Went to a local regional chain sit down resturant. Ordered a meatloaf meal with soup on the side. After I ordered the waitress came up and told me “Sorry but we can’t serve our soup because the microwave is broken, do you want to substitute a salad instead?”
I’m confused because where does a microwave come into this? I assumed the soups would be in those giant cannisters and constantly kept heated throughout the day like they do at buffets, are they literally serving me canned Campbell’s soup here? Not even putting it in a saucer? Is this standard practice elsewhere? This place serves almost 100 people and has a giant kitchen why are they microwaving me a soup?
Obviously, it’s not the former, based on what you experienced.
Having had a major casual dining restaurant chain as a client, my guess would be is that the soup is sent to the restaurant in small-ish packages (not single-serving, like “canned Campbell’s soup,” but possibly not multi-gallon bags, either), and must be warmed up to order before serving. Their kitchen is likely set up to exclusively rely on a microwave oven to warm up soup, and they may well not have a tureen or pot for heating up soup the traditional way.
It’s basically a meme at this point that “everything” at chains like Applebees and Olive Garden gets microwaved. Either because it came to the restaurant already prepared, or it was made earlier in the day/week and just needs to be reheated.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this is the case to a lesser extent even in nicer restaurants. There’s always going to be stuff that’s easier to prepare in a batch and keep in a fridge, only needing to be heated to serve. And if you send your soup back because it’s not hot enough, they’re definitely nuking it.
I know a fair amount about the back of the restaurant for one of the two above-named chains; in that case, pretty much everything comes pre-packaged and pre-prepared (fresh produce being the exception); relatively little actual preparation, other than the final cooking/heating steps, actually happens at the restaurant.
#1, a place that doesn’t have a spare pot shouldn’t call itself a restaurant. #2, a place that has a waitress should train them to say something less embarrassing than “our microwave broke”. #3, this isn’t a list, and say hi to Liz from us when you get a moment.
It’s also entirely possible they use those, but the soup isn’t hot yet. A bag of cold soup in a soup kettle (or a frozen bag in boiling water) might take 45 to warm up. That restaurant may throw it in the microwave for a few minutes first, in those cases.
Also, if they offer enough different soups, it might just all be kept cold in their cooler and they microwave a cup at a time as needed. Keeping soup warm all day, everyday, takes up a good bit of space. Soup kettles are big, steam tables take up space, stoves are are used for other things (and harder to control for this application) etc.
What’s interesting is that they even mentioned a microwave. If they can’t offer you soup, regardless of the reason, you’re not going to get it, so if I was the GM, I’d sooner they told the customers they’re out for the day rather than have customers thinking (knowing) that they’re microwaving it.
(ETA, didn’t mean to edit that into this post…but I’m gonna leave it)
Sure, someone in the restaurant kitchen could, in theory, warm up your soup in a small saucepan. But that’s not their usual process and would, I think, mess up their workflow, in which they normally warm up soup in the microwave oven.
I wouldn’t necessarily judge soup that’s kept under refrigeration and warmed in the microwave when needed as inferior to soup that bubbles on the stove all day. In fact, the former is likely to be better - after a certain point, there’s no value to continuous simmering. You’ll just turn any lumps into mush and possibly break down nutrients. It’s certainly not going to enhance the flavor any.
I do agree with @Cheesesteak 's #2 point, however, which is that there might have been something a bit less embarrassing that the server could have said instead of “our microwave broke.”
I agree with the others who say the broken microwave shouldn’t have been mentioned. It’s not as bad as ‘We had to send the soup cook home for showing up drunk’ or ‘A big can of roach poison fell into the soup warmer’ but surely a more elegant reason could have been given. At least the meatloaf wasn’t microwaved, I suppose.
I once spent some time in the kitchen of a fairly posh restaurant. They would ladle cold soup into bowls and put them in a real oven to heat them. It only took a few minutes before they were piping hot.
This was in the mid-90s, when microwave ovens were already freely available.
The OP didn’t specify the chain, so I’m assuming they aren’t quite as bad as Applebees, but apparently they’re at least a little dependent on the microwave. And I assume Applebees has several microwaves available in case one of them breaks (and just to maintain decent meal throughput).
I like to watch The Kitchen, with several chefs including restaurateur Geoffrey Zakarian. He has mentioned that they use the microwave quite a bit in restaurants. They call it “Chef Mike.”
Perhaps it’s best that we don’t see inside the kitchens in which our food is being prepared, and perhaps it’s also best to heed the old admonishment: “Don’t ask; don’t tell.”
When I’m at a restaurant, I’ll usually do what I can to make sure I don’t end up in a spot where I can see the kitchen.
Hell, even (or maybe especially) at a fast food place. Between ordering and getting the food, I’ll mill around by the soda machines with my back to the counter.
I really don’t like seeing my food being made. Or rather, I don’t like seeing what the people making my food are doing.
Honestly, I wouldn’t have found anything odd or embarrassing about the server telling me their microwave was broken, like it’s some kind of secret that a restaurant uses a microwave, especially some chain restaurant. I wouldn’t even have twigged that as an odd statement. And soup, in particular, is well-suited for microwaving.
Way back in the Dayes of Yore, my wife and I would go to restaurants with our infant child, and she would sometimes ask the wait staff to warm his bottle in the microwave. They always obliged, but it amazed me how many restaurants actually had no microwave. In fact almost none of them did. They would generally warm it up in hot water.
Years ago we went to a local restaurant where I was informed that I couldn’t have the order of fettucine alfredo I’d asked for because their fryer was broken.
