Food Service Workers Share The One Item They'll Never Order Off The Menu

Brown And Slimey

I worked at a popular midwestern pizza chain for a while. The pizza was really good and the ingredients were fresh, with the sauce and dough being made fresh every morning and the veggies delivered whole and sliced and diced by hand, along with whole blocks of mozeralla being shredded throughout the day. Good food, felt good about making it and serving it. Literally the only thing we got that was consistently gross was the lettuce we would use for sandwiches and salads. It would come pre-shredded in a plastic bag that was who-knows-how-old and would turn brown and slimy seemingly within the first hour or two. And I think that's par for the course.

When our store opened on Chicago's north side, we took the fucking neighborhood by storm. People instantly became downright addicted to the pizza. But at least once a week people would call in or walk in angry about how disgusting the salad was.

tl;dr, Every fastfood place has terrible salad, no matter how much quality there is in other ingredients.

- Duh_Metrius

Scoop The Mold Off The Top

When I worked at 7-11 years ago one of the things we got was a nachos machine, which had a big glass bin full of chips and two heated cookers with spigots on the bottom, one for chili and one for cheese. It was pretty popular. I don't know if there was supposed to be some cleaning schedule, but we never had one. Cleaning it meant emptying the cookers, which wasted food (the boss said).

In any case, the cheese one wasn't so bad. When it was low we just dumped in another tub of cheese. Some oily separation, but it seemed ok. The chili, on the other hand, tended to mold, which crept up the insides of the cooker. When it got low we'd scoop the mold off the top and wipe the inside a bit, then just dump another batch of new chili in on top of the old. If I weren't young and stupid about things then I'd probably have said something, but all I did was avoid the stuff myself.

- Dxrey65

Um... What Happened To "Eat Fresh?"

Sandwich shop tuna is literal poison in a container. It is always several days older then expiration. I used to walk on shift and throw it out by look alone. Old tuna just got mixed in with new tuna and people usually didn't notice. It comes in like a giant flaky pressed tuna patty that doesn't look edible in the first place and you mix it with a bunch of mayo and just smush it together with your hands. We usually used two bags of mayo for one tuna brick at my store, others used different ratios.

- Reaverx218

Coolatta Cleaning

Never get the coolattas. The machines at the one I worked were hardly cleaned. Also if you want fresh donuts go to one with a bakery and not one that gets them shipped from other locations (they change them out every 12 hours).

- Zombikittie

Skip The Soda

I've seen too many moldy ice containers and nozzles in the soda fountain to ever order a soda. I go with what I have at home, get a canned soda from the vending machine at work, or get a bottle of water if I'm eating on the run.

I've found it's actually a little cheaper most times. The combos/meals are cheaper than say a burger + fries + drink separately, but more than just burger + fries.

- Reddit

Sliced Cheddar, Please

Under no circumstances should you get a Beef 'n' Cheddar. Make them put a cheddar slice on it like civilized people.

I'll just say this: Cleaning out the cheese goop pump when closing was enough to prepare me for working with human stool, sputum, and blood lab specimens without blinking years later. It would congeal to a foul-smelling brown-orange gel substance coating the pump container that required a surprising amount of scrubbing to clean off.

- Decapitated_Saint

McFail

Please god don't order the fish sandwich. They keep them in the freezers for up to a month and literally just reheat them if they didn't use them the day before. They are like 40 percent fish.

I can't believe people eat it.

- Elijahwoodman81

Pasta Mouse

Had one of those quick-service food bars that they would empty and sanitize every night after closing.

I didn't work in the food department, but in the produce section. One night just after closing (before they had emptied them), I was mopping the floor nearby and a mouse unearthed itself from inside the pasta salad tray, hopped down onto the floor and ran off.

So... the pasta salad.

- Caninehere