Restaurants, in most cases, abide by health regulations and try to serve the healthiest food to their customers. However, keeping the business in mind, they have to opt for certain strategies that will bring them up in the hotel industry and help them make more money. NutriNeat puts forth a list of certain things that your waiter in the restaurant never wants you to know.
Dirty Menus
‘Good Morning America’ sent a few scientists to test certain table items in 12 restaurants. It was found that among all items, like pepper shakers, menus, ketchup, and mustard bottles, menus were the paradise of germs with a count of around 185,000 bacteria dwelling on them.
It won’t be wrong to say that the hotel industry is one of the most competitive fields, and to survive in the hotel business, restaurateurs need to have certain unique strategies. To be more specific, to excel in the business, hotel owners need to follow a few things like, keeping a few secrets from customers, telling them half the truth, and at times even lying and pretending about certain things.
You may never know what exactly goes on behind those swinging doors of the restaurant kitchen unless someone gives you a firsthand account. However, you should know some of the basic tricks that servers play, to avoid getting fooled by them.
Secrets that Restaurant Servers Don’t Reveal
Calories in a Dish
In the first place, the calorie count of a particular dish is never mentioned on the menu, and when it’s mentioned, most times it is inaccurate. The worst part is that the healthiest looking part of the menu has the most inaccuracies in the calorie count of the dishes. Also, the waiters are not allowed to reveal anything about the calories in a dish and hence, they either lie about it or just say, “All the information about it is available online.”
Extra Sugar in Your Kids’ Meals
You may wonder why your kid wants to go to the same restaurant every time, where he once had a particular pizza? Well, the reason could be the extra amount of sugar that has gone into the pizza dough and also on the top of it. Many restaurants often apply this trick of adding extra sugar to the kids’ meals so that they love it more and insist going to the same place again and again.
Truth of the Vegetable Stock
If you are a vegetarian and want to have vegetable soup, think twice before asking a server whether they use vegetable stock for making the soup. He will say yes, even if they don’t use vegetable stock, because they know that you won’t be able to make out the difference.
Dirty Lemon Wedge in Your Drink
You ask the waiter to put a lemon wedge or lemon juice in your drink to make it more appetizing, or even to add taste to the drink. However, this can be the most harmful thing you are doing to your body. The reason is that innumerable dirty hands touch those lemons in the restaurant kitchen. No one bothers to wash the lemons and they remain in the box they were purchased in, until going on your plate. Only their stickers are peeled off, and the wedges are thrown into your drink without being washed. Moreover, many germs like disease-causing bacteria, mold, and Candida yeast are found dwelling on the lemon wedges used in your drink.
Your Coffee is Decaffeinated
It doesn’t matter even if you order a regular coffee or a decaf, you will be served decaffeinated coffee only. According to Reader’s Digest, the coffee served in restaurants after 8 pm is mostly decaf. The reason for doing so is that no one wants to clean two coffee pots at the end of the day, and hence they fill just one with decaf. This saves them a lot of time and money, as they are serving only one option.
The Special Dish is Not Always Special
A restaurateur knows that there are people who will order their daily special, and hence raises its price. If you are among those who order special dishes, know that the special may be a bad choice because there might be nothing special in it. It’s just that the dish is the combination of foods that the chef needs to use quickly before going bad. These foods include meat, fish, veggies, etc.
‘Homemade’ Salad is Actually Ready-made
Salads often labeled as homemade on the menu are not homemade. Some restaurants purchase salad dressings in large quantities and then add a few ingredients like fresh herbs, blue cheese, etc., and serve them as the homemade salad.
A last tip before you go, make sure that you never ask your waiter for recommendations from the menu. Waiters will never criticize anything that they serve, and in fact, may often do the opposite. At times, they may even recommend dishes that are expensive, or dishes that are not selling well.
These were some of the things that waiters will not share with you when you go to a restaurant. While most of these should not matter, you should never go to a restaurant that does not take cleanliness and hygiene strictly. Fudging the menu here and there is to be expected in such a competitive business, but that does not mean that other important values should take a backseat.