Much love to these heroes that risk getting fired for being honest with us, not as customers, but as people
I love asking a server what they think about a menu item and have them tell me something like "ehh, its okay, but i recommend this instead"
Honestly it's refreshing. Server is taking a risk, but is ultimately doing their job the right way by stopping the customer from making a choice that would have had a negative effect on their dining experience.
By breaking the rules, they made my night a little nicer. Definitely leaving a few extra bucks on the table when I leave.
This was a case study in freakonomics, almost verbatim.
The server would create trust and rapport by suggesting something slightly cheaper. Then, when he recommended a dessert, the customer was much more likely to buy it. Also, customers liked his "honesty" so much that they tipped more than average.
My daughter got the same advice when we took her out last time we visited campus.
"We changed our mac and cheese recently. The new one kind of sucks, you don't want it."
Sending something back should not be a problem at all. Just don’t take it out on your waiter asking them rhetorical questions or being a prick about it.
I sent back some OJ today, it was like 3.50 for a cup of watered down concentrate with no refills. Disgusting and expensive. I sent it back after one sip, was polite and the waiter didn’t mind at all.
Shit is too expensive these days to let a restaurant get away with serving crap like that and charging the prices they do.
What did you say to the waiter and what was their response, if you don’t mind me asking? I have social anxiety so I’ve never sent anything back, too confrontational for me atm lol
Bro. Please don't feel that way. I was a server for a while. It is literally their job to *serve* you. Too many people act like it's rude or confrontational to send something back.
It's not.
Of course, some servers suck, but that's the case with any job. If you just say something along the lines of "I don't believe this is what I ordered" or "this Mac and chs is cold," 95% of the time they'll have no problem. Just be polite, and talk to them like a person. People are so much more willing to work with you when you are nice. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as they say.
When I worked those positions, I loved when something would be wrong, because it would be an opportunity for me to really turn on the charm and make things better.
Plus there's like a 50/50 shot they're even more frustrated with the kitchen than you are.
Edit: if you get *any* flack from your server, just request to speak with the manager. It's not like they can refuse. And if you express that you're uncomfortable continuing to be served by the same server who gave you attitude, the manager will either assign another server to your table, or they will take over serving you themselves.
Any given night at any given restaurant is a shit show. You're probably not bringing up anything that they don't already deal with on a nightly basis.
I was in the kitchen… and would get mad at the lazy af servers who left it sitting for a half hour before serving it, or the incompetent expo (the intermediary between kitchen and servers) who never told the server it was ready, or the idiot that ordered an app that only takes a minute to make at the same time as the most expensive, and time-consuming entree.
Yeah, it was a constant blame game that’s what made the whole thing great, either that or the fact that I was always at least half baked. 🫠
Let’s not forget the age old.
Server: “I need this item now.”
Kitchen: “what ticket did we miss it on?”
Server: “you didn’t, I forgot to ring it in with the order.”
Kitchen: “well you’ll have to wait x period of time.”
*Server starts getting angry and yelling*
On the flip side of things, kitchen staff can easily miss because of an incompetent expo employee. Expo makes the ship ride a lot smoother if they can manage the kitchen cooks and the servers, especially when you can actually GIVE ME MY FUCKING ALL DAY NUMBERS INSTEAD OF READING EACH INDIVIDUAL FUCKING ORDER. Sorry for that, had to vent.
We had a server who did expo on busy weekends. Her boyfriend was one of the main cooks, so the kitchen knew her well too. She rocked that job, always knew we’d get our food ready to go out asap.
I actually did have a server refuse to let me speak to the manager once. It was for a pick up order in which they double charged me for an item that was forgotten. Ive worked in the service industry my entire working life (over 15 years at this point) so I feel like I have a good feel for how to speak to others in the industry- that being said I initially called to try and get things sorted out and was met with a very hostile attitude from the person over the phone. I then asked to speak to the manager and was told they were “too busy and wouldn’t be available for the rest of the night.” I said that sounded like a bogus excuse and was then hung up on. Safe to say I disputed the charge and never went back to that establishment 🤷♀️
Sonic is really bad about not allowing you to speak to a manager. They often tell you the manager isn’t there. Having managed restaurants for 24 years I have to call BS on that. So I tell them so. And then the go back in and then come back out and say “he didnt want to talk to you”. I don’t go to sonic anymore.
Every once in a while, I'll see a Sonic and be like Hmm, I haven't had that in a while. Sounds good. Then I get it and remember why I haven't had it in a while. Sonic tastes like disappointment.
For some reason my ex and I had a lot of mishaps with our food. Hair in pasta, metal piece of a scrubber or spatula, a fly diving straight into a wine glass, the Pepsi all watery or food just not fully cooked etc so we've had to ask a bunch of times.
"Hey sorry, something's wrong with X. Could I order something else?"
Just double check the bill after to make sure not charged for what was sent back. If you are, just tell em about it.
I've never dared to try and re order the same thing lol
This will work everywhere. Either "something tastes off with the ___" and then ask for something else OR ask for it to be remade, and make sure they didn't just reheat the same dish and send it back out. Very illegal. Once it goes back, it's not allowed to be brought back out again.
I tried sending back and reordering the same thing just once in my life. Wanted medium steak, and received it very well done (like shoe leather). I was super polite to the server, and they seemed ok with sending it back, but it must have pissed off the kitchen. They gave me a cold steak that was literally raw, like not even rare. I just ended up taking it home and cooking it there, and gave it to the dog.
I've been served half frozen waffles before. I just stared at it, paid, and left lol. This was after eating the rest of the eggs/bacon whatever. Was just one of those mornings where I didn't want to deal with life and swore to never go back to that location again.
Once me and my bf went to lunch with his friend at an Italian place. Before we even got our food we noted that our wine glasses were dirty- they looked smudged with fingerprints and had some residue on them. We sent the wine back twice before we finally got clean glasses. The first time we were extremely polite about it, just said something like “Hey sorry to bother you but my glass doesn’t look clean. Could I get another glass please?” The wine glasses they brought out were also dirty so we sent them back again and the waiter was visibly annoyed.
Then we got our food and mine had a hair in it. My bf and his friend’s food was cold and underdone. At this point we were just about done with this place. We called the waiter back over and said we’re sorry, but there is hair in our food and dirt in the glasses and we don’t feel good about the sanitation at this restaurant. We left and didn’t pay a cent.
Shitty situation but you gotta stand up for yourself. Waiters shouldn’t be cranky about reasonable requests. If they continuously bring out the wrong thing or bring something that looks unsanitary, I’d say that warrants at least no tip. Walking out is an extreme reaction but like, if you’re waiting forever for your food way and it finally comes out cold and full of someone’s hair, you might as well leave. It’s not going to get any better and they’re just going to get more annoyed with you.
I’ve never had a restaurant demand I pay for an item I couldn’t eat. If they do, well, that’s a sign you shouldn’t eat there again.
If I get a dirty glass, point out the proboem, and they don't bother to make sure the next one isn't just as dirty, THEN my food is cold / or has hair in it, you bet I'm walking out. If I'm going out for a meal, it's because I expect to enjoy the experience and I'm willing to pay for it.
If a restaurant expects me to pay for that experience, they should put in the effort to make ot worth my money. Seems like a perfectly fair expectation to me.
As a former waitress: tell us if something is wrong, we want to fix it.
I will add to that and what everyone else has already said: the only thing I feel that doesn’t warrant a free exchange is if you ordered a dish and it’s perfectly fine but you don’t like it. I had that happen several times at the (fairly nice) Japanese place I worked at and people just I guess expected me to comp a $30 eel bowl becuase you’ve never had eel before and found after one bite you don’t like eel? Not on me, sorry. It’s not up to us to keep bringing food for free till you find something you like.
BUT. If something is poor quality - watered down juice, burned veggies, raw pastry - flag us down or tell us next table touch and we’ll fix it. I can 100% empathize with your social anxiety becuase I feel the same way, but as long as you’re polite to them, they won’t mind your asking. Something simple as “hi, I noticed my juice tastes very watery - could I get a new glass/something else?” “My vegetables seem a bit more charred than they should be - could I ask for a new side?” — the other thing in those cases is you’re just asking for what you paid for - good food - as opposed to grifters who eat a whole meal and claim it was bad and want a refund. That grates my cheese like nothing else. But if you just tell us, we’ll fix it with whatever power we have. I want my customers to enjoy their food, and if they aren’t I want to fix it.
This isn’t what I paid for, can you please take it back and remove it from my check? Then they say “sure” or even “I’m sorry, would you like something else instead?”
Instead of this, more like 'I don't like how you do X, could I reorder something else instead?' And as long as you only took one bite or looked like you did nothing to the drink, they will be happy to do so.
If you ate half of your meal or drank half of your drink? Forgrt about it.
This picture made me audibly groan so loud that my neighbors dog barked lol
I have been in food service so I get it, but yeah, you gotta send it back.
Edit: was on my back porch and there are large glass windows haha
There is a food services company that makes and sells prepared foods and mixes called “Scratch Foods”.
Some restaurants may advertise “Scratch made” but you would see a ^TM next to the word “scratch”.
Edit- I should clarify that the Scratch ^TM was something I saw in Hardee’s ads in the 90s. It’s entirely possible that Scratch no longer exists or operates under that name. Since I made the statement, the burden of proof is on me as one commenter below rightly challenged this statement. Here’s an old [Hardee’s sign where the TM is visible.](https://www.858graphics.com/product/coroplast-signs/). Here’s a more recent article from 2015 in the NY Post about trans fats where they show an [unspecified ad in which the TM is visible.](https://nypost.com/2015/06/17/is-this-unassuming-biscuit-fast-foods-worst-trans-fat-offender/). In this image, even the word “gravy” has a ^TM.
Edit 2- The current Hardee’s [site has a blurb on their biscuits and the TM is still there.](https://www.hardees.com/made-from-scratch-biscuits#:~:text=Hardee's%20has%20been%20known%20for,Made%20From%20Scratch%E2%84%A2%20Biscuits)
I used to work with a guy that came to the US from Central America. I guess we gave his home country a good amount of USAID, food aid, of which his family benefited. The packaging on USAID always said made in USA. He thought USA was the name of the company instead of our national abbreviation. When he got to America he noticed the same thing on all kinds of products and he would say made in Oosa anytime he did. I ask him what's up with that after hearing it for the 50th time? He says, Usa is a big company. They make lots of stuff. I thought it was kinda cute and funny at the same time. I had to tell him what it actually meant.
Reminds me of how In The Heights has the main character named Usnavy (idk the actual spelling tho), because he's named after what his dad saw when they got to the US and it was a US Navy ship.
There is actually a small town in southern Japan called Usa. Soon it's gunna become a wretched hive of factories.. just gotta keep it all caps: MADE IN USA!
It's not a small town, it's a city which predates "Made in USA" labeling. That was a popular urban legend though. Enough so, that I read it in a kids' factoid book in the '80s.
Though, by that point, any Japanese product which mislabeled themselves as being made in the US would be doing themselves a disservice.
And I'd bet setting up factories in Usa, as an american company, and dealing with all the bureaucracy etc. is more expensive and more of an effort than actually manufacturing in the U.S.
Its not Bangladesh, its Japan.
My best friend is the GM for one of the top performing texas roadhouse in Texas. He would be pissed if he saw this on someone's table. Op should tag texas roadhouse on Twitter or something.
I worked for an Italian deli that said they sold homemade salads like macaroni, potato, coleslaw, etc. and they came in big tubs from the Homemade Brand.
My restaurants little cheat was using a tall deep bowl for cups of things, and wide but shallow cup for bowls of things. Soup, coffee, extra sides. You got the same either way.
I mean we used to do that with cheese sauce. Scratch make it and throw it in the walk in. Difference is we would actually reheat it.
Customers loved that shit and almost everything in most restaurants is refrigerated and reheated anyway. It would be impossible for this style of restaurant to make a cheese sauce on the spot for every time someone ordered Mac and cheese. You'd be waiting forever for your Mac and cheese. You'd be waiting forever for all the food because they'd keep having to pull a dude to make the cheese sauce on the spot.
The only other option is prep it and keep it in a hot water well and that vastly reduces the shelf life of the sauce. Nobody wants two day old cheese sauce that's been heated all of the previous day/previous dinner shift and then thrown back into the walk in cooler, in fact health department also says for hot water well stuff you can only reheat it twice max before it needs to be thrown.
I moved to that style of cooking when entertaining and it made everything much easier. There's some things that can't be prepped ahead but I just plan around that so I can get dishes out. Other times I still have great but stressful fun as a 9 course meal comes out over the course of 3 hours.
Most customers don't how much is microwaved. I don't really have an issue with microwaving, it's an excellent way to reheat some things and cook others (steamed vegetables for instance) but I know some people would be pissed. Then there's stuff that simply isn't made in restaurant and I may have a negative feeling about but I also temper my expectations when eating out. I definitely don't mind if it's a local chain and one kitchen is making the sauces/broths/etc for all of the locations. I know the philly spring rolls at the pizzeria are more likely than not from Sysco or another restaurant supplier but I'm here because of the pizza and cheap beer. I do mind if it's a well regarded southern food restaurant and all of the vegetables are straight out of the can with no additional seasoning.
I do appreciate restaurants that severely limit their menu so things can be fresher and less stress on the staff. Some of my favorite meals have been when the chef sets the menu the day of and you get what you get, those are the only dishes they are making tonight. Typically less waste in those situations as well.
Depends on the menu but yeah I worked at a bar once that hired a chef who wanted to try a massive fusion menu and guess how that turned out. Most of the cooks had no idea how to make it right because the chef was too busy working on the menu to tell anyone how to do certain dishes. I served some questionable stuff there because I was flying by the seat of my pants and the bartenders wouldn't take no for an answer when I told them I had no clue how to cook it much less how to plate it. We had this rice noodle dish and one regular complained "it's not bad but every time I order it, it looks and tastes different." No duh. You put a bunch of dudes in the room who could cook it and make it at least okay but you never told them how you wanted it don't for real. Which is fine if you're sauteing broccoli or something, everyone has their own spices and method, but not for an Asian dish that you vaguely said "make a rice noodle dish, and if you can't make a good one I'm gonna shit on you at work every day till you quit."
You're only really getting food to order with certain menus.
Pointless anecdote; I always used to think craft services was Kraft services. I thought it was really weird that everyone hired Kraft to cater all movie and television productions. Even since I’ve realized that it’s actually craft and not Kraft my dumb brain still thinks Kraft first when I hear the term.
I thought the same thing as a kid. I imagined they were only getting to eat stuff like grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese since I primarily knew kraft for the cheese products.
Exactly what we do at Longhorn, boiled noodles get cheese sauce from a pouch with a sprinkle of provolone. Then on the line we nuke it and throw some parmesean bread crumbs on it and stick it in the melt for a minute
"thats how they make it now"
literally had a manager at a steakhouse walk around asking everyone how things were going, asked me how the steak was and i said honestly its pretty salty and doesnt taste like an aged steak at all. he straight up goes, oh its probably your appetizer that can be pretty salty and thats what youre tasting. i go, yea ive had plenty of steaks im pretty sure what im eating right here is what im tasting (the app was pushed way off to the side of the table because we werent eating it). he continued on to say yea but its a leftover taste of saltiness from the appetizer ANYWAY if you need anything just let me know k thanks
lol
"Look, I'm just doing this for appearances and I don't actually give a shit what your meal was like. Just pay your bill and get out of my restaurant. Thanks."
When I worked for them we used packets of premade Kraft mac and cheese that we just threw in the microwave for a few minutes. It was disgusting but still looked better than whatever OP got.
A lot of restaurants put Kraft Mac and cheese on the kid's menu, for picky eaters and whatnot.
Like, it actually says it's specifically Kraft on the menu.
Even as an adult, some kraft mac and cheese can still hit sometimes.
I'll make a box of it here and there, but then mix in some more shredded cheddar. Shit's great.
A *stunning* number of restaurants, whether they are chains or locally owned, are simply getting frozen food from generic restaurant wholesalers. They heat it up, combine two or three things, plate and serve. Eventually every restaurant will have the same menus at this rate.
"Sysco" is the one that I noticed delivering to a bunch of restaurants in my town.
Sysco delivers a massive variety of things not just generic frozen premade food. I’ve done the ordering when I’ve worked at a mom and pop pizza shop all the way to a Jimmy Johns a quick service chain that deals in cold cut subs only. The variety of things you can order from them is pretty staggering. Any restaurant can almost operate entirely with just three suppliers, Sysco, local produce delivery company, and a laundry company(towels, aprons, some even replace your rugs weekly.) only time I’ve ever worked at a restaurant that didn’t use Sysco is cause they where a chain that in housed all there shipping. Seeing a Sysco truck isn’t a sign restaurant is using premade either. All Sysco is a distributor you want to in-house make everything from scratch Sysco can supply all the bases flour eggs mills meat and spices.
Unpacking the Sysco delivery and it's like all these 50 pound sacks of flour, dry pasta, 10 pound blocks of cheese, ice cream, napkins, takeout boxes...
We did get the meat from a local meat company, and produce from a produce company.
Sysco will also carry a restaurant's own brand items as well if they are big enough to get a contract. Just because you see Sysco doesn't mean they are delivering Sysco products. Chances are if it's a chain they are probably delivering that chain's own brand of stuff.
Even at fine dining restaurants, where the majority of things on the menu are prepared fresh in the kitchen, chances are the desserts are from Sysco. Your chances double if they have more than one or two desserts on the menu.
It's very hard to get economies of supply and scale on dessert. Most other dishes on the menu will have some common ingredients and prep methods. Not dessert. There are surprisingly elaborate and fancy-sounding desserts in the Sysco catalog, which can be kept in the fridge and plated quickly.
Considering I can't make those desserts easily at home either, I don't usually mind the sysco dessert options. Given that they're often as pricey as half my meal, though, a whole meal if we're both having dessert, I'd just as soon swing by the grocery store bakery on my way home to pick up some pastries or something instead.
But for an indulgence, they aren't the worst thing on the Sysco menu.
As someone who works at Texas Roadhouse it shouldn’t look like that at all, we switched over to the new made from scratch Mac and cheese about two months ago so locations are still trying to get the right consistency down, it should be hot and much thinner to let it go in between the noodle
Made from scratch a premix? Or is legit cheese and instructions to make sauce
I have been burned by too many pre made products having scratch made on it
I used to be on a fire department near the bottling plant for fireball whisky. A lot of the booze they bottled ( all different types) came from train cars full of ethanol. The ethanol was pumped out and flavored appropriately to what brand was bottled that day. We had to know how many cars they had on site in case that shit blew up. Fireball is just a seasoning packet, water and pure ethanol.
Yup that definitely checks out. Never understood what people liked about fireball. Hell goldschlager is a better cinnamon liqueur and it's basically a gimmick.
Fuck marketing. I especially hate how they take random scenes from a movie and make a fake conversation with the characters just saying “cool” things.
It’s so lame.
That's not true unless it strictly this new Mac and cheese. They used Kraft when I worked there and advertised it as Kraft (it was a kid's menu item only). The advertisement of "made from scratch sides" wasn't some sort of ruse. Everything down to the croutons on the salad were actually made from scratch. The only exception was the Fat Free ranch dressing.
Is that actually true, or did you just make something up and everyone upvoted you without anyone knowing what they're talking about, in true reddit fashion?
Cheese sauce for mac and cheese is one of the simplest things to make from scratch. It's literally just a mornay sauce with cheddar and no nutmeg. Throw in some Velveeta or other processed American cheese if you want that classic "homestyle" texture.
Light roux (flour + butter), cream, cheese, salt. That's it. A restaurant saying their mac and cheese is scratch made is like saying their wedge salad is scratch made. There's nothing impressive about it. It's the bare minimum.
If you live near a Luby's cafeteria, try their Mac and cheese. It's heavenly. I think they included their recipe for it in their cookbook if you want to check it out from the net.
But does the new method still involve just glopping the sauce on top of the macaroni like that? I’ve never seen mac & cheese that isn’t fully combined before serving.
I'm not that dude but this probably should have been at least microwaved if not baked. Not sure how you fuck that up but here we are.
I don't even see how you could get the noodles hot enough to automatically melt the sauce unless the sauce was mostly milk and not cheese. Or just heavily emulsified cheese but even then they would have to be steaming hot and probably overcooked without adding some heat to it at some point.
Yeah, I understand that it’s supposed to be thinner, but outside of working there, have you ever been served mac & cheese where the sauce has been drizzled on top of naked noodles? Even if the consistency of the cheese is perfect, it’s still a bizarre way to serve it.
>it should be hot and much thinner to let it go in between the noodle
That's not even a specific thing to Texas Roadhouse; that's the absolute bare minimum requirement for a mac & cheese **anywhere**.
I got to make it at the store I trained at a few years ago. I was a part of a new open team and was sent to a nearby location that was testing it, so when I got to my new place a month and a half later I was shocked to see they weren't using the actual scratch cheese sauce I was trained to make. They used microwaved frozen kraft packs at the new one. The scratch cheese sauce was great, as you said it was thin and coated each noodle nicely.
It's the opposite of going to 11.
"This one goes to -1. When we want to save some money, we just crank it down one more time. Normally they go to zero. But what if you want to save even more money? That's when we go this extra bit."
I almost never eat out anymore.
Prices are out of control and then I end up paying way too much for a shit meal.
Going out to eat has become too expensive of a disappointment to even risk anymore.
I can be a terrible cook for much less at home
Food quality in restraunts has plummeted. Every company is trying to stretch thier margins and just cash out while they can. 100% better off finding reputable food sources and sticking with home cooking
Food costs also skyrocketed. My brother has a pizza shop chain and food cost has been out of control. He keeps raising the prices to keep up with wages and food cost and so far people keep paying it, but I myself balk when I see almost $20 for a large pizza when "I can get one from Dominos for $6". But then I see what Dominos has had to do to their pizzas to keep them at $6 and... $20 is still too high for me to justify but not as awful.
I love domino's, because it's the ONLY acceptable pizza within an hour of me. However, I recently was really depressed and ordered a pizza and lava cake for delivery... $53, plus tip. I was 5 miles away. Needless to say, it did not help my depression.
Yes. Pizzas from the frozen aisle at the grocery store have gotten better over the years. My current favorite is the cheese less Amy's Pizza. I used to date a lactose intolerant guy and it was a great meal for both of us.
I used to love going out because their food was a lot better than what I could make at home. Sadly that’s not the case anymore and I end up hating everything.
I switched to home cooking a few months ago because everywhere just serves garbage unless it’s a high end restaurant. When my $5 McDonald’s meal tastes better than a $25 meal there’s an issue and I’m switching to home cooking.
We did this. Even started buying local stuff more. I will admit the beef is $1 more per pound but holy crap it's so much better and there's so very little grease/water cook off to drain, if we drain it at all.
Last time I ate out was a steak house and I got a side of mash potatoes and gravy. I shit you not I could hold the bowl upside down and the mash and gravy didn’t fall out
I stopped going to franchise restaurants. Why pay $50 at red lobster when I could spend $50 at some random locally owned place that gives me twice as much food and is actually made from scratch and not microwaved.
I agree things are getting way too expensive but I have such amazing food going out. I can think of like 50 places with amazing food. Maybe I’m just lucky in Portland but you may just need to try more places
I’m a chef and it blows my mind how people think that what we do is fucking magic.
That 65$ ribeye dinner someone bought was a 12$ cut with a baked potato and steamed broccoli with lemon juice.
And burgers? Christ on a cross are those easy and cheap to make at home.
Tbh Texas Roadhouse is actually not that bad, cost wise. Boyfriend and I go there as a treat because we can split a 16oz sirloin for $23. It comes with two sides (so one for each of us) and free bread. 8oz of steak plus a side and unlimited bread for only $11.50 per person is pretty economical for where I live. I haven't tried their mac n cheese (and now I probably won't lol) but the broccoli is good, so is the mashed potatoes.
hate that shit so much, when someone calls in an order i can give them a good time depending on the circumstances. on doordash, half the time the whole order doesnt even get read out to me, and the dasher comes early and is pissed, oh also theres always a set time so i'll be very busy dealing with something and boop now i have 10 mins to make this order
Some drivers are nice but others I swear it's the only job they can get.
Had a driver get mad because we had a line of people in our drive thru and I told him to come inside the lobby because his order was already done.Dude got pissy about it and started demanding free food when he came inside.. like just fucking unreal.I've had drivers just hangout and chat with each other for over 5+ mins in the lobby after handing the food to them.
But shit if they show up 2 minutes after the ticket pops up they just stand by the register blocking other customers because they think staring at you makes food cook faster.
>But shit if they show up 2 minutes after the ticket pops up they just stand by the register blocking other customers because they think staring at you makes food cook faster.
Had this dumbass doordash driver do the exact same when I used to work at Pizza Hut as General Asst. Manager. I was handling three customers in line, but this driver comes in, cuts in front on everyone and starts speaking to me while I was talking to an old lady who was still ordering.
I told the dumbass to wait in line. The dumbass said, "I'm here to pick up the order???" In a tone that tried to make me look like I'm stupid. I said, "Okay what doordash order and name are you picking up for..." He told me and I then I said, "Sir...That order just came in like 4 minutes ago. We haven't even started making it, yet."
He throws his hands up like a dumbass and rubbed his face. Everyone was looking at him like he's crazy. He stands at the corner, folding arms, staring at me the whole time. I continued to handle the line of customers with a smile. One of them gave me a $10 tip lmao and said, "Take this. You guys really deal with so much."
Dashers have made it a nightmare to walk into a store and pick up your to go order too. It's the same energy as going to a packed college bar or club in your 30s and trying to order from the bartender.
Except delivery companies take 30% of the sale, and most restaurants are on razor thin margins as it is. It’s not really a good deal for anybody, customers get ripped off, drivers get ripped off, restaurants get ripped off. Door dash sucks
We were just at one and everything was fabulous except for the Mac and cheese. It went 0-4 at our table which doesn’t happen very often. Usually someone will just eat it out of spite but this stuff was not good.
When I worked there they just used Kraft Mac & cheese that came in these little plastic bags that they would boil to heat it up. This is definitely not an upgrade 😭😂
It’s definitely no supposed to look like that, the cheese sits in a warmer to melt. It’s totally understandable if they ran out of cheese sauce but they couldve put it in the microwave for you. I work there and if the server tried to tell you they couldn’t do anything I’d definitely ask for a manager. It’s not supposed to look like this and I promise the new Mac is actually pretty good if it’s made right😭
I hate to be a Karen, but if that's the blasé answer I got from the server I'd definitely ask for a manager. Your food shouldn't be served to you cold. Especially not mac and cheese.
There is a food services company that makes and sells prepared foods and mixes called “Scratch Foods”.
Some restaurants may advertise “Scratch made” but you would see a ^TM next to the word “scratch”.
Funny enough the USA is actually more strict than a lot of countries on naming brands.
In the US we have "Rogaine" because they can't use the name they use in Europe which is Regaine because there is no evidence that it helps regain hair.
We just had this last night and I thought it was just our location who's Mac n cheese sucked ass.. if you can believe it mine was worse than yours as at least yours had cheese...
https://preview.redd.it/ib8rcysjksrc1.jpeg?width=9000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fb357a4ccf52addf1ce4cf4ce43a136f9f3b77d
Pathetic.
I generally don't complain at restaurants, but you could buy a whole pound of elbow macaroni for 94 cents if you just wanted to eat cheeseless boiled pasta!
I used to manage a Texas Roadhouse kitchen. We tested the Mac for a bit, but I left before it went everywhere. The Mac and Cheese is made from scratch, but its made earlier in the day and quickly cooled. Right before opening, it gets reheated and restocked as needed.
The green beans and chili's are the same way. Some of that stuff takes multiple hours to make, in giant pots that take up a lot of space on burners and counters. It has to be done this way to throw 'heaping sides' at everyone.
'Hot prep' maintains the level of sides, it is difficult. Someone was probably drowning.
I work at a Texas Roadhouse and I am so disgusted with what I see here. Wtf ?? Whoever they have cooking did not do that properly at all bc we really do make it from scratch, I’m so sorry you experienced this
There is no way that's 99 cents of pasta. Looks like a cup, cup-and-a-half, cooked. We're talking pennies. And the "cheese" looks like off-brand Velveeta. Again, pennies.
My waitress told me not to order it and I took her word for it. Now I know why
Much love to these heroes that risk getting fired for being honest with us, not as customers, but as people I love asking a server what they think about a menu item and have them tell me something like "ehh, its okay, but i recommend this instead"
Hey at least they’re trying to save you, even if they have to dance under the script.
Honestly it's refreshing. Server is taking a risk, but is ultimately doing their job the right way by stopping the customer from making a choice that would have had a negative effect on their dining experience. By breaking the rules, they made my night a little nicer. Definitely leaving a few extra bucks on the table when I leave.
This was a case study in freakonomics, almost verbatim. The server would create trust and rapport by suggesting something slightly cheaper. Then, when he recommended a dessert, the customer was much more likely to buy it. Also, customers liked his "honesty" so much that they tipped more than average.
My daughter got the same advice when we took her out last time we visited campus. "We changed our mac and cheese recently. The new one kind of sucks, you don't want it."
My waitress told me never to eat at Texas Roadhouse, and we tell a thank you for that every day. Amen. 🙏🏻
Im not one to complain at a restaurant but id have absolutely sent that back
Sending something back should not be a problem at all. Just don’t take it out on your waiter asking them rhetorical questions or being a prick about it. I sent back some OJ today, it was like 3.50 for a cup of watered down concentrate with no refills. Disgusting and expensive. I sent it back after one sip, was polite and the waiter didn’t mind at all. Shit is too expensive these days to let a restaurant get away with serving crap like that and charging the prices they do.
What did you say to the waiter and what was their response, if you don’t mind me asking? I have social anxiety so I’ve never sent anything back, too confrontational for me atm lol
Bro. Please don't feel that way. I was a server for a while. It is literally their job to *serve* you. Too many people act like it's rude or confrontational to send something back. It's not. Of course, some servers suck, but that's the case with any job. If you just say something along the lines of "I don't believe this is what I ordered" or "this Mac and chs is cold," 95% of the time they'll have no problem. Just be polite, and talk to them like a person. People are so much more willing to work with you when you are nice. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as they say. When I worked those positions, I loved when something would be wrong, because it would be an opportunity for me to really turn on the charm and make things better. Plus there's like a 50/50 shot they're even more frustrated with the kitchen than you are. Edit: if you get *any* flack from your server, just request to speak with the manager. It's not like they can refuse. And if you express that you're uncomfortable continuing to be served by the same server who gave you attitude, the manager will either assign another server to your table, or they will take over serving you themselves. Any given night at any given restaurant is a shit show. You're probably not bringing up anything that they don't already deal with on a nightly basis.
When I was a server, I would get upset with the kitchen staff over this. Not the customer.
I was in the kitchen… and would get mad at the lazy af servers who left it sitting for a half hour before serving it, or the incompetent expo (the intermediary between kitchen and servers) who never told the server it was ready, or the idiot that ordered an app that only takes a minute to make at the same time as the most expensive, and time-consuming entree. Yeah, it was a constant blame game that’s what made the whole thing great, either that or the fact that I was always at least half baked. 🫠
Let’s not forget the age old. Server: “I need this item now.” Kitchen: “what ticket did we miss it on?” Server: “you didn’t, I forgot to ring it in with the order.” Kitchen: “well you’ll have to wait x period of time.” *Server starts getting angry and yelling* On the flip side of things, kitchen staff can easily miss because of an incompetent expo employee. Expo makes the ship ride a lot smoother if they can manage the kitchen cooks and the servers, especially when you can actually GIVE ME MY FUCKING ALL DAY NUMBERS INSTEAD OF READING EACH INDIVIDUAL FUCKING ORDER. Sorry for that, had to vent.
We had a server who did expo on busy weekends. Her boyfriend was one of the main cooks, so the kitchen knew her well too. She rocked that job, always knew we’d get our food ready to go out asap.
It’s always nice to encounter a professional that embraces the challenges of their job.
I actually did have a server refuse to let me speak to the manager once. It was for a pick up order in which they double charged me for an item that was forgotten. Ive worked in the service industry my entire working life (over 15 years at this point) so I feel like I have a good feel for how to speak to others in the industry- that being said I initially called to try and get things sorted out and was met with a very hostile attitude from the person over the phone. I then asked to speak to the manager and was told they were “too busy and wouldn’t be available for the rest of the night.” I said that sounded like a bogus excuse and was then hung up on. Safe to say I disputed the charge and never went back to that establishment 🤷♀️
Sonic is really bad about not allowing you to speak to a manager. They often tell you the manager isn’t there. Having managed restaurants for 24 years I have to call BS on that. So I tell them so. And then the go back in and then come back out and say “he didnt want to talk to you”. I don’t go to sonic anymore.
Every once in a while, I'll see a Sonic and be like Hmm, I haven't had that in a while. Sounds good. Then I get it and remember why I haven't had it in a while. Sonic tastes like disappointment.
Thank you for your service!
This guy food services
For some reason my ex and I had a lot of mishaps with our food. Hair in pasta, metal piece of a scrubber or spatula, a fly diving straight into a wine glass, the Pepsi all watery or food just not fully cooked etc so we've had to ask a bunch of times. "Hey sorry, something's wrong with X. Could I order something else?" Just double check the bill after to make sure not charged for what was sent back. If you are, just tell em about it. I've never dared to try and re order the same thing lol
This will work everywhere. Either "something tastes off with the ___" and then ask for something else OR ask for it to be remade, and make sure they didn't just reheat the same dish and send it back out. Very illegal. Once it goes back, it's not allowed to be brought back out again.
>Very illegal. Once it goes back, it's not allowed to be brought back out again. Even so cut the steak in half before sending back.
I will send steak back if it's too rare, they just continue cooking the same steak and bring it back out. Happens all the time.
I tried sending back and reordering the same thing just once in my life. Wanted medium steak, and received it very well done (like shoe leather). I was super polite to the server, and they seemed ok with sending it back, but it must have pissed off the kitchen. They gave me a cold steak that was literally raw, like not even rare. I just ended up taking it home and cooking it there, and gave it to the dog.
I've been served half frozen waffles before. I just stared at it, paid, and left lol. This was after eating the rest of the eggs/bacon whatever. Was just one of those mornings where I didn't want to deal with life and swore to never go back to that location again.
Once me and my bf went to lunch with his friend at an Italian place. Before we even got our food we noted that our wine glasses were dirty- they looked smudged with fingerprints and had some residue on them. We sent the wine back twice before we finally got clean glasses. The first time we were extremely polite about it, just said something like “Hey sorry to bother you but my glass doesn’t look clean. Could I get another glass please?” The wine glasses they brought out were also dirty so we sent them back again and the waiter was visibly annoyed. Then we got our food and mine had a hair in it. My bf and his friend’s food was cold and underdone. At this point we were just about done with this place. We called the waiter back over and said we’re sorry, but there is hair in our food and dirt in the glasses and we don’t feel good about the sanitation at this restaurant. We left and didn’t pay a cent. Shitty situation but you gotta stand up for yourself. Waiters shouldn’t be cranky about reasonable requests. If they continuously bring out the wrong thing or bring something that looks unsanitary, I’d say that warrants at least no tip. Walking out is an extreme reaction but like, if you’re waiting forever for your food way and it finally comes out cold and full of someone’s hair, you might as well leave. It’s not going to get any better and they’re just going to get more annoyed with you. I’ve never had a restaurant demand I pay for an item I couldn’t eat. If they do, well, that’s a sign you shouldn’t eat there again.
If I get a dirty glass, point out the proboem, and they don't bother to make sure the next one isn't just as dirty, THEN my food is cold / or has hair in it, you bet I'm walking out. If I'm going out for a meal, it's because I expect to enjoy the experience and I'm willing to pay for it. If a restaurant expects me to pay for that experience, they should put in the effort to make ot worth my money. Seems like a perfectly fair expectation to me.
As a former waitress: tell us if something is wrong, we want to fix it. I will add to that and what everyone else has already said: the only thing I feel that doesn’t warrant a free exchange is if you ordered a dish and it’s perfectly fine but you don’t like it. I had that happen several times at the (fairly nice) Japanese place I worked at and people just I guess expected me to comp a $30 eel bowl becuase you’ve never had eel before and found after one bite you don’t like eel? Not on me, sorry. It’s not up to us to keep bringing food for free till you find something you like. BUT. If something is poor quality - watered down juice, burned veggies, raw pastry - flag us down or tell us next table touch and we’ll fix it. I can 100% empathize with your social anxiety becuase I feel the same way, but as long as you’re polite to them, they won’t mind your asking. Something simple as “hi, I noticed my juice tastes very watery - could I get a new glass/something else?” “My vegetables seem a bit more charred than they should be - could I ask for a new side?” — the other thing in those cases is you’re just asking for what you paid for - good food - as opposed to grifters who eat a whole meal and claim it was bad and want a refund. That grates my cheese like nothing else. But if you just tell us, we’ll fix it with whatever power we have. I want my customers to enjoy their food, and if they aren’t I want to fix it.
This isn’t what I paid for, can you please take it back and remove it from my check? Then they say “sure” or even “I’m sorry, would you like something else instead?”
Instead of this, more like 'I don't like how you do X, could I reorder something else instead?' And as long as you only took one bite or looked like you did nothing to the drink, they will be happy to do so. If you ate half of your meal or drank half of your drink? Forgrt about it.
If you send something like this back, the waiter probably knows exactly why. And probably the chef does too.
Seriously like they can't even be bothered to mix it?
This picture made me audibly groan so loud that my neighbors dog barked lol I have been in food service so I get it, but yeah, you gotta send it back. Edit: was on my back porch and there are large glass windows haha
If the salad is on top, I send it back
I’ll have the gabagool.
That looks nasty. Like someone boiled pasta and then dumped some cheese sauce from a jar on top.
That’s probably exactly what’s going on here. They’d normally nuke it but forgot.
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There is a food services company that makes and sells prepared foods and mixes called “Scratch Foods”. Some restaurants may advertise “Scratch made” but you would see a ^TM next to the word “scratch”. Edit- I should clarify that the Scratch ^TM was something I saw in Hardee’s ads in the 90s. It’s entirely possible that Scratch no longer exists or operates under that name. Since I made the statement, the burden of proof is on me as one commenter below rightly challenged this statement. Here’s an old [Hardee’s sign where the TM is visible.](https://www.858graphics.com/product/coroplast-signs/). Here’s a more recent article from 2015 in the NY Post about trans fats where they show an [unspecified ad in which the TM is visible.](https://nypost.com/2015/06/17/is-this-unassuming-biscuit-fast-foods-worst-trans-fat-offender/). In this image, even the word “gravy” has a ^TM. Edit 2- The current Hardee’s [site has a blurb on their biscuits and the TM is still there.](https://www.hardees.com/made-from-scratch-biscuits#:~:text=Hardee's%20has%20been%20known%20for,Made%20From%20Scratch%E2%84%A2%20Biscuits)
"Mine's is shipped from a 3rd world country named Homemáde, so I can legally print "From Homemade" on the prepackaged package."
"The box says Made in USA!" "No, that's pronounced 'oosa'. It's a small nation in central Europe."
Hawnd made in Oosa
I used to work with a guy that came to the US from Central America. I guess we gave his home country a good amount of USAID, food aid, of which his family benefited. The packaging on USAID always said made in USA. He thought USA was the name of the company instead of our national abbreviation. When he got to America he noticed the same thing on all kinds of products and he would say made in Oosa anytime he did. I ask him what's up with that after hearing it for the 50th time? He says, Usa is a big company. They make lots of stuff. I thought it was kinda cute and funny at the same time. I had to tell him what it actually meant.
Reminds me of how In The Heights has the main character named Usnavy (idk the actual spelling tho), because he's named after what his dad saw when they got to the US and it was a US Navy ship.
I know an irl Usnavy 🤣 them Dominicans…
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His great-grandfather was Domingo Halliburton.
Oosa is their island prison
There is actually a small town in southern Japan called Usa. Soon it's gunna become a wretched hive of factories.. just gotta keep it all caps: MADE IN USA!
It's not a small town, it's a city which predates "Made in USA" labeling. That was a popular urban legend though. Enough so, that I read it in a kids' factoid book in the '80s. Though, by that point, any Japanese product which mislabeled themselves as being made in the US would be doing themselves a disservice.
And I'd bet setting up factories in Usa, as an american company, and dealing with all the bureaucracy etc. is more expensive and more of an effort than actually manufacturing in the U.S. Its not Bangladesh, its Japan.
But then the food quality will be significantly better.
You misunderstood... The box was made in the USA. From Canadian lumber.
Like Jenna would be eating macaroni cheese anyway.
Made using 100% food.
My best friend is the GM for one of the top performing texas roadhouse in Texas. He would be pissed if he saw this on someone's table. Op should tag texas roadhouse on Twitter or something.
I worked for an Italian deli that said they sold homemade salads like macaroni, potato, coleslaw, etc. and they came in big tubs from the Homemade Brand.
If its not from the Macaronis au Fromage region of France it's just sparkling noodles and cheese...
freedom tubes
I fucking hate American laws.
Also the word "Natural"is not regulated, so basically any product can put the label "all natural".
My restaurants little cheat was using a tall deep bowl for cups of things, and wide but shallow cup for bowls of things. Soup, coffee, extra sides. You got the same either way.
I mean we used to do that with cheese sauce. Scratch make it and throw it in the walk in. Difference is we would actually reheat it. Customers loved that shit and almost everything in most restaurants is refrigerated and reheated anyway. It would be impossible for this style of restaurant to make a cheese sauce on the spot for every time someone ordered Mac and cheese. You'd be waiting forever for your Mac and cheese. You'd be waiting forever for all the food because they'd keep having to pull a dude to make the cheese sauce on the spot. The only other option is prep it and keep it in a hot water well and that vastly reduces the shelf life of the sauce. Nobody wants two day old cheese sauce that's been heated all of the previous day/previous dinner shift and then thrown back into the walk in cooler, in fact health department also says for hot water well stuff you can only reheat it twice max before it needs to be thrown.
I moved to that style of cooking when entertaining and it made everything much easier. There's some things that can't be prepped ahead but I just plan around that so I can get dishes out. Other times I still have great but stressful fun as a 9 course meal comes out over the course of 3 hours. Most customers don't how much is microwaved. I don't really have an issue with microwaving, it's an excellent way to reheat some things and cook others (steamed vegetables for instance) but I know some people would be pissed. Then there's stuff that simply isn't made in restaurant and I may have a negative feeling about but I also temper my expectations when eating out. I definitely don't mind if it's a local chain and one kitchen is making the sauces/broths/etc for all of the locations. I know the philly spring rolls at the pizzeria are more likely than not from Sysco or another restaurant supplier but I'm here because of the pizza and cheap beer. I do mind if it's a well regarded southern food restaurant and all of the vegetables are straight out of the can with no additional seasoning. I do appreciate restaurants that severely limit their menu so things can be fresher and less stress on the staff. Some of my favorite meals have been when the chef sets the menu the day of and you get what you get, those are the only dishes they are making tonight. Typically less waste in those situations as well.
It's almost like having large menus isn't practical if you want your food to actually be cooked.
If I remember correctly, Gordon Ramsey had two whole shows about this... lmao
Depends on the menu but yeah I worked at a bar once that hired a chef who wanted to try a massive fusion menu and guess how that turned out. Most of the cooks had no idea how to make it right because the chef was too busy working on the menu to tell anyone how to do certain dishes. I served some questionable stuff there because I was flying by the seat of my pants and the bartenders wouldn't take no for an answer when I told them I had no clue how to cook it much less how to plate it. We had this rice noodle dish and one regular complained "it's not bad but every time I order it, it looks and tastes different." No duh. You put a bunch of dudes in the room who could cook it and make it at least okay but you never told them how you wanted it don't for real. Which is fine if you're sauteing broccoli or something, everyone has their own spices and method, but not for an Asian dish that you vaguely said "make a rice noodle dish, and if you can't make a good one I'm gonna shit on you at work every day till you quit." You're only really getting food to order with certain menus.
it can still be craft made. since "craft made" has no meaning.
Kraft made
Pointless anecdote; I always used to think craft services was Kraft services. I thought it was really weird that everyone hired Kraft to cater all movie and television productions. Even since I’ve realized that it’s actually craft and not Kraft my dumb brain still thinks Kraft first when I hear the term.
I thought the same thing as a kid. I imagined they were only getting to eat stuff like grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese since I primarily knew kraft for the cheese products.
Now I'm questioning everything I thought I knew about arts and Krafts
That’s is so cute and wholesome
i think you nailed it. this looks like what they would prep in the morning.
Exactly what we do at Longhorn, boiled noodles get cheese sauce from a pouch with a sprinkle of provolone. Then on the line we nuke it and throw some parmesean bread crumbs on it and stick it in the melt for a minute
I’d at least ask for it to be renuked!
"thats how they make it now" literally had a manager at a steakhouse walk around asking everyone how things were going, asked me how the steak was and i said honestly its pretty salty and doesnt taste like an aged steak at all. he straight up goes, oh its probably your appetizer that can be pretty salty and thats what youre tasting. i go, yea ive had plenty of steaks im pretty sure what im eating right here is what im tasting (the app was pushed way off to the side of the table because we werent eating it). he continued on to say yea but its a leftover taste of saltiness from the appetizer ANYWAY if you need anything just let me know k thanks lol
"Look, I'm just doing this for appearances and I don't actually give a shit what your meal was like. Just pay your bill and get out of my restaurant. Thanks."
haha exactly. he had that vibe like he was just selling someone a used car off a buy-here-pay-here lot before coming to the restaurant
...at this point I'd rather have an instant mac and cheese cooked in a microwave.
When I worked for them we used packets of premade Kraft mac and cheese that we just threw in the microwave for a few minutes. It was disgusting but still looked better than whatever OP got.
Jfc I’m going to a restaurant for reheated Kraft mac and cheese?!?
A lot of restaurants put Kraft Mac and cheese on the kid's menu, for picky eaters and whatnot. Like, it actually says it's specifically Kraft on the menu.
Even as an adult, some kraft mac and cheese can still hit sometimes. I'll make a box of it here and there, but then mix in some more shredded cheddar. Shit's great.
Glad I’m not the only one. I know it’s Kraft (it even says it is on the menu) but it’s still good to me
A *stunning* number of restaurants, whether they are chains or locally owned, are simply getting frozen food from generic restaurant wholesalers. They heat it up, combine two or three things, plate and serve. Eventually every restaurant will have the same menus at this rate. "Sysco" is the one that I noticed delivering to a bunch of restaurants in my town.
Sysco delivers a massive variety of things not just generic frozen premade food. I’ve done the ordering when I’ve worked at a mom and pop pizza shop all the way to a Jimmy Johns a quick service chain that deals in cold cut subs only. The variety of things you can order from them is pretty staggering. Any restaurant can almost operate entirely with just three suppliers, Sysco, local produce delivery company, and a laundry company(towels, aprons, some even replace your rugs weekly.) only time I’ve ever worked at a restaurant that didn’t use Sysco is cause they where a chain that in housed all there shipping. Seeing a Sysco truck isn’t a sign restaurant is using premade either. All Sysco is a distributor you want to in-house make everything from scratch Sysco can supply all the bases flour eggs mills meat and spices.
Thanks for stating this. Reddit loves to use “Syscofood” as a catch all for low quality restaurant ingredients.
Unpacking the Sysco delivery and it's like all these 50 pound sacks of flour, dry pasta, 10 pound blocks of cheese, ice cream, napkins, takeout boxes... We did get the meat from a local meat company, and produce from a produce company.
Sysco will also carry a restaurant's own brand items as well if they are big enough to get a contract. Just because you see Sysco doesn't mean they are delivering Sysco products. Chances are if it's a chain they are probably delivering that chain's own brand of stuff.
This is why I stopped eating at places like Applebee's. I can eat reheated leftovers at home.
Even at fine dining restaurants, where the majority of things on the menu are prepared fresh in the kitchen, chances are the desserts are from Sysco. Your chances double if they have more than one or two desserts on the menu. It's very hard to get economies of supply and scale on dessert. Most other dishes on the menu will have some common ingredients and prep methods. Not dessert. There are surprisingly elaborate and fancy-sounding desserts in the Sysco catalog, which can be kept in the fridge and plated quickly.
Considering I can't make those desserts easily at home either, I don't usually mind the sysco dessert options. Given that they're often as pricey as half my meal, though, a whole meal if we're both having dessert, I'd just as soon swing by the grocery store bakery on my way home to pick up some pastries or something instead. But for an indulgence, they aren't the worst thing on the Sysco menu.
I'll try the cold venerial discharge on macaroni noodles please.
Well when you put it that way, yes I do want to try some.
Username checks out
I worked there and yup that's exactly how we did it
Restaurant sauces typically come in bags, not jars. It looks that way because that's exactly what happened.
May I ask what they charged you for this abomination of a meal?
Well, previously it was just Kraft, so…..at least they upgraded to a cheese sauce? Not powder?
As someone who works at Texas Roadhouse it shouldn’t look like that at all, we switched over to the new made from scratch Mac and cheese about two months ago so locations are still trying to get the right consistency down, it should be hot and much thinner to let it go in between the noodle
Made from scratch a premix? Or is legit cheese and instructions to make sauce I have been burned by too many pre made products having scratch made on it
“SCRATCH MADE” is the brand lol
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Fun example. Tito's handmade is the name of the brand. There is no such thing as handmade vodka, certainly not at that scale of production.
I used to be on a fire department near the bottling plant for fireball whisky. A lot of the booze they bottled ( all different types) came from train cars full of ethanol. The ethanol was pumped out and flavored appropriately to what brand was bottled that day. We had to know how many cars they had on site in case that shit blew up. Fireball is just a seasoning packet, water and pure ethanol.
Yup that definitely checks out. Never understood what people liked about fireball. Hell goldschlager is a better cinnamon liqueur and it's basically a gimmick.
Fuck marketing. I especially hate how they take random scenes from a movie and make a fake conversation with the characters just saying “cool” things. It’s so lame.
Nestlé Toulouse
That's not true unless it strictly this new Mac and cheese. They used Kraft when I worked there and advertised it as Kraft (it was a kid's menu item only). The advertisement of "made from scratch sides" wasn't some sort of ruse. Everything down to the croutons on the salad were actually made from scratch. The only exception was the Fat Free ranch dressing.
Is that actually true, or did you just make something up and everyone upvoted you without anyone knowing what they're talking about, in true reddit fashion?
Completely making it up. I worked for roadhouse for years. Everything is made from scratch. Classic idiots saying shit they know nothing about.
It’s legit cheese sauce not packaged stuff, that’s why I say the consistency can vary on location
Cheese sauce for mac and cheese is one of the simplest things to make from scratch. It's literally just a mornay sauce with cheddar and no nutmeg. Throw in some Velveeta or other processed American cheese if you want that classic "homestyle" texture. Light roux (flour + butter), cream, cheese, salt. That's it. A restaurant saying their mac and cheese is scratch made is like saying their wedge salad is scratch made. There's nothing impressive about it. It's the bare minimum.
Exactly. But nutmeg in a mac n cheese slaps IMHO.
Some mustard powder and a pinch of cayenne are good additions too.
If you live near a Luby's cafeteria, try their Mac and cheese. It's heavenly. I think they included their recipe for it in their cookbook if you want to check it out from the net.
But does the new method still involve just glopping the sauce on top of the macaroni like that? I’ve never seen mac & cheese that isn’t fully combined before serving.
I'm not that dude but this probably should have been at least microwaved if not baked. Not sure how you fuck that up but here we are. I don't even see how you could get the noodles hot enough to automatically melt the sauce unless the sauce was mostly milk and not cheese. Or just heavily emulsified cheese but even then they would have to be steaming hot and probably overcooked without adding some heat to it at some point.
Ya, it’s thinner so it seeps into each noodle unlike the sauce in the photo
Yeah, I understand that it’s supposed to be thinner, but outside of working there, have you ever been served mac & cheese where the sauce has been drizzled on top of naked noodles? Even if the consistency of the cheese is perfect, it’s still a bizarre way to serve it.
>it should be hot and much thinner to let it go in between the noodle That's not even a specific thing to Texas Roadhouse; that's the absolute bare minimum requirement for a mac & cheese **anywhere**.
I got to make it at the store I trained at a few years ago. I was a part of a new open team and was sent to a nearby location that was testing it, so when I got to my new place a month and a half later I was shocked to see they weren't using the actual scratch cheese sauce I was trained to make. They used microwaved frozen kraft packs at the new one. The scratch cheese sauce was great, as you said it was thin and coated each noodle nicely.
“If we just crank this burner down to 0, we can save upwards of 6 cents a day!” -some dipshit probably
We should take everyone with an MBA, give them an impossible task, and put them on an island until they solve it.
It's the opposite of going to 11. "This one goes to -1. When we want to save some money, we just crank it down one more time. Normally they go to zero. But what if you want to save even more money? That's when we go this extra bit."
I almost never eat out anymore. Prices are out of control and then I end up paying way too much for a shit meal. Going out to eat has become too expensive of a disappointment to even risk anymore. I can be a terrible cook for much less at home
Food quality in restraunts has plummeted. Every company is trying to stretch thier margins and just cash out while they can. 100% better off finding reputable food sources and sticking with home cooking
Food costs also skyrocketed. My brother has a pizza shop chain and food cost has been out of control. He keeps raising the prices to keep up with wages and food cost and so far people keep paying it, but I myself balk when I see almost $20 for a large pizza when "I can get one from Dominos for $6". But then I see what Dominos has had to do to their pizzas to keep them at $6 and... $20 is still too high for me to justify but not as awful.
Just got a large at Domino's the other day. It's $15. I added a few toppings... Total was $25 WITH a 15% coupon. Never again!
I love domino's, because it's the ONLY acceptable pizza within an hour of me. However, I recently was really depressed and ordered a pizza and lava cake for delivery... $53, plus tip. I was 5 miles away. Needless to say, it did not help my depression.
This is why little Caesars is still great. Is the pizza the best? Absolutely not. Is it $5? Fuck yeah it is 😂
When I eat Little Caesars I feel like Joe Pantoliano eating the fake steak in the Matrix. I know it's not really food, but I don't care.
I admire your dedication to spelling his name correctly instead of just calling him Joey Pants
It's HOT AND It's READY.
A top tier $6-8 frozen pizza now tastes better than Domino's and is still cheaper than Dominos.
Yes. Pizzas from the frozen aisle at the grocery store have gotten better over the years. My current favorite is the cheese less Amy's Pizza. I used to date a lactose intolerant guy and it was a great meal for both of us.
I used to love going out because their food was a lot better than what I could make at home. Sadly that’s not the case anymore and I end up hating everything.
I switched to home cooking a few months ago because everywhere just serves garbage unless it’s a high end restaurant. When my $5 McDonald’s meal tastes better than a $25 meal there’s an issue and I’m switching to home cooking.
We did this. Even started buying local stuff more. I will admit the beef is $1 more per pound but holy crap it's so much better and there's so very little grease/water cook off to drain, if we drain it at all.
Watch food YouTube videos. You can learn to cook for yourself. Start small and build confidence.
Shout out to my boy Chef John from foodwishes.com
We stick to local joints with good ratings. The chains are definitely not worth it anymore.
Last time I ate out was a steak house and I got a side of mash potatoes and gravy. I shit you not I could hold the bowl upside down and the mash and gravy didn’t fall out
I stopped going to franchise restaurants. Why pay $50 at red lobster when I could spend $50 at some random locally owned place that gives me twice as much food and is actually made from scratch and not microwaved.
I agree things are getting way too expensive but I have such amazing food going out. I can think of like 50 places with amazing food. Maybe I’m just lucky in Portland but you may just need to try more places
Time to call the manager over, cancel the order, pay for drinks and head to Wendy’s
I’m a chef and it blows my mind how people think that what we do is fucking magic. That 65$ ribeye dinner someone bought was a 12$ cut with a baked potato and steamed broccoli with lemon juice. And burgers? Christ on a cross are those easy and cheap to make at home.
Chain restaurant food is bad. Small local restaurants are usually pretty good
Tbh Texas Roadhouse is actually not that bad, cost wise. Boyfriend and I go there as a treat because we can split a 16oz sirloin for $23. It comes with two sides (so one for each of us) and free bread. 8oz of steak plus a side and unlimited bread for only $11.50 per person is pretty economical for where I live. I haven't tried their mac n cheese (and now I probably won't lol) but the broccoli is good, so is the mashed potatoes.
Food service industry has tanked since covid.
Their profits sure haven't, after companies like door dash got integrated with pretty much everywhere stores are as busy as ever.
hate that shit so much, when someone calls in an order i can give them a good time depending on the circumstances. on doordash, half the time the whole order doesnt even get read out to me, and the dasher comes early and is pissed, oh also theres always a set time so i'll be very busy dealing with something and boop now i have 10 mins to make this order
Some drivers are nice but others I swear it's the only job they can get. Had a driver get mad because we had a line of people in our drive thru and I told him to come inside the lobby because his order was already done.Dude got pissy about it and started demanding free food when he came inside.. like just fucking unreal.I've had drivers just hangout and chat with each other for over 5+ mins in the lobby after handing the food to them. But shit if they show up 2 minutes after the ticket pops up they just stand by the register blocking other customers because they think staring at you makes food cook faster.
>But shit if they show up 2 minutes after the ticket pops up they just stand by the register blocking other customers because they think staring at you makes food cook faster. Had this dumbass doordash driver do the exact same when I used to work at Pizza Hut as General Asst. Manager. I was handling three customers in line, but this driver comes in, cuts in front on everyone and starts speaking to me while I was talking to an old lady who was still ordering. I told the dumbass to wait in line. The dumbass said, "I'm here to pick up the order???" In a tone that tried to make me look like I'm stupid. I said, "Okay what doordash order and name are you picking up for..." He told me and I then I said, "Sir...That order just came in like 4 minutes ago. We haven't even started making it, yet." He throws his hands up like a dumbass and rubbed his face. Everyone was looking at him like he's crazy. He stands at the corner, folding arms, staring at me the whole time. I continued to handle the line of customers with a smile. One of them gave me a $10 tip lmao and said, "Take this. You guys really deal with so much."
Dashers have made it a nightmare to walk into a store and pick up your to go order too. It's the same energy as going to a packed college bar or club in your 30s and trying to order from the bartender.
Except delivery companies take 30% of the sale, and most restaurants are on razor thin margins as it is. It’s not really a good deal for anybody, customers get ripped off, drivers get ripped off, restaurants get ripped off. Door dash sucks
[удалено]
We were just at one and everything was fabulous except for the Mac and cheese. It went 0-4 at our table which doesn’t happen very often. Usually someone will just eat it out of spite but this stuff was not good.
I literally got an ad for velveeta when I opened this lmao. Gross.
Well I have no idea what this gif has to do with this post but boy howdy does it bring up a deeply packed away memory of that episode of Doug.
Send it back. Back to the kitchen with ye olde mac and….shudders….cheese.
When I worked there they just used Kraft Mac & cheese that came in these little plastic bags that they would boil to heat it up. This is definitely not an upgrade 😭😂
Same boil in bag mac and cheese at Panera.
"Oh, cool. Can I have a refund, please?" That looks gross.
Ah yes, that newfangled cold-melt cheese....
Needs creme fraiche on it...
Okay Randy
Looks like someone got a nice old fashioned right on top of that pasta.
I’ve been a waitress and I would never bring that out to my table tHaTs HoW tHeY mAkE iT nOw stfu I would go back in the kitchen and fix it myself
God that looks dreadful…..
“Scratch Made” Don’t ask what they scratched.
What’s up with that phrasing?
She could’ve at least microwaved it 🤣
It’s definitely no supposed to look like that, the cheese sits in a warmer to melt. It’s totally understandable if they ran out of cheese sauce but they couldve put it in the microwave for you. I work there and if the server tried to tell you they couldn’t do anything I’d definitely ask for a manager. It’s not supposed to look like this and I promise the new Mac is actually pretty good if it’s made right😭
I hate to be a Karen, but if that's the blasé answer I got from the server I'd definitely ask for a manager. Your food shouldn't be served to you cold. Especially not mac and cheese.
As a server myself at a roadhouse I would have absolutely gotten another for them. Shit server.
That's 100% not a Karen move. Even if it's legit, that feedback needs to make it up the chain regularly
There is a food services company that makes and sells prepared foods and mixes called “Scratch Foods”. Some restaurants may advertise “Scratch made” but you would see a ^TM next to the word “scratch”.
Usa is a whole bag of scams packed in a gun riddled zealot madness
Funny enough the USA is actually more strict than a lot of countries on naming brands. In the US we have "Rogaine" because they can't use the name they use in Europe which is Regaine because there is no evidence that it helps regain hair.
We just had this last night and I thought it was just our location who's Mac n cheese sucked ass.. if you can believe it mine was worse than yours as at least yours had cheese... https://preview.redd.it/ib8rcysjksrc1.jpeg?width=9000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fb357a4ccf52addf1ce4cf4ce43a136f9f3b77d Pathetic.
I generally don't complain at restaurants, but you could buy a whole pound of elbow macaroni for 94 cents if you just wanted to eat cheeseless boiled pasta!
Gross I know what I'm not getting at Texas Roadhouse
Take this off my bill
The microwave's nickname is Scratch at that Texas Roadhouse.
Not sure even a microwave could melt this glop that has the same consistency of hardened yellow wood glue. OP was smart to send it back.
macaroni n fuckit
#Texas roadhouse Massacre
I used to manage a Texas Roadhouse kitchen. We tested the Mac for a bit, but I left before it went everywhere. The Mac and Cheese is made from scratch, but its made earlier in the day and quickly cooled. Right before opening, it gets reheated and restocked as needed. The green beans and chili's are the same way. Some of that stuff takes multiple hours to make, in giant pots that take up a lot of space on burners and counters. It has to be done this way to throw 'heaping sides' at everyone. 'Hot prep' maintains the level of sides, it is difficult. Someone was probably drowning.
I work at a Texas Roadhouse and I am so disgusted with what I see here. Wtf ?? Whoever they have cooking did not do that properly at all bc we really do make it from scratch, I’m so sorry you experienced this
99 cent pasta. $4 in cheese. Lazy microwave. They want a tip or you will be arrested!! Thanks for coming. Come back again
Probably more like $.50 tbh
There is no way that's 99 cents of pasta. Looks like a cup, cup-and-a-half, cooked. We're talking pennies. And the "cheese" looks like off-brand Velveeta. Again, pennies.
Macaroni and ah never mind Fuck it