AIBU to think all restaurants don’t do this?

[JustHereForThePooStories]

Out for dinner with a friend tonight and the bread came with a little dish of pesto, and another of butter. We dipped the bread in pesto, but didn’t use it all. I also used a small amount of butter, less than 10% of the contents of the dish, I’d guess.

I commented that it was a shame to see it go to waste as, while the dishes were small, there was two much for two people. My friend said that the restaurant would just top them up with fresh pesto or butter, and use for another customer. She used to work in various restaurants during university, and said this was common.

If you work/worked in a restaurant, can you please tell me this isn’t true? I can’t stomach the idea of someone biting bread, dipping it in pesto, only for me to eat the same pesto later.

My friend is 100% wrong, isn’t she?

I remember going out a few years ago for a meal in what claimed to be a good restaurant. It was a work do and one of the people I was sat with said the staff were refilling the good wine bottles with cheap stuff one emptied, he had better taste than me. I don’t know if a complaint was made, difficult to prove when everyone had had a few drinks. Place went out of business not surprisingly.

I've been in a really lovely indian restaurant at the end of the night and watched a waiter scrape all the leftover chutneys and pickles from each table back into silver bowls, presumably for reuse, although I hope not. We all watched like this 😱

Anthony Bourdain exposed this I think in one of his books. Apparently the leftover butter from the table becomes hollondoise etc

The only thing I've ever been asked to top up working in restaurants was the ketchup bottles and vinegar ... it was better to have a fuller bottle than two half empty.

That's what I told to do - less than 20 years ago - thought it rank as dates would be wrong on the bottles. It put me off using condiment bottles in restaurants for years and years.

I also worked in a food factory - high end products that put me off a few things for a while as well.

I'd be surpised about dips in dishes being reused - as obvious risk of contamination due to double dipping and things hanging round and around for long periods.

You might want to think twice about the garnish on the side of the plate too, they are re-used, I knew someone that did this, I knew someone else that told a fellow employee off for doing it and the third one was in Garfunkles when I moved the garnish and found some chips under it.

I have also been served chips with vinegar on them, underneath the fresh ones that had been put on top. I am not mad about eating out.

A very long time ago, when I was about 14, I worked in a place that deliberately served their Sunday lunches with separate bowls for potatoes and vegetables, with meat on the plates, so they could reuse/reheat the food.

I have also worked in somewhere where bad complainers had their food spoiled, as a late teen (dishcloth wrung in their soup, once a fly crushed up and put in the food). I didn't serve the food myself as I was bar staff, just saw others doing this.

Strangely this didn't put me off eating out, but I don't complain that much unless there's something absolutely raw. I'm sure it doesn't happen as much now and that hygiene standards are better, I bet a few cut corners though.

Ugh. My SIL works at an Applebee's (I don't know if you have Applebee's there, but it's just standard casual dining restaurant), and they don't do this.

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a large iced tea from the drive-thru at McDonald's. When I got to the window, they handed me a medium iced tea. I told them no, I'd ordered a large. They made me a large and then also gave me the medium for free. I objected, because I'd only paid for a large, but they said they aren't allowed sell it, so they'd have to throw it away anyway. Literally all they had done was fill a cup with ice and tea, no one had touched it.

No idea about pesto or butter, but my Mam once found a fish bone in her peas, on a roast dinner! So some restaurants do "recycle" stuff... (not envy)

Places that do this will have a very low hygene rating and a high turnover of staff. A professional kitchen/restaurant would never do this. I have worked in alot of kitchens from greasy burger bars to silver service and have never experienced this. A bottle of ketchup maybe poured from.one bottle to another but never an open dipping container. Cross contamination and the spread of staph diseases from people double dipping. Not worth the risk. And yuck!

@steff13 I used to work in a McDonald's and they are suuuuuper paranoid about being sued for anything, hence they are really careful about all sorts of things! We weren't even allowed to use 'normal' household cleaning products, had to have special stuff bought in that was approved by head office. Same with Starbucks (both UK stores).

No, just no.

I remember going to a beefeater years ago and having a tomato garnish that had teeth marks in

My friend used to work in Pizza Hut and used to pick the toppings off people's leftover pizzas so they could be reused.

I've worked in restaurants for years at all levels and my partner is a head chef. This has never happened in any of the places that we have worked, either in the UK or overseas.

Yes, in the early 00's I worked in a popular local restaurant that topped up condiments like this.

I've worked in lots of restaurants and no, this isn't common practice at all, OP.

I have however switched on lights in a dark kitchen and seen the floor turn from black to white as all the cockroaches raced away to hide. More than once

It's against food hygeine standards to do it. That, of course, doesn't mean people don't...

When I told the waiter ‘Erm there is a fry is this’ he wasn’t bothered and said ‘i’ll Get you another sip!’ I said ‘can you get me a FRESH dip rather than one someone has been dipping chips or anything else in.’ Name and same it was TGI Fridays.

We did not do this in the pub I worked in. We did marry the condiments as described above. Sometimes topped up Heinz ketchup bottles with non-Heinz cheap alternative. The most disgusting thing we did though was pour all the drip trays into a jug (all different lagers mixed together etc) and then someone would go and pour it back into a barrel in the cellar 🤢 the brewery we worked for was mega strict about ullage (how much was being wasted in the drip trays) but it was a very old pub and the lines and pumps were terrible so there was a lot of wastage. I don’t drink beer myself but don’t feel good about what we used to do!

Some of these stories are stomach-churning. I may never eat out again.

I agree that it's a horrible practice, but we had to do it when I worked in a restaurant as a weekend job for a few years twenty years ago. We had to just smear fresh butter to top-up the little pots. Any leftovers from the free olives and bread were re-offered. Not with any of the paid food though.

Can I derail and add a good reuse story? The pub I used to work in put all the unsold roasties in a big bowl on a Sunday afternoon and put them on the bar with cocktail sticks and a big shaker of salt for the bar punters to finish off. Such a lovely memory. They'd been in the oven ages by this point so we're delicious and crunchy!

Have worked (and managed) on hospitality for over 10 years for various different chains. This is very common practice in my experience