Carvery hygiene. Feel sick!

[holeingummy]

Went for a carvery today at a place I've not been before.
The man serving the carvery had really long fingernails with dirt underneath them all.
He had his fingers all over the plate when he was holding it putting the food on, and then his thumb about an inch onto the plate as he was handing it to me.
I really didn't want to eat it, but I paid £12 and felt like I couldn't exactly say "can someone else come and dish up my food"
I will admit that I have a germ phobia, but was I being over the top? It's probably all in my head, but I feel really queasy now.

Carveries never strike me as the cleanest of places.

Its gross. I never eat at a carvery.

You should have complained. He should have been wearing gloves.

I just didn't want to be "that" person complaining. But surely you shouldn't be serving food with long dirty fingernails? I get he uses tongs to pick up the food, but he was holding my plate with his dirty fingers.

This happened to me last time I went for a carvery. Very long, dirty nails. Fucking disgusting. I wore gloves when I was working a similar role 15 years ago, they were mandatory.

It was the same man serving everything. I was repulsed!

I hate to say it, but the same thing could be happening in the kitchen of any restaurant - it's just that you see it in a carvery.

If it was me I’d like to think I would have walked away at that point but easier said than done!

Write and complain to head office, manager. They should be wearing gloves. Ours have done so for many years.

I should have said something, but I was out with friends, paid before you collect your carvery, and it was insanely busy in there. At the time I decided to just suck it up, but majorly regretting it now!

Mystery shopper here. Do more than saying something. Take pictures (easy if it's insanely busy) and email the top, enclosing the pictures.

I have just emailed the pub. I feel bad as the guy was really friendly and helpful. But I just can't get past the nails.

I’m reasonably relaxed about germs, but I’m also assertive and, if it bothered me, it would have been fine to point out that he had dirty hands and you’d like him to wash them and then re-service. Sure, he may have been put out, but you’re never going to see him again. Give some feedback to the carvery.

Dirty gloves - and anyone who has dirty hands isn’t going to be fastidious about their glove hygiene - aren’t any more hygienic than hands, so I actually prefer to see bare hands over gloves.

Carvery is not the best place for people with germ phobias, they are revolting environments and it’s on display, unlike most places where it’s behind closed doors. Yours sounds particularly bad.
The worst bit is the sauce station at the end 🤮🤮🤮🤮 All the crusty sauce and sauce splashes urghhhhhhhh

Food hygiene training recommends bare hands over gloves, BUT they absolutely should be thoroughly washed, clean hands.

I was also cringing about the 50 of so people (estimate) that would have touched the self service tongs before me as well. I agree, carveries are not the place to go for germ phobic people!

No, man serving with long fingernails with brown underneath them. I am a bit funny about dirty nails anyway! My kids get a nail brush handed to them each night they have a bath! Definitely not black nail polish 🤢

That is really horrible - the manager is doing a very poor job there. Short clean nails is basic hygiene - and the reason you aren’t usually allowed to wear polish in those jobs.

Although TBH OP, I think the food hanging about is more likely to carry more problems (though it’s unlikely your stomach won’t kill anything nasty off - don’t worry.)

I wouldn't set foot in a carvery again, last time 25+ years ago, and I don't even have a germ phobia. They're just manky and gross.

Never been to one! Good to hear all this as I had no idea - I’ll be skipping that experience 😂

gloves are not necessarily more hygienic than bare hands...

But long finger nails? Long, dirty finger nails? No. 😱

I’m pretty OCD about cleanliness and cross contamination and all that stuff, and I would avoid a carvery like the plague for that reason - I wouldn’t be able to relax thinking of who’s touched what, and how long food has been standing etc. Mostly it’s just my own overreaction, I totally understand that. But the filthy fingers would have been nightmare fuel for me!
I also remember a bad experience I had at one local popular chain of carveries several years ago, where I spotted out a dead, pretty much cooked, crane fly/ daddy-long-legs sizzling away on one of the meat platters 🤢 I pointed it out to the chef dishing up the food, and they just peeled it off and carried on serving off the exact same platter like nothing happened. Didn’t even wipe the thing down or replace the joint of meat it was contaminating.
The partial disgustingness of the carvery mixed with my tendency to be easily grossed out just doesn’t make for a fun meal out.

If you are a germ phobe why eat in a carvery? I wouldn’t consider myself a germ phobe but wouldn’t eat in a carvery anyway as the food just sits there.