To be suspicious of restaurant waiters recommending a dish?

[evasiveaugust]

as in 'the x/y/z is really good' ...?

Is it just food they need to get rid of as the chef has made too much?

It's good their trying to get rid of yes, for various reasons. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it though for example, the chef might have seen some really fabulous mushrooms and brought a load

Of course staff try to sell. That's their job.

There is nothing wrong with that. Or with the food.

How weird of you. That's with any job? They are trying to sell their items as they should

When I was a waitress I’d recommend the dishes I liked. There was no big conspiracy, just someone enthusiastic about food!

Surely they want you to try their best things so you'll be impressed and want to come back or leave a good review? That's how it was when I was working in hospitality.

Always take their recommendations, it broadens my choice of dishes to ask for and I've never been let down yet.

I think it depends what sort of restaurant you go to.

Just ask if they've been told to recommend it.

I would say yes probably food they need to use up - but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. Recommendations are a bit pointless anyway, the seafood platter might be amazing but no good to me if I’m allergic or hate prawns. It’s all just down to personal taste.

I run a restaurant - I recommend dishes I have enjoyed eating - nothing suspicious about it!

If I can’t choose, I always ask the waiting staffs advice, they have never steered me wrong.

We always recomend the most popular menu items, or that weeks specials.
Our specials are usually trials of dishes for the next seasons menu so we like customer feedback. Nothing to do with dishes needing to be got rid of.

I used to go a restaurant where they took it one step further and I would get what the chef recommended regardless of what I ordered.😆

I always recommend things I really like. I describe the dishes if the customer is stuck between a choice of 2 or 3, ending with a recommendation of something popular. I also find out what they usually eat, so no, when I recommend something it’s not something we need to get rid of, it’s tailored to the customers preference based on something I think they’ll enjoy. I’ve never been wrong either.

I recently went to a Lebanese restaurant and ordered moussaka. The waiter came back to regretfully inform me that it was unavailable but I should have okra instead because it was so very similar . I declined this advice and 100% think he was trying to get shot of an oversupply of okra.

There's a whole chapter on this stuff in Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. Short answer- yes it may well be that they're trying to offload things they've over-ordered. Nothing wrong with that however- if it's a good restaurant it will still be good.

There's a whole chapter on this stuff in Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. Short answer- yes it may well be that they're trying to offload things they've over-ordered. Nothing wrong with that however- if it's a good restaurant it will still be good.

Definitely. And avoiding food waste is commendable. Although maybe they could be a bit more upfront about it? And offer some discount - like supermarket mark downs in the evenings 😄

I ask someone what their usual/favourite dish would be and recommend based on that or yes, we'll offer a special that's not on the main menu because something was ordered by mistake or for a function and we have too much so they'll make something else out of it as a special to sell before it needs throwing out.
There's no big conspiracy where waiting staff/chefs are out to 'get' their customers you know! People with this attitude make the job shit at times, they really do.

😂😂

If I'm torn between choices I always ask for the servers recommendation.

I do this as well and actually they rarely try to sell you the most expensive choice. There’s usually a few things I fancy on a menu and I’ve never been disappointed with a waiter’s suggestion.

I was a waitress for many years in various restaurants and I would always recommend the dishes that I loved or that I knew was always a hit with customers. I wasn't usually asked to push anything by the chefs but they would sometimes gush on about something they were introducing and I'd have all the information to tell customers about it if they asked. If I was asked to recommend a dish, it was never to get rid of stock but to get people eating dishes the chef was excited about,

We own and run a restaurant and we recommend our favourites.... most is made to order so no need to flog anything. Weird thing to suggest. We have rarely suggested the most expensive thing on the menu. We ask if the prefer chicken, lamb or veggie and go from there....