You might think chefs order with confidence, but turns out they carry a quiet blacklist. Not everything on the menu deserves your hard-earned cash. Some plates hide corners that were cut. Others mask questionable ingredients under heavy sauces. Still others simply rely on hype instead of skill. What’s really going on behind those swinging kitchen doors?
The Daily Special That’s Not So Special
Ever notice how restaurant servers push the special of the day? Their reasons may be more economic than culinary. Executive chef and owner Alberto Morreale of Farmer’s Bottega in San Diego says he never orders the specials, noting that some restaurants put together their specials for the day based on what’s about to expire or what they’re trying to get rid of faster. Chef Michael DeLone of Nunzio in Collingswood, New Jersey, explains that ordering the Soup of the Day is code in the hospitality industry for the back of the house trying to get rid of its walk-in inventory from the weekend before vendor deliveries come in for the following week. It’s not that all specials are bad. Just be cautious when you see ten different ones on the board. The logic is almost clinical. If that roasted chicken was featured earlier this week and now a chicken vegetable soup appears, you do the math.
Chicken: The Most Boring Protein That’s Often Overcooked
If you baste your roasting chicken every fifteen minutes, you probably won’t enjoy eating it out in restaurants, confides Ryan Ososky, executive chef of The Church Key in West Hollywood, who says he will order almost anything when he goes out but never chicken because it tends to be overcooked at most restaurants. According to the Food Network’s website, chefs avoid ordering chicken in restaurants for many reasons, including overinflated price and lack of originality. Chef Justin Robinson from Food Network’s Iron Chef Showdown and Fox’s MasterChef summed it up nicely, saying it’s one of those proteins that’s often overcooked and under-seasoned unless handled with intention, and if he’s dining out he wants to try something he can’t easily recreate at home or at least something that brings a new perspective. The thing is, restaurants play it safe with chicken to avoid any risk of salmonella. That caution often means dry, flavorless meat that doesn’t justify the menu price.
Eggs Benedict and the Dangerous Hollandaise
Chef Clifton Dickerson of the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts says he never orders eggs Benedict when dining out, clarifying he loves a good Benedict, but hollandaise sauce is temperamental, especially during a busy brunch rush, and if it’s not made to order or held just right you can end up with a broken sauce or something that’s been sitting too long. Along the lines of sitting too long, sauces like hollandaise are one of the unhealthiest menu items at some restaurants, not only due to the excess calories they can add to a meal but also because they come with a certain health risk, as if the hollandaise is left at the incorrect temperature the raw egg yolks contained within can go bad, potentially resulting in a bad case of salmonella-related food poisoning. Think about that next time brunch calls your name. The risk might not be worth the Instagram photo.
Salads: Not as Healthy as You Think
Here’s something that might surprise you. Food safety experts warn that salads, sprouts and deli meats pose foodborne illness risks despite their healthy reputation, with leafy greens now causing more outbreaks than hamburgers. Lettuce and other leafy greens now cause far more outbreaks than hamburgers, largely because they’re grown near cattle operations, can be contaminated by irrigation water, and are eaten raw with no cooking steps to kill pathogens. Food safety attorney Jason Reese says he never eats salad or bagged lettuce while dining out, noting that seeing the victims he has represented go into kidney failure and need dialysis for life just from one restaurant salad is eye-opening. Not every salad is a ticking time bomb, obviously. Yet knowing the risks might make you reconsider that seemingly innocent Caesar.
Pasta Dishes With Astronomical Markups
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, according to Marcus Mooney, executive chef of Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating, who once worked for an Italian restaurant group in Chicago where they were charging twenty dollars for a plate of rigatoni with marinara sauce and the cost was one dollar, and he says he can’t bring himself to pay that much knowing what’s involved and how it is prepared, though he will only order a pasta dish at a restaurant if he knows they do it well, such as a lasagna or ravioli, or if they make a great carbonara. Think about it. Most pasta costs pennies. The real value should come from technique and fresh ingredients. If a restaurant is charging you thirty dollars for spaghetti with store-bought sauce, they’re banking on your ignorance.
Overly Complex Fusion Dishes
Chef Peter He, head chef at Meili in Brooklyn, notes he personally avoids complicated dishes that try to fuse five cuisines onto one plate, saying they often sound exciting on the menu but rarely deliver balance or depth, and he would rather have one cuisine done well than a confusing mix of flavors that feels like it’s trying too hard. Fusion can be brilliant in the right hands. However, when you see a sushi burrito topped with kimchi aioli and truffle oil, you have to wonder if the chef is covering up a lack of real skill. Real talent shines through simplicity. If a dish needs seventeen ingredients from six different countries to work, something is probably off.
Fish on Sunday Night
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, with many avoiding it like the plague, though others are comfortable ordering fish if the restaurant has a coastal location or is known for seafood. Chef Eric Duchene, executive chef of the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort and Spa, warns to avoid fish specials with bacon because bacon is used to cover up the smell of old fish, and similarly 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. Timing matters more than most diners realize. If you’re craving seafood, go midweek when deliveries are fresh and turnover is high.
Bread Baskets: Recycled and Reheated
Warm and toasty, served with sweet butter or olive oil, the bread basket that graces your restaurant table may be fresh from the oven or reheated after gracing another table, and short of fingerprinting each scone you will never know for sure unless you catch your server in the act. According to Food Network’s chef survey, it’s not uncommon for uneaten bread to make its way to multiple tables. Even if you’re starving while waiting for your table to be ready, avoid nibbling on bar snacks with that pre-dinner cocktail, as the bowls are rarely washed between patrons so you can pretty much be assured that many fingers other than your own have already dipped into the nut or pretzel bowl, and chefs don’t want you picking away at your pre-dinner appetite or picking up the flu while you’re waiting to be served. The bread might look innocent, but that basket has stories you don’t want to hear.
Cheap Steaks and Anything With Beef Tips
For several chefs, there’s one item that simply doesn’t tolerate poor quality or preparation: steak, and in addition to avoiding well-done steaks you should pick one of the restaurant’s signature cuts and avoid those that are curiously cheap or over-sauced, as Grant Morgan, executive concept chef of Hotel Drover and 97 West Kitchen and Bar in Fort Worth explains that while some restaurants have buying power that helps offset a little of the cost of good steak, most of the time a cheap steak is lower USDA-grade meat. Chef Christopher Diehl of Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts says he would never order any dish made with beef tips or any dish that has a component he can identify as leftovers, noting he knows that the place can use these dishes as an outlet for scraps and as much as he would love to help with food cost he’s going for a main entree that wasn’t an afterthought. If the price seems too good to be true on that ribeye, it probably is.
Restaurant Desserts: Skip and Go to a Bakery
Most chefs say they wouldn’t order pies or cakes at a restaurant unless they know they’re made in-house, and chefs recommend going to a bakery for quality baked goods instead since they take time and skill to make from scratch, with one chef saying he would go to a dedicated bakery or a farmers market where they are freshly made, adding that they’re likely less expensive or around the same price at a bakery compared with a restaurant. Chef Jacoby Ponder says he usually wouldn’t order dessert from most restaurants, noting he would much rather leave and go to a bakery or ice cream parlor for a unique type of dessert rather than eat one that would be on the menu all season long. Most restaurants buy their desserts from suppliers anyway. Why pay restaurant markup for something frozen and reheated when you can get the real deal down the street?
So what does all this tell us? Chefs know things most diners never see. They understand timing, turnover, and the little tricks that stretch profit margins. Does this mean you should never order these dishes? Not necessarily. It means you should ask questions. Where does the fish come from? Is the pasta made fresh? When did those specials start appearing? The answers can tell you whether you’re about to have a memorable meal or just an expensive disappointment. What dishes have you ordered that didn’t live up to the hype? Trust your instincts next time.
