Signs of Being in a Bad Food Restaurant

With the holiday season approaching, you may find yourself doing more and more eating out. We often take for granted that the place that we are eating at will be clean, will have good service and are doing things the right way in the kitchen. However this is not always the case. The recent TV debut of the show Kitchen Nightmares has help show that things are not always the way they appear. While you can't go back in the kitchen and look for yourself, their are some signs to look for that may tell you that you are entering a bad restaurant. Here are some signs to look for.

A poor greeting when you enter the restaurant. I always want to be greeted nicely when I walk into a restaurant. I realize that the greeters are working hard and that they are quite busy, but this is still very important to me. I want them to acknowledge that a customer has come into their restaurant and that they are important. If the greeter has a bad attitude or appears to view me, the customer, as unimportant, I have to assume that the rest of the restaurant will do the same. If you walk into a restaurant and you're not greeted nicely, be on the lookout for other problems.

Dirty floors. Even a fast food restaurant needs to keep the floor clean. These places are busy but usually have designated people to take care of the floor by sweeping or moping. If you walk into place where you don't see clean floors, be on the lookout. You may be in a bad restaurant. To me, dirty floors, is a restaurant's way of saying, having a clean place for our customers to eat is not a priority.

Nasty bathrooms. This is my pet-peeve. If I walk into a restaurant and the bathrooms are nasty, I usually leave. I think this needs to be a priority area for a restaurant. I'm not saying it has to be perfect, but it needs to be decent. Too many places leave this area nasty. Managers send crew into these areas to check them, but never check behind the crew members. Always check the bathrooms if you want to get an idea of what kind of place you are eating at.

poor service- Does your server have an attitude? Are they slow or making constant mistakes? If so you may be in a bad restaurant. Poor service means a lack of training and a lack of pride in hiring. Good restaurants always have good service. The two go hand in hand. If you are receiving poor service, you don't need to eat at that place.

dirty table or silverware- When you sit down, you should sit down at a clean place with clean silverware. I don't care if they have to wipe the table down right before I sit down. Give me a clean table to sit at. No room for error here!

cold food. - If you get cold food when you go somewhere you may be in a bad restaurant. Even if they bring you more food, the fact that they didn't get it right the first time is almost a slap in your face.

Look for these signs and many more when determining whether or not to eat somewhere!