We all have our favorite restaurants where we visit to celebrate special occasions, to go on dates, and share with work colleagues.
It all has to do with the combination of the fantastic food, pleasant atmosphere, and exceptional service.
But have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes that may make you think twice about dining there again?
Redditor Lightningstar39 has, so they asked health inspectors to share their horrific findings by asking:
"Health inspectors, what’s the most disgusting restaurant you’ve ever inspected?"c
Violation Smorgasbord
"Actual inspector here. Enter: newly permitted and built Vietnamese seafood restaurant. I went in there and spent about 12 hours watching (and trying my hardest to correct) almost every violation known to man."
"These guys were importing live fish from who knows where (customs was involved) and cooking it up like it’s no ones business. no coolers worked, no cooking was at the right temperature, everything was stored literally everywhere (food and live animals on floor, raw over ready to eat, etc)."
"Dish machine? sanitizing? what’s all that? the guy was tasting some soup and quite literally spitting it back into the pot. no one had on hairnets or gloves or shoes for that matter.
"It's Safe to say they got a 20/100 the first time I was in there. We did 7 subsequent follow-ups, and their highest grade ended up being a 40-something. They got their permit revoked (and we had to take them to court because they kept wanting to operate… and subsequently got some people sick)."
– yolofreak109
Slimy Shelves
"Worked in one I could never figure out how they were allowed to operate. Food was never stored, cooked, or thawed properly. Fish and chicken were just left out overnight in the counter to thaw. Hot sauces were poured in 20L Cambros and put in the fridge, no stirring or cooling or anything."
"No lids in the fridge, the shelves were coated in slime, except for the one shelf front-of-house was allowed to use when our two sauce and drink fridges died and I cleaned off our solitary shelf."
"Owner thought pouring bleach everywhere cleaned things. The floor was grey-black and slimy. The leaking pipes behind the 50 year old dishwasher (with a broken heating element) made the wall soggy when you pushed on it."
"When we found mold growing on food, the chefs just picked it off and handed it back. Cleaning the whole kitchen was the job of the solitary, untrained dishwasher. Chefs had a nap setup in the dry goods closet on top of the flour."
– Ryuaalba
No Bueno
"There was a Mexican restaurant that got shut down locally about 7-8 years ago. I checked their health inspection. They scored a 14/100."
"I am friends with one of the inspectors, so I asked about it. He didn’t do the inspection, but it became a well-known incident in his department. Lots of stuff was out of temp, lots of things were out of date, the dishwasher was not working, no hats/hairnets, no gloves, etc. He said they had a chip warming bin that was a large plastic container stuck inside a standing hot box."
"The plastic was melted into the box and the base was covered in mold, some kind of liquid, salt, broken chips, mouse droppings, and roach eggs. The inspector asked them to wash their hands and use gloves. They all went and dunked their hands into a shared bucket of standing room temperature water and dried them on their aprons before putting gloves on."
"Everything on the line temped over 50 degrees and the chef/manager dipped a chip in the salsa to taste, said it tasted fine, and then double dipped into the same container to prove that it wasn’t dangerous."
"They got some citations and were given one follow-up inspection a few days later. Their water heater was out on that visit, so the closed the restaurant with dozens more citations. It never reopened."
"The joke with the health department was that 'the restrooms were spotless.'”
– Pickle-Standard
Constant Fail
"We have an Indian place down the street that fails so bad every time they just keep changing the name and owners once a year. Real bad stuff is on the health inspection every time, too. None of the fridges kept to temp."
"Unlabeled, uncovered, undated, raw chicken kept on top of the fresh fruit. Roaches and mouse poop on stacked plates, dry stock, shelving, cabinets. One time, one of the comments was that they didn't have any cleaning rags or sanitizer on site."
– -kOdAbAr-
Do Not Order Their Chicken
"3rd party inspector here. Generally the really bad restaurants know they’re in bad shape, know why it’s important, and just don’t care (or are corporate owned and have no agency at the store level except to tattle on themselves to the health departments, which I see a lot)."
"One of the things that sticks with me the most is when I inspected a chicken restaurant that was reusing the buckets from the concentrated dish soap to store raw chicken. They didn’t understand why it was an issue because 1, they were keeping the raw chicken at the proper temp (per them, it was actually 48°) & date labeling the buckets…2, they kept the buckets covered and off the floor of the (filthy) walk-in…3, they washed their still-gloved hands between unhooking the bucket/quickly rinsing it and handling the chicken and 4, if the soap is safe for dishes why isn’t it safe for the chicken?"
"The location had a ton of other violations but they were all pretty 'standard'. I will just never get over why they honestly thought reusing a concentrated chemical bucket was ok."
"Also, they had tons of large clean Cambro’s in good condition they could have used instead."
– sheepthechicken
Unwelcome Dwellers
"Had to tear out a Chinese restaurant in an Air Force Base food court. When we moved the griddle, there were hundreds of roach traps behind it. There were roaches everywhere. We were taking down walls, there were walls of roaches behind the walls."
"I’m guessing they would just scatter to the other restaurants next door as they all shared a wall with this place. I think the roaches were structural by the time we started."
– BattleSausage
Unsanitary Condition
"Not an inspector, but went to food safety training. The inspector-inspector told us about going to inspect a Chi-Chi's. Their sewer had backed up into the kitchen. Instead of closing the restaurant, the manager made the kitchen staff tie garbage bags on their legs and keep working. Oops."
"The inspector shut it down immediately, of course. They got a HUGE fine. I don't remember if there were any other repercussions."
– GumboQueen_7615
The Worst List
"Former health inspector. I’d have to list a top few contenders:"
"A restaurant which had old damp floors (because it was in an old apartment type building), where roaches crawled out from between the floorboards with each step. They voluntarily closed and had to put in new floors. They were also hoarding in the restaurant, which had hid copious mouse droppings from the owner."
"A Vietnamese restaurant with roaches that was draining noodles in colanders on the floor. They also did not refrigerate meat during service."
"A filthy food truck trying to open for lunch with no electricity, planning to sell meat and sides that were left unrefrigerated from the previous night."
"Honestly there were lots of singular disgusting moments that became an issue where someone did not understand time and temperature rules, even if other things were ok."
– emtree13
They Have No Business Running One
"Not a health inspector but had one tell me the place she was at before mine was the Chinese place down the street and they had bugs crawling out of the cold table lid. She made them take it outside and failed them. As she was leaving she saw them dragging it back in".
"They closed permanently not shortly after. I’m assuming they didn’t get their license back."
"I heard the restaurant that took over the building spent a fortune just making the building up to code on top of the remodel for what they wanted."
– bgstl
Scenes From A Horror Movie
"I am not a health inspector, but I rented and renovated a restaurant that had been closed by health authorities. They had built themselves a mezzanine in the storeroom and were living there. When we started dismantling it my ex lifted his side suddenly and I was showered on rat sh*t."
"The extraction tube was fully clogged with solid fat. When the technicians released one side to remove it, it was so heavy that it fell crashing through the ceiling and a flood of thick black oil started raining."
"We also found pigeon remains by the sink as if someone had been catching and cooking them."
"I've never eaten in a restaurant of that type of national cuisine in my country again."
– Four_beastlings
Unless you go to a posh restaurant with an excellent reputation, hearing about these horrific unsanitary restaurant examples may really make you want to consult Yelp reviews before trying a new dining establishment.
Maybe taking up cooking at home can be a new and fun hobby after all.
