Walking into a restaurant, you might assume the menu is carefully crafted with your best interests in mind. You trust that every dish represents the kitchen’s finest work, right? Well, not quite. Professional chefs who’ve spent decades mastering their craft have developed keen instincts about which dishes are worth ordering and which ones to skip entirely.
These culinary experts know restaurant kitchens inside and out. They understand the economics, the shortcuts, and the red flags that most diners never notice. When they dine out, they’re not just customers – they’re critics with insider knowledge. So what makes a seasoned chef push certain items aside without a second thought? Let’s dive into the seven restaurant items that even the professionals won’t touch.
Daily Specials That Sound Too Good to Be True
Many chefs caution diners about certain restaurant dishes for reasons that go beyond taste. Daily specials are often used to clear aging ingredients, while chicken dishes, though popular, are frequently overpriced, overcooked, and lack creativity. Fish is risky to order on Mondays or Sundays due to limited fresh deliveries, making freshness questionable. Pasta dishes are often marked up significantly despite being made with cheap dried pasta and simple sauces. Chefs also avoid basic house salads and generic vegetable plates because they can be made from leftover scraps and lack originality. Generic seafood pastas may use bits of unsold fish, while dishes labeled with “truffle” often rely on artificial truffle oil to justify high prices. Overall, these insights remind diners to make mindful choices and ask questions to ensure quality and value.
Chicken Dishes at Most Restaurants
One protein has risen to the top of the list as an instant no from the experts: chicken. The popular poultry, though a staple in kitchens worldwide, simply doesn’t appeal. That’s because the bird receives a high markup in restaurants and is often no better than what the chefs out for dinner could make themselves, with many assuming the dish will be boring or even dry.
“I will order almost anything when I go out – but never chicken because it tends to be overcooked at most restaurants,” confides Ryan Ososky, executive chef of the modern American cuisine restaurant The Church Key, in West Hollywood. The issue isn’t just overcooking – it’s also about value and creativity.
According to the Food Network’s website, chefs avoid ordering chicken in restaurants for many reasons, including overinflated price and lack of originality. However, there are exceptions. If a spot specializes in chicken or truly takes pride in the dish, a professional chef is more likely to order it.
Fish on Monday (And Other Questionable Timing)
Since most fish markets don’t deliver on weekends, the don’t-eat-fish-on-Monday debate continues to rage on between freshness-loving chefs. Many avoid it like the plague, but others are comfortable ordering fish, if the restaurant has a coastal location or is known for seafood.
“Here in Hawaii, all the fresh, local fish comes from the auction, and it’s closed on Sunday, so unless the delivery was made on Monday morning, I wouldn’t want to eat the special that has fish in it. It could have been old fish that is no longer superior,” Chef Felix Tai told me.
The timing issue extends beyond just Monday. Eric Duchene, executive chef of the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort & Spa, notes that raw fish should not be ordered on Sunday nights, because “restaurants don’t receive deliveries on Sunday, so you will not get the freshest products when you order on Sunday night.”
When it comes to raw oysters specifically, the stakes are even higher. Cordon Bleu-trained chef Mark Nichols won’t go near raw oysters if they were harvested more than 100 miles away from the restaurant serving them. “If handled and stored incorrectly, raw oysters can kill you,” he explains.
Overpriced Pasta Dishes
Spaghetti, fettuccine or penne is common on non-Italian restaurant menus, yet pasta dishes are often overpriced, especially if you calculate the cost of ingredients. Marcus Mooney, executive chef of Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating, has high standards for pasta and rarely orders it at restaurants. “They were charging $20 for a plate of rigatoni with marinara sauce, and the cost was $1.”
“I often hesitate to order this at a restaurant due to the relatively high prices I’ve experienced,” said Ryan Jones, the co-founder and executive chef of Free Reign Restaurants in Charleston, South Carolina. He finds the pasta is typically made with dry pasta instead of fresh and has seen prices as high as $38.
The markup on pasta dishes can be astronomical, especially when you consider that most restaurants use dried pasta and simple sauces. The only time Mooney orders a pasta dish at a restaurant is if he knows they do it well, such as a lasagna or ravioli, or if they make a great carbonara. The key is finding places that justify their prices with exceptional preparation or house-made pasta.
House Salads and Generic Vegetable Dishes
“When I go to a restaurant and sit with a menu, I tend to stay away from the House Salad,” says Kayson Chong, Los Angeles-based executive chef of The Venue. “I prefer to have something special that a chef created with seasonal products and interesting combinations.”
The problem with house salads goes beyond boredom. Chef Suhum Jang, co-owner and managing partner of Hortus NYC, personally avoids ordering house salads because “I’ve seen restaurants repurpose leftover scraps from other dishes as salad ingredients, which is off-putting. Additionally, the base greens aren’t always fresh, and heavy dressings are often used to mask this lack of quality.”
Often, salads have a high price tag. “When you go to a restaurant and just want some leafy greens and vegetables, and they’re charging you $14-16 for a bunch of Sysco pre-cut tasteless carrots and pre-cooked chicken, it’s ridiculous”
Even vegetarian plates designed specifically for non-meat eaters fall short. Michelin-starred chef Suvir Saran tends to avoid the chef’s vegetarian plate even though he’s a lover of all things vegetable. “They are never true representations of what a chef would really be inspired to present to a guest,” he explains.
Generic Seafood Pasta
When it comes to fish dishes to avoid, the seafood pasta should top your list. In many seafood pastas the kitchen is using leftover bits and scraps. If there was a scallop special the day before, your pasta may have whatever wasn’t sold mixed in.
Generic seafood pasta is the modern equivalent of the fish specials chef Gordon Ramsay warned about. If the menu doesn’t lead with the specific type of seafood and pasta used in the dish’s preparation, it could be a dumping ground for fish scraps. For example, compare “Seafood Pasta” to “Spaghetti with Clams and Green Olives” as menu titles. The former is generic, while the latter is a very intentional combination of a particular pasta, specific shellfish, and the accompanying ingredients.
The fish found in these pasta dishes are typically scraps from cleaning and portioning fish for the menu and aren’t inherently bad, as they’re simply bits of perfectly good fish that aren’t big enough to serve as a portion. But they get treated with little respect after cutting.
This practice isn’t necessarily about serving bad food, but rather about using up ingredients efficiently. That isn’t inherently bad, and we’re not suggesting you’ll get poor-quality fish or unknown ingredients, but if it’s a generic seafood pasta, there’s a good chance you’re getting the clean fridge special.
Anything Labeled as “Truffle”
“Never order anything that has the word ‘truffle’ in it,” advises Saura Kline, pastry chef at Local Jones in Denver’s Halcyon Hotel. Unless you’re at a high-class fine-dining restaurant, this usually means truffle oil, which is very rarely made with actual truffles. It tends to be used aggressively and will immediately increase the price of any dish you’re eating, regardless of its actual quality.
The late Anthony Bourdain was particularly vocal about this issue. In a 2016 interview with First We Feast, Anthony Bourdain called truffle oil “the ketchup of the pretentious.” The author followed up his comments by telling the interviewer that truffle oil doesn’t have any real truffles in it. Studies show that the item doesn’t even have natural truffle aroma included in the ingredients.
Like truffle oil, other fragrant ingredients like bacon and cream can be all-too-easy ways for restaurants to mask flavors and cut corners. A prime example is something as classic as a risotto. When chefs rely too heavily on these “shortcut” ingredients, it often signals that the underlying dish lacks proper technique or quality ingredients.
These seven items represent more than just personal preferences – they’re professional insights based on years of kitchen experience. Smart diners take note of these warnings not to avoid dining out, but to make better choices that ensure their money goes toward truly exceptional meals. What do you think about these chef recommendations? Tell us in the comments.
