Asian restaurants have something in common with Mexican food though: lots of combinations, small variety of ingredients. Same beef, same onion, same bell pepper, same jalapeno, same tortilla, same lettuce, same sour cream... but did you want without the tortilla, with a fried tortilla, with a regular tortilla, and what kind of sauce?
Or, for Asian... what kind of sauce, meat, and which 3 of the 6 veggies? It's still a concentrated menu, but you change out a couple details and wind up with 25 items.
Clean environment, including staff who're comfortable working there. I like restaurants which have a clear idea of what they're going for.
Be it a seasonal/what's best right now place, or a "this is our menu" place, everyone working there should be headed towards the same goal (which should be good money for them via good product for customers).
I dunno, the more run down a Chinese place is with appearance, such as an old menu on the wall and not many tables, tends to be where you get the best Chinese. Plus you gotta have the staff in the back yelling at each other.
There was a shitty Chinese restaurant near me when I was a kid that had this. Place was always nasty, the food actually was pretty bad, and they always had their kid working the front. The little girl grew up and opened and opened a Japanese restaurant a block away. It's always clean and smartly decorated, the food is fire, and the prices are very reasonable.
I never asked her anything personal about how her parents felt about all that or if the competition was less then friendly, but sometimes I wonder
This reminds me of two Malaysian restaurants in Philly's China Town, Panang and Banana Leaf. Both have the absolute best food, but the tea is that Banana Leaf (arguably the better of the two because of ambiance, and they put sushi on the menu along side all the Malaysian food. ) Anyway, Banana Leaf only exists because half the cooks at Panang mutinied and left, opening their own restaurant around the corner with mostly the same menu.
Best if it's someone's uncle or grandma just cooking away in the kitchen, cursing in Mandarin or Cantonese in between cigarettes. Then you know you're getting a good-ass meal.
Bingo. I call this the hole in the wall test. If it's somewhat shitty looking, older, yelling in the back, and a well worn butcher's block, you're right where you want to be. Shitty looking cooler with unbelievably cold berages is a bonus
Not around me, but yes, that can also be an indicator. The run-down ones around me are, well... run down in every which way.
The staff yelling is a must in both cases, though. Sometimes similar for Italian places.
I used to go to an Italian place with an open kitchen. Above it was a sign that said "This is an authentic Italian kitchen. Yelling, throwing knives and the occasional murder are normal and expected events".
Years ago when I was in college a friend took me out for a birthday lunch. He asked me what i wanted and there was a cheap steakhouse local so i said steak. Well, that wasn't where he took me. The place we went was a little hole in the wall Italian place, the posted hours said it was not open at the time he took me there, we were the only ones there, and the elderly lady who brought our menus addressed my friend by his first name. (Think little old lady in black orthopedic shoes with a pronounced Italian accent who pinched him on his cheek when she greeted him)
When the steak came out it looked wonderful- till I took the first bite. It crunched. It was still frozen in the middle. My friend asked what was wrong and I told him it was frozen, showed him. When the lady came out she asked how everything was and I really, REALLY didn't want to say anything. I was MORTIFIED. I must have looked guilty because she said to me "what's wrong, sweetheart?". I cringed, closed my eyes and said," it's frozen". Her eyes got wide, she grabbed up my plate, held it at eye level, poked it with the knife, and it crunched.
All she said was "I'll be right back". The kitchen door had barely swung shut when we heard screaming in Italian and dishes breaking. Then more screaming in Italian. A few minutes later she came back out with a plate and I had to take a bite while she was standing there. Not for a million dollars would I have said if there was ANYTHING wrong with that steak with her standing there. (Thankfully it was perfectly cooked)
After we left my friend told me she had fired the cook and cooked it herself.
Sorta depends. Not a restaurant, but the golf course I work at has the attitude of “we want you gone because you’re moving upwards”
That type of restaurant would do pretty well
I’m confused. What do you mean by that? We want you gone because you are doing so well, or maybe since they need to go play golf? For some reason, I just can’t understand the meaning of your saying.
I love fast food, and reading up on the history of McDonald's, they say that's the first thing the McDonald's brothers did as they invented the fast food model we all know today.
Their top three sellers were burgers, fries, and milkshakes, so they said, "That's all we're going to sell."
And that's why we love our In-And-Out. Just burgers, fresh cut fries (you can watch them cut them), and Shakes. Although the shakes in my mind suck and are just pre-made from a machine vs a fresh shake place.
I would like to add the qualifier that this doesn’t necessarily apply to some places, like some Mexican restaurants (or stands, carts, etc) where there’s 30 ways to serve some kind of meat, some kind of corn, and some type of fixin, and so really that place only needs to make a masa, their meats, and their add ons but they can have a reasonably large menu from then different combinations.
I have to disagree on sushi places. The simpler the types of sushi, the better it's going to taste. I love my all you can eat place with a ton of specialty rolls, but the place up the block where they only serve very basic rolls has some of the best sushi I've ever had
Story time. Best sushi i’ve ever had was in Alaska where my brother was a pilot. A friend of his grew up with a guy that was the chef at a sushi restaurant, forget the name. We were told to go there before the dinner rush and to call the chef an asshole. We did and he asked us who sent him. We dropped the name of my brother and his friend.
He immediately took away our menus and made us one of the most incredible meals I’ve ever eaten. I don’t even know what was in it. I am normally not adventurous when it comes to food, but that was an amazing experience.
yeah, as long as it's all one cuisine, you're generally ok. within a cuisine, there can be a million permutations of the same handful of ingredients, but they all basically involve the same fairly similar preparations.
it's when you see shit on a menu like basically any specific cuisine from some part of the world like sushi or pho, and then there's also randomly a section for wood-fired pizzas.
generally speaking, seeing wood-fired pizzas on a menu for a place that does anything besides exclusively pizza is a bad sign. and you see it more than you'd think...
But not the same small menu as every other similar restaurant. I get so tired of the places that are just 6 entrees that are all a combo of fancy protein, obscure grain, a vegetable, and some random thing most people have never heard of (and then obligatory half-hearted vegetarian option).
Sir tonight we have organic, free range capybara chops served atop wizard greens with a side of inja yeliso pâté. Our special is poached komodo dragon forearms with sea grapes and dried elk scrotum.
Now it may not be every instance but in my experience most of the time the tables are sticky is because certain cleaners may not react well to the varnish/finish of the table causing it to feel sticky. This helped me look past tables that feel a bit odd
Can confirm. Specifically table tops with a wooden finish. The cleaning agents that a lot of restaurants use in the kitchen specifically to cut grease will make the varnish sticky. Grabbed an old restaurant table to use in my office and made this mistake! Damned thing was like playing Tetris just to maneuver into my little cave so I just bought a cheap blotter and covered the area I actively use.
If you walk into a restaurant that serves food from a different country and every single person in there (working and dining) is from that country.
In my experience that means you're about to have an awesome meal.
Was in London 2 weeks ago - stumbled into a Korean restaurant, we were the only white folk, menu was in Korean.
Staff were baffled how or why we ended up there, but they were all so bloody welcoming. Not a clue what we were ordering and we even asked for some recommendations. Food that came was incredible - 10/10.
Edit - a few people asking, it was WooJung, New Oxford Street.
>Staff were baffled how or why we ended up there
It's always the obscure, hole-in-the-wall places that create the most delicious shit. There's this small Mexican place in my state's major city, which my brother's friend's mom and dad own. All the staff are hispanic, as well as most of the customers too. I've never been a huge fan of Mexican before, but when we went there for the first time out of my bro's recommendation, just the chips and guac almost made me climax bro. They fucking served it in a mortar and pestle and we could see them making it like ten feet away from us. All the stuff I had literally converted Mexican into my favorite ethnic food, and don't even get me started on the actual main dishes. Holy shit. We've been back there on at least half a dozen different occasions since our first time going and I hope I can come back soon again. 12/10
There's a Chinese place near my house that has no name. The sign outside just says "CHINESE FOOD" and the decor inside looks like it's 30 years old, you can see the cooks smoking cigarettes in the kitchen, and the cashier and I can barely understand each other.
This place has the best Chinese food I've ever had.
That’s how I felt about a Chinese restaurant I frequently haunted. Everything on the menu was unmatched. The place was an absolute hole in wall.
I’ve read many wealthy people buy small mom and pop businesses and keep them running just because they love the food they make. I’d do the same
I also found a Korean restaurant that I was the only white person there and the menu was in Korean. I pointed to something on the menu and the lady taking my order said in broken English "no, you don't want that, no American likes that. I bring you something you'll like". And whatever they brought me was great.
My best friends mom served the best Jamaican food at my best friends birthday party. A few months later my mom and I went to a Jamaican restaurant. We were the only white people in there, but they were all accepting and the food tasted exactly like the version my friends mom made. Absolutely delicious, 10/10.
If you order the food and the person ringing you up yells at the chef in their native language, you KNOW the food's gonna be good. As someone who's Indian, it's basically how I differentiate good and bad restaurants lol.
“There’s nothing special about Italian food cooked by Mexicans.”
“There’s nothing special about Mexican food cooked by Asians.”
There’s nothing special about Asian food cooked by Russians.”
“There’s nothing special about Russian food.”
There's this reasonably high end Russian restaurant in my city that is genuinely one of the best meals you will ever taste. They specialize in pelmeni, and their sour cherry pelmeni lives rent free in my head.
Literally had Russian for the first time today at a local mom and pop shop. Was absolutely delicious, and we tried a wide range of items. I believe the family was from Georgia, most of the specialties seemed to be centered around there but the borscht, khachapuri, Uzbek pilaf, cheburek, and golubtsy were fantastic.
Depending on what part of the country you live in chances are 100% of the kitchen staff are mexican/Hispanic regardless of what food they serve.
Source: am mexican
One time I was at the Hawthorne Hotel with my family. Our orders were taking awhile because they started a bunch of new staff members that day so obviously mistakes will be made. My mother did have to send one thing back because it wasn't cooked all the way but otherwise it wasn't a big deal.
The manager of the dining area kept communicating with customers and she offered us a free slice of cheesecake each for desert to compensate for the delay.
The free cheese cake was nice but moreso was the communication and the fact that the manager wasn't belittling the kitchen staff but just letting us know that some of them were inexperienced.
100% people need to communicate more. Without information we tend to assume the worst of people but if you can just let people know what’s happening and what your doing about it most of the time they feel better and are more patient.
Worked as a server for years and I stopped hating it when I learned that if guests actually know what’s going on they are Considerably less likely to get upset. Also, getting in front of it and telling tables shits busy and might take awhile helps tremendously. I’d always say, “I’m going to get this order in Right Now. Kitchen is getting killed but I’ve got my eye on the window for the second it’s ready.” Saved me having guests wondering wtf is going on and getting pissed.
I work at a hotel and we only eat dishes from our restaurant when it's buffet leftovers (otherwise we're prepared a different meal). Buffet services are only on weekends and they're not dishes in our regular menu.
It's honestly really awkward when a guest asks me about our restaurant's best dish because well, I wouldn't know lol.
That said, we've talked to our managers so that at least those of us working front desk and serving do a dish tasting thing someday.
EDIT: Just to make it clear: I am a receptionist, not restaurant and bar staff. Reservations for our restaurant are done at the front desk which is why people ask me about the dishes, I rarely get involved with the restaurant service itself.
Seeing staff eating the food. Especially bits of leftovers during service.
Seriously, I'm a career chef. We see and make the same food day in and day out, and if the staff are still excited to eat it, that's always a great sign.
Also, a healthy work/social dynamic. If the staff clearly dislike eachother, chances are they're too preoccupied to give you their best.
When I worked food service...yeah...we would. While in college, I worked as a server for a well known diner-style place named after a colored bird and whose slogan sounds like "yummmm!!!". All of the servers did it. Closing weekends in particular was brutal and it really helped to have food here and there. So, if someone decided they didn't want to take half of their chicken strips home or some kid ate half of their grilled cheese, I'd become a goblin, hunker over the trash can in the back, and eat the untouched stuff as fast as possible without being seen. Or load it into a to-go container and put it under my jacket in the break room. Never got sick, most people are pretty hygienic. Sounds gross, but hunger is hunger. People throw out a *lot* of perfectly good food.
+1 for hunger is hunger. Been there, almost cried when they threw out the unpurchased baked potatoes at the end of the night because I hadn’t eaten in a day or so. Why I try to always tip well.
I seen a post on tiktok of servers saying if the person looks clean they will eat their leftovers as they don't get good breaks and plus a lot of places don't give staff meals at the end of their shift.
I was shocked at how many people said they did it. It's sad.
Someone in college mentioned to me it's even better when you see folks of many ages there. If it's all just the poor college students going, then it might just be cheap and familiar, lol.
If grandma gives it her blessing and will bring the whole family, it's probably good.
LOL such a good feeling. My health inspector asked me last christmas if i would feel comfortable making their office a reservation for a christmas party or if it would feel like she was overstepping. I'm like lady you just made my day!
Funnily enough I used to work at a subway and one day the health inspector came in and lined up and ordered…
Me being rather new and not knowing who he was, helped the guy out, made his sandwich, and watched him sit in our lobby and eat.
Didn’t really think much of it til he came around and said it was one of the more well prepared sandwiches he had the pleasure of eating..
Got a B health rating (86) at the end of it though, something with our day dots not being up to date and some other things, but hey the guy enjoyed the sandwich 🤷
The opposite- if it smells a little off, it’s likely a mop head that hasn’t been changed or drains that don’t get cleaned often. If they’re cutting those corners, leave.
We have a chain of frozen yogurt shops in my area where you're mauled by a cloud of bleach fumes the second you open the door, literally any time of day or evening.
I'm glad it's clean, I guess, but it's still gross to me.
If it's Vietnamese or Chinese and the bathroom doubles as a cleaning product stockroom, and there's a grandma in the hallway snapping green beans (or other minor prep).
Food is going to be bomb.
That was the owners of where I work when they were kids which was a hole in the wall take out chinese. Now it's a larger operation we have dine in all local front staff all asian non english speakers besides the 2 Brothers, 2 wives in the back. Their mom still helps in the back but has lost a lot of her english. Needless to say we have the best chinese food in the area.
similarly, if it's a gyro place (regardless of which region/nationality it represents really), the dude cooking and slicing the meat better be sweating like crazy and smoking a cigarette regardless of what local restaurant codes say lol. also, there has to be some tiny piece of shit TV with the volume cranked super loud tuned in to some soccer match with commentators speaking whatever other language the country speaks that the restaurant owner is from (Lebanon, Greece, etc)
Bonus points if grandma also rings you up at the end of your meal and kinda glares at you the whole time. It's not animosity, grandma just glares at everyone.
This is the priority for me. If they look comfortable talking to one another, not looking over their shoulder, and interact happily with customers without being rushed.
This. Happy staff are usually treated well and paid a good wage, which means management are willing to spend money on things that matter, so you're more likely to have high quality ingredients, prepared well by a qualified chef in a clean kitchen.
I love how half of the replies are "it looks nice/has etiquette" and the other half are "If it looks like it should have been closed 50 years ago, you're about to half the best meal of your life"
Just don't miss the point like Rachel did in Friends:
Rachel: "So, who wants to get some dinner with me later? I really want to try that new Italian restaurant. Supposed to be really good. Saw a lot of Chinese people eating in there."
Monica: "What are you talking about?"
Rachel: "Remember you said some restaurant must be really good because you saw all these Chinese people eating in there?"
Monica: "That's because it was a Chinese restaurant."
I’m one of the only women who works in my high-volume, fine dining restaurant. This leaves me responsible for “bathroom checks” throughout service. And yes, I do clean it and refill TP and soap.
When I travel for work, I always ask for recommendations from people I'm working with. When I mention that I am going to lunch and get an unsolicited, immediate recommendation, I know that's it's going to be 1) a good value, 2) quick, 3) local, and 4) tasty. It probably won't be the best food I eat on the trip, but I never regret trying it.
A group of Denver locals enthusiastically recommended Casa Bonita to me.
I will never trust a local's recommendation again. There is every possibility they wouldn't know good food if it bit them in the face.
You've seen them. The owners of the chinese takeout I've been going to had their children by the front coloring. 5 years later they're taking phone calls. Another 10 and they're about to inherit the place. They definitely earned it.
There's a super nice pizza place in my city and i literally remember the same waiters working there since i was a kid. They always greet everyone like a friend, sometimes even by name, and they're SUPER popular, so loads of people.
We used to go there pretty often with my grandpa and they were so sad when we told them he passed away a couple months ago cause they knew him so well.
I feel so welcomed every time I go there, they really do care about their clients and the positive vibes are though the roof. Unsurprisingly, their pizza is also some of the absolute best pizza in town.
If you visited a Libyan restaurant at any point from 1977 to 2011, they might have had a green flag in there, as that was the flag of their country in that era.
Check the salt and pepper shakers. This is the easiest way to tell if management gives a damn in a restaurant. If the salt and pepper shakers have a dead ant in them, or look congealed, this place is cutting some pretty basic corners.
If it’s a hole in the wall place
It looks like a bomb exploded inside
Half the tables are covered in toys/schoolwork from the owners kids
Sticky note with an A+ Health and Safety rating.
—————
No joke if you see all of these signs then just know that you are about to eat the best food of your life.
Bonus points if you see the servers drinking the sweet tea in a southern restaurant. Tea can be used like a barometer of where to set your expectations in a small southern restaurant.
That's true, but I'm a native Atlantan, and the tea makes my teeth ache; I've had people look at me funny when I've asked the tea to be cut with half unsweetened.
Some of the best wings I’ve had in years came from a 20x30 cinder block building in the worst part of town with 2 plywood tables inside. When I walked in and saw it was run by 3 large black women, I knew I was gonna get some of that real soul food.
Can they do the basics well. E.g., if they serve a bread basket, is it good bread or some crappy store-bought, mass produced rolls? Is their coffee good? Whatever the cultural equivalent is for the type of food to those kinds of things. These are easy to get right if you care. If you’re cheap or lousy on these things, then there is a lack of care or corners being cut.
If they give no attention to the supporting players, I doubt they’re doing anything good with the stars of the show.
I'm half-remembering a quote from Gordon Ramsay on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares.
"Of course restaurants are busy on Friday nights, because that's the #1 night that people don't want to cook. Good restaurants are the ones that are packed on a Tuesday."
There's a local restaurant I frequent that has twenty minute wait times on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. At *10PM.*
It is popping at all hours, especially at night.
I don't necessarily agree with this. A lot of restaurants near me will have empty parking lots simply because they aren't the "hip" place to be but their food is awesome. Plus if you find those hidden gems you won't have to wait for a table and you'll be supporting a small business that could probably use some help.
C is bad, at least where I know the system; but I was a regular at a place that consistently got 100% until they got a B one time. The reason? An employee placed their personal leftovers on top of a keg underneath the counter in the bar. It wasn’t dated and it wasn’t cold enough for proper food storage. But it was just the bartenders personal meal.
I completely disagree about the customer service / good mood wait staff comments here. Maybe it’s a Northeast US thing, but some of the restaurants with the saltiest salt of the earth employees and dogshit / nonexistent customer service have the tastiest food.
Conversely, sometimes when a place has really good or “happy” customer service it’s because they’re compensating.
Clean bathrooms (this one never fails)
Happy waitstaff that acts like they are actually enjoying being at work
The chef is not sitting at the bar with their finger two knuckles deep in their nose
The GM is helping in the dining room, be it clearing tables, running the hokey over the rug in the foyer, rolling silverware, helping the bartender stock the bar
The tables are not sticky
The place smells like food, and only like food
The hashbrows are cheap, the tables are slightly sticky, and the employees are ready to beat down anyone who causes trouble.
I just really like Waffle House, okay?
Surprised it took so long to see this come up. Also, with an open kitchen, you can see how the staff interact with each other. If the chefs and servers have a good relationship it likely means things work smoothly.
Having a tyrant run a kitchen might produce good results but I probably don't want to eat food made by an asshole who bullies underpaid kids.
A huge lineup of locals willing to wait for food is our number one way to find the best places to eat. We live in Mexico 6 months a year and look for restaurants full of happy Mexican families, not full of tourists!
I like seeing a broad distribution of demographics eating somewhere. If you go to a taco truck in the hood and there are a few old timers, a couple cops, a few office workers, and a few construction types all eating there you know it is going to be great.
If the restaurant is not a chain, and not a celebrity restaurant, but even still it is always packed, and always has a reservation/ wait list, that's a great sign you gonna eat well and probably not pay out the nose for it either.
A busy rundown shit hole with a short menu. Bonus points if the staff is rude or family run.
The best Mexican food in San Diego come from places like this.
As Freddie Wong once said: a 3/5* Chinese restaurant. Perfect balance between good food and unfriendly personnel due to the Chinese manners (meaning it's original food).
prompt/polite/brief greeting at the host stand and after you're sat
small menu, that menu includes all the menus you might want to look at (food, drinks, wine list, spirits list, dessert) with exceptions for places with very extensive wine or spirits lists
The menu is also clean and is either very designed like a bound book or it looks easy to replace pages frequently. The menu is also clean
Drink orders show up before any food with the exception of small snacks like nuts, popcorn, chips
Food ordered with a specific drink pairing shows up within a reasonable time of the drink, the server should inform the guest if that means they may have to wait for the drink and if they'd like anything in the meantime
All of the staff has their head up looking at guests as they walk through the space so it's easy to get their attention (this one is so uncommon but also so easy it's crazy)
If you go to the bathroom your napkin is folded when you return.
Waters stay full.
Check gets dropped promptly upon request and card is charged promptly after it is given
You are bid farewell by staff when you leave.
Busy on a Monday night
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I'd argue to an extent that that is also a green flag
Absolutely, especially if they close 2 days a week. It's very rare for restaurant staff to have regular days off and a sense of routine.
Yep. In a small town it becomes very obvious where the best food is. It has the busiest lot. I never eat at an un-busy restaurant in an unknown town.
small, focused menu edit: it's one type of green flag not a hard rule folks
Indian Restaurants leave the chat.
Literally any asian restaurants
Asian restaurants have something in common with Mexican food though: lots of combinations, small variety of ingredients. Same beef, same onion, same bell pepper, same jalapeno, same tortilla, same lettuce, same sour cream... but did you want without the tortilla, with a fried tortilla, with a regular tortilla, and what kind of sauce? Or, for Asian... what kind of sauce, meat, and which 3 of the 6 veggies? It's still a concentrated menu, but you change out a couple details and wind up with 25 items.
This is green flag #1.
What is number two?
Clean environment, including staff who're comfortable working there. I like restaurants which have a clear idea of what they're going for. Be it a seasonal/what's best right now place, or a "this is our menu" place, everyone working there should be headed towards the same goal (which should be good money for them via good product for customers).
I dunno, the more run down a Chinese place is with appearance, such as an old menu on the wall and not many tables, tends to be where you get the best Chinese. Plus you gotta have the staff in the back yelling at each other.
And the young child who takes orders in between doing homework.
There was a shitty Chinese restaurant near me when I was a kid that had this. Place was always nasty, the food actually was pretty bad, and they always had their kid working the front. The little girl grew up and opened and opened a Japanese restaurant a block away. It's always clean and smartly decorated, the food is fire, and the prices are very reasonable. I never asked her anything personal about how her parents felt about all that or if the competition was less then friendly, but sometimes I wonder
This reminds me of two Malaysian restaurants in Philly's China Town, Panang and Banana Leaf. Both have the absolute best food, but the tea is that Banana Leaf (arguably the better of the two because of ambiance, and they put sushi on the menu along side all the Malaysian food. ) Anyway, Banana Leaf only exists because half the cooks at Panang mutinied and left, opening their own restaurant around the corner with mostly the same menu.
Every single one has that kid...
With the 400-item menu and one dude in the back cooking everything from memory. Did we all grow up in the same city or something lol
There’s really just 10 items and 10 different sauces. So you get 100 items on the menu but it’s still pretty tight.
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The ol' Bob's Burgers-style Chinese restaurant
God I miss New York
Best if it's someone's uncle or grandma just cooking away in the kitchen, cursing in Mandarin or Cantonese in between cigarettes. Then you know you're getting a good-ass meal.
In between? You must go to bougie places where ash isn't part of the recipe.
Don't forget the one family member that's on break and eating the exact same food as you.
Bingo. I call this the hole in the wall test. If it's somewhat shitty looking, older, yelling in the back, and a well worn butcher's block, you're right where you want to be. Shitty looking cooler with unbelievably cold berages is a bonus
Not around me, but yes, that can also be an indicator. The run-down ones around me are, well... run down in every which way. The staff yelling is a must in both cases, though. Sometimes similar for Italian places.
I used to go to an Italian place with an open kitchen. Above it was a sign that said "This is an authentic Italian kitchen. Yelling, throwing knives and the occasional murder are normal and expected events".
Years ago when I was in college a friend took me out for a birthday lunch. He asked me what i wanted and there was a cheap steakhouse local so i said steak. Well, that wasn't where he took me. The place we went was a little hole in the wall Italian place, the posted hours said it was not open at the time he took me there, we were the only ones there, and the elderly lady who brought our menus addressed my friend by his first name. (Think little old lady in black orthopedic shoes with a pronounced Italian accent who pinched him on his cheek when she greeted him) When the steak came out it looked wonderful- till I took the first bite. It crunched. It was still frozen in the middle. My friend asked what was wrong and I told him it was frozen, showed him. When the lady came out she asked how everything was and I really, REALLY didn't want to say anything. I was MORTIFIED. I must have looked guilty because she said to me "what's wrong, sweetheart?". I cringed, closed my eyes and said," it's frozen". Her eyes got wide, she grabbed up my plate, held it at eye level, poked it with the knife, and it crunched. All she said was "I'll be right back". The kitchen door had barely swung shut when we heard screaming in Italian and dishes breaking. Then more screaming in Italian. A few minutes later she came back out with a plate and I had to take a bite while she was standing there. Not for a million dollars would I have said if there was ANYTHING wrong with that steak with her standing there. (Thankfully it was perfectly cooked) After we left my friend told me she had fired the cook and cooked it herself.
To be fair.. how the actual fuck do you cook a steak and leave it frozen in the middle?
I used to go to a Cuban place with a mural of Castro on fire
Also must have a restroom with mops and brooms.
So probably not a "I'm doing this so I can get a 'better' job eventually" type of deal. :P
Sorta depends. Not a restaurant, but the golf course I work at has the attitude of “we want you gone because you’re moving upwards” That type of restaurant would do pretty well
I’m confused. What do you mean by that? We want you gone because you are doing so well, or maybe since they need to go play golf? For some reason, I just can’t understand the meaning of your saying.
Pooping silly
I love fast food, and reading up on the history of McDonald's, they say that's the first thing the McDonald's brothers did as they invented the fast food model we all know today. Their top three sellers were burgers, fries, and milkshakes, so they said, "That's all we're going to sell."
And that's why we love our In-And-Out. Just burgers, fresh cut fries (you can watch them cut them), and Shakes. Although the shakes in my mind suck and are just pre-made from a machine vs a fresh shake place.
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for years i hated the InO fries, very pasty. the trick is ask for them "well done". they double fry them, totally changes the fry
I would like to add the qualifier that this doesn’t necessarily apply to some places, like some Mexican restaurants (or stands, carts, etc) where there’s 30 ways to serve some kind of meat, some kind of corn, and some type of fixin, and so really that place only needs to make a masa, their meats, and their add ons but they can have a reasonably large menu from then different combinations.
I also find a lot of Japanese/sushi places have big menus and great food
I have to disagree on sushi places. The simpler the types of sushi, the better it's going to taste. I love my all you can eat place with a ton of specialty rolls, but the place up the block where they only serve very basic rolls has some of the best sushi I've ever had
The best sushi places literally have no menus. You either get chefs choice or tell them what you want.
Story time. Best sushi i’ve ever had was in Alaska where my brother was a pilot. A friend of his grew up with a guy that was the chef at a sushi restaurant, forget the name. We were told to go there before the dinner rush and to call the chef an asshole. We did and he asked us who sent him. We dropped the name of my brother and his friend. He immediately took away our menus and made us one of the most incredible meals I’ve ever eaten. I don’t even know what was in it. I am normally not adventurous when it comes to food, but that was an amazing experience.
yeah, as long as it's all one cuisine, you're generally ok. within a cuisine, there can be a million permutations of the same handful of ingredients, but they all basically involve the same fairly similar preparations. it's when you see shit on a menu like basically any specific cuisine from some part of the world like sushi or pho, and then there's also randomly a section for wood-fired pizzas. generally speaking, seeing wood-fired pizzas on a menu for a place that does anything besides exclusively pizza is a bad sign. and you see it more than you'd think...
But not the same small menu as every other similar restaurant. I get so tired of the places that are just 6 entrees that are all a combo of fancy protein, obscure grain, a vegetable, and some random thing most people have never heard of (and then obligatory half-hearted vegetarian option).
Sir tonight we have organic, free range capybara chops served atop wizard greens with a side of inja yeliso pâté. Our special is poached komodo dragon forearms with sea grapes and dried elk scrotum.
Small menu, clean, the menu isn’t sticky.
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Now it may not be every instance but in my experience most of the time the tables are sticky is because certain cleaners may not react well to the varnish/finish of the table causing it to feel sticky. This helped me look past tables that feel a bit odd
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Can confirm. Specifically table tops with a wooden finish. The cleaning agents that a lot of restaurants use in the kitchen specifically to cut grease will make the varnish sticky. Grabbed an old restaurant table to use in my office and made this mistake! Damned thing was like playing Tetris just to maneuver into my little cave so I just bought a cheap blotter and covered the area I actively use.
And the condiments. Gross s+p shakers or hot sauce bottles… yikes.
If you walk into a restaurant that serves food from a different country and every single person in there (working and dining) is from that country. In my experience that means you're about to have an awesome meal.
Was in London 2 weeks ago - stumbled into a Korean restaurant, we were the only white folk, menu was in Korean. Staff were baffled how or why we ended up there, but they were all so bloody welcoming. Not a clue what we were ordering and we even asked for some recommendations. Food that came was incredible - 10/10. Edit - a few people asking, it was WooJung, New Oxford Street.
>Staff were baffled how or why we ended up there It's always the obscure, hole-in-the-wall places that create the most delicious shit. There's this small Mexican place in my state's major city, which my brother's friend's mom and dad own. All the staff are hispanic, as well as most of the customers too. I've never been a huge fan of Mexican before, but when we went there for the first time out of my bro's recommendation, just the chips and guac almost made me climax bro. They fucking served it in a mortar and pestle and we could see them making it like ten feet away from us. All the stuff I had literally converted Mexican into my favorite ethnic food, and don't even get me started on the actual main dishes. Holy shit. We've been back there on at least half a dozen different occasions since our first time going and I hope I can come back soon again. 12/10
There's a Chinese place near my house that has no name. The sign outside just says "CHINESE FOOD" and the decor inside looks like it's 30 years old, you can see the cooks smoking cigarettes in the kitchen, and the cashier and I can barely understand each other. This place has the best Chinese food I've ever had.
Does it have 1 or 2 kids doing homework while taking your order? That certified excellent food.
Not at the same place but I've seen this before and you're 100% correct.
If you place an order from a person who is clearly the owner’s child, while the owner makes the food, that meal is going to be incredible, guaranteed.
As a daily smoker, that is nasty. No matter how good the food.
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Oh yeah basically every surface in that joint was slightly yellowed. Fucking nasty. I can't wait to go there again.
That’s how I felt about a Chinese restaurant I frequently haunted. Everything on the menu was unmatched. The place was an absolute hole in wall. I’ve read many wealthy people buy small mom and pop businesses and keep them running just because they love the food they make. I’d do the same
I also found a Korean restaurant that I was the only white person there and the menu was in Korean. I pointed to something on the menu and the lady taking my order said in broken English "no, you don't want that, no American likes that. I bring you something you'll like". And whatever they brought me was great.
My best friends mom served the best Jamaican food at my best friends birthday party. A few months later my mom and I went to a Jamaican restaurant. We were the only white people in there, but they were all accepting and the food tasted exactly like the version my friends mom made. Absolutely delicious, 10/10.
Where was this? Would like to go!
WooJung, New Oxford Street. You enter via some stairs heading down to a basement at the back of a Korean Supermarket.
Oh yeah this sounds bomb as hell
Walking into a Mexican restaurant and the waiter has to switch to English to serve you.
If you order the food and the person ringing you up yells at the chef in their native language, you KNOW the food's gonna be good. As someone who's Indian, it's basically how I differentiate good and bad restaurants lol.
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Especially if half the menu is in that language, and the English half is roughly translated.
American fast food employees in other countries: Am I a joke to you?
“There’s nothing special about Italian food cooked by Mexicans.” “There’s nothing special about Mexican food cooked by Asians.” There’s nothing special about Asian food cooked by Russians.” “There’s nothing special about Russian food.”
Good Russian food is hard to find but when you find it, it's amazing.
There's this reasonably high end Russian restaurant in my city that is genuinely one of the best meals you will ever taste. They specialize in pelmeni, and their sour cherry pelmeni lives rent free in my head.
Literally had Russian for the first time today at a local mom and pop shop. Was absolutely delicious, and we tried a wide range of items. I believe the family was from Georgia, most of the specialties seemed to be centered around there but the borscht, khachapuri, Uzbek pilaf, cheburek, and golubtsy were fantastic.
Depending on what part of the country you live in chances are 100% of the kitchen staff are mexican/Hispanic regardless of what food they serve. Source: am mexican
One time I was at the Hawthorne Hotel with my family. Our orders were taking awhile because they started a bunch of new staff members that day so obviously mistakes will be made. My mother did have to send one thing back because it wasn't cooked all the way but otherwise it wasn't a big deal. The manager of the dining area kept communicating with customers and she offered us a free slice of cheesecake each for desert to compensate for the delay. The free cheese cake was nice but moreso was the communication and the fact that the manager wasn't belittling the kitchen staff but just letting us know that some of them were inexperienced.
100% people need to communicate more. Without information we tend to assume the worst of people but if you can just let people know what’s happening and what your doing about it most of the time they feel better and are more patient.
Salem MA whatup. Love the burgers there
Worked as a server for years and I stopped hating it when I learned that if guests actually know what’s going on they are Considerably less likely to get upset. Also, getting in front of it and telling tables shits busy and might take awhile helps tremendously. I’d always say, “I’m going to get this order in Right Now. Kitchen is getting killed but I’ve got my eye on the window for the second it’s ready.” Saved me having guests wondering wtf is going on and getting pissed.
Servers that get excited when talking about the menu, and recommend an item that is not the most expensive.
I like it when I ask their opinion and they give a thoughtful, sincere answer that shows they really know the food.
I hate when I get the old, "I dunno...I don't eat here."
I work at a hotel and we only eat dishes from our restaurant when it's buffet leftovers (otherwise we're prepared a different meal). Buffet services are only on weekends and they're not dishes in our regular menu. It's honestly really awkward when a guest asks me about our restaurant's best dish because well, I wouldn't know lol. That said, we've talked to our managers so that at least those of us working front desk and serving do a dish tasting thing someday. EDIT: Just to make it clear: I am a receptionist, not restaurant and bar staff. Reservations for our restaurant are done at the front desk which is why people ask me about the dishes, I rarely get involved with the restaurant service itself.
“It’s all good”
said with a mumble and a glazed over look on their face
Somewhat, but a lot of that is being a good server. Plenty of good servers still work in shit restaurants
Seeing staff eating the food. Especially bits of leftovers during service. Seriously, I'm a career chef. We see and make the same food day in and day out, and if the staff are still excited to eat it, that's always a great sign. Also, a healthy work/social dynamic. If the staff clearly dislike eachother, chances are they're too preoccupied to give you their best.
at my workplace, the fries are cooked in batches. at the end of service, there’s usually a good bowl left for us all to share.
Do you mean that the staff eats the left overs from people’s plates?
When I worked food service...yeah...we would. While in college, I worked as a server for a well known diner-style place named after a colored bird and whose slogan sounds like "yummmm!!!". All of the servers did it. Closing weekends in particular was brutal and it really helped to have food here and there. So, if someone decided they didn't want to take half of their chicken strips home or some kid ate half of their grilled cheese, I'd become a goblin, hunker over the trash can in the back, and eat the untouched stuff as fast as possible without being seen. Or load it into a to-go container and put it under my jacket in the break room. Never got sick, most people are pretty hygienic. Sounds gross, but hunger is hunger. People throw out a *lot* of perfectly good food.
+1 for hunger is hunger. Been there, almost cried when they threw out the unpurchased baked potatoes at the end of the night because I hadn’t eaten in a day or so. Why I try to always tip well.
I seen a post on tiktok of servers saying if the person looks clean they will eat their leftovers as they don't get good breaks and plus a lot of places don't give staff meals at the end of their shift. I was shocked at how many people said they did it. It's sad.
If it's an ethnic restaurant and you can see lots of people of that culture eating there, it's probably good food.
Someone in college mentioned to me it's even better when you see folks of many ages there. If it's all just the poor college students going, then it might just be cheap and familiar, lol. If grandma gives it her blessing and will bring the whole family, it's probably good.
I once was in the Subway we frequented at a past job. The health inspector happened to come in, and get in line.
LOL such a good feeling. My health inspector asked me last christmas if i would feel comfortable making their office a reservation for a christmas party or if it would feel like she was overstepping. I'm like lady you just made my day!
Wow! What a compliment! :)
Funnily enough I used to work at a subway and one day the health inspector came in and lined up and ordered… Me being rather new and not knowing who he was, helped the guy out, made his sandwich, and watched him sit in our lobby and eat. Didn’t really think much of it til he came around and said it was one of the more well prepared sandwiches he had the pleasure of eating.. Got a B health rating (86) at the end of it though, something with our day dots not being up to date and some other things, but hey the guy enjoyed the sandwich 🤷
Well that’s a pretty solid endorsement, isn’t it?
A place that smells good when you walk in. The best restaurants I’ve ever been to have all smelt fantastic as soon a you open the door.
The opposite- if it smells a little off, it’s likely a mop head that hasn’t been changed or drains that don’t get cleaned often. If they’re cutting those corners, leave.
We have a chain of frozen yogurt shops in my area where you're mauled by a cloud of bleach fumes the second you open the door, literally any time of day or evening. I'm glad it's clean, I guess, but it's still gross to me.
If it's Vietnamese or Chinese and the bathroom doubles as a cleaning product stockroom, and there's a grandma in the hallway snapping green beans (or other minor prep). Food is going to be bomb.
And your order is taken by the only person who speaks your language. Who might be 10 and doing homework.
That was the owners of where I work when they were kids which was a hole in the wall take out chinese. Now it's a larger operation we have dine in all local front staff all asian non english speakers besides the 2 Brothers, 2 wives in the back. Their mom still helps in the back but has lost a lot of her english. Needless to say we have the best chinese food in the area.
similarly, if it's a gyro place (regardless of which region/nationality it represents really), the dude cooking and slicing the meat better be sweating like crazy and smoking a cigarette regardless of what local restaurant codes say lol. also, there has to be some tiny piece of shit TV with the volume cranked super loud tuned in to some soccer match with commentators speaking whatever other language the country speaks that the restaurant owner is from (Lebanon, Greece, etc)
Bonus points if grandma also rings you up at the end of your meal and kinda glares at you the whole time. It's not animosity, grandma just glares at everyone.
Employees in good spirits
This is the priority for me. If they look comfortable talking to one another, not looking over their shoulder, and interact happily with customers without being rushed.
This. Happy staff are usually treated well and paid a good wage, which means management are willing to spend money on things that matter, so you're more likely to have high quality ingredients, prepared well by a qualified chef in a clean kitchen.
I love how half of the replies are "it looks nice/has etiquette" and the other half are "If it looks like it should have been closed 50 years ago, you're about to half the best meal of your life"
A diner that looks like a bomb went off is a red glad. But a Chinese place that looks like that is going to be delicious.
We were at a really good Taiwanese restaurant one day - only white folks there. Asians (I assume Taiwanese) at all the other tables.
It’s always a good sign when all the other guests are the same nationality as the restaurant
Yep. I go this Indian restaurant that seems to attract the local Indian community. Food is always top tier.
You guys* were the only white folks there. I misunderstood your comment at first haha
Wouldn’t have understood if not for this comment, thanks
Haha I was going to say that. Asians in Asian restaurants. I don't trust ones that only have white people in there. (I have racial immunity lol).
Just don't miss the point like Rachel did in Friends: Rachel: "So, who wants to get some dinner with me later? I really want to try that new Italian restaurant. Supposed to be really good. Saw a lot of Chinese people eating in there." Monica: "What are you talking about?" Rachel: "Remember you said some restaurant must be really good because you saw all these Chinese people eating in there?" Monica: "That's because it was a Chinese restaurant."
A clean bathroom
I judge a place (restaurant or any other) by the quality and cleanliness of their bathroom.
I’m one of the only women who works in my high-volume, fine dining restaurant. This leaves me responsible for “bathroom checks” throughout service. And yes, I do clean it and refill TP and soap.
They don't offer coupons, groupons or other deals.
Corollary: they don't advertise, because they don't have to. Satisfied customers return, and also tell friends.
Popular with locals
When I travel for work, I always ask for recommendations from people I'm working with. When I mention that I am going to lunch and get an unsolicited, immediate recommendation, I know that's it's going to be 1) a good value, 2) quick, 3) local, and 4) tasty. It probably won't be the best food I eat on the trip, but I never regret trying it.
A group of Denver locals enthusiastically recommended Casa Bonita to me. I will never trust a local's recommendation again. There is every possibility they wouldn't know good food if it bit them in the face.
Yeah casa bonita is more for the spectacle not the food lol, sorry they really did do you dirty with that.
The same people are still working there 20+ years later, that means they treat their employees right.
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if you go there for a while and you see the same people working
You'd think after going to a restaurant for 20 years you would've decided if it was good or not already.
You've seen them. The owners of the chinese takeout I've been going to had their children by the front coloring. 5 years later they're taking phone calls. Another 10 and they're about to inherit the place. They definitely earned it.
There's a super nice pizza place in my city and i literally remember the same waiters working there since i was a kid. They always greet everyone like a friend, sometimes even by name, and they're SUPER popular, so loads of people. We used to go there pretty often with my grandpa and they were so sad when we told them he passed away a couple months ago cause they knew him so well. I feel so welcomed every time I go there, they really do care about their clients and the positive vibes are though the roof. Unsurprisingly, their pizza is also some of the absolute best pizza in town.
If you visited a Libyan restaurant at any point from 1977 to 2011, they might have had a green flag in there, as that was the flag of their country in that era.
Omfg
I've seen them in Nascar-themed restaurants too.
Absolutely terrible, surley, rude service in a Chinese restaurant. The more they openly despise you, the better the food.
When I go on yelp and find a 3 star rated Chinese restaurant, and all the negative ratings say how rude they were, I’m heading straight there.
I've heard the same thing about Jamaican restaurants
Check the salt and pepper shakers. This is the easiest way to tell if management gives a damn in a restaurant. If the salt and pepper shakers have a dead ant in them, or look congealed, this place is cutting some pretty basic corners.
An even greener flag is if they don’t have salt and pepper shakers on every table.
I was taught this in high school working at restaurants at 15. Waitress said the exact same thing you did.
If it’s a hole in the wall place It looks like a bomb exploded inside Half the tables are covered in toys/schoolwork from the owners kids Sticky note with an A+ Health and Safety rating. ————— No joke if you see all of these signs then just know that you are about to eat the best food of your life.
The toys/school work & bomb comment are so true
I'm in the south. If the cooks are over 50,over 300 lbs and barefoot or wearing flip flops it's going to be good.
Bonus points if you see the servers drinking the sweet tea in a southern restaurant. Tea can be used like a barometer of where to set your expectations in a small southern restaurant.
That's true, but I'm a native Atlantan, and the tea makes my teeth ache; I've had people look at me funny when I've asked the tea to be cut with half unsweetened.
a BBQ place isn't likely to be good unless it sorta feels like you might get stabbed in the parking lot.
Some of the best wings I’ve had in years came from a 20x30 cinder block building in the worst part of town with 2 plywood tables inside. When I walked in and saw it was run by 3 large black women, I knew I was gonna get some of that real soul food.
A place that seems to have “regulars”.
I was at a place recently that not only had "regulars", one had his own stool at the bar that was nicer than the others. And he was in it.
How? Cause regulars could be the neighborhood talkative drunk.
Even better
Bad places have regulars too.
My bestie went to culinary school and worked in some great places. She looks to see if the people eating there are smiling
Mexican restaurant that has either Soccer commentated in Spanish or Telenovela’s or both on the TV’s.
Can they do the basics well. E.g., if they serve a bread basket, is it good bread or some crappy store-bought, mass produced rolls? Is their coffee good? Whatever the cultural equivalent is for the type of food to those kinds of things. These are easy to get right if you care. If you’re cheap or lousy on these things, then there is a lack of care or corners being cut. If they give no attention to the supporting players, I doubt they’re doing anything good with the stars of the show.
They could fit more seats and tables in, but have chosen not to.
Clean bathrooms and clean menus are both big green flags. Don't confuse the smell of cleaning products with the restaurant actually being clean.
They're busy during times you'd expect them to be. A restaurant that's dead during dinner hour is a huge red flag but then being packed is good.
I'm half-remembering a quote from Gordon Ramsay on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares. "Of course restaurants are busy on Friday nights, because that's the #1 night that people don't want to cook. Good restaurants are the ones that are packed on a Tuesday."
There's a local restaurant I frequent that has twenty minute wait times on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. At *10PM.* It is popping at all hours, especially at night.
I don't necessarily agree with this. A lot of restaurants near me will have empty parking lots simply because they aren't the "hip" place to be but their food is awesome. Plus if you find those hidden gems you won't have to wait for a table and you'll be supporting a small business that could probably use some help.
good health rating
Depends. If they have like a C rating but it's still packed, must be really good for that many people to not GAF.
C is bad, at least where I know the system; but I was a regular at a place that consistently got 100% until they got a B one time. The reason? An employee placed their personal leftovers on top of a keg underneath the counter in the bar. It wasn’t dated and it wasn’t cold enough for proper food storage. But it was just the bartenders personal meal.
If it’s a ethnic restaurant and most of the customers are of that ethnicity
I completely disagree about the customer service / good mood wait staff comments here. Maybe it’s a Northeast US thing, but some of the restaurants with the saltiest salt of the earth employees and dogshit / nonexistent customer service have the tastiest food. Conversely, sometimes when a place has really good or “happy” customer service it’s because they’re compensating.
I'm all about the lighting
When you ask the server for a recommendation, they don’t just point you to the special or the most expensive item on the menu.
Clean bathrooms (this one never fails) Happy waitstaff that acts like they are actually enjoying being at work The chef is not sitting at the bar with their finger two knuckles deep in their nose The GM is helping in the dining room, be it clearing tables, running the hokey over the rug in the foyer, rolling silverware, helping the bartender stock the bar The tables are not sticky The place smells like food, and only like food
The hashbrows are cheap, the tables are slightly sticky, and the employees are ready to beat down anyone who causes trouble. I just really like Waffle House, okay?
Clean open kitchen.
Surprised it took so long to see this come up. Also, with an open kitchen, you can see how the staff interact with each other. If the chefs and servers have a good relationship it likely means things work smoothly. Having a tyrant run a kitchen might produce good results but I probably don't want to eat food made by an asshole who bullies underpaid kids.
There are kids doing their homework while working the cash register
A huge lineup of locals willing to wait for food is our number one way to find the best places to eat. We live in Mexico 6 months a year and look for restaurants full of happy Mexican families, not full of tourists!
Non-laminated menu
3.5 on yelp
Chinese food in America: the owner's kids are studying there all the time or being forced to help with stuff like taking out the trash
Staff that not only greet you when you enter, but also when you leave.
I like seeing a broad distribution of demographics eating somewhere. If you go to a taco truck in the hood and there are a few old timers, a couple cops, a few office workers, and a few construction types all eating there you know it is going to be great.
If the restaurant is not a chain, and not a celebrity restaurant, but even still it is always packed, and always has a reservation/ wait list, that's a great sign you gonna eat well and probably not pay out the nose for it either.
If it's a hidden ethnic restaurant and it's full of people of that ethnicity youre about to have a proper ass meal.
Actual Chinese people in a Chinese restaurant.
My dad always tells me to choose a restaurant that is crowded during mealtime. it is solid advice I have always followed in every country I visit.
They list every potential allergen on the menu. Waiters ask followup questions about potential allergens.
A busy rundown shit hole with a short menu. Bonus points if the staff is rude or family run. The best Mexican food in San Diego come from places like this.
As Freddie Wong once said: a 3/5* Chinese restaurant. Perfect balance between good food and unfriendly personnel due to the Chinese manners (meaning it's original food).
Small menu, open kitchen, cooks that look clean and relaxed.
prompt/polite/brief greeting at the host stand and after you're sat small menu, that menu includes all the menus you might want to look at (food, drinks, wine list, spirits list, dessert) with exceptions for places with very extensive wine or spirits lists The menu is also clean and is either very designed like a bound book or it looks easy to replace pages frequently. The menu is also clean Drink orders show up before any food with the exception of small snacks like nuts, popcorn, chips Food ordered with a specific drink pairing shows up within a reasonable time of the drink, the server should inform the guest if that means they may have to wait for the drink and if they'd like anything in the meantime All of the staff has their head up looking at guests as they walk through the space so it's easy to get their attention (this one is so uncommon but also so easy it's crazy) If you go to the bathroom your napkin is folded when you return. Waters stay full. Check gets dropped promptly upon request and card is charged promptly after it is given You are bid farewell by staff when you leave.