Restaurants that leave condiment bottles on the table (1 Viewer)

[MarkHastings]

WTF??

 

[Radioman970]

I had to remind myself on that one. Great stuff! "Outside syrups".

 

[Henry Gale]

My restaurant experience in the UK dates back to 1983. For the most part I existed on fish & chips for 3 weeks and that was fine with me. The continual search for a good burger was...fruitless. One little town after another, well, big towns too, promised "American Style Hamburgers".
One bite was usually all I could get down. Then there was the bizarre inability to get an icy drink. There seemed to be a 2 cube limit, everywhere.
Finally at the end of the trip I was in the London Hard Rock Cafe (remember when the Hard Rock was still cool?) and I got a really delicious burger.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Actually, as I understand it, fried rice has to be made from day-old white rice -- it needs to have dried out slightly, otherwise the fried rice comes out too soggy. As long as it's just the leftover in the big batch, and not recycled back from rice already served to a diner but uneaten, don't see what the problem is, just as unused bread gets turned into croutons. The problem I guess is when stuff already served to a diner, but uneaten, is recycled, per Chris's story.

And Mark, what's wrong with Indian food? It's great! Too hot/spicy, maybe?

 

[MarkHastings]

it was sarcastic. I don't like it when someone says "Why would anyone eat _____" because you can say that about the foods that they like as well.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Ah, sorry, my bad.

But I agree with your point, too many people seem overly critical of other people's preferences, saying things like "I can't see why you/they like ____ ", when it's all just personal preferences and others may say the exact same thing about your own likes.

 

[Jay H]

I like Indian food too, yum yum!

Jay

 

[Scott McGillivray]

My personal complaint with things like ketchup (catsup?) is when restaurants re-fill glass containers of Heinz with some crappy no-name knock off brand. I challenged one place that they were doing it because I could clearly taste the difference. They argued with me that it was indeed Heinz. So, they went in back to confirm and found out it was this hideous huge can of bulk ketchup from Sunspun. I just feel that a restaurant should not try and save money that way. This was a decent place that certainly could shell out another 50 cents for a good tasting bottle of ketchup.

 

There...I said it. Now I feel better!

 

[Yee-Ming]

Originally Posted by Scott McGillivray

My personal complaint with things like ketchup (catsup?) is when restaurants re-fill glass containers of Heinz with some crappy no-name knock off brand.

 

Heinz could sue them for passing-off, too.

 

 

[Malcolm R]

Never worried much about ketchup or mustard, but there was one seafood chain here that used to leave bottles of tartar sauce on the tables all day. Being a mayonnaise-based condiment, I didn't think that was a great idea.

 

[BrianW]

Originally Posted by nolesrule

It's not like the ketchup sits in the bottles all day. It's being used up frequently and the bottles get refilled or replaced.

 

Not always. As a teenager, I worked in a hamburger restaurant where the manager made us collect all the ketchup bottles after closing, refill them, and clean the necks and lids so that they looked like brand new bottles. We kept the aging bottles, which always looked shiny and new, under the counter where patrons picked up their food.

 

The ketchup at the top of the bottles may have been fresh, but the ketchup at the bottom of the bottles got so old over the course of months that it would ferment. You could see the bubbles forming in the darkened, fossilized strata at the bottom. When the bubbles trails got to be long enough, and when the bottle would go long enough without being opened, they would eventually explode. Most of the time, the bottles would explode overnight, but they would also occasionally explode as customers grabbed them off the shelf.

 

The good news is that we actually used Heinz ketchup to refill the Heinz bottles.

 

[TonyD]

I'm trying to understand comments about a $20 price for a steak is "hardly" expensive.

I love steak and the reason I don't eat it at a restaurant is because $20 is about as cheap as it gets for a steak thats any good.



AlSo it seems the more a steak costs the smaller it is.

If we spend for a steak dinner I'm a good enough griller at home to buy a good piece of meat and cook it there.

If i need to spend more then 20 and as much as $45 to get a good steak Dinner out, I don't want it.

 

[Robbie R]

Originally Posted by Yee-Ming

 

[Stan]

BrianW's experience matches mine.


I to was a teenager and we were told to just pour new ketchup on top of the old and clean the bottles. As the bottles got a little grungy, took partially filled bottles, balanced them so one was upside down and drained it into the lower bottle. Who knows how old the ketchup on the base of the bottles was.


Never noticed the fermentation and never had a bottle explode, so maybe a bit more turn over, but still a disgusting habit.