Cooking a nice dinner is hard so don't be too hard on yourself if the rice is a little gummy and the chicken is a little dry. That is, if you're not charging people money for it, of course. If you are, they expect quality. Or at the very least, to not have food poisoning.
To find out how to spot places that can't promise these things, a now-deleted user posted a question to Reddit, asking "Chefs, what red flags should people look out for when they go out to eat?" And they responded.
Continue scrolling and check out some of the most upvoted replies.
#21
If you order a meal that should take a long time to cook and it comes out very quickly, it’s been pre-cooked
Report
93points
#22
I have a family member who’s worked in multiple different restaurants, and they always advise me never to get drinks with ice because too many places don’t keep their ice machines cleaned because it’s so often overlooked compared to other kitchen equipment
Report
93points
#23
Don’t order fish on Sundays. Most places get their fish deliveries on a Monday and on a Thursday. Fish goes off fairly quickly, and on a Sunday it’s really not great
Report
91points
#24
Never order the bouillabaisse/cioppino/seafood stew if it's being run as a special. That means the chef has a lot of old seafood to get rid of and is putting it all in a flavorful broth to hide the taste
Report
89points
#25
I recently went to a new-ish barbecue place.
I knew the moment I opened the menu it was going to be awful.
The place had at least 120 things on the menu that run the gamut from burgers to Lobster Thermidor. When you see that, you know it's going to be terrible. It means they're trying to do everything rather than focusing on a smaller range of things and doing it very well.
As I suspected, it was terrible.
Report
83points
#26
How does the place actually smell? Does it smell like good food? Then it likely is. But if it smells like perfume or something sterile? That could be a sign that they are trying to hide something unpleasant
Report
82points
#27
Seeing fruit flies. Fruit flies are an indication of a dirty kitchen
Report
81points
#28
Stay away from buffets and salad bars. A lot of the time it is the same stuff that just gets refilled over and over. Super gross.
Report
80points
#29
When there are pictures of food on the menu that clearly aren't from the restaurant
Report
80points
