Unless you've worked in the food service industry, it's hard to comprehend what goes on behind those big swinging metal doors that lead to the kitchen. You hope your food is being prepared with caring, attentive, and, most importantly, washed hands.
Anyone who's worked in the food service industry, however, can most likely attest that's not always the case.
Reddit user, u/maybe-i-am-crazy, wanted to know what to avoid when they asked:
Food workers of Reddit, what menu item would you definitely NOT suggest?
It's Just A Little Blood. What's The Problem?
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"In highschool, many years ago, I worked at a nation wide pizza place that rhymes with Sparrow. I cut my finger badly while grating cheese. I went to throw out the cheese that had blood on it. My manager stopped me, washed it off, and used it for pizza."
That's 3 Zeroes...
"At RA sushi: don't get the scallop dynamite appetizer."
"It's 3,000 calories."
Check To See If Meat Is Their Specialty
"Brisket."
"Unless you go to a proper smokehouse in America or something, the brisket will almost always be really dry."
All That Flavor Hides All That Expiration
"Not restaurant-related; but I worked at various meat departments in some grocery stores in my teen years. I've noticed that the 'pre-seasoned' fillets or chicken breasts are usually always cuts that have either expired or are VERY close to expiring. Douse it in some cajun or lemon pepper seasoning and you just see convenience."
You Can Bet Corners Will Be Cut
"Late to the thread but it's not a great idea to order "football food" on big game days unless you are at a dedicated sports bar."
"In the same way that many juice machines can handle x amount of oranges a minute, kitchens are designed with x amount of product an hour to be produced."
"If a restaurant usually sells x number of nachos an hour and on game night that number becomes 4x quality and execution suffer."
"Nothing unethical or unsafe ever happened but I'm not particularly proud of some of the wings and nachos we made on big football days."
*stops chewing pizza
"Local pizza chain. Where I worked was usually pretty tight about the cleanliness of things BUT watch out for those parmesan shakers. After we found mold in them we uh... started cleaning them a bit more often. I think the reason it took so long to realize was nobody complained about it. If anything it just was more tangy."
Bagged Everything. Everything In Bags!
"Don't trust Panera Bread. I just left after a year and lemme just say EVERYTHING is in bags. It's all pre-cooked, all the soup/Mac is in bags we heat it up. All the meat is gross when we open it from the bags. There's little to no prep involved with it. Also it's all premeasured I swear you're wasting money. It's over 15$ to get a meal for yourself with small portions. Loved working there though made some excellent friends."
Stay Away From Case Items
"I worked at Steak n Shake briefly. Saw enough in that month that I quit and don't eat there."
"*Guy was making a shake, cut his finger, bled into shake, KEPT GOING. *Fly landed on something? Either shoo it off or bury it in the food. *No clean glasses? Rinse a dirty one in water and fill it up. *Burger fell? Pick it up, add some more ketchup. ITS FINE. *Salad dressing has moldy watery layer on top? Scoop it off. *Moldy bread? People can't see it when it's toasted."
"I also worked at a grocery store deli. Oh my lord. Do not get the items in the case. We were told to put fill the bowl half way with new stuff and then put the days old, almost stuff on top. Little bought meats were often expired. Once the wrapper is off, the expiration date is gone. So if it doesn't smell, it's still good."
Ham Is Known For Being The Slippiest Meat
"At the deli I worked at we were required to wash off any meat dropped on the ground put it in the back so no one would see and then use it later. The most dropped one was ham and Virginia ham especially, because damn was it slippery. The cold cutter machines are probably not cleaned properly like we just rinsed them off with a hose at night!!"
"Rotiserry chickens sold at night were reheated in a warming oven and sat there for hours so we didn't have to cook new ones, and put back out and relabeled with a different time... I mean I guess it's not the worst thing but..still? it depends on your deli maybe. Higher end stores like whole foods have actual standards but cheaper or more localized stores probably do not. The workers are often left to their own devices and cut corners!"
A Moldy Fan
"Sonic drive in worker here. I CAN NOT SAY IT LOUDER YOU ARE EATING MOLD IF YOU ORDER OUR ICE CREAM!!! No body cleans the machines unless they break down. Even then no body cleans the cabinet in the bottom that the fan blows on the milk. The fan is ALWAYS covered in mold because we can not get to it to clean it."
Just Left To Sit Out
"The salads at McDonald's. Sure our food isn't great but (at least where i am) the cucumber and grape tomatos are only used in the salads and are usually left sitting longer than they should be."
"If you're trynna go to Maccas and be 'healthier' you're better off getting a grilled chicken wrap (ask for fresh grilled too if you don't mind waiting the 8 or so minutes)."
"Better yet spend probably the same money and go buy salad ingredients. You'll make something 100x better than you'll get from us"
Again With The Ice Cream Machine
"Former McDonald's manager- the ice cream machine had numbers on the front. That was how many days until the next deep cleaning. If that number is below 12... Maybe don't get the ice cream. It counts from 14. No one empties the machine and deep cleaned it daily, it goes into an automatic sterilization mode around 12a-3a unless the store changes the time, which is why you can't get ice cream at night, but the inside of the machine is HORRIBLE when you break it down."
"The shake syrup tubes are very prone to mold. Even if you run sanitizer through them regularly."
"The McCafe and Frappe machines are also very gross. The McCafe machine gets cycled nightly (unless they skip through it without doing it, which is hard, so unlikely.) but people like to ignore the foamer heads, so mold is an issue there too. The frappe machine doesn't get deep cleaned but once a week. It is a literal mold machine. The blenders are cleaned regularly but not the mix tubes."
"The actual food is fine, just sh-t quality. But my best advice for food is go when it's busy. If you go when it's slow, food might be sitting past it's prime to cut down on food cost. If it's busy, you KNOW it's fresh and within its time."
Any Poland Readers Out There?
"if you ever visit poland (i assume it's just our thing) and see a restaurant called The Sphinx, never ever eat anything from there. Worked in one for like a year. The standards were so mind blowingly low that some sh-t looks like from a sitcom."
"Example: waiters would REGULARLY drop meat or other stuff on the floor, pick it up with their bare hands, throw it back at the plate and carry it to customers like nothing happened. If they recognized low tippers, they would do it on purpouse, tho never seen anybody spit in the food so there is that plus."
"We had "spoiled chicken day" at least once a month where all chicken dishes were made with awful horrible quality meat that smelled like death. Fish too but much rarer."
"Milk used in shakes was also frequently past expiration dates, beer was stale and we had fungus growing on the whatever you call beer dispenser where it wasnt visible to customers. Sometimes dishes and cutlery were just wiped, not washed."
"And i know from coworkers that it went that way for years in many many restaurants in the chain."
It Still LOOKS Good?
"I used to work at an old mom and pop movie theatre. We reused the popcorn from last night, put it in a big Tupperware container overnight and threw that stale sh-t back into the machine to heat up."
"I also once found half a bug in the ice machine but management didn't seem overly concerned."
Well-Done? You Monster.
"If you order a well done steak, your steak has almost always (read: absolutely) aged out."
"I've worked places that had a separate bin on the line for steaks that smelled sour and had turned green, just for people who asked for WD."
"Never got them sent back, though."
"We had to hide them if the health inspector came."
"Yes, this was a legit, fancy "$40 an entree" place.
Stay Away From The "Recommendations"
"Chefs recommendations... They are usually made from ingredients which are close to or over due date"
Microwave Fish? *barf*
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"Long John Silvers, do not get the Baked Cod. They're stored in a bucket in the fridge and all we do is microwave it over rice. It also makes the back smell worse than it already does."
"Microwaved fish? F-cking psychopaths"
Breads Along The Line
"Outback Steakhouse. I worked there 15 years ago (sidenote: holy f-ck that amount of time just hit me like a truck) and I still don't eat the bread."
"It comes prepackaged and it was placed on a toaster at random by busy workers. Since there was no way to know how long it was on there workers would tap the bread to see if it was toasted enough to go out to the customers. So basically each price of bread may have between 2-8 people's hands touching it. Busy people who are touching everything and are sure as hell not washing their hands as frequently as they should."
Never Once Thought About This One
"If you're [going] to get sushi rolls, make sure you read the ingredients. A lot of places have what amounts to a California roll for a premium price."
"I've told this story before, but it is the best example of what I mean. I worked at a Japanese restaurant for a while and we had this thing called a Volcano roll and it cost $7.25. A California roll there cost $3.75. The Volcano roll was a Cali roll cut into the shape of a triangle and topped with spicy mayo that has been heated up with about $.10 worth of fish, literally just a few bits that was not worth it. You are much better off ordering a Cali roll and paying $.50 extra for spicy mayo on the side and asking them to heat it up."
"I had one guy come in with a girl and he ordered a couple of regular rolls like spicy tuna and yellowtail, along with a Volcano roll. When served in the restaurant, unless they ask us, we would put the sauce on top so it looked nice, like a Volcano. When I brought that roll over he was like, "Oh, I didn't know you guys put the sauce on, I've only gotten it for pick up and the sauce is always on the side. I don't really like it, could you bring me one one without it?" I tried not to laugh and said sure. I went back and the sushi chef asked what was wrong. I told him that he didn't like the sauce and want one without it. He laughed and said alright, so he took a Cali roll, cut it up, and put it on the plate. I brought it back to the guy and he was super pumped."
"Basically this guy paid $7.25 for a roll that would have cost him $3.75 and me and the sushi chef got to split a free volcano roll. Normally I would have just told him about it, but the dude was being so arrogant the entire time, I'm guessing to act like he was a sushi expert to impress the girl he was with."
"I've seen this at a couple of other places too where they slightly dress up a California roll and jack up the price. You don't want to end up like that guy just because you didn't take a few seconds to go over the ingredients."
On second thought, we have food at home like Mom always said.
When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
Money Burn GIF by nog
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
south park wedding GIF
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
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The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.
For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.
Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.
The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.
Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:
"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"
Serious Danger
"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."
"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."
oofboof2020
Waiting for Food
"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."
"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."
nowhereboy1964
Captain Hobo to the Rescue
"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."
"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"
"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."
FartAttack911
Survival
tsunami GIF
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"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."
faithfulpoo
These Tsunami stories are just tragic.
On the Sand
Scared The Launch GIF by CTV
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"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."
oyloff
Be Clever
"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."
OstneyPiz
Bad Jokes
"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."
Alegan239
YOU
Who Are You Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
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"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"
PrettyLola2004
Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.
No one should talk to others in the dark though.