13+ Things You Shouldn’t Eat at a Restaurant

The people they consulted for this article are complete morons.  It is okay to order water at a restaurant.

Hmmmm….  I wonder why they would encourage you to buy a bottled or canned beverage…  Whats the biggest markup on again?

really stupid suggestions… stay at home!

So what can I order?? There’s not much left to choose from….

Someone needs to brush up on his math.  $10 for an item costing $3.64 is, roughly, a 175% markup.

All I could load was the page 1 about iceberg lettuce.
Why don’t you put the WHOLE article on continuous pages so I can just read the article without waiting forever for the next page to load….bet most people don’t have the patience or time to click through 16 pages even if it does load quickly.

Just so you know, restaurant prices are created using the rule of thirds. Everything is marked up to at least 3 times it’s cost, not just pizza. Who was your ‘source’? That’s just one of many problems with your list.

I have worked in many fine restraunts.  I never eat salads or cold soups at resturants.  If I must have a salad, I will only eat it if I can have the dressing on the side.

This article was obviously written by a penny pinching germaphobe.  Heaven forbid a restaurant charges more for a meal than the cost of the ingredients. You should eat at home all the time if you feel this way. I guess all restaurants should let us eat at their place for free.

Plus iceberg lettuce has about 172 different pesticides on it.  I am serious, I worked the case as a legal secretary.

ingredients x 3.2  on a 10 to 15 dollar item is standard.
unless you want to go belly up, so the point was?
that is a good deal for that pizza should be $11.65

What’s left to eat?

Well I read the article published on your website (13+
Things You Shouldn’t Eat at a Restaurant, By Sheri Alzeerah) and it was the
worst piece of trash and misinformation I have read in a very long time. In my opinion
the person that wrote this is a moron. Based on this quality of article I will
never subscribe to Readers Digest. Basically is says at a restaurant don’t
drink the water, don’t eat chicken, don’t order Edamame, don’t eat pizza, don’t
order ice cream, don’t eat meat with the bone in, don’t go to Korean BBQ places
that let you cook your own food, etc, etc, etc. Based on that my wife and I
should just stay home and cook our own BBQ food. Oh, wait, braised food from a built-in-grill
is fraught with peril—sneezing people and improper cooking. I guess my wife and
I should just quit eating to be safe. What an absolute joke.

I am sick and tired of the food police.  I’m going to go have an iceberg lettuce salad and meatloaf with gravy.

Who writes this junk?  What fool doesn’t understand that it is cheaper to cook food at home than eat at a restaurant?  What household doesn’t have week-old lettuce, tomatoes, bread, and the rest.  What household hasn’t had kids coughing or sneezing or putting their fingers in food everyone else eats?  Water?  We all drink from the same taps.  I’m going to cook dinner right now.  I’ll open a can of soup, heat up yesterday’s pizza, put some Crystal Lite in a jug of warm water and add ice cubes, and throw together a salad from lettuce and stuff my wife bought four days ago.  Not as tasty as a chicken-fried steak at the local restaurant, but it will do for today.  Maybe a cherry turnover we bought last week for desert.  What’s the difference except I’ve got to do all the work?

ENOUGH is ENOUGH Sheri Alzeerah. TOO MUCH of the DO NOT’s. NOW share some positives of what are the BEST  in restaurant dining. PERHAPS NOT dining OUT is the way to go??????
William A. Klevos, DrPH, MPH,CHES, CNS
Preventive Health Care Specialist
International Consumer Advocate

Yawn, well that was a silly waste of reading.

This really is the most inaccurate and ridiculous article i have read here in a long time !!!

For middle and low end (chain style) restaurants I’ve consistently heard that all salads are problematic, particularly coming off of a salad bars! I don’t think the kind of lettuce matters!  Think how carefully a person has to wash their own produce at home.  Now imagine the food staff being AS detailed, with bulk produce, especially when rushed!  I’d avoid requesting tap water in a glass; as the glasses might have come out of the dishwasher with residue.  A chilled pitcher with a side of lemons is cleaner than than to be tossing pieces into a glass with unwashed fingers.  Anything that’s sat under a warming lamp isn’t optimal.  Especially seafood, and rare meat!  Condiments can easily spoil as they’ve already been sitting outside of the fridge for continual use.  For take-out I watch (or calculate the time) from when the order is placed, to receiving it. A delay… means it isn’t as tasty….  I find a polite reason (+$ tip) for them to re-do the order!   They will naturally speed it up, good naturedly, the second time.  But you NEVER, ever want to alienate the wait staff or the kitchen by making them think it’s their fault!!  I’ve also heard that sauces, soups, casseroles etc., represent left over ingredients from previous day menus.  I’d be worried about “bread pudding” too!  One method to circumvent routine procedures, which might be problematic, is to request something “special” about your order.  It will require extra thought, oversight and detail, ideally helping to track that order in particular.  If you think some of these restaurant examples and experiences are an exaggeration, then don’t think too deeply about what the food staff does OR doesn’t do behind the scenes!  Especially during (exceptionally short) rest breaks, checking email, smoking, fixing hair and makeup.  Then take a second look at the store’s restroom … is it spotless, with a clean soap & towel dispenser, clean counter and sink area???  We think the Health Dept. is doing their job …. and  hope for the best restaurant experience possible, expecially for the money …. but people are only human!  And the “24hr flu” isn’t accidental.

Actually, that’s a 36.4% food cost, which puts you out of business.  You are an idiot, Sheri Alzeera.  Most restaurants spend 80% or more of whatever revenue they bring in before even thinking about overhead costs.  You know, things like rent and utilities.  When are you people ever going to realize you are paying for a service and atmosphere much more than the product itself?  Please shut the F up and either choose to support a business because you enjoy it’s product, or do us all a favor and stay home.  Without that “300%” mark-up, as you so ignorantly call it with complete disregard to the people and facilites which prepare it for you, you would be stuck at home every night anyway because there would be no restaurants to eat at.

Complete B.S. here. The irresponsibility in misinformation appalling. By each case- #2: 100% wrong. Less popular items will probably contain ingredients that will sit around for a long time before they get used up. #3 Are you freaking kidding me? How stupid is the author? #4: By the logic presented, don’t ever touch a door handle ever again, either. #5: There’s no reasoning behind why a bone will cause a cut of meat to char easily. The bone will, however, wick away heat from the meat adjacent to it, but under-cooked pork is no more a danger than beef (antiquated fears of trichinosis). But, to say never order a drumstick ’cause of a bone?! #6: So completely wrong, don’t know where to start. #7: Some truth here, but no more danger than sitting next to sick person on the subway. #8: There’s no reason even given other than…actually, no reason given. #12: What the hell is wrong with ordering chicken? Chicken is good, and can be prepared is inventive ways. #13 Don’t buy pizza because the restaurant expects you to PAY for it. #14: Don’t buy edamame because the restaurant expects you to PAY for it. Fire this author.

If everyone followed the advice of this silly article full of misinformation, no one would ever go out to eat again.  Absolutely ridiculous.

your reporter is a compete moron. why don’t you just name everything! how did this ever get past an editor!

A former server at an up-scale Portland OR restaurant (long out of business) once told me they were under strick orders to:  put unused butter pats back in the cooler; used ones to the kitchen to be melted and used in cooking.  Uneaten dinner rolls back in the warmer.  Those are just the two I can remember.  Went there on a school field trip in the fourth grade.  I wonder what pre-served food items we got at that age.

Don’t eat bone-in meat. Every hear of a rib-eye or T-bone. These are some of the most flavorful cuts partially because they are on the bone! If a restaurant can’t cook it right, don’t eat it. But not to order because of the bone is absurd.
What’s left on your list to eat and enjoy?

Next article should be something like…. why are people such neurotic idiots…. or the dangers of germophobia.

This entire list is ridiculous and geared towards unenlightened rubes. Tap water is fine, pork or chicken cooked medium is, too. Unpasteurized milk is safe and healthier, Korean restaurants are safe, etc. etc. etc. Only a mindless sheep is going to pay heed to this drivel.

Way to just totally bash restaurants.  It’s like you just got consultations until you found someone to say something atrocious and publish it.  What a poor reintroduction to Reader’s Digest for me to come upon… forget you RD!

Idiotic article.

geez   why eat out?  you can’t eat or drink anything

This article is useless.  Don’t eat popular items, don’t eat fish, don’t eat meat with bones, don’t eat popular appetizers, don’t eat the salad b/c it costs too much, don’t drink the free water.  Basically it says – don’t eat at a restaurant.  

Seriously, you have too much text on each page. you need to break it down into smaller sizes.

13 things spread out over 22 pages? Really? Can’t you fit anymore text on one page? If you try hard enough, you could probably squeeze in some more advertising. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!!!

 Journalists can’t do math: “One New York City pizzeria spends $3.64 on ingredients for a margherita pizza and sells it for $10—that’s a 300 percent markup.”No, it’s not. A 100 percent markup would be $7.28. A 200 percent markup would be $1… 0.93. A 300 percent markup would be $14.57. “Double” is 100 percent, “triple” is 200 percent, “quadruple” is 300 percent, etc. Why people still make this mistake and THEN ARGUE ABOUT IT is beyond me.

Completely disagree on chicken.  Firehouse in Portland makes a thyme-scented roast chicken that kicks the arse out of anything I’ve ever made at home.

Is this Deena?  lol  :-)

It must be Deena’s lol :-)

Is there any thing left to eat. Others are so right there is much more than just the cost of the food.

If they added anything else, we’d be living in a bubble.

i worked as a chef for 20 yrs & almost everyday i pissed ,shit,spit & even wacked off on peoples food,,esp ladies :)