Walking into a restaurant should feel exciting, not like navigating a minefield. Yet here’s something most diners never consider: professional chefs have a completely different approach when they eat out. They know what happens behind those swinging kitchen doors. They’ve seen the shortcuts, the reheated leftovers, and the dishes that promise freshness but deliver anything but.
Professional chefs have insider knowledge and very strong opinions about what menu items you should avoid at restaurants. The menu isn’t just a list of delicious possibilities for them. It’s a confession, a roadmap of red flags and hidden truths. From items that mask old ingredients to dishes that rarely justify their price tags, these culinary experts have developed their own mental blacklist. Let’s dive into the nine restaurant offerings they quietly avoid, and why you might want to follow their lead.
Soup of the Day
That innocent bowl of soup special might sound comforting. It might even smell delicious. Yet chefs see it for what it often is: yesterday’s inventory dressed up with fresh garnish. Chef Jon Davis explains that when ordering soup du jour, he wonders if it was really made today, how long it’s been sitting in the steam well, and whether the prep cook cooled it down properly.
Gordon Ramsay never orders soup of the day at restaurants either, citing similar concerns. Here’s what makes it even trickier: restaurants often serve the same soup of the day for several days running to reduce waste. Restaurants have a tendency to serve their soup of the day several days in a row, done to decrease food waste, but it can result in ordering a fairly expensive dish that’s neither special nor fresh. The name suggests something crafted that morning, but reality tells a different story. If you really crave soup, ask what yesterday’s special was – the answer will tell you everything you need to know.
Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise Sauce
Brunch favorites come with hidden hazards. Eggs Benedict might look picture-perfect on Instagram, but those rich, velvety sauces hide a darker truth. 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.
The risk goes beyond disappointing texture. If hollandaise is left at the incorrect temperature, the raw egg yolks contained within can go bad, potentially resulting in salmonella-related food poisoning. Most restaurants don’t make hollandaise to order because it’s simply too complicated during a hectic service. Instead, it sits in that dangerous temperature zone where bacteria thrive. Popular brunch items like hollandaise sauce are seldom made to order and are playgrounds for bacteria. That golden drizzle suddenly doesn’t seem worth the gamble.
Well-Done Steak
Ordering a steak well-done isn’t just a culinary faux pas. Chefs hate cooking steak well-done because it kills flavor and tenderness, and many places use lower-quality cuts for well-done orders since the texture is ruined anyway. Think about it: if you’re cooking meat until it’s grey and chewy, why use the prime cut?
According to Anthony Bourdain, chefs have a tradition called ‘save for well-done,’ where meat they would otherwise throw out is saved for customers who order a cut well-done, as overcooking can disguise toughness and bad smells. You’re not getting the chef’s best effort or the restaurant’s finest ingredients. You’re getting what they couldn’t sell any other way, hidden beneath a char that masks everything. If you can’t stand pink meat, honestly, just order something else entirely.
Monday Seafood
Many restaurants get seafood deliveries on Thursdays or Fridays, meaning that Monday’s fish is several days old. The freshness issue becomes a real concern when you consider the shelf life of fish. Fish sitting too long equals loss of freshness and higher risk of foodborne illness.
In his book, Anthony Bourdain wrote that he never orders fish on Monday unless eating at a four-star restaurant where they buy fish directly from the source, noting he knows most seafood is about four to five days old on Monday. Coastal locations with daily deliveries might be exceptions. It’s safe at high-end seafood restaurants with daily deliveries. Otherwise, save your seafood cravings for mid-week when the catch is actually fresh. Your stomach will thank you.
Specials Board Items
That handwritten special sounds enticing, doesn’t it? The server pushes it with enthusiasm, calling it chef’s choice or a limited offering. Executive chef Alberto Morreale never orders specials at other restaurants because 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.
Some restaurants use specials to get rid of old ingredients before they go bad. Sure, occasionally specials genuinely showcase seasonal ingredients or a chef’s creativity. Gordon Ramsay recommends asking your waiter what the soup du jour was yesterday and what the general specials were over the previous days, because if specials were items like roast chicken and veg, and now the soup of the day is chicken vegetable soup, that’s a big red flag that the kitchen is using older, leftover ingredients. The trick is figuring out which type of special you’re dealing with before it’s too late.
Restaurant Chicken Dishes
When dining out, most chefs avoid pasta and chicken dishes because they’re the most overpriced and the least interesting options on the menu. Chicken seems safe, boring in a good way. Yet chefs see it differently. Executive chef Ryan Ososky confides that he will order almost anything when going out, but never chicken because it tends to be overcooked at most restaurants.
Chefs avoid ordering chicken in restaurants for many reasons, including overinflated price and lack of originality. The protein is affordable for restaurants to purchase, meaning high profit margins, which often translates to less care in preparation. The fear of serving undercooked chicken and exposing diners to the risk of salmonella can lead to a tendency to err on the side of caution, resulting in dry and tough meat. Why spend money on something predictable and potentially disappointing when you’re paying for an experience?
Simple Pasta Dishes
That basic spaghetti with marinara on the menu carries a shocking markup. Pasta dishes are often overpriced, and one executive chef recalls working at an Italian restaurant group in Chicago that charged twenty dollars for a plate of rigatoni with marinara sauce when the cost was one dollar. You’re paying restaurant prices for something you could make at home in twenty minutes with minimal effort.
Most of the time risottos are pre-cooked, heated up, finished with cream, and then over-cooked beyond the al dente texture that you’re looking for. Executive chef Brian Motyka never orders risotto at restaurants because it’s usually pre-cooked and improperly finished. Unless the restaurant is making pasta to order with exceptional ingredients you can’t find elsewhere, you’re better off saving your dollars for something more special. Restaurants know pasta is cheap to produce and easy to upcharge.
Overly Complex Fusion Dishes
Chef Peter He personally avoids complicated dishes that try to fuse five cuisines onto one plate because they often sound exciting on the menu but rarely deliver balance or depth, and he’d rather have one cuisine done well than a confusing mix of flavors that feels like it’s trying too hard. The cronut was fun for a moment, but fusion cuisine has earned skepticism for good reason.
Fusion food suffered from market saturation with subpar products, and many fusion restaurants are bad at both styles of cooking and rely on the idea of fusion to propel their restaurant success. When a menu item combines sushi with a burrito or attempts to marry five different culinary traditions, it often means the kitchen doesn’t excel at any single one. Flavor often gets lost in translation, and there are some regional foods outsiders will never understand. You end up with a plate that’s more spectacle than substance. Choose a restaurant that masters one cuisine brilliantly rather than one that dabbles in everything poorly.
House Salads
Restaurants have been seen repurposing leftover scraps from other dishes as salad ingredients, and the base greens aren’t always fresh, with heavy dressings often used to mask this lack of quality. That innocent bowl of greens isn’t always what it seems. Salads are easy to assemble, which makes them tempting for restaurants trying to use up odds and ends.
Salads in restaurants are often made with precooked ingredients like chicken and eggs, meaning you’re eating a dish constructed with elements that could have been prepared days in advance and may lack any vigor or vibrancy. The dressing might be heavy because it’s hiding wilted lettuce or tired vegetables. When it’s so easy to make a great salad at home, why order one when you’re splurging on a nice meal? If you want fresh greens, make them yourself. At restaurants, order something you can’t easily replicate in your own kitchen.
The truth is, dining out should be about enjoying food you can’t make at home, prepared with care and integrity. Approximately 600 million people worldwide become ill from consuming contaminated food every year, resulting in 420,000 deaths annually. Food safety matters, and so does value for money. These nine dishes represent the intersection of inflated prices, questionable freshness, and culinary corners cut when kitchens get overwhelmed. Chefs know this because they’ve lived it, worked those stations, and seen what really happens during a busy Saturday night service. Next time you’re scanning a menu, think like a chef. Ask questions. Choose dishes that showcase a restaurant’s strengths rather than expose its weaknesses. What surprises you most from this list?
