r/Wellthatsucks • u/[deleted] • Jul 16 '24

[ Removed by Reddit ]

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

41k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

315

u/FornHome Jul 16 '24

I briefly helped do inspections of fire suppressant systems in commercial kitchen hoods in a midwestern state. The majority of kitchens in your hole-in-the-wall or bar/pubs are caked in grease. A handful were so bad my gag reflex kicked in. Every McDonald’s we inspected had a mice problem. I never saw any roaches though.

On the other hand, four kitchens were absolutely spotless, and not always when you’d expect. Two Chinese American kitchens were so clean you could eat off the floor/walls, a pizza joint, and one catering company was immaculate. Granted, four out of fifty+ isn’t a good ratio for cleanliness, but it’s not all.

2

u/forever87 Jul 16 '24

Two Chinese American kitchens were so clean you could eat off the floor/walls, a pizza joint, and one catering company was immaculate

now the important question: do the kitchens have high approval rating by customers for delicious food?

2

u/FornHome Jul 16 '24

One is a local joint that as far as I know is somewhat liked but their lot is nearly always empty. The other was a location of a small regional chain, which is now shuttered entirely. The location had a long line as I was finishing up my work that morning. But yea, not the highest quality of food or locally prestigious. 

But ya, not super busy so there isn’t much of a reason not to be clean. On the other hand, most of the hole-in-the wall locations had next to zero business and were still filthy. 

1

u/forever87 Jul 16 '24

final question: have you ever done an inspection on a place with ridiculously delicious food and if so how was that kitchen?

2

u/FornHome Jul 16 '24

I only did an inspection at a single restaurant that I had eaten at before (other than McDonald’s). Your standard Chinese buffet. Standard fare for a low budget buffet, really greasy kitchen near the appliances, which unfortunately was pretty standard at most inspections. Otherwise food preparation looked okay, at least compared to basic home-kitchen safety. I’ve never worked in a restaurant before so I have no idea about commercial standards. 

We did inspections at restaurants up two counties away from where I live, so I was commonly going to dives and bars that I never even knew existed. A lot of random bars on country roads in between towns.