As youths, many of us worked in restaurants, including fast-food restaurants, part-time or even full-time while we attended school. At the time, we knew firsthand what went on behind the scenes.
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The same horror stories regarding food preparation and filth take place in some, but not all restaurants, today.
Beneath the mouthwatering commercial hype of visually alluring thirty second restaurant spots lies the disturbing truth that can only be told by those actually working at these restaurants.
So we thought it would be interesting to include warnings from restaurant employees, past and present, on what items on the menu to absolutely avoid.
We gleaned these first person accounts from this Reddit thread, featuring anonymous confessions from Redditors who work, or have worked, in today’s popular chain restaurants.
Obviously a horror story from someone who worked at a particular restaurant doesn’t mean it applies to every single restaurant in a large chain of restaurants, since most are individually owned franchises.
But after reading these accounts, you may have more of an appreciation for the safety and cleanliness of home cooked meals. Most of the complaints involved filthy conditions and spoiled food. Some sections include comments from more than one employee.
Chili’s Deep Fried Onion
My very first restaurant job was at Chili’s. We were supposed to make up any excuse to not allow customers to see the nutritional content book that we were required to keep in the back. An Awesome Blossom (deep fried onion) was 2,700 calories, with 203 g fat, 194 g carbs, and 6,360 mg sodium — the fat equivalent of 67 slices of bacon.
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Some people would eat a whole one before their meal. They’ve since removed that from their menu when it’s nutrition info became public. But it’s still served at Outback.
Beware of Food Bars
I work at a Mexican restaurant that has a happy hour that includes a completely free “nacho bar.” It has pans of queso, ground beef, refried beans, salsa, and chips. Sounds like a dream come true, and it would be, but I will never ever eat off that thing.
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This isn’t because of anything the restaurant does. The food quality is excellent and fresh and the bar is kept clean, but I have seen customers put their fingers in it, cough all over it, I’ve even seen a grown lady EATING BEEF RIGHT OFF THE LADLE. I’m sure this goes for most places with self-serve buffets, but this experience has just scarred me from anything like that.
TGI Fridays — Over Priced Deserts
I always felt bad for customers who ordered the Oreo Madness for dessert. Costs something like $6.50, for literally just one relatively small Klondike Oreo ice cream sandwich, taken out of its individual packaging, and slapped on a plate with some powdered sugar and chocolate sauce.
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The Old Spaghetti Factory – Spoiled Meat
I worked at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Our “special” is a spicy pasta dish called the Vesuvius. The sauce is made by mashing together the unused chicken, pork, and beef from the previous 6-7 days. And the Vesuvius sauce is allowed to remain for up to a week without being thrown out. So theoretically, you could be eating a pasta dish with 14-day-old meat. But hey, at least you get free ice cream.
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McDonald’s – Multiple Complaints
1) Filet o Fishes are the biggest scam, you get the same bun as a cheeseburger, tiny amount of dirt cheap sauce, cheap deep fried fish square and you don’t even get a full slice of cheese.
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Big Macs are an even bigger rip off. Same amount of meat as a double cheeseburger, one less slice of cheese than a double cheeseburger. And three times as expensive as a double cheeseburger. And for what? A little lettuce, different sauce and a middle bun? Just ask for a double cheeseburger made like a Mac.
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2) I worked at McDonald’s for almost 3 years, 6 months as a manager. There were two things I would not be caught dead with:
A. Filet-o-fish, on the box of frozen patties the ingredients say “pollock and/or other fish” I have no idea what “other fish” could be.
B. Any of the juices. On a particularly slow evening i decided to clean the nozzles. They were absolutely covered with mold. Oh and we only got the machine about 6 months before. As far as I know, the one previous was NEVER cleaned. Don’t eat the fish. Don’t drink the juice.
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Maggots in McDonald’s Salads
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4) I have worked at multiple McDonald’s and the quality of a McDonald’s came down entirely to the quality of the managers. Either way I refuse to eat anything except the ice-cream there anymore. Now I wait for someone with an ice-cream horror story to ruin it for me.
McDonald’s competitors should just broadcast ads of ex-employees telling their horror stories. Some of these were far too believable for me to ever enjoy a Rollo again. And I might as well throw in the fact that I’m pretty sure I once lost the plastic cap to the big bag of cream in the mixer.
Papa John’s – Stale Toppings
I worked at Papa John’s a while back. I would highly advise against the following: spinach Alfredo sauce (not popular, kept in an open container in the fridge where it absorbs many other hideous odors, reeks to high heaven) any of the local toppings (not popular, hence odds are they’re less fresh) special garlic sauce (its a tub of trans-fat, this goes without saying).
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There was this spicy ham that only went on one particular type of Specialty pizza. Because of this, it was almost never used. I recall pulling it out and finding that it was swimming in the juices of its own rot.
This should never happen, but poorly managed restaurants the world over operate like this. Order popular fare, or better yet, don’t order at all. Corporate chain restaurants are just awful, and the sooner you can give them up, the better your life will be.
Subway Crab Meat & Steak
1) Used to work at a Subway. Only thing that really disgusted me was the crab meat. It was made by taking imitation crab meat and mixing it in with a giant tub of mayo. When making the sandwich the thing would come out slathered in mayo and then the few people that did order it would ask for more mayo to put on top of it.
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People would also do this with the tuna sub. Might as well just have ordered a mayonnaise sandwich. The worst part though is that so few people ordered the crab or even knew we had it that it would just get thrown out every two days or so, so even if you did order it, it was pretty likely that it wasn’t made that day.
2) Never go into a Subway restaurant just as it’s opening as you will be guaranteed to get yesterday’s bread. Also – gloves are sometimes optional when people we’re chopping vegetables in the back (I mean they washed their hands when they started their shift, but come on – just use the gloves. You’re getting paid to do this).
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3) I helped a friend clean out an ice machine at Subway once. It was several years old, had never been cleaned, and was filled with what looked like black mold. It was to the point that the ice would have black spots on it, not that you’d notice in a cup of coke.
4) Steak from Subway. Having to prep it completely ruined it for me. It’s essentially a frozen meat log that you have to break apart with your bare hands.
Small Town Bakery Horror – Bugs on Bananas
Not a chain but I worked at a small town bakery. One of our jobs was to peel the bananas so that the baker wouldn’t have to for banana bread. Me and another coworker started peeling a box full of bananas and there were a bunch of these little black beetle looking things with yellow spots on them on every single banana we peeled. I told my boss and she told me just to pick them off.
I started to and then realized that there were a ton of them and they were on ALL of the bananas so I told her again and she just kept saying to pick them off. I told her that she’s disgusting and that I refuse to and that I would refuse to sell any of it to customers. She got mad…and then got mad when she saw me grab the box and dump it in the trash and then proceed to poor all sorts of nasty stuff over it so she couldn’t take it out of the garbage.
Hardee’s – Mice Nibble on Buns
Worked at Hardee’s. Wouldn’t eat anything at least at that particular one I was at. They make their workers put new stickers on old prepped items like onions and tomatoes and what not. We had mice in the store that would nibble on the buns, manager made us use those buns since customers didn’t notice. The cheese would get old and cracked and moldy, we were only allowed to throw away the heavily damaged slices and use the rest because no one notices when it gets melted on the bun.
The staff (mainly the manager’s daughter) would use the restroom and then no hand washing followed by making sandwiches with no gloves on. They would also clean the floor and then go straight to making sandwiches. I should have reported that place but I was new in the country and needed a job and didn’t know any better.
And don’t forget about Golden Corral’s All You Can Eat Ribs
Inquisitive foodie with a professional investigative background and strong belief in the organic farm to table movement. Author of Bad Seeds: A FriendsEAT Guide to GMO's.
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