’t.

When the owner heard about it he made the veal himself and everything turned out fine. The guy was actually nice about everything and tipped me a hundo and became one of my regulars. Always called me “that Irish prick” but sometimes you just take the piss.