10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

david — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:25:54 GMT

As with most things in life, there are good and bad eateries!

Here in the UK, we have many fantastic chefs/cooks throughout the region, who care as passionately about good food as the best of us.

Likewise, we have many dreadful places selling ..?? some processed/bad oils/sugar laden/crap.....masquarading as 'food'.

The sad thing is, most people seem to think that 'eating'..... is something that has to be done, simply to stop you feeling hungry and fill you up.

......Pity they aren't educated to understand what 'eating'.... is really about.

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

Marnie1 — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:12:12 GMT

Hmm... Leftovers on a Monday. Wow. I cook at home, and I tend to use leftovers as a part of another dish quite often. Tends to make my grocery bill a bit lower. But I guess it's not okay for a restaurant to attempt to be efficient like that??? Employees working while they are sick? Wow. I've worked in an office envorinment for 15 years (after working my way through college in the food and beverage service industry.) I guess it's okay for office workers to come in sick, where they can only infect their fellow workers, families, gas station attendants, and other people they come in contact with during the 3 or 4 days they are contagious. Making food taste better by adding butter? Sure, that's an easy way out, but who of us hasn't done that at home?

I have a real issue with this article, as it seems intended to slam the restaurant industry for being what it is. If you don't like it, don't go. But don't make it out to be the next Satan incarnate. Restaurants are there to make money--they're not there for any other reason. They don't force you to go to them. And they are not the reason you are fat and unhealthy. Sure, there are "healthy" restarants as well as "unhealty" restaurants, but it's not fair to blame either of them for the lack of self control that exists in this country.

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

KarenP_203 — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:34:33 GMT

The American way, "If it tastes good, EAT IT." I also believe that restaurants, even hospitals, serve you cheap food enhanced with MSG, artificial flavors, colors, fake sour cream, cheap items bought in bulk, etc, it's just like the processsed food food in the grocery store, garbage.

I too do not trust the restaurant business anymore as a whole. It's true, you do not know what is in their food. No one knows what goes in behind closed doors. They microwave food, you don't know how they cook it or what's in it, or if their hands or kitchen are clean. At the hospital salad bar I see them pouring out of plastic bags all the items for the salad bar! I'm sure the rest of the food comes frozen in plastic bags too, and they just heat it up. It kills me that they actually offer classes on nutrition! What a laugh.

I don't think there is any restaurant that serves real food where I live, I wish I knew of one. They are all chains, you know, Friday's, Olive Garden, Chilis, Don Pablos, Outback Steak House, etc., and all the fast food chains.

I went to a wedding reception this weekend. The food was 75.00 dollars a plate, and I'm sick.

I was once told, do not return the food, they might spit on it or worse! I'm one to always return food if it is not the way I think it should be. That's scary!

The problem is ignorance, people do not know what is happening to our food. They are being mislead. My mom asked me if I wanted a health bar yesterday. It was a NUTRIGRAIN bar! I knew it was garbage, just glancing at the label confirmed it, yuk!

This site is helping to get the word out regarding our health and what is really going on. It has helped me alot.

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

Aman — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:08:24 GMT

Whenever I go out to dine. I often wonder??? Who's prepareing my food? Where did the food come from? Who's serving my food? Cleanliness, attitude, spite, $$$$! Remember, for the sake of the almighty dollar deciet rules! That's why Karl Marx said " Capitalism exploits humanity." I don't make excuses for socialism and I am a capitalist, However, knowing the bottomline is essential. And SheilaC remarked that some diners deserve to have their food tampered with by staff. I just hope she's not involved in anyway with customer service be it food or anything else. By the way tampering with goods even food is a criminal offense!

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

4myhealth — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 05:17:30 GMT

what is really bad about eating out.. U dont know what u are eating. There for a while I had a craving for chinease food..and of course I paid the price more than one time without learning my lesson. But my lesson is now learned.. I refuse to eat chinese at certain resturants because of the fact as soon as u eat it .. U bearly make it home to the bathroom where ure stomach cramps really bad, dirreah, and sweats. This just doesnt seem right that someone would have to suffer because they think they are eating moo goo guy pan which is a health dish and go home sick as a dog.. seems like u should be able to get a refund but do u think the resturant really cares..It is all about the money. and half the time they cant speck english anyway.. but see there is no telling what made me sick.I thought I would be smart and go to another chinease resturant.. ha and I told them what happen at the other.. The lady said it might have been bad chicken.. Well I this order to go.. to my suprise the food was rather bland, but afterwards I was really sick again.. I have not eaten chinese since.. I totally have a fear of it! Which really sucks cause I love chinease chicken and veggies!

I can not tell u how many times when I eat out that I bearly make it home to my toilet! It is totally unreal! So yes I agree ..Eating at home is so much safer considering I know when my chicken is bad, and when the veggies should be tossed in the trash. I know at home what I should or should not eat! but in resturants u dont know the condition of ure foods! This is not right, the health dept.,needs to step in and make foods safer but who is going to make the resturants follow the rules, most employees dont care they only care about making there salary and going home to do other things, most want the job but dont wont to do anything to earn there money.

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

docpoehlmann — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 18:46:38 GMT

Many, if not most, restaurants use the carcinogenic flavour enhancer MSG (an aspartame). If you are lucky you just will get severe migraines and stay away in the future. You surely have read the articles on aspartames on this website to know what else you may get. Of course there are exemptions and there are some very few restaurants that serve good food. But eating out regularly is usually a slow way of committing suicide unless you know what they serve you. After all by now every second person is expected to get cancer - coincidence?

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

ThomasT — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 06:13:31 GMT

Katieo717.- Filtering water does not remove the fluoride, which is tightly bound to the water molecule. Boiling doesnt so it either. Fluoride has been shown to mineralise the dimethyltryptamine releasing hypothalumus in the brain. Not only will it dumb you down, it also desdigned to stops spiritual development, why else put it in? It causes childrens teeth to mottle and become brittle, does NOT prevent cavities, whatever your brainwashed dentist tells you. . Why medicate adults against their will? No teflon, OK, BUT what about copper, stainless steel and aluminium cooking utensils. See 'A cure for all cancers'..Hulda Clark PhD ND. Rapeseed and soya oils? Tell me your husband cooks with coconut or palm oil, tallow, butter, and lard only, then I will know he is on the right track.

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

dressagefreak — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:11:28 GMT

I don't know where these restaurants are that serve grass-fed beef and organic local vegetables and don't use microwaves or Teflon...but I'd sure like to go there!

My parents own a small "Mom n Pop" restaurant. They are considered one of the best Italian restaurants in town, and yet they do use the dreaded microwaves and nonstick Teflon skillets. I don't think the Teflon usage will ever change, but I tried to tell my mom that microwaving ruins the taste of the food (she'll never listen; she used to work for Amana.) ALL their produce comes in shipped from California, Hawaii, god knows where. Organic?-Ha! Conventional meat, (90/10! woooo!) of course.

It's not all about cutting costs. I think my parents would use better (according to our standards here) ingredients if they were more widely available and if customers wanted them. Unfortunately, all most people care about is the way food tastes, not how it was produced and what it does in your body.

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

fg144331 — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 22:00:26 GMT

After reading all of these comments, anyone should be afraid to eat out! Actually, I am quite surprised that more people don't get food poisoning, or maybe it just isn't reported. I've turned in more than one restaurant to our health dept.

One that I know of was CLOSED the next day! I'm always watching what happens to something that is dropped on the floor and where my glass is touched. I think taking enzymes and probiotics help save us also.

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

alm260 — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 19:16:28 GMT

This is an area that I have to openly admit that I struggle with. I do not like to cook, even though I know it's healthier for me to do so. I'm fortunate enough to have all grass-fed meats in my freezer and I try to buy organic veggies, but I still like to eat out. That way I don't have to cook or do the dishes (I don't have a dishwasher as I need a new kitchen to put one in).

I know first hand what eating out can do as I got food poisoning last week and it wasn't fun.

My husband made a deal with me that if I cook at home, he will do the dishes. That way we know we are eating healthier. We still eat out about once a week but that's a lot less often than before.

It's hard for me to be creative in what to cook. I like simple meals, but get tired of them quickly.

Mexican restaurants are my favorite.

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

MDS_203 — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 17:58:13 GMT

"Americans spend roughly half their food budget dining out.." I'm never included in any of these statistics. No restaurant chef cooks as well as I do, and certainly not for the price. We might eat out once every few months (if that), and it's usually disappointing.

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

asher — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 17:01:24 GMT

Does anyone know of any good restaurants in, or near, Salt Lake City? Grass fed beef, range chicken and eggs, and fresh produce seem difficult to find!

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

AUStone — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 15:20:36 GMT

Resturants are the Good, Bad, and the Ugly of everyone's eating habits. I'll use the group of resturants I work at as an example. The group that I work for is Mom n' Pop. They own 3 resturants on the same block, all of different styles and all of good to high quality ingrediants. They are NOT franchises or chains, or corporate feeding troughs. The food is excellent tasting and when organic items are offered in specials, your server is able to tell you where it came from, and how the produce was grown, or even how the animal was slaughtered. Yes, that standard is upheld. Organic meats are often featured at one of the resturants.

At the resturant I work in....if you asked me, I could tell you what you should, shouldn't , and what to stay away from at all costs. But no one ever asks me health questions. They ask me what wine goes with what entree. B-o-r-i-n-g. Its an Itialian joint, great food, good wine, cozy atmosphere. The alfredo sauce is homemade and goes straight to your adipocytes. Its the REAL thing. Extra Virgin olive oil is on EVERY table, and the salad dressing is homemade, and of the best quality i've ever seen in a resturant.

Unfortuanatly or fortunatly, I really should NOT eat the food at the resturant I work in. After eating a heavy pasta meal I get nausous, dizzy, and my vision becomes blurry. I just can't handle the carbohydrate load. ( ha! i don't eat at my work, thats funny )

So don't blame the resturant for what it is or isn't. We all know what kind of crud is served in most resturants, but let's acknowledge some eatiers do try their very best. If you choose to go out to eat, pick what appeals to you. Personally, the service at most resturants ticks me off, not the food. Go figure!

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

Chef Du Jour — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 15:04:40 GMT

Welcome to reality. The brake job is paid for and not done, your cell phone is bugged, your'e inhaling copier dust...

All restaurants are not bad. The trick is to buy what you want and be happy.

If you go for fast food its your fault. If you buy blindly at restuarants without credentials , guess what ...All professions have tricks to make a profit. Just because its a special of the day doesnt mean its near rotten.

Im a Chef and have skills that dont include shafting the public!

re: 10 Things Your Restaurant Won't Tell You

Katie0717 — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 13:46:08 GMT

I think this article is going a bit overboard, and I also think it should be titled "What your FAST FOOD restaurant doesn't want you to know" . Chef's are human beings, just like the rest of us, and have gone to extensive measures to create food that will be enjoyed by everyone. They put in LONG HOURS (80+ per week) perfecting the art of preparing food. And, unlike most US households, DO NOT USE TEFLON COOKWARE. A lot of restaurants also use local farms for their produce and even meat and poultry. So give the guy in the kitchen some credit!! Also, you DO get what you pay for!!! Eating somewhere like Mcdonalds, Applebees, Fridays, ect, what do you expect?