[QUOTE=NFRs2000NYC,Oct 30 2004, 03:36 PM] P.S.

 

My guess... because most restaurants dont get food deliveries on weekends, so the seafood has been sitting around since Friday.

 

rumor has it that some restaurants take back the unused rice left over from those little rice buckets served to customers and save them for fried rice the next day.

 

at many mexican restaurants they pour unused salsa/chips back into the bucket/bin.

talk about double dipping...

 

So now Chinese, Korean, and Mexican restaurants are "poorer" restaurants? And they are not real real restaurants according to you?

 

he probably meant to say "small and privately owned establishments", but wasn't able to articulate himself better at the time, and thus he quoted "poorer".

 

i've got a side question about restaurants...when you order take out (whether it over the phone or if you order inside), are you still supposed to leave tip??

 

Yes....the take out chinese/mexican etc restaurants are considered poorer, because they need to cut costs more than a 5 star french place. If they can save $100 a month by re-using rice, they will do it.

Like it or not, its a fact. I know every restaurant trick in the book, and its the truth. The "poorer" restaurants are the biggest culprits of this. By poorer, I mean that the owners arent multimillionaires, and need to make another buck. Its not racist, its realist.

Read a book by Tony Bordain called "Kitchen Confidential." Itll let you know some of the biggest secrets about restaurants.

 

I was the general manager for two restaurants (Buffalo's Cafe) and my wife was a manager at Macaroni Grill.

Neither re-used foods..

I was actually quite strict with our foods... Not too much bread is made so that it always goes fresh (you can EASILY tell when bread is old... so I dont think ANYONE would want to re-use it)... Our wings were always made fresh to order. The kitchen was always kept super duper clean (I think this was mostly because of my anal-retentive nature).

Food was NEVER re-used. Most restaurants have a waste sheet in the kitchen where all waste (such as overcooked meats, burned food, etc.) is logged with a description and reason. This list is usually retreived several times a week and used for inventory purposes.

All food kept in the freezer has a shelf life. There are different time periods used between 24-72hrs. Things that are thawed are RARELY thawed for any longer than that. There are other things that have shelf life of less than 12hrs... some things have to be changed PER SHIFT even.

In my restaurant, inventory was taken on a daily basis for liquor/food. After that, this inventory was compared agaisnt the day's "par lists" and then the amount that was missing was freshly prepared ON THAT DAY.

NOW, here's where I notice restaurants differentiating. At Buffalo's Cafe, it was POLICY that the kitchen staff that prepared the item sign a label stating that he/she prepared it. In addition, this item had to be checked and signed off by a manager before being put away. THIS WAS NOT THE CASE IN MACARONI GRILL. The staff prepped the stuff and just put it away.. there was less control of the food quality there. Ironically... the honestly level of CA (Read: MEXICAN) workers was quite good since, according to my wife, their work was always good. This was at Macaroni Grill in Irvine (ONE OF THE DIRTIEST RESTAURANTS I HAVE EVER SEEN BTW, and the dirtiest in their district).

Anyways, I have never seen anyone even do anything dishonest with customer's foods before. Usually, people are SO busy in these restaurants that there are very few oportunities for any foul play... In addition, especially in bigger restaurants... there are always 2-3 managers on staff so there is a lot of supervision.

 

Wow, this thread brought back alot of memories for me. I worked as a bartender for a restaurant during both of my under grad degrees and my masters. Granted it was part time. Anyways, I want to comment on all of this.

1st off, yes leave a tip. I never did anything to people who didn't, but I always hooked up regulars who tipped and did take out. Plus, they still have to stop what they are doing to get your stuff together and make sure it is right. I'm not saying 15%, but a buck or two would be awesome!!

I worked for a large chain, and we never used food over again. However, I saw things that would make people sick. I know of people who would always complain about something, so the cooks would have to recook their food. After a while, we would let the cooks know that these people where there, and this was their order. Without grossing people out, I know they did nasty things to their orders!

Both line was, if you treated the staff good, then your order was taken care of. If you were a dick about things, then you could be in trouble. This didn't include people who had problems with their order, as things do happen and mistakes are made. It came down to your attitude.