We all know fast food isn't really good food. It's more like fried something on top of fried something else with a touch of oil, butter, and salt for taste.
But what we don't see is the behind the scenes stuff. We don't see where those patties come from, or how those chicken nuggets are cooked. We don't get to see what the employees see. But they are trying to warn us about the perils of eating their products. We best listen.
u/sniffler420 asked:
Fast food workers of Reddit, what should we NOT order at your restaurant? And why?
Here were some of those cautionary answers.
We're Sorry, Your Order Is Extinct
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Current Wendy's employee here.
Don't be the *ss that orders a T-Rex Burger (a 9, 4 oz patty burger). First of all, they are basically a one way ticket to the emergency room. Second, we can barely wrap that thing without it falling over since it's so tall. Lastly, go spend the $20 that the sandwich costs on food that's actually worth a damn.
Still amazes me when people order that sh*t.
Fresh As Fast Food Can Be
I work at Zaxbys and you shouldn't order anything with a fried filet instead of the fried fingers. The filets are way less popular so they sit in the pan for a long time. The fingers are much more popular and are getting made constantly so they are always more fresh.
This Ain't In-N-Out, Kids
Former starbucks worker here. Please don't order anything off the "Secret Menu". It doesn't exist.
If you want a snickerdoodle, nuttella, or captain crunch frappuchino (or whatever other overly sugery thing someone has since come out with), know the base drink and the modifications, and order that. If you just say the name, it's up to the barista to come up with what's in the drink, and it may not be what the last barista you ordered from put in there.
Clean Restaurant Or Clean Food?
I worked the night shift at McDonald's.
During the day, the restaurant is busy and the food is fine. At night, the poor guy left alone on the line is not only tasked with making all the food, but also cleaning up the huge mess from day shift. We're talking grease splatters on the sides of garbage cans, scraping semi-dried mayonnaise out of the dispensers, etc.
It's really annoying to be cleaning and have a random customer show up at the drive-up window and have to stop everything, wash your hands, change your gloves, make their food, then go back to cleaning. I've seen so many nasty-*ss people make your sandwich with literal trash grease or mop-wringer water on their gloves because they got annoyed that you interrupted them. I NEVER eat at a McD between 11pm and 5am.
Just Turn On The Faucet
Bdubs (Buffalo Wild Wings)- everything is frozen. Stay away from the burgers especially. I've seen so much raw chicken go out, so disgusting. If you come in at a non-peak hour your wings have probably been sitting in the warmer for an hour.
It's unbelievable to me that so many food workers don't wash their hands!!!
I've been a bartender for half a decade and I'm CONSTANTLY washing my hands- mostly for my own benefit. I don't want nasty customer germs on my hands anymore than they want my germs!!
Not Fresh But Yet Not Frozen
Panera- pasta; it's all microwaved, this includes Mac and cheese. Smoothies/frozen drinks- nasty base crap that smells and it's sticky. Cupcakes/coffee cakes- all come frozen. Best items are the real sandwhich/ salads. Real ingredients and usually fresh.
Read The Room
Used to work at Dairy Queen Grill and Chill aka ice cream and food. Not sure if it's all locations, but I followed the book in terms of throwing older food out and making it fresh as we go. So if it's a slow day I'm not going to give you a patty that's been sitting in the warmer for an hour. I'm throwing a frozen patty on the grill and you'll get it fresh. If you ask for fries with no salt because of dietary restrictions or if it's slow. I won't have a problem doing so. If it's busy and you do it AND then ask for salt on the side. You can wait for your fries.
The chili comes in a big can, nothing special.
The fruits for the ice cream aren't fresh. We did chop all our vegetables fresh though. Ice cream comes in big ol' (not old) boxes that are stored in the cooler and run through pipes to the machines out front.
The only thing that's really fresh and not frozen are the buns, veggies, and cheeses. It's also been over 5 years since I've worked there so things might have changed.
Beware The Teriyaki
Panda Express cook here Depending on the management, the kitchen and back are very well kept and clean. We prep veggies and meats everyday, but most of the sauces are prepackaged. Some stores will burn the sh*t out of the teriyaki chicken, because they don't scrape the grill after making a batch. But working there hasn't killed my love of panda Express so take that as you will.
Only The Coffee, Nothing Else
This isn't a fast food restaurant, but i work at 7-Eleven.
Do's: 1.drink our coffee. we change it every 4 hours so it's pretty much always fresh.
Dont's:
- Drink our tea. Some stores are okay because they have a liner in the tea pot to make sure it stays clean, but old run down 7-Elevens don't. When i go to a store and remake the tea without a liner it smells like sewer water.
- Eat our "Tornados or Roller Dogs." We only clean the "grill" once a night. they have caked on grease and old food from way way back.
- Eat our "Bakery" anything. This includes our muffins, sausage rolls, or donuts. Workers come at night to restock the bakery items so they're only fresh at around 11:30pm. They will sit there until the next night. I've also seen a worker completely drop several trays of donuts and then just put them right into the display case. Customers also never use gloves or the papers to grab them. disgusting when they can't even use the bathrooms correctly.
Meatballs? Nah.
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Used to work in like 4 different Subways. Not a single one heated, stored, or reheated meatballs correctly or safely. They are only good for like 6 hours once heated. No one follows that. If you come in before lunch and order meatballs, those meatballs have been heated in the microwave twice (once the day before and again in the morning).
Seriously, you are better off buying your own bag of frozen meatballs, a can of spaghetti sauce, and a bag of hoagie buns.
Also the cold cut combo? It is literally just bologna. It comes prepackaged and smells like farts when you open the bag.
Not The Drink You're Looking For
Former Starbucks Barista
A caramel macchiato is just an upside down vanilla latte with a caramel drizzle on top. I promise you you cannot taste the difference. Save the money and calories. There is no caramel flavor in that macchiato. That drizzle just clumps to your cup and adds nothing to the drink.
Eat...Fresh?
Used to work at a Sonic several years ago back in high school. Although it won't make you sick or taste noticeably different, the soft serve and milkshake machines are actually fairly gross. They're a major pain in the ass to clean, and it takes upwards of an hour even if you're good at it, so most stores don't do it as often as they should, and you end up with hoses, fittings, and milk buckets gunked up with chunky solids.
No Scrub, No Nugs
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Worked at a Hardee's. You're probably better off not ordering chicken. Like at all. Health code states you're supposed to thoroughly wash your hands before and after handling any raw product, especially chicken. A lot of employees, especially during rushes or when they're by themselves, won't wash at all or will run their hands under some hot water for a few seconds. And yeah they usually wear gloves but not always and if you start touching things with chicken juice on your hands, you've basically contaminated the entire line. So probably just don't get anything.
Celiacs Beware
Wendy's is pretty good overall, but we say we're gluten free. We are in a sense that we will give you lettuce instead of a bun but, if you're a celiac you're going to have a reaction from our food. Bread crumbs fall into the sauces, fries are cooked with breaded nuggets, the utensils and gloves touch the bread all day and then your burger. There's so much cross contamination it will make your stomach turn just thinking about it. If you're a celiac I advise not going to Wendy's.
Pizza Hut Two Three Four
Worked at Pizza Hut. Don't order a large cheese or pepperoni pizza before 6/7 on a Friday or Saturday. Often the first duty of the 4-10 shift those nights was to premake 10-20 of each of those to save time during the dinner rush. Same thing for big lunch orders that are placed in advance, those pizzas were probably made around closing the night before.
They really aren't gross for any sanitation reasons or whatever, but they're just not as good.
What Rots And What Doesn't Rot
Former McDonald's employee here. It's all so gross. I get that it tastes good, but that thing about how the meat, bread and fries don't rot is 100% true. I've seen burgers and fries left in some corner somewhere for months. Real food would stink bad enough that you would have to find it and clean it up. Also know this from experience. The McFood just gets hard as a rock, but looks basically the same. This you can't avoid at any McDonald's.
On the other side of the spectrum the milk products do rot. The shake and ice cream machine never works because no one cleans it properly. Same deal with the McCafe machine.
They would train one or two people how to do a thorough cleaning on these machines when we first got them. That training knowledge left with them when they quit. This may have been the franchise owner I worked for, but this woman gave absolutely z e r o fucks about health code regulations... or labor laws for that matter.
The only things I will still get from there are the regular coffee bottled water and oatmeal. The rest I don't trust to be conforming with health standards.
Every now and then, a friend of ours might say something, or we might overhear a complete stranger say something that makes us stop in our tracks.
More often than not, what we can't believe we just heard is something so ridiculous, we can't help but put the person who said it in their place.
Other times, however, what we just heard might have stunned us silent because of how shockingly clever it was.
Resulting in our not wanting to scold or yell at someone, but rather give them a handshake.
Redditor SubmergingOriginal was curious to hear the sharpest and wittiest things they've ever heard, from friends and strangers alike, leading them to ask:
"Enough with the dumbest; what is the wittiest thing you've ever heard someone say?"
Don't Give Me So Much Credit...
'I was on a team at work that was on a project working insane overtime."
"One night after an 80-90 hour week, we were all sitting around the table trying to finish up so we could go home."
"Around 11, my buddy's wife called, dubious about the hours he'd been keeping."
"We heard her through the line - 'are you cheating on me?'"
"Exasperated, he looked at our boss, then replied 'honey, if I was cheating on you, I would have been home by now'."- lionbatcher
Eternal Optimism...
"Asked a blind guy if he'd been blind his whole life."
"He said 'Not yet'."- Feeling_Mode_6465
Free time Isn't The Only Thing He Has On His Hands...
"My brother got a vasectomy and when the doctor was releasing him and giving him instructions (with the nurse listening in), one of the orders was to 'come back and have a follow-up appointment after you’ve ejaculated 30 times'.”
"Without missing a beat my brother asked 'what time do you open tomorrow?'”
"The nurse couldn’t keep it together after hearing that."- UtahUtopia
Awkward Season 8 GIF by The Office
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Double Whammy!
"My pal uses the phrase 'he doesn’t look strong enough to carry information' and it cracks me up every time."
"Calling someone stupid and weak in one fell swoop."- JennyW93
Can't Hide Your DNA...
'Whenever I jokingly insult my mum, she says 'that must be where you get it from'."
"She cracked the code."
"I can never offend her without offending myself."- JennyW93
Self-Sufficient!
"My brother was a line cook at a New Orleans restaurant."
"My mom was in town, staying at a fancy hotel, and he stopped by after work, still wearing his kitchen whites."
"He was reading a newspaper in the lobby waiting for her to come down when the shocked lobby manager sputtered at him, 'MAY I HELP YOU!?!?'
"He answered, 'thanks, but I know how to read',” and went back to his paper."- jobrody
Morph Current Affairs GIF by Aardman Animations
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A Miracle!
"My brother-in-law’s comment."
"The entire family went out for my mother’s 80th birthday and after the meal we all went to a local park, largely occupied by the elderly, to rest."
"My mother needed crutches at this point, and they were resting against her bench."
"My 10-year-old niece, who looked like every starving waif image from Dickens, grabbed the crutches and started hobbling round the park."
"All the OAPs were following her progress with looks of pity until my brother ran up behind her, and kicked away the crutches."
"There was an audible gasp from round the park and then my niece picked the crutches back up and started chasing my brother, clearly intending to hit him."
"In the confused silence my brother-in-law’s voice rang out 'Praise be! She can walk again!'"
"We still think this was the highlight of the birthday celebrations."- DdraigGwyn
Still Legal, Whichever Way You Cut It...
"I picked up my pleasantly tipsy boyfriend from a nightclub."
"We were stopped by the Police for a random breath test."
"They asked me my age, and I said, 33."
"My bf blurted out '33? You told me you were 22'."
"Police just laughed and let me go."- Aggravating-Corgi379
Music Video Police GIF by Andrew W. K.
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A Bit Too On The Nose?
"Business law class in college years ago, talking about the issues that black Americans had before the Civil Rights."
"Amendment, trying to travel through the south with the discrimination so rampant, trying to find restaurants to serve them and decent lodgings."
"My instructor was posing a hypothetical: 'So you pull up out front of this place, you're exhausted from driving for hours, and you see the sign out front says 'Ku Klux Klan Motel'."
"'What would you expect to find there?'"
"Without missing a beat, from the back of the room came this gem: "'Extra sheets in every room?'"- NedsAtomicDB
Not Yet, Anyway...
"I was working with my friend and his dad."
"My friend (26) heard an ice cream truck near where we were working."
"He asked his dad if he could have a couple dollars."
"His dad asked, 'what for?'"
"My friend told his dad that there was an ice cream truck in the neighborhood, and that they were playing music."
"My friends dad told him "'They don't charge anything to listen to the music'."- tatersalad1234567890
Words Escape You In The Literal "Heat" Of The Moment...
"A friend of mine is a teacher and her husband is known for his wit."
"She told this story to him:"
"One day at school a kid took the hall pass and returned reeking like smoke."
"She asked the kid if he’d been smoking and he denied it over and over."
"She was about to send him to the office when she noticed smoke coming from somewhere."
"She told the kid and he realized that he didn’t put his cig out completely and it was burning in his pants pocket."
"The kid noticed and frantically tried to put it out and someone finally poured water on it."
"Her husband sat listening to this with a weird look on his face."
"She asked him what was wrong."
“'What’s wrong???'"
"'This was probably the only chance you’ll have in your life to say literally, ‘liar,liar, pants on fire’ and you missed your chance'."- Luder714
On Fire No GIF by PEEKASSO
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Amazing What You Might Say A Few Drinks In...
"When I went to a renaissance faire once, I went to a beer tent and ordered a Newcastle Brown Ale (seemed the most fitting for the surroundings)."
"The beer wench, without skipping a beat, said, 'Everyone wants a Newcastle - no one wants to remodel!'"- jayhof52
Read The Room People!
"My dad wiped out when skiing down a mountain and lost a ski."
"After a few minutes of hunting for it, he gives up, slings the one remaining ski over a shoulder and starts walking down the mountain in his ski boots."
"About half-way down, another skier stops and goes 'Gee! Did you lose a ski?'"
"My dad instantly replied 'No, I was out for a walk and found one!'"- PeterJoAl
There's a reason your mother always told you to "use your words".
As clever remarks can have a much more lasting effect on people than a push or shove.
