Friday Fun: 10 Dirty Restaurant Tricks

Ok, I know this one stretches any reasonable definition of the word "fun."

But in my defense, I think a few good cringes is a great way to celebrate Friday the 13th.

Over on Slashfood, one of my favourite foodie blogs, there's a couple of recent posts on 10 Dirty Little Restaurant Secrets and 10 More Dirty Restaurant Tricks, basically focusing on the disgusting and revolting shortcuts that restaurants take to save a little time and, mostly, money.

A couple of my "favourites" from the second post, based on reader comments to the first post:

10. Reusing Leftovers

70s waitress said: "When I worked in a diner in PA in the 70's, people loved their bread stuffing. Little did they know that it was made from all of the leftover rolls that were on diner's plates and in the breadbaskets that went back to the kitchen to the dishwasher. Often the dishwasher would pick the half eaten rolls off the plates with her dirty hands, sometimes drop them on the floor, and then throw them into a big can under the work table. To this day, I will never order anything from a restaurant that has bread stuffing!"

*snip*

8. The Waitstaff Nibbles on Your Entree Before It's Served to You

dinergrl said: "YES... WE EAT OFF UR PLATES B4 THEY COME OUT!!! We dont get breaks & get hungry too!! So if u order something & it looks tastey we may grab off it! Ex. fries, clam strips, cut up pieces of chicken... nothing big though... even our managers do it!!"