Dirty Secrets Restaurants Don't Want You to Know

Secret: You might be eating rotten meat.

Scary, but true! An old trick is to keep steak that's past its prime and wait until somebody orders it well-done. The more you cook the meat, the more you disguise its flavor – so restaurants are able to serve you food that’s really past its prime. Be extra wary if it’s covered in some kind of sauce. That’s a red flag that it might not be fresh meat. The same holds true for fish. Another secret: Veal is often actually pork. Veal is expensive meat; often, restaurants will swap it out for pork. Once the meat is pounded and slathered in breadcrumbs and sauce, only a discerning diner can tell the difference.

 

Solution: Always order your steak medium! That way they have to use fresher cuts of meat. Stay away from fish that’s been incorporated into soups and stews. Especially look out for the soup of the day if it contains fish. Ask for veal to be grilled and never breaded. It’s healthier and you can more easily assess the quality of the meat.

Secret: Restaurants are adding extra sugar to your food.

Do you ever wonder why some of your favorite dishes look shiny? The answer is extra sugar. It’s added to most pasta dishes to help cut the bitterness from the tomato sauce. It’s even added to pizza dough! It makes the food taste better and keeps you coming back for more. The extra sugar is adding calories to your meal and inches to your waistline!

 

Solution: This is a hard one to avoid. Be careful where you can. If you are ordering a steak, ask for it to be prepared without added spices. Sometimes the house blend can include sugar. Also, vegetables are often prepared in a “glaze” – which usually contains butter and sugar. Ask for them to be steamed instead.

Secret: Buffets are breeding grounds for bacteria.

Part of the danger of buffets is that the food sits out at inconsistent temperatures. The food on the bottom is burnt, while the food on the top is too cold. Additionally, you don’t always get real ingredients at buffets. A recent test from West Virginia University concluded that scrambled eggs from two restaurant buffets were not made from real eggs. Instead, the samples were made from liquid egg substitutes containing less protein and more water. When it comes to food, you get what you pay for. Anything that’s all-you-can-eat is usually either low quality or food made from starch or heavy in fat.

 

Solution: If you want to eat at a buffet, go when it first opens to ensure the highest quality of freshness. For lunch, aim for noon, and for dinner, go at 5 p.m. If you want to get an all-you-can-eat option while dining out, order pasta, grains or veggies; avoid any meat.

Secret: The serving tray is filthy.

Busy restaurant workers don’t have time to clean a tray. If they do clean it, they are often using the same dirty cloth to wipe them all clean. All that’s doing is spreading the germs around!

 

Solution: Ask for your fast food in a take-out bag! If you need a tray, use anti-bacterial wipes to clean it off. Then you can use your napkin as a table cloth – this tip is especially good for little kids who usually eat their food right off the tray.

Secret: The daily special is often a bad choice.

Restaurateurs know that many diners will order a special, and consequently raise the price. Sadly, the daily special may not actually be special; instead, they are usually made of the food the chef needs to get rid of fast. This includes aging meat and fish, old veggies and leftover sauces – all of which could cause a nasty case of food poisoning.

 

Solution: If the day’s special appeals to you, don’t be shy about asking the waiter questions about the ingredients. And don’t order a special on Sunday! Restaurants very rarely get food deliveries on the weekend, so anything served on Sunday night has probably been in the cooler for a few days.

Secret: The water pitchers rarely get washed – and they hold onto more than water.

Water pitchers are sometimes washed only once a day – at the end of the night. That means during the day, they just get recycled and used over and over again. Just because there is fresh water in there doesn’t mean it’s clean! When the waiter comes around to refill your water – watch! – does the pitcher actually touch your glass? If the waiter is touching all the other patrons' glasses with the same pitcher, think about all those germs you are about to drink!

 

Solution: Avoid drinking directly from the glass. Always ask for a straw, at the very least.

Secret: The louder the music, the more you eat.

Music sets a mood – and it can affect your eating habits. If a restaurant is playing loud music, you feel like you have more energy. That makes you order more and eat faster. It also means you’ll overeat. The problem is you are eating so quickly, you don’t realize you are full. The bonus for the restaurant? You’ll leave faster – helping the restaurant get more customers in the door!

 

Solution: Keep this in mind the next time you sit down for a meal. Think twice before ordering extra appetizers, extra sides, or the most indulgent item on the menu. Enjoy the music – and take the time to enjoy your meal.

Secret: If the kitchen's about to close, it's better to walk away.

Never sit down to eat at a restaurant an hour before it closes. You are more likely to get a compromised meal because the ingredients were prepped hours before – giving bacteria plenty of time to grow. The kitchen may also be a mess as the staff is in clean-up mode – meaning your dish may have an extra dash of cleaning spray on it.

 

Solution: Turn around and head to a restaurant with extended hours. The staff will probably be happier to serve you there since they aren't trying to rush you out the door.

Secret: It’s unwise to let the waiter pack your leftovers.

When you give your half-finished dinner to your server to have it boxed up, remember, there's no special "leftover boxing-up station." Your plate could be left in the kitchen next to dirty dishes and garbage. You have no idea how your food will get into your leftover container.

 

Solution: Always ask for the to-go container and pack your leftovers at the table.

Secret: Restaurant lemons are often as dirty as the floor.

Most restaurants never wash their lemons. They stay in the box that they were shipped in until they end up on your plate. In an independent test, Dr. Oz discovered 5 out of 5 lemons from five different restaurants were coated with germs including mold, bacteria, staph and Candida yeast – the type found in the mouth and vagina.

 

Solution: Always order your lemons on the side and squeeze them into your drink or onto your plate yourself. Make sure that the juice doesn’t touch the germy lemon rind.

Secret: Decaffeinated coffee masks as caffeinated coffee.

If you order coffee past 8 p.m., it’s most likely decaf. Restaurants don’t want to wash two pots so they often use one and fill it with decaf. It saves them time and money to serve only one option.

 

Solution: If you need caffeine, order an espresso or cappuccino. Because these options are made when you order them, there is a better chance they are caffeinated.

Secret: A dirty bathroom means a dirty kitchen.

Although it may seem counterintuitive to associate a restaurant’s bathroom with their kitchen, these two places often share the same level of cleanliness. If a restaurant can’t be bothered to keep the toilets and sinks clean, then imagine what their refrigeration and workspaces look like in the kitchen.

 

Solution: Do not eat at a restaurant where the bathroom trashcan is more than half full. Is there toilet paper? Is there soap? No? This means the bathrooms are not being regularly monitored and cleaned.