Restaurant chain workers, what dish should we not order and why?

1. I worked in the deli at a Winn-Dixie for a few years when I was younger. (Winn Dixie is a grocery store in the south). We sold an Antipasto salad that was just made up of the ends of all the lunchmeats and cheeses we didn't sell. They were usually expired, but we cut them up in cubes, and cover them in Italian dressing. I never tried it, but it sounds disgusting. People loved it though. On a related note, at Winn-Dixie, after you open a new package of lunch meat, you have 6 days before the rest of it has to be thrown out. We would label it with a sticker, and wrap it in saran wrap every time we used it. Every night, we would go through the case, and pull the ones that went past their date. The manager would come in in the morning, and smell them. If she though they smelled ok, she would put a new sticker, and put tehm in the case for another 6 days.
   — frogfeets


2. Seafood specials/buck a shuck oysters. It means my seafood delivery is tomorrow and I'm trying to get rid of my old stock. Really most special dishes are either 'trying a new dish to see if it should go on the menu or not' or 'I'm trying to get you to buy this product before I have to throw it out.'
   — SuperDuper125


3. it's been a while since I worked there, but don't get a bourbon steak from applebee's. It's like a black licorice tasting steak. It makes no sense. I'm convinced that every one of those I ever cooked was someone trying it for the first time. I remember one time we accidentally cooked an extra one, and we offered it to a waitress to eat. She took one bite and immediately spit it out. She kept asking us all night *"what did you guys put on it?!"* she was convinced that we had put something nasty on it to mess with her. We didn't do anything to it...that's just how bad they were.
   — SmurfJizz






4. Check the menu, if there is an item used only in one dish, chances are it’s not as fresh as the rest of the menu.
   — uplinkdrive


5. I worked at Dennys for years. Everything comes frozen (even the avocados, which are then microwaved,) the gravy is powder stired into boiling water, nacho meat microwaved. Store to store can vary from cleanliness, but at mine I suggest avoiding the scrambled eggs, nachos, corn hash, sausage, French toast and waffles (especially the wheat or whatever custom mix they have.) I occasionally glanced at the menus and was surprised at how much they charge. That's just one of many kitchens I've worked. I would recommend Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, he breaks it down nicely.
   — flysoup84


6. At McDonald's just say you want a fish filet cooked to order. It will take ~5 more minutes but worth it compared to the filet that has been in the heated cabinet for hours.
   — Exiled-Biblu






7. Pretty sure they don't sell it anymore, and it should be self explanatory, but the shrimp basket from Dairy Queen.
   — lexielou48


8. Ice almost everywhere. Unless youve seen people take apart the ice machine and scrub the whole thing out, there is definitely mold in those. Edit: spelling.
   — DaFuzzyManPeach


9. Order what a place is known for. I used to work at an Italian Beef place (not Portillo's but similar) and the beef sandwiches we served contained Italian beef cooked at another location and dropped off daily, giardiniera and peppers we prepped and cooked ourselves, bread delivered daily... quality food. Fresh. Then, we had a BBQ rib sandwich. A box of them came frozen, we warmed em up and sent em out. Same thing with a fried steak sandwich we had. It was a beef place, just order the beef!
   — katastrofe






10. Pinkberry - The raspberries were usually filled with bees or moldy, but that was the distributor's fault.
    — MG42Turtle