Dear Restaurant Owners and Staff:

[Winnipesaukee]

Something about the "plastic" cutting board manufacturers got the NSF to only allow poly boards in kitchens. A guy I worked with told me about it once.

What happens with poly boards is as they wear out (and dull knives like crazy), bacteria start to grow in the knife grooves. This is OK in a restaurant kitchen with a hot dishwasher, but in a home setting (with "low temp" dishwashers), it can get pretty unhealthy.

With a wood board, bacteria are absorbed into the wood, where they can't multiply, and die.

[ENR]

I work at a lakes region restaurant that serves burgers, seafood, ice cream, etc. and have been reading this forum for a few years now. I've seen and heard enough things from customers to go on for days, so this post is too tempting to pass up. Here are a few stories and pet peeves:

-When you complain about the price of the food (especially seafood): Seafood is expensive and we're not just going to give it away. If you know of a place where you can get about the same amount/quality of food for less money, then why aren't you going there to eat? Eating out is a luxury, not a necessity. If you feel that you aren't able to afford the food you've ordered, then get something that's less expensive - there are always options - or cook your meals at home.
-When you say not-so-nice things under your breath thinking that I can't hear you. My hearing is excellent - I hear it ALL.
-Think you can do it better? Then open your own restaurant... just remember that it's a ridiculous amount of work. Be prepared to be the cook/janitor/electrician/plumber/accountant and then some.
-When you don't give me enough money to pay for your food. This isn't at all a problem when you make an honest mistake in counting, but when I nicely tell you that you're missing X amount of money and you stare at me blankly expecting a $20 bill to materialize? That's annoying. And reaching into the tip cup to make up the difference, as some have tried to do, isn't going to happen.
-The restaurant has been here for a while... we know what works and what doesn't. Your unsolicited business advice won't be needed.
-A little over a month ago on one of the hottest days of the summer, a woman ordered an ice cream cone and went to sit in the sun to eat it (instead of going inside with the AC). She came back 10 minutes later and requested a refund because her ice cream had begun to melt. Am I wrong in thinking that that's the nature of the beast?
-When you treat the restaurant like a gift shop and just take things. Like framed pictures, knick-knacks, and the like. Not to mention the bathroom mirror and the soap dispenser.

[jmen24]

Originally Posted by ENR

{Snip}
-When you don't give me enough money to pay for your food. This isn't at all a problem when you make an honest mistake in counting, but when I nicely tell you that you're missing X amount of money and you stare at me blankly expecting a $20 bill to materialize? That's annoying. And reaching into the tip cup to make up the difference, as some have tried to do, isn't going to happen.

The scene that this description paints made me laugh out loud. Glad I am the only one in the office.

I need to go start one of these threads in the Home Repair section. You restaurant folks think you have it bad, try chasing down 3K from a customer that feels like they have "Paid enough", with a signed fixed price contract on a remodel job! If only the state would let us take the cabinet doors until the final is paid.

The things that some folks do. Priceless.

[RI Swamp Yankee]

Originally Posted by ENR

...
-A little over a month ago on one of the hottest days of the summer, a woman ordered an ice cream cone and went to sit in the sun to eat it (instead of going inside with the AC). She came back 10 minutes later and requested a refund because her ice cream had begun to melt.
...

Too funny .... but it happens.

[food dude]

Originally Posted by Winnipesaukee

Something about the "plastic" cutting board manufacturers got the NSF to only allow poly boards in kitchens. A guy I worked with told me about it once.

What happens with poly boards is as they wear out (and dull knives like crazy), bacteria start to grow in the knife grooves. This is OK in a restaurant kitchen with a hot dishwasher, but in a home setting (with "low temp" dishwashers), it can get pretty unhealthy.

With a wood board, bacteria are absorbed into the wood, where they can't multiply, and die.

they make a cutting board scraper that will take out the knife marks and stains, this makes the cutting board good as new, fyi

[donnamatrix]

Laugh out loud-and SAMIAM - you are the best. I used to work in Boston for Creative Gourmets, when they were a startup shop back in the 1980s. Thought I wanted to open a restaurant since I love to cook. Being a cook/manager disabused me of that notion .... helped turn my hair gray, but I was really skinny! We had people stealing the utensils, even stealing the food. I had to install cameras... OMG the stories... Anyway, I do use the poly cutting boards at home, and wood also... guess I better ditch the poly, although I do bleach it. Truthfully, I would rather cut raw chicken on a china plate - it's not absorbant at all. Raw chicken is icky.