10 Things You Absolutely Should Never Order, According to Restaurant Workers
Fast food taste tests, waitresses getting massive tips, the best restaurants across America — these are just a few of the topics Yahoo Food readers loved the most. In a tribute to you, our reader, we are revisiting some of our most popular stories of 2015.
By: Gianni Jaccoma
Credit: Shutterstock (edited)
Everyone who’s ever ordered fast food knows the odds of getting something resembling the photo on the board are pretty slim. Still, we’d all prefer to remain blissfully ignorant of the potentially gross secrets behind our favorite menu items, right?
Well, on the off chance you actually wanna see how the sausage is made, a recent Reddit post asked current and former employees of chain restaurants to dish the dirt on which menu items to avoid, and why. Here are our favorite replies.
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10. Meat from Dunkin’ Donuts
“I’m not sure if this is asking what we don’t want to make/do, or what is gross.I work at Dunkin Donuts. What sucks to make? Hash browns, when they have to be made fresh (any time after noon, pretty much). What should you not order? Any of the meat. It’s not that it’s not preserved or anything, it’s just utterly disgusting. Please don’t eat it. We make donuts, coffee, and bagels. I wouldn’t recommend much else.” - Oisillion
9. Coldstone’s Ancient Raisins
“Worked at Coldstone. Don’t get raisins (if they still even offer raisins as a mix-in) they’ve been sitting there since the dawn of time.” - avantgardeaclue
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8. Applebee’s Fatty Salad
“I used to work at Applebee’s. The Oriental chicken salad dressing is pretty much sugar and chicken fat.” - deadpoop69
Photo: Flickr/Calgary Reviews
7. Wendy’s Leftover Chili
“I worked at Wendy’s when I was 16 (32 now) but the meat in the chili is the burnt patties from the grill collected in a drawer, put in a bag, frozen then boiled and chopped up, up to a week later. This grosses my wife and some out, it doesn’t bother me.” - Johnny_Driver
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6. Cookout’s Chicken Strips
“I worked at cookout, years ago. It’s super clean, actually, and I’ll still eat food from there.
But, I don’t recommend ordering chicken strips. We’d get in a rush, and those things took FOR-GODDAMN-EVER to cook. And people would pull them out of the fryers early and just throw them on a tray. People brought them back for being undercooked all the time. Which tells me, lots of people were probably not paying attention and just stuffing them, half raw, into their facehole.” - CDC_
Photo: Flickr/Stephan Mosel
5. Veggie Burgers Pretty Much Anywhere
“Veggie burgers at any fast food place. They take forever as they have to get chipped out of the freezer, microwaved and then thrown on the same grill they use for the regular meat.” - im_a_slav_4_u
4. Outback’s Bloomin’ Onion
“I worked at Outback. The Bloomin’ Onions-though delicious-are so bad for you. Like 2000 calories bad. It made me almost sick when I saw two of them going to the same table.” - Icanrightgood
3. Panera’s Soup
“Worked at Panera bread. The soups come in frozen bags in boxes that say ‘Institution food’ on the side of the box. We would throw them in a hot water cooker that would bring them up to temperature from freezing blocks to near boiling hot bags. Run in the back and fill up the empty pots from the food line. Sometimes we didn’t get to fully thaw out the soup in time and put some cold ones out there often enough. I didn’t mind the soups there so much but this would ruin the illusion for some customers if they knew.” - Ichorous007
2. McDonalds’ Shakes/Smoothies
“Unless you know the shake/smoothie machine was cleaned that day, do not drink either of those at McDonalds. The machine gets cleaned once a week and every time it was pulled apart there would be black slime/mould backed up inside the spout. The coffee machines got completely descaled and cleaned every day as did the fizzy drink dispenser heads but the other drinks machines didn’t. I had a real thing for their mocha frappe until I helped clean the machine out. Never again” - Thauma
1. McDonalds’ Fish Fillet
“Used to work at a Mcdonalds in high school. (You know you eat there, quit lying) Don’t order fish filets or grilled chicken anything unless it is just after the bfast lunch switchover, it is right in the middle of lunch rush, or they are doing an advertised special on those items. They don’t sell alot outside of lunch rush, so you might get a patty that’s near the end of its cycle. Actually, if you want super fresh, hot food at Mcdonalds, go during lunch rush. Nothing is more than a few minutes old, including fries.
Edit: You’re not clever asking for fries with no salt. People have been doing that at least since the nineties when I worked there. We know. Just ask for fresh fries, and say you don’t mind the wait. We would make fresh fries. Don’t do either one in the drive thru. They WILL park you, and the rest of your food is going to get cold in a bag while your fries are cooking. Enjoy your hot fries and cold cheeseburger…jerk.
Double edit: Asking for fries with no salt is fine, asking for fresh fries is fine, asking for a hamburger extra cheese no patty (grilled cheese) is fine. Just come inside and let them know you understand you’ll have to wait for the fries to cook. Jeebus you guys are over-thinking this. I worked there two decades ago, I started BEFORE Mcflurries existed.” - monkeiboi
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