I think it’s fine in a thread title as far as differentiation from fast food goes. “What does ‘no substitutions’ mean on a non-fast-food restaurant menu?” would have been a much longer thread title.
While it’s true that there may have been some confusion engendered between mere non-fast-food and true “slow food”, that’s a separate matter.
I don’t think that’s the implication.
In the sense that “Norm” = most common, I’d bet that currently, in America at least, more meals are eaten in/from fast food joints than in all ‘non-fast food’ restaurant types combined.
Frankly, I’d be surprised if that’s true.
Maybe I’m not thinking about this hard enough, but why? Fast food is cheap and has far higher turnover (I mean at a lunch rush for two hours, they can accommodate hundreds of diners, while an average restaurant may turn over 2-3x how ever many tables they have.) Plus they’re cheap and ubiquitous. I’ve seen towns where there may be one sit-down restaurant, but have three or more fast food restaurants. I’d be surprised if meals eaten from a fast food restaurant don’t significantly outnumber sit-down restaurant meals, if not by a factor of 2 or more. (Personally, I’d guess 5+)
N = 2, but we either home cook or eat somewhere nice for over 99% of our meals. Fast food is something we eat when circumstances do not easily allow otherwise.
Fast food by volume of food must be exceeding non-fast food restaurants by a large margin. They are everywhere, train stations, highway stops, every street corner in a large city, malls, inside other stores like Dunkin Donuts inside the Home Depots, pizza delivery chains, bar&grill type places, street carts, delis, and more. It’s no comment on the restaurant business as a whole, fast food costs less, is fast, and is just a small step above the prepared food and frozen meals available at grocery stores.
You’re leaving out the "in-between’. If I go to a pizzeria, getting a couple of slices may qualify as fast food, but if I order baked ziti or something like that, it will take nearly as long as it does in a sit-down restaurant. Same thing for Chinese takeout. If you’re counting everyplace where you can buy food but don’t sit-down and have your order taken as fast-food, then fast-food meals *might *be the norm for meals eaten outside the home- but I’ve never heard of anyone calling the bakery a “fast-food restaurant” because you can buy coffee and a donut there or referring to the deli as one because you can buy a freshly made sandwich in addition to the bread and cold-cuts to make your own.
For the record, I’m not counting stuff like Chinese food as “fast food.” I would call Dunkin Donuts fast food, though.
I’m the opposite. In an average month, I would say 90% of my meals I home cook. 7.5% I grab a quick hamburger or hot dog or Polish (in other words, fast-food), 2.5% is sit-down meals out. Eating out gets pricey quick, so I most often opt for fast food when I don’t feel like making something and want something quick to grab to eat on the go.
Fascinating thread; clearly an issue folks feel strongly about. I find the different perspectives interesting. I have no dog in this hunt myself, I guess - I assume that “substitutions” is a gray area, and a Bad Experience is kinda like Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography: I can’t define it, but know it when I see it.
Hey, BigT, any comments about all the replies you’ve gotten on baked vs fries? Sorry if I missed it, but it does seem like you should step up…
Hi welcome to Slow Food. There are 3 people ahead of you, so we’ll have you seated in about 30 minutes.
Here’s your table, we should have it cleared and set in about 30 minutes.
Your waitress will be with you in an hour.
Hi I’m Buffy your waitress. Here is your menu. I’ll be back in an hour to take your order.
Could you get me a Sloe Gin Fizz right away.
Sorry we don’t take special requests. You’ll have to wait until I come back to take your order.
Let’s see what do I want. I think I’ll start with escargot, move on to some turtle soup, and have molasses BBQed sloth for the main course.
Now where is that waitress it’s been an hour? Ah, I see she’s still taking the first guy’s order.
That would have the same implication. There is no need to add a modifier to “restaurant” unless you eat fast food so often that going to an actual restaurant seems odd. Which was my point. “What does ‘no substitutions’ mean on a restaurant menu?” would be fine.
Fast food really just means cooked before you order it. Pizza, Chinese, and even diners aren’t fast food. I mean, really, going to a diner is “slow food”?
To me, it’s sort of like saying “What’s a good non-candy lunch?” And then people start saying things like “Well, more candy is eaten by volume than lunch so it makes sense to say that candy is the norm.” Even if this isn’t strictly true I hope it illuminates what I mean.
The line is blurry. Some pizza places use pre-cooked crusts, slop hot sauce on the top, and pass them through a conveyor oven to heat the crust and melt the cheese. That’s fast food in my book. Diner’s can serve you meals where everything is pre-cooked also. I don’t think it matters in this thread anyway, the situation is the same for fast food and conventional restaurants. Whether the food is cooked before hand or not, the restaurant will have a policy on substitutions, and if they don’t allow them, you probably won’t get them.
When the OP says
[quote=]
OP checking in: Slow food = sit down and wait an eternity for your food as opposed to grabbing something at McDonalds and getting on with your life.
[/quote]
I think it is the implication. Not that it’s the norm for everyone, but that it is the norm for him.
OK- I read the comment as being the norm for society (that a slow food movement had to exist because all everyone eats is fast food). Point taken, I can see it the way you describe it as well.
This quote in particular reinforced my misreading.
Mayo on their standard burgers? I’ve never seen that in my life. Maybe on some weird special burger like MCDLT (dunno if that had mayo on it or not since I never ordered one) but not something where it would make sense to have everything in one device since they sure don’t put it on normal burgers in my experience.
And all I know about timeframe is that they definitely allowed you to get things left off by the late 70’s.
It had to be in response to Burger King’s “Have it your way” campaign, right?
eTA
wikipedia
Theres a Slow Food place at Dover docks called Burger King, its not meant to be but it is !
But back to the plot, I know of some chains whos meals come pre prepared as entire meals, either frozen or “Boil in the bag”, and unless you’re a gastronome you’d never guess it.
So they’re not going to start switching around items.
And then of course theres the punter who wants not just extra attention, but to show you, the person he’s with, and everyone else in the restaraunt what a connessieur he is by making lots of special requests.
Telling you about previous meals in other places, how they were cooked, about how he couldn’t bear to eat such and such unless it was from "insert name here ".
Or of course let everyone know how frail he is, what with his allergies so everyone will see how brave he is soldiering on like normal people.
And then when the meal actually arrives, theres another running commentary on its appearance, and afterwards yet more verbiage, though you can bet money that its not… quite… right.
By this time more time has been wasted on this individual then half of the customers in the place.
And he won’t tip handsomely either, sharing his superior knowledge with you is privilege enough.
This related to me by my ex missus who worked in such a place when working her way through Uni.
So yes I can see why some places cut the crap before it begins.
First of all, this doesn’t match my experience at all. I don’t ask for very many substitutions, but I’ve eaten with a lot of people (mostly New Yorkers, interestingly enough) who have long lists of special requests when they order.
Also, if the restaurant is really “high level” or “high class,” then their top priority is happy customers. Refusing to leave off a sauce that the customer doesn’t like is a low class move. Refusing to allow substitutions because that’s not in line with the chef’s vision is a snooty and obnoxious attitude that would drive me right out of the restaurant.
It’s like the chefs that used to refuse to cook a steak well-done for my mother. We actually had to leave supposedly high-class restaurants several times because they wouldn’t prepare the steak the way she liked it. They lost an entire dinner party and all of that party’s repeat business because of a snooty chef.
I’m curious how old you three are. I started working at a McDonald’s when I was in high school in 1974. We were told to honor (almost) all special orders. I regularly made fries without salt, double quarter pounders (before they were on the menu), burgers with nonstandard mixes of condiments, and more. So they’ve been just as customizable as Burger King for close to 40 years.
Incidentally, the three things we weren’t allowed to do were:
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:179, topic:660562”]
OK, number 1 I get. Number 2, I guess I could maybe understand. But what the hell is up with 3?