If I’m in the men’s room and I see staff leave without washing their hands I’m walking out immediately.
Any place with the word “Bistro” in its name is probably overpriced.
That they do. Thank you for the explanation.
Tell her she might want to take that one off the list. After working in professional kitchens for a bit, I can tell you that this one is no gauge of cleanliness. If it is a nice restaurant, there is a good chance that aprons (instead of coats) could be worn by prep chefs or other folks who would be breaking down primals, making sauces, etc.
Even if it isn’t a nice restaurant, dirty aprons aren’t necessarily bad signs.
Thanks. She replies: “There are different kinds of dirty aprons, but I’ll leave it alone.” She seems to have a particular sort of filth in mind, but won’t say more, stating only, “Now, don’t you get me in a fight on the Dope. I wouldn’t enjoy that.”
I judge a lot by the outside of the place. If it looks dingy or just plain ‘ghetto’ I won’t even give it a chance. My dad calls that snobby. I call it ‘higher standards’ 
I also refuse to eat in ‘multi-ethnic’ restaurants. Like the Indian-Irish Pub. Or Chinese Buffet w/Sushi.
Not to worry, I know what she means. Even if I didn’t, it isn’t the type of thing I wouldn’t argue with her about.
Religious slogans on the windows, menu or walls. I once pulled off the highway in an unfamiliar place to fuel up and there was a nice enough looking family-type place just down the road. Walked in and the waitresses had embroidered God Bless Yous on their uniforms and the menu was full of cheesy inspirationalisms. Decided to drive thru the properly pagan McD’s instead.
Amen: I complained about this on a different message board and was accused of child hating and not understand the wee ones. It’s the parents I hated and don’t understand.
Granted, I’m not the biggest fan of kids either, but when kids are little jerks and idiots, 9 times out of 10 it’s because the parents allow them to be (and often are themselves).
Less than a “B” rating by the Health Dept.
Dead on a Friday night.
Overly cutesy decor.
That’s about it. I can think of more reasons to try one than not to.
But according to our standards of keeping kosher, we will eat vegetarian or kosher fish dishes in a non-kosher restaurant (though we do keep separate sets of dishes at home). There are a lot of different standards for keeping kosher, particularly among non-Orthodox Jews (such as myself).
Yucky bathrooms.
If possible, I avoid places where the plates are huge and the portions tiny. I’m trying to have lunch here, not a 10-calorie diet!
A seafood place that smells of three-day-old seafood.
A seafood place. Period.
I can deal with the unwiped tables, ketchup coated menus, Lysol deficient bathrooms, hyperquaint decor, and most other unpleasantnesses. When the joint is dead, I walk out if it takes more than a couple minutes to be acknowledged. Just a simple confirmation that the host(ess) has seen me. Whether an “I’ll be with you in a minute” or a nod when our eyes meet, I don’t care. Something so I know they’re serving.
Add the smell of cooked shrimp to that short list. Reminds me of summers on the Carolina coast, restaurant Dumpsters roasting in the highly humidified sunshine. The sizzly plate seafood fajitas at Chili’s replicates this experience almost exactly. I think I’m getting nauseous…nauseated…uh, ready to hurl just thinking about it.
Wait, one more thing: corn on pizza. No! Bad pizzaman! No donut for you!
For Dim Sum, it’s gotta be on little A-V carts. Don’t give me a menu; I want to see it before I buy it, maybe ask the waitress what it is.
For what it’s worth, I’m a parent, and we will try to avoid restaurants with little kids behaving like uncaged hyenas. We worked hard to teach our kids Decent Restaurant Manners, and we want some peace and quiet while we eat, too. (Even the kids - show children a better alternative and you’d be surprised how often they’ll embrace it.)
We’ve done the Disney/Orlando thing, and I understand the kids need to blow off some steam after a lot of standing in line combined with sensory overload at the theme parks. This is why you find a motel with a pool and a playground, and let 'em blow off steam there, before supper, while you supervise. Plan ahead, people.
Yeah, that’d scare me out too.
Excessive noise level, whether it be music, other patrons, or blaring TVs. I can’t eat when my stomach is twisted up in knots.
Dirty aprons mean that they are not just nuking processed food. A good sign.
The one thing I don’t accept: Mexican cooks in a chinese restaurant. Or chinese cooks in a greek restaurant. Or greek cooks in a mexican restaurant. An ethnic restaurant must be owned and staffed by people of that ethnicity (waiting staff excluded, of course).
I am notably tolerant of hygienic shortcomings on the places I eat, though.