Restaurants are taking a cue from the cable industry: Rather than raise menu prices to cover the higher cost of paying wages, some eateries are tacking on “labor surcharges.” [More]
eating out
People Are Going Out To Restaurants More Like They Used To Before The Recession
By 7.15.15
Times, they are a-changing, and that’s a good thing when it comes to the restaurant business lately: More people are going out to eat recently, in numbers that haven’t been seen since before the recession hit in 2008. [More]
Amazingly, Diners Didn’t Want To Eat At Toilet-Themed Restaurant
By 5.30.14
A restaurant whose entire bathroom-related theme — complete with toilets as seats, dishes with hilariously fecal names, and miniature toilet-shaped bowls for your food — seems to have been cooked up by a potty-obsessed two-year-old has closed down after an eight-month run, suggesting that most people would rather put foods in their mouths without thinking about how that food will ultimately exit their bodies. [More]
Are These The Final Days Of Automatic 18% Tips At Restaurants?
By 9.5.13
Many restaurants have a policy of automatically adding a 15-20% tip for large groups of diners, but that practice may be going the way of the dinosaur as a new revision to IRS income tax rules will make such auto-gratuities less attractive to servers and management. [More]
NY Times Restaurant Critic Rips Tipping A New One
By 9.4.13
New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells usually saves his vitriol for eateries that don’t meet his standards, like his infamous 2012 review of Guy Fieri’s American Kitchen and Bar. But Wells’ latest target is the even more controversial institution of tipping restaurant servers. [More]
Travel Channel Host: Yelp Is A Forum For Uninformed Morons To Take Down Restaurants
By 12.3.12
Since the first food critic bashed a prehistoric cook over the head with a rock, chefs have been trying to appease these evaluators, some of whom had the pull to sink an eatery with a few nasty words. So what happens when not only everyone becomes a critic, but when the place they post their criticism becomes a go-to source for finding grub? [More]
Hooters, Hard Rock, Friendly’s Score Low Marks On Chain Restaurant Survey
By 7.2.12
The idea behind chain restaurants is — or at least it should be — to provide customers with dependable, consistent food and service at multiple locations. And many chains succeed in at least trying to fulfill these goals. But according to a recent survey of nearly 48,000 Consumer Reports readers, some chains are struggling to maintain a mediocre level of service and quality. [More]
Ways Restaurants Try To Squeeze More Money Out Of You
By 3.27.12
When you sit down at a restaurant, you’re often engaging in a tug-of-war with the establishment to get you to fork over more money than you originally planned. Owners employ clever little tricks to get you to up the amount of your final check. [More]
Lose Weight By Eating In Restaurants?
By 1.10.12
Ah yes. The dream. To lose weight while eating in restaurants and thus maintaining needed contact with other humans. Can it be done? According to one study, yes, it can. [More]
How To Spot An Awful Restaurant In Seconds
By 9.16.11
The worst time to realize you’ve chosen a bad restaurant is after you’ve placed your drink order. You’re locked in to a financial commitment, so it’s tough to justify uprooting and heading somewhere else. If you’re careful to spot the signs of a bad dining establishment before you sit down, you won’t find yourself in that predicament. [More]
Striking Restaurant Workers Accuse Owner Of Charging $8 For Bottles Of Tap Water
By 8.25.11
You may remember the story from January of the employees at a swanky Central Park restaurant who recorded their boss allegedly threatening them if they joined a union. Now those same employees have come out with allegations that the eatery misled customers into paying $8 for bottles of regular old tap water. [More]
Restaurant Turns Away Diners For Having Too Many Service Dogs
By 6.28.11
Police were summoned to a Boston-area restaurant over the weekend after a group of 13 diners, including six with service dogs, were turned away by the manager for fear that so many canines could cause chaos. [More]
800 NYC Restaurants Caught Trying To Hide Sub-Par Health Inspection Grades
By 6.15.11
Last summer, the New York City Board of Health began requiring all restaurants to post the letter-grade results of their latest health inspections. But a large number of eateries with non-A marks opted either to not post their grade or post it in a spot where no one could see it. [More]
NYC May Add Bar Codes To Restaurant Inspection Grades
By 2.23.11
It’s been about a year since New York City eateries began posting huge letter grades to reflect their latest health inspection results, but now the city’s Health Department is thinking about adding bar codes that people could scan to get more in-depth info on that restaurant’s specific results. [More]
Should The Guy Always Pay On The First Date?
By 10.29.10
It’s nearly the weekend, which means at least some of you will be going out on dates, a handful of which will be first date. And in spite of all talk of gender equality, many people still think it’s the man’s job to foot the bill. [More]
How Long Is Too Long To Linger After Finishing Your Meal?
By 7.9.10
If you’ve dined out enough in your life, you’ve likely been on both sides of the waiting game… You’re the one standing at the front of the restaurant, scanning the room for diners who seem to be wrapping things up. Or you’re the ones sitting at the table, finishing up dessert or sipping your third cup of coffee, even though people are waiting for a table. [More]
The Census Is Getting Weird With Its Marketing
By 3.30.10
“Nobody expects the U.S. Census! Our chief weapon is surprise!” A Seattle blogger posted a photograph of a fortune she received in her fortune cookie recently, and it looks like the Census is using surprise fear and surprise surprise, fear, and a ruthless efficiency to remind people to send back their forms. Oh, and they’re ruining fortune cookies. I fully expect to be forced into a comfy chair soon, which all in all isn’t a bad way to be tortured, so meh. [More]
24 Secret Menu Options To Dream About
By 3.4.10
It’s been nearly three years since Meg put together that epic list of every secret menu known to mankind, and now Coupon Sherpa is following up with 24 items you may not have known you could order. [More]
