Anyone with restaurant experience can attest how tiresome, fun, frustrating, entertaining, and intense it can get. That’s because while working there, they get to experience everything—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

That typically entails familiarizing oneself with all the ins and outs of the industry, including its darkest secrets. Redditor u/PocketGoblix has recently addressed the restaurant workers of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community asking about said secrets; they wanted to know what people who frequent such places should know. Scroll down to find the redditors’ answers on the list below and see what dirty secrets are hidden behind restaurant walls.

#1

You should not drink fountain drinks. If you knew what the hoses inside looked like and how rarely they were cleaned you’d never touch one again.

Image credits: FeebysPaperBoat

#2

If you order from pizza delivery places regularly, you will be treated different depending on how you treat the staff. A lot of systems have sections to leave notes on customers.

Personally, if I knew the person was cool I would hook them up with discounts, or as much cheese and peppers and napkins as I could stuff in their bags.

If they were jerks, it was always "Whoops, sorry buddy, just ran out!".

Image credits: shartnado3

#3

Where I worked, we knew most of the time when the health inspector was turning up. We also tried to delay letting them into the kitchen. Also, some health inspectors don't really give a s**t.

Image credits: stuloch

#4

Our ranch was just the Hidden Valley seasoning packets, following the recipe on the back. The only difference, our ‘secret’ ingredient if you will, was just using buttermilk instead of regular milk. People would come in regularly just to buy our ranch, still blows my mind.

Image credits: donn_jolly

#5

The special is just some meat or fish that is a day away from going bad.

Image credits: Kyadagum_Dulgadee

#6

I'm guessing my comment will get lost in all of this, but here goes.

Managed restaurants for over 25 years and my #1 piece of advice is to stop going to any restaurant that is always hiring. No one is more likely to give you food poisoning then understaffed, undertrained, over worked brand new employees.

#7

The rags used to wipe your table were used to wipe several dozen other tables before yours in addition to any other surfaces that needed wiping before you showed up. They are disgusting.

Image credits: JohnnyPolite

#8

I once worked at an upscale, no children allowed on the property bed and breakfast ... and the staff was instructed to save everything. Someone didn't finish their milk? Pour it back into the container for the next meal. Only ate part of their steak? Cut off the rest, slice it thin, and now we have steak for breakfast. And it was everything served. Butter, vegetables, desserts ... just everything. So f*****g disgusting. But I was young and didn't know you could report them. Luckily, I was just a maid but I still feel bad that I didn't do anything to stop it.

Image credits: zombiegirl_me

#9

They work sick. All the time. While handling your food. Especially while handling your food.

Image credits: Mundane-Gap6009

#10

I worked for a pizza place in college. The hot wing sauce was just straight Frank's (I think it was Durkee brand back then and later changed to Frank's). The mild and medium were Frank's diluted with liquid butter... ungodly amounts of liquid butter.

Image credits: HumpieDouglas

#11

No matter how clean it looks. It's not. Even a place that passes an inspection is disgusting.

Image credits: Unlikely-Sample-8086

#12

Worked in a place that has won "Best Pizza" in the city awards in a large regional city, nearly a million population and lots of restaurants.

All of the ingredients they used were bought prepared from supplier from crust, to sauce, shredded cheese.

There were no culinary skills involved. Customers could have made the same pizza with a Kraft pizza kit from the grocery store. Yet everyone right up to food critics just f*****g raved about this pizza.

#13

The amount of food that comes frozen, from a plastic bag and straight into the microwave is shocking.

Image credits: jetlee7

#14

Sometimes your ginger ale is sprite with a splash of coke.

Appropriate-End714:

And if you think you can tell, I promise you can't.

Image credits: greeneyes709

#15

Silverware is not always as clean as people might think.

In HS I worked at a major chain Asian restaurant. The silverware would go through the wash and come out. After the wash there would still be peels of vegetables stuck to the back of spoons that would just be flicked off post wash and placed into the clean rotation.

Every time I go back I always request plastic ware.

Image credits: Short-Display-1659

#16

I worked at Chipotle for about a year. We did not clean the ice machine or soda machine that entire time. It honestly didn’t even cross our minds. The rest of the restaurant was spotless though so that’s good I suppose. 

Image credits: arieser22

#17

Stuff is microwaved a lot more than you expect.

Image credits: Bugaloon

#18

A good portion of the entire restaurant industry, especially fine dining, relies on undocumented workers for menial labor like cooking/prep cooking, washing dishes, and cleaning. They intentionally hire these people to exploit them and pay them far less than the minimum legal rate.

#19

The delicious brownies sold for 10$ a slice? Yeah, that's Duncan Hines.

Image credits: seeasea

#20

Pasta is one of the highest-mark-up items on the menu (with soft drinks being #1 by a country mile). A plate of pasta that costs $15 to order probably cost $1 to make.

#21

The dishwashers I worked with would eat whatever the customer didn't finish.

Image credits: anglopants

#22

90% of what a lot of restaurants serve is prepackaged. The only thing they do is heat it up and sometimes that’s as easy as throwing it in a microwave. Just because it says homemade or hand breaded means absolutely nothing. Your could probably buy the same stuff from Restaurant Depot for a fraction of cost but you’d get a hell of a lot of it.

#23

You would be REALLY surprised with what restaurants can legally get away with as it pertains to cleanliness. Stuff that you think would absolutely get a restaurant shut down is just a simple warning from a health inspector.

You think the restaurant you eat in is pest free? Think again. Even the nicest, outwardly cleanest-looking restaurants have roaches and rats. You can’t eliminate them - you can only manage them.

Image credits: FormerLifeFreak

#24

If you wait tables, find something in common with your guest. Even if it’s a lie. I used to tell people I had family where the were from, tell people I used to live where they are from, tell them I graduated from their university. Really whatever it took to create a larger tip. People are more willing to give to someone they share things in common with. Never be overly nice either. People don’t like you to sound fake. So that’s my secret, oops.

#25

9 times out of 10 McDonald’s has roaches in their McCafe machines.

Image credits: thatsnoprobllama

#26

Any kitchen I've worked in (been many years) you did NOT f**k with people's food. You didn't joke about it, you didn't threaten to do it, it was not amusing. Not like sending out a wrong temp steak or slow working a ticket if a table sucked, that kind of thing was fine, you can f**k with people. But you didn't adulter the food. No bodily fluids, no foreign substances, you send out clean food and you don't f**k with that.

#27

Truffle oil is fake in most restaurants, do your own research on what it’s actually made with.

Image credits: anunhappyending

#28

The staff is sleeping with each other.

esoteric_enigma:

As someone who managed restaurants for years I can confirm this. Half of my problems stemmed from drama that led back to someone on staff fucking or not fucking anymore. But to be fair it's not just food service. I have friends who worked in retail and basically everyone there is fucking too. If it's a mall, it's damn near an orgy.

#29

There are exceptions but most people who own restaurants are horrible people. The business attracts the worst kind of people to work for because it's easy to take advantage of people who need money, are easily replaceable and often undocumented immigrants. Sexual harassment is very common with usually no consequences. If you work for a big company that has HR then maybe you can report your handsy manager but when it's a mom and pop type place and pop is the boss then you can either quit or deal with it. I have been lucky enough to work for a couple of really great bar owners but in my experience most of them are smarmy, greedy little shits with God complexes and bad breath that put their grubby little hands all over their staff if they can get away with it and try to squeeze as much labor out of people for the smallest amount of money and have zero appreciation for anyone.

#30

Lettuce is *the* grossest thing at a restaurant. Comes with bugs, dirt, and s**t. Large vegetable spinners can hold water for days. Cross contamination is a huge concern because it's never heated. I've almost come to blows over my sanitized lettuce sink.

#31

Sometimes those little cherry tomatoes in your salad accidentally roll off the counter, onto the floor, and then are picked up and tossed right back into your salad.

#32

I have seen parasites pulled out of fresh fish that was longer than my arm on multiple occasions, and there is no way to make sure you got all of them out.

Food hits the floor and goes on the plate far far more often than you would think.

Some places only give cooks a certain number of towels a shift and everything gets wiped off with the same dirty towels all night.

Just because you're eating at I fine dining restaurant doesn't mean everyone in the kitchen is a chef. Sometimes is just a bunch of criminals and teenagers sometimes working their first kitchen job.

Cooking is easy. Most people just don't want to learn proper techniques. Because of that, we roast you every time you order something like Alfredo that you can just make at home for literally 4 dollars.


But mostly everyone is overworked, underpaid, and on drugs.

#33

Sexual assault and harassment is still very common in the industry. Anthony Bourdain was nice enough to discuss this topic.

Corporate run restaurants have procedures to deal with this issue, but non-corporate restaurants turn a total blind eye.

If you work at a place where you feel unsafe, be careful about your personal safety.

#34

That the secret sauce at Bronco Burger is ketchup and mayonaise.

#35

In most places in the US, your tips are the servers wages. The tipped wage minimum in the US is $2.13/hr. Any tipped employee can make below minimum wage, so often a server has to tip out the bar tenders and other staff. The restaurant is supposed to make up the difference if you don’t hit normal minimum wage. Often, they don’t. Wage theft is not everywhere, but is common.

#36

Contrary to popular belief, in my city at least, food trucks are inspected much more frequently and thoroughly than brick and mortars. The health inspector tends to show up at every single event/festival and inspects all food service. For some trucks, this can mean multiple inspections PER WEEK.

So, in general in my city, food trucks are far more sanitary than most restaurants.

#37

That the staff hates when religious groups come in. Like a lot. Christians were always the WORST! Church group comes in and you know they're gonna be high maintenance and loud af, Karen WILL complain and you're lucky if they tip you. Always hated the Sunday crowd.

#38

When you send your utensil back because it’s not clean enough we just run it under water for like 2 seconds. No soap or anything, just water.

#39

All cut fruit is disgusting. Lemons, limes. Don’t put it in your drink. It’s been touched by 30 people and probably fallen on the floor. Also has some bar liquid on it.

#40

If your beer is flat or comes out tasting weird/off it’s because there is chemical residue inside of the cup which means the dishwasher isn’t washing properly.

#41

At Chick-Fil-A, the workers who make the food wear gloves and hair nets but the workers who bag it don’t wear anything at all. So your fries and milkshakes and everything are all touched by the employees.

#42

Everything is overpriced, all you're paying for is convenience and decorations.

#43

Hand-washing by the cooks sometimes was just a quick rinse in the pot sink water. But those same cooks prepared my free shift-meal with those dirty hands, and I ate it, often sitting on a milk crate next to a dumpster. Now, restaurants are best-enjoyed by forgetting I ever worked in them.

#44

The ice cream/milkshake machine is never broken…

#45

Many people in the biz have substance abuse issues or personality disorders.

#46

We served instant potatoes (like from a powder) mixed with boursin to a $500/plate event because our exec was a moron (and banging the owner) and forgot to order. They got rave reviews because boursin is amazing.

This is probably more common than anyone who pays that much for a dinner cares to know.

#47

Most restaurants are lawless, godless s**t shows staffed and run by alcoholics, addicts, and idiots. You'll never have more fun at work or meet more awesome people though. I miss it terribly.

#48

Don't come in 10 minutes to close. Everyone will hate you.

#49

They usually don't remake your food. They'll refry it or microwave it. If your order is messed up or cold, ask for the manager to remake it. They are more inclined to physically recook the item because they don't want to have to discount your check.

#50

We absolutely judge you not just for what you ordered, but how you talk to us. Yes, we gossip and laugh at you. Learn how to act in public if you don’t like it.

#51

Not a restaurant, but a high end movie theatre. I'll never eat "fresh" movie theater food again.

Hot dogs: Always super overcooked and came in bags that smelled awful and didn't have expiration dates on them, so it was a mystery how old they were when they went out on the heated rollers.

Nachos: The chips were fine, but the nacho cheese that came with them was usually so gelatinous that we had to cut it with whatever oil we had on hand to get it to an edible consistency.

Popcorn: We'd always pop it on a big opening night or, more often, Friday night as that was always our busiest day. We'd pop it then because customers could see it and it gave the impression that the popcorn they were eating was fresh. It wasn't. It was at the very least 2 days old and, more often than not, a week old. Whatever we popped on that Friday, we'd bag in these giant, thick yellow plastic bags while the popcorn was still hot (usually burning little holes in the, I'm assuming, food-grade safe plastic, but honestly who knows) and keep in the back for up to 7 days. Then we'd take the least fresh bag, rip it open and toss the popcorn into the heated cabinet, and shovel that into the bucket you ordered.

#52

Do not ever buy the second most expensive wine on the list. Here is why:

The most expensive bottle is clearly pretentious. So the macho dude knows that and because he know nothing, he picks the second most expensive bottle. And that is the one that is double the price that it should be. It is probably awful.

Instead, you should know what wines you like: Merlot, Melbec, Cabernet, or what ever. Look for the flavor you like and pick that.

#53

Ask the server what they eat on their shift comp/discounted meal. Then order it exactly the way they do.

Just got a Wygu burger no mushrooms tonight.

#54

When fajitas come to your table all sizzley, it's just a mixture that is sprayed onto the hot plate the moment the food is about to leave the kitchen that makes it do that.

#55

The more fiddly and expensive your food, the more hands have touched it (probably gloveless) and the more likely the chefs dropped sweat in it.

#56

Been in so many different kitchens and seen a lot of yuck, but I used to service a prominent pie place and they stored the pie filling in trash cans. Not dedicated cans or drums for food, but clearly used for garbage trash cans.

#57

Behind the scenes, all kitchens and staff (front of house and back of house) are all the same. It doesn’t matter if you are eating at the most fine dining establishments imaginable/5-star rated places, or chain restaurants or tiny little dumps- the kitchen guys are swearing like sailors, tatted up and may be on work release, and are blasting their rap music (if allowed), servers can go from super professional and polite, to cussing and talking s**t about their customers. All of the behind the scenes drama is all the same, from one place to another. 

#58

The cleanest food you can get grilled is waffle house. Everyone can see the grill. It's cleaned with a grill brick every day. Police come and eat there all day. If you want to bag on the House, go ahead, but I worked that grill, and I can tell you, it's clean.

#59

All you need to know is what the carpet or floor looks like at the kitchen exit. If it’s dirty, go somewhere else. If the toilets are dirty, go somewhere else. As a hygiene barometer, they’re pretty accurate. Loads of restaurants have pests which come and go: it’s a part of life, especially in old city centre buildings, but if a cockroach lands on your head, then you’re better off not coming back.

#60

If you want to test out your gag reflex, volunteer to clean the soda drip tubes and drains. Never have you seen such putrid yellow snot. A real pleasurable texture in the hand…

#61

The margins are razor thin, which means most joints are going to buy the cheapest ingredients in bulk that they can find. Only rarely, as in my experience, does the restaurant buy only from local producers in small batched at exorbitant prices, but the end quality is exceptional. Support those precious few places that do it this way—they are putting you the customer first.

#62

Many times the species fish you order is not the species of fish you get. 1/2 finished bottles of wine were often drank by the staff, I did often when I was working. I'm in recovery now.

#63

The nacho machine that spits out that nasty orange sludge can get really gross. Don’t EVER order the nacho sludge.

#64

When I worked in a restaurant (Cajun/Creole bar and grill, the owner was from Baton Rouge) we kept it clean and followed code even if the inspector wasn’t coming, so nothing “dirty” really, but…

We cold-brewed our iced tea by filling huge Rubbermaid trash cans (they were dedicated for this, had never been used for their manufactured purpose) with cold water and throwing a few kitchen-sized tea bags in them before leaving them in the walk-in overnight. We filled them with a hose attached to the sink while they were in the walk-in otherwise they’d be too heavy to move. We’d fill the tea dispensers by drawing it from the trash cans with small buckets. We would go through two of those f*****s a day, and the little bit remaining at night would be emptied, and the cans would be cleaned with bleach water and hosed out thoroughly before being refilled again.

#65

If you order a "water and a - -" and then do not drink the water, you are being judged, and you're automatically one of the most annoying people in the place.

#66

I worked at a Pub and every so often someone comes to clean out the grease traps. The guy was cool and talkative cause some processes took longer and he just had to wait till it was done. He worked at many many places. I asked him. “What’s the worst place you have to clean?” He said without even thinking. “Swiss Chalet, it can take up a whole day”.