Among all the green flags a restaurant can show you, one of the most reliable is a menu built around seasonal ingredients. Executive chef Henry Wesley III says that seasonal dishes center on what is freshest and most abundant in the area. A kitchen with a seasonal menu is a kitchen that is sourcing carefully, cooking with what is actually good right now.
They are paying attention to quality rather than simply maintaining a static list of dishes year-round. A restaurant serving the same menu in January and August without any variation is either operating from frozen stock or not thinking very hard about either one. Seasonality is not a trend. It is a sign that somebody in that kitchen actually cares.
The red flags on this list are not here to make you paranoid about eating out. They are here because the difference between a meal that becomes a memory and a meal that becomes a warning story you tell for the next decade is almost always visible before the food even arrives.
The too-big menu, the suspiciously spotless dining room that smells faintly of something being masked, the server who cannot answer a single question about the kitchen ... They are all signs of a restaurant telling you exactly what it is before it has to. Gordon Ramsay built an entire career spotting them. All you have to do is pay attention.
What is your biggest restaurant red flag? Share a warning with us in the comments!
