Top 10 Things You Should NEVER Order in a Restaurant

Have you ever heard of Norovirus and Vibrio? Well, the good news is that if you’ve never heard of them it probably means you’ve never encountered them. Which is good because they are two rather unpleasant, foodborne illnesses. They can both be found in raw oysters. And unfortunately, even the freshest and highest quality oysters can be carrying them. If, after learning this, you still can’t give up raw oysters, at least try to only eat them in months that have the letter “R” in them. Vibrio likes warm weather, so avoiding raw oysters during the summer months gives you a better chance at avoiding any sickness.

Unlike most entries which attempt to warn you about menu items that might be detrimental to your health, this one could be detrimental to your wallet. You see, at many restaurants, the ice cream they serve is taken right from a store-bought container at a marked-up price. If you really want ice cream, why not stop by a grocery store on your way home and get a full bucket for what the restaurant will charge you for two servings? Now, if the place makes their own ice cream then there could be some foodie value there. But otherwise, just wait until you get home.

These days, in order to cut costs, some restaurants won’t provide bread to a table unless the customer asks for it. If it were us, we wouldn’t ask for it, nor would we eat from it were it provided to the table. Trust us, we understand how awesome and tempting that bread basket is. But here’s the problem: it might be someone else’s bread basket. You see, according to Debra Ginsberg, who wrote a book back at the turn of the century about her twenty years as a waitress, sometimes they take leftover bread from other baskets to make a new one. Which means a previous table could’ve been man-handling the bread you’re now buttering up.

Yes, we realize that we’re putting a major dagger in your Sunday brunch plans, but we’re only doing it because we care. Don’t just take our word for it. To quote famed chef, Anthony Bourdain from his classic tell-all, “Kitchen Confidential,” “Bacteria love hollandaise.” Given how busy a restaurant can get during the breakfast and brunch rush, most places aren’t making their hollandaise sauce to order. If they were to make it earlier and store it in the fridge, it would break. So, what’s probably happening is that the premade sauce is “made hours ago and held on station” at room temperature, which makes it primed for bacterial growth.

The soup special, or the soup of the day, is often very tempting whether it’s announced to you by your waiter or in a cool handwritten font on the hip chalkboard on the restaurant wall. But before you order it there’s probably something you should know. The soup special is a bit of a restaurant magic trick in that they use it to make leftovers and the previous day’s scraps disappear. We’re not saying the stuff is expired or “gone off,” but just because the soup is from that day doesn’t mean the ingredients are. Also, as chef Gordon Ramsay knows, sometimes the “soup of the day” is actually the soup of the week.

Whether it’s water or a twenty-year-old scotch, if you’re getting it at a restaurant you don’t want to order it “on the rocks.” Unless maybe you mean actual rocks because the stones in your drink would probably be cleaner than the ice. Often, the ice going into your drink was made in an ice machine. And while convenient, those machines can get pretty dirty if not cleaned regularly - which sadly doesn’t happen as much as you’d want. In fact, a 2013 study found that in a number of fast food restaurants, the ice in the machines contained more bacteria than the water in the bathroom toilets! Ick!

They might not be as exciting as make-your-own-sundae bars, but salad bars are still quite enticing. Being able to pick from all the many lettuce and veggie options is a delicious prospect. However, remember that everyone else is picking from it also. And just because you might be good about using the available tongs and utensils, that doesn’t mean everyone else is. We shudder just to think how kids are handling the various items on display. Not to mention that proper temperature control is required to avoid bacteria growth. Also, do you really want to be picking food from a place that requires the use of something called a “sneeze guard?”

Are you eating at a restaurant where you know the chef personally? If you aren’t, then late, great chef Anthony Bourdain would advise against ordering the mussels. The problem with mussels is that, as delicious as they are, just one bad one can make you quite sick. And unfortunately many restaurant chefs don’t take the time to check all the mussels to make sure they’re only cooking up the good ones. So unless you know the chef and know they do this, maybe skip this one. And if you know them and know they don’t, then really skip this one.

For such an innocuous little ingredient, you may be surprised to know how potentially dangerous it can be. You see, the conditions required to grow sprouts call for rather humid temperatures and, unfortunately, that humid environment is also good for growing Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli. Fans of the Jimmy John’s sandwich chain may recall that back in 2018 the company removed them from all their locations after a rash of foodborne illness claims were traced back to the little sprouts. The ones labeled “ready to eat” that you buy at the store are fine, but it’s probably not worth the risk ordering them at a restaurant.

Most of us probably don’t spend much time thinking about the lemon and lime wedges in our drinks, but according to experts, we definitely should. Think about the bartender and the odds they cleaned their hands before cutting the fruit? Or think about how long ago they were cut up and if the unused slices were stored properly? Now, think about The Journal of Environmental Health study that tested lemon garnishes at twenty-one different restaurants and found that nearly 70% of them showed microbial growth. Growth that could possibly have come from, to quote the study “the fingertips of a restaurant employee via human fecal or raw-meat or poultry contamination.” We’re not sure we even want a little umbrella in our drink after reading that.