16 Fast Food Restaurant Employees Point Out Things To Never Order

Many of us like to go for a cheeky meal at a fast food restaurant now and then. It’s quick. It’s cheap—or it used to be anyway. Few of us probably have any illusions about the nutrition we’re (not) getting. But it’s not unfair to demand a certain level of quality on the plate and in the kitchen.

Recently, internet user u/n0tter sparked an interesting discussion on r/AskReddit. In the viral thread, real-life fast food workers spilled the beans about which menu items everyone should avoid ordering. Scroll down to read about their experiences and opinions. Just… make sure you’re not snacking while you read.

16 PHOTOS

#1

Worked at CircleK for 3 years - coffee is surprisingly good and the machines were well maintained, but the cappuccino/iced coffee machine was disgusting and impossible to clean despite my best efforts (lots of tiny parts where powdered drink mix could sit and rot). My location was next to a university and we had a regular who was an engineering professor, once he came in and watched while I was trying to clean the cappuccino machine, and said he should use it in class as an example of poor design.

#2

The ice machine. They don’t get cleaned as often as you’d hope.

#3

Any “sandwich” from Starbucks. No, we don’t make anything in-house. It’s shipped out to us frozen and we just reheat it in the oven for you $$$.

No matter what business in the food industry you own—whether a food truck, fast food joint, a family-friendly chain, or an upscale restaurant—the same basics apply. For starters, you want to make sure that your hygiene standards are high and consistently maintained.

The last thing you want is for your customers to fall ill because someone didn’t wash their hands, stored and labeled the ingredients improperly, or ignored other cleanliness protocols. It’s awful to do that to your customers, and it can ruin their health or even cost them their lives. It’s incredibly bad for business and reputation. And it might cost someone their job, too. Your customers deserve better than to eat bad food at a high price.

#4

If you have peanut allergies, don't get drinks from Sonic. They do not care about cross-contamination AT ALL.

#5

My brother worked at Subway in the early 00s. He told me to never eat the tuna and to not ask him why. I'd never had one to that point, and still have not.

#6

Kids packs at movie theaters are a waste of money and the employees will hate you for making them put it together. Just get regular popcorn, candy, and soda for your kids to share.

My second tip is: to sneak food into movie theaters and not buy anything.

Pathogens—from bacteria and viruses to fungi—can make us sick. They thrive on some food items more than others. For example, they quickly multiply in raw chicken, seafood, raw eggs, unpasteurized milk, and raw flour, among others. These need to be stored and labeled properly and precisely -- otherwise, you’re risking someone’s health. On the other hand, when working with ingredients like crackers, lemons, or pickles, you have far more flexibility because they spoil slower.

Proper restaurants have their checklists when it comes to keeping the kitchen and front-of-house clean. It’s really important to follow those protocols to the letter because they set out what needs to be cleaned daily, weekly, and monthly. For instance, you should aim to clean the sinks, food preparation areas, storage areas, and walk-in fridges and mop the floors every day. On top of that, your daily tasks will probably include taking out the trash and cleaning the appliances.

#7

If you go to a McDonald's that has a shake machine that is always working, don't get a shake there. If you go to one that is always "broken," it's perfectly safe to get a shake there. The reason the machine is down so often is that it has a long cleaning cycle that needs to be done frequently.

#8

I worked at Jimmy John’s for almost 7 years and they are obsessive about keeping things clean, to the point they go through an 8ish page packet of cleaning lists each day and all food items are super fresh and labeled to be used within 24-72 hours. The only thing I would not eat from there is the bacon because it comes cold and it’s just kind of unpleasant lol.

#9

I worked at Chuck E Cheese years ago and while the pizza was good & safe (it's pretty tough to screw up pizza) but the salad bar would be a pass.

Adults and kids would just toss the tongs and spoons all over the salad bar, letting the handles fall into the food, and getting all the different vegetables and dressings mixed. All this at one of the grossest places on earth where they are putting their hands all over video games, the ball pit, pizza, and around again.

At the end of the night then we would flip all of the salad bar vegetables over into fresh containers and top them off for the next day. They did get thrown out every few days. If employees ever made themselves a salad we would make it from the ingredients in the fridge that were not yet out on the Bacteria Bar.

Thoroughly cleaning the entire restaurant might consume a lot of time, but without these standards, there won’t be any customers, no business, and no jobs. That being said, managers need to make sure that their employees are motivated to keep the place clean. They ought to find ways to incentivize them and show that their actions do matter.

Have you ever worked at a fast food chain before, dear Pandas? If so, what was your experience like? What menu items did you think it was best to avoid? On the flip side, what food items did you genuinely think were pretty good? Tell us all about it in the comments.

#10

I don't work in fast food but I have a buddy who fixes and services fountain soda machines. Never drink fountain soda. The hoses that the syrup runs through are never cleaned and rarely changed. He says they are stained and/or have mold. My buddy says the insides of fountain soda machines are usually disgusting.

#11

At little caesars, the normal crust is made in-store. Make our dough and everything. But if you order a thin crust, you get a premade crust that may have been sitting in an open cardboard box for days to weeks.

#12

I worked at Chipotle in 2019. At that time, everything was fresh and I always trusted it (right after opening, the meat is usually left over from the night before but it was still good and I didn’t think that was a bad policy as it reduced food waste). We would clean the restaurant top to bottom corner to corner every single night.

Post Covid, I wouldn’t eat anything from there. Nothing is ever clean anymore and I know from others who still work there that their standards have significantly declined. Disgusting for increased prices, decreased quality, and smaller portions.

#13

At Dunkin, I’d say everything is fine except frozen drinks made with the old Island Oasis machine. My store now has a Vitamix blender, but the old machine was never cleaned well enough.

#14

Sbux barista here, do not get any iced oleato drinks. It just doesn't work and olive oil in coffee was already a big stretch. The hot latte is not too bad and tastes a little bit like Cheerios but the oil almost instantly separates from the rest of the drink when it's iced, which is no bueno.

#15

Don’t get iced tea from Taco Bell. The inside of the canister at my Taco Bell would always have a thick, tissue-brown film all around it. My Taco Bell was actually cleaner than your average Taco Bell, but it was really easy to get away with not cleaning that thing, or otherwise just forgetting to.

#16

Anything from Tim Hortons. Workers get in trouble for throwing out expired products. Workers are encouraged to lie when doing temperature checks. Workers are advised to do a 'sniff test' on expired products. Workers are discouraged from investigating where mold is coming from and told to just clean up the visual.

ETA: I realize this is not the case everywhere, and I'm glad. For me, however, this was the case at several locations, throughout 2 different cities.