10 things you need to consider before ordering in a restaurant
This is part 2 of the article. You can read part 1 here.
Having a bad experience in a restaurant is not only that your taste buds were not amused and your restaurants database got shorter that day, but you also paid for your dissatisfaction! In practical words, you were robbed!
To save your money and guarantee satisfaction most of the time, here are some points that you need to consider when picking a restaurant or trying a new one.
6- It cannot be made cheaper!...
7- Who suggested that cherry tomato on top of my Caesar salad!?...
If you did not know it, the unique original Caesar dressing has anchovies in it and sometimes raw egg yolks. The only result of that decorative cherry tomato on your Caesar salad with its fish-enabled dressing is an awful fishy taste in your mouth! (If not, it might not be an original Caesar dressing in the first place!).
I went to that not so expensive but much known café once and read on their menu: “Caesar salad with Parmesan cheese shreds and our special Caesar salad dressing”. It was mouthwatering but the price was tricky! So I decided to go see how the salad looks in their fridge first and that's when I found the salad with shreds of cheddar cheese and a sealed ready-made dressing in a pack.
Being the annoying customer I sometimes am, I called the waiter and said: “Please do not write Parmesan cheese when you are serving Cheddar” There is a difference of 150 LE per Kg in their price! So he insisted “But it is Parmesan cheese!”. That is when I had to be a bit aggressive: “Cheddar cheese is darker yellow, soft and creamy to the look, while Parmesan is light beige, with white dots sometimes, and breakable if bent… I am not blind!”.
Don’t order fancy dishes in low priced restaurants or coffee shops, even when they say they can deliver it. Take your chance but some dishes cannot be made cheaper, unless you do not mind eating something else under that same (now fake) name.
7- Who suggested that cherry tomato on top of my Caesar salad!?...
If you did not know it, the unique original Caesar dressing has anchovies in it and sometimes raw egg yolks. The only result of that decorative cherry tomato on your Caesar salad with its fish-enabled dressing is an awful fishy taste in your mouth! (If not, it might not be an original Caesar dressing in the first place!).
I know that Caesar salad consists of lettuce and croutons, and so it looks lame especially when adding the pale dressing on it. Yet a real chef will find many options to decorate your plate, from the spectrum of vegetables, other than fresh tomatoes, if they really understand taste.If the chef does not understand flavors and their combinations, do not expect your taste buds to be amused at that restaurant.
8- Money for ValueMins...
You pay money for value. That is quality, service, taste, ambiance, satisfaction… but also for nutrition!
Overcooked vegetables lose most of their nutritional content, overcooked chicken gets too tough, so does meat and pretty much everything. If your salad dressing is too runny, your side vegetables are pale or mushy, or your chicken is too tough… Be sure that your chef does not know how to handle food and how each ingredient love to be cooked to keep their natural taste, color and nutritional value. In other words, don't pay money to be eating empty calories.
If you are going to pay money for eating out instead of eating at home, pay it in a place that is worth. A place that REALLY separates the smoking area from the non-smoking one, who has fair lighting and comfortable seating with fair distance between your chair and your table in terms of height so you feel comfortable while eating.
Some restaurants mean to make the seating not very comfortable so you eat and fly for another customer to come and so they make more money. I am not saying that when you go out to a restaurant you have to spend the rest of the day there instead of your living room, but a feeling that "you are welcome to stay" leaves you with a better experience.
Not only the seating but also the facilities and hospitality. Pick a place where waiters smile and introduce themselves in a friendly and professional way. They should be available and ready to take your order at a glance and not after many hand raising and calls. A place where food is served pleasantly, cooked perfectly and is fairly warm. If you have babies or children, choose a place where the toilet has a changing table for babies, a child chair and any attraction for kids like a simple 4 colored pencil box and a coloring paper.
If you cannot afford such places every time you go out, at least do not have high expectations when you go to the less-facilities restaurants and know how to get the best out of it, but never give in for a no-hospitality option, you will feel rejected somehow at the end! In other words, pick a place - fancy or cheap - where you feel welcomed!
10- Attention: dinning out can kill you!...
The FDA allows some unavoidable defects like rodent hairs, maggots, and other disgusting things to be found in commercially prepared foods. Maybe we all eat things we do not see, but when it comes to things we see - especially those having small legs - in our food, it is impossible to even consider going to this restaurant again!
If I find a short hair in my dish, I put it on the side of my plate and request it to be changed immediately. Then, depending on how much they do to fix their mistake, my decision of going to that restaurant again is affected. Finding an insect in my plate, however, is for a never-enter again restaurant!
I once was with a group of friends in one of the known high average restaurant chains in Egypt, when a dentist friend ordered a chicken Parmesan. While eating, something small and very sharp got stuck between her teeth. Thinking it is a bone fragment from the chicken, when she eventually could get it out, it turned to be a stapler pin!
There are cheap restaurants that are "clean", and ones that are expensive but with kitchens like a ticking bomb.
Special thanks to...
Art work by: Ramz Sabry Samy
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