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.

SF Weekly offers some tips on what to look out for to spot a doomd dining experience:

*It’s an ethnic restaurant, but no one of that ethnicity eats there. It’s the sign of a disingenuous chain that doesn’t know its specialty cuisine.

*Everyone inside is obviously a tourist. Locals are the ones who know where to find the best places, and tourists tend to flock to lowest-common-denominator joints.

*It’s a seafood place that specializes in shrimp. Because shrimp is rarely fresh, this indicates a restaurant chooses not to bother with fresh seafood.

*The tables are full, but no one’s eating yet. You can’t ask for a more definitive sign of slow service than a backed-up kitchen, which means your wait will be that much longer.

Check out the source link for more poor restaurant-spotting tips.

Ten Ways To Tell a Restaurant Will Suck Before You Take a Bite [SF Weekly]

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