Ruby Tuesday's "Demo"

[Glaive]

Originally Posted by Hathe

Both statements are correct.

I've been in my families restaurant business my entire life and I can tell you that chain restaurants do not give a shit about the quality of their food, only profit margin. Chain businesses lower the quality of the food a great deal, whether or not it passes USDA inspection is not what the health inspector is looking for. Just whether the food is cooked properly and the business is sanitary enough for the volume they run, amongst many other minor details that may lead to the degradation of the quality of food and/or sanitation. That's just common sense. It's not the health inspector's business as to what you're cooking - just if it's cooked at the proper temperature and handled properly to prevent transfer of possible disease.

It's also worth noting that while some larger chains may indeed employ a private company to periodically inspect them and make sure they're up to government standards (not all of which have any real bearing on quality of food or even safety), inspections by the actual health department in most parts of the country are incredibly rare.

You generally have to get a direct complaint about a place, often more than one, in order to get the actual health department to come out. It's rare enough that quite a few places feel they can "play the odds".

Most people's home kitchens are unsanitary as hell, and in my experience a lot of smaller family-run restaurants don't take sanitation quite as seriously as they perhaps should. Food quality is generally higher there, though. While they might not pay as much attention to a lot of the more nit-picky semi-insane rules the local department of health may have, they generally take enough pride in what they produce that you're pretty safe eating there. I've gotten food poisoning several times and every single time it was from a big chain restaurant (two of those times were from Chili's).

Conversely, I've known many people who've worked at big chain restaurants like Chili's or whatever else and they've told me many horror stories about the kitchens there. Fundamentally, for the vast majority of the people who work there it's a shit job and they just don't give a damn. They'll generally do what they need to in order to not get fired and that's about it. The abuse you get from customers and the borderline-retarded management at places like that pretty much nullify any chance of you seriously taking pride in your job.

[Cybsled]

Franchise restaurants do well because they are familiar to people. You can usually expect a somewhat consistent dining experience on average. So if you're in an unfamiliar part of the country, you may be more apt to stop at a Chillis then you will be to stop at Uncle Jeb's Shrimp Shack.

Local restaurants can be hit or miss. Let's not pretend every non-franchise restaurant is a bastion of good flavor and quality. For every gem there's a dozen turds.

[hootie2]

I honestly dont think you guys have enough experience with a small restaurant.

Yes the Quality of the food can be above average, the things i see going on in the kitchen scare me a hell of alot more then a chain restaurant.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Originally Posted by Cybsled

Franchise restaurants do well because they are familiar to people. You can usually expect a somewhat consistent dining experience on average. So if you're in an unfamiliar part of the country, you may be more apt to stop at a Chillis then you will be to stop at Uncle Jeb's Shrimp Shack.

Local restaurants can be hit or miss. Let's not pretend every non-franchise restaurant is a bastion of good flavor and quality. For every gem there's a dozen turds.

True that. God bless Perkins.

[Kaige]

Speaking of the "aids" comment, just because that apple or tomato looks good and fresh from the produce stand, doesn't mean it won't kill you any less. Wash that shit when you get it home. The fruit and/or vegetable will murder your insides because of all the people that touched it before you. Take it from a former produce clerk, old people are fucking disgusting diseased animals that don't bathe and are infested with germs. They won't spend one fucking dollar on that produce, but they'll touch it and fondle it for a while before they put it back and go over to the candy aisle to buy 50 bucks worth of M&M's. Half of the old people that would come into our store would smell fruit by putting it up right against their noses/lips and then putting it back. I hated that shit and plucked any of them I saw, but I couldn't save them all.

Doing that job and dealing with shipping companies, customers, and just handling, it was kind of scary some of the stuff you see. If you think its just the resteraunts to fear, you're mistaken.

[Hathe]

Originally Posted by hootie2

I honestly dont think you guys have enough experience with a small restaurant.

Yes the Quality of the food can be above average, the things i see going on in the kitchen scare me a hell of alot more then a chain restaurant.

So we're arguing the lesser or greater of two evils. Regardless, human beings are unsanitary. This is not due to whether they're a "mom and pop" business or a chain of restaurants. It's the fact that the requirement to work in a place that handles food is little to none. Chances are if Juan Martinez gets fired from "FOOD PLACE_01", he can get a job at "FOOD_PLACE_02" getting the same pay without question.

If you want to get pissed off about how some restaurant isn't sanitary, blame the health code and the requirement to work there. I sure as hell don't eat anywhere unless I know the management well. Also, re-read previous post(s). I help run a family business.

[Occido]

There's a handful of "mom and pop" places I go to because their food is BY FAR superior to any chain restaurant I've been too. Also, from what I've seen of these small places, they handle their food and kitchen much much better than any of the chain places around here.
Couldn't tell ya if it's because chain restaurants are lazy with who they hire or how they handle inspections, but from what I've seen of the little joints, they handle their business with pride and hard work to keep the place running top notch, and make sure their food taste great. Same goes for fast food, I prefer the "hole in the wall" joints over say Taco Bell, though TB has some good food, but the one here in town anyway doesn't hold a candle to any "hole in the wall" joint around here.
In fact, the Taco Bell here in town just had it's ENTIRE work crew fired. Both day and night shifts were canned. It's an entire new staff including new manager and shift leaders.

So from personal experience ( I as well own a family business ) can say that the "mom and pop/hole in the wall" restaurants tend to take care of their business better. From what I've seen anyway.

[Fro]

One thing to note about my original post. Just because produce fails USDA inspection doesn't not mean it is unsafe to eat with the proper cutting off of rotten parts. I only use blooming onions as an example since it was the most disgusting thing I was forced to ship out of my warehouse. 1/4 of the onions in the bags were just soup laying on top of other onions marinating them. USDA came out to inspect and failed them with 60% minor and 28% major problems. I have since moved on from produce but if memory serves me correctly major problems nust be less than 9% to pass. Well the regional Outback manager came and cleared them for his restaurants to use. I have never in my life smelled 10,000 dirty socks rotting in a pile of piss and sweat but smelling those onions that was the only thought that came to my mind.


True not all "ma & pa" places are the best in the world, but in my experience they care much more about the quality of the food they buy then the chains do.

edit:The main point is that chains in general do things with food that most if not all of you would NEVER do in your own kitchens.

[Regime]

Originally Posted by Chips

Well I am a white South African, but I'm an American citizen now.

I don't know what blacks in South Africa tip, mostly because they dig their food out of trash cans.

The Boer, Dave Matthews than you.

Jesus South Africa is a shithole.

[Snugglebear]

Originally Posted by Occido

... though Taco Bell has some good food...

Just shut the fuck up man!

[dechire]

Originally Posted by GrobbeeTrull2.0

Astrocreep:

Ruby Tuesday (restaurant) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (First Restaurant: 1972)

Applebee's - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (First Restaurant: 1980)

Who's copying who?

Chili's first location, a converted postal station on Greenville Avenue in Dallas, Texas, opened on March 13, 1975.

and its been pretty much the same place since then. /shrug

qq bennegins is gone.

[Fro]

Still plenty of Bennigan's here in Baltimore if you go to the ghetto. The blacks love them some Bennigan's.

[Eomer]

Originally Posted by Feduke

ive been told indian people dont tip because waiters are lower on the caste system than them.

Fuck, just be glad they don't try to renegotiate the bill after you give it to them.

[Feduke]

i've worked at this little privately owned mexican vegetarian restaurant for almost a year now. havn't seen anything too gross. while doing prep if a tomato or onion if slighlty rotted or decayed you just peel off the first few layers, or cut off the rotten bit and use the rest. not that big of a deal.

we got a complaint from some angry customer, citing to the health department that we had a drain in the kitchen which is against code i guess.

next day health inspector showed up.. nothing really bad happened (worst was when shaking the breading off the calamari before going into the fryer one guy puts the mixing bowl to catch the excess breading right ontop/resting inside the trash can, right infront of the inspector)

luckily she didnt see the recently found animal skull soaking in a bucket of bleach underneath the baking area..

[Lefazz]

Originally Posted by hootie2

I honestly dont think you guys have enough experience with a small restaurant.

Yes the Quality of the food can be above average, the things i see going on in the kitchen scare me a hell of alot more then a chain restaurant.

Don't you people watch Kitchen Nightmares!? After seeing some of that shit, I am definitely sticking to chain restaurants.