Since the earliest days of photo sharing, shutterbugs have been posting images of their restaurant meals online for all to see. That behavior has only become more common through the use of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and whatever other service was launched yesterday. Now some chefs say it’s gone too far. [More]
dining out
Waiter Praised For Refusing To Serve Family Who Insults Child With Down Syndrome
By 1.18.13 — Updated: 4.3.13
When a story about a waiter refusing to serve customers starts picking up steam online, it usually involves people rushing to insult the server and his employer. But this story is getting quite the opposite response from the public. [More]
Yelp To Include Health Dept. Ratings For Restaurants In Some Cities
By 1.17.13
While restaurant owners and customers quibble over the veracity and worth of reviews posted on Yelp, the site will soon be adding some information that is both helpful to consumers and harder to dispute — health department ratings. [More]
Fewer Younger Adults Eating Out While More Baby Boomers & Elderly Hit The Restaurants
By 1.16.13
There is a stereotype that young adults tend to eschew home-cooking in favor of dining out. Sure, it costs more but there’s no clean-up and it tastes better than what you’d make at home. But a new study says that more adults in the 18-47 age group have been choosing their dining room over restaurants. [More]
Get The Latest News Headlines… With Your Restaurant Receipt
By 1.10.13
Because you weren’t already getting enough news from your TV/radio/computer/phone/electronic highway billboards (and occasionally newspapers and magazines), someone has come up with yet another way to provide you with the latest headlines — your restaurant receipt. [More]
It’s Not A Good Idea To Tell Customers You Don’t Care If Their Food Was Inedible
By 1.9.13
It’s no secret that Yelp can be frustrating to restaurant owners, and that some in the business have made their hatred for the online review site very clear, but it’s probably a bad idea to go on Yelp to tell a diner you don’t care about the quality of your food. [More]
This Is The Kind Of Message Restaurant Employees Should Be Leaving On Receipts
By 1.7.13 — Updated: 1.9.13
Regular readers of Consumerist know that some restaurant workers feel obliged to use the receipt as a way to mock customers or angrily vent their frustration. But one Red Robin manager has figured out receipts can also be a way to win over a customer. [More]
Restaurant Owner Posts Completely Reasonable Response To Negative Online Feedback
By 12.13.12
No, that isn’t a sarcastic headline. After being lambasted by readers’ comments on his recently opened eatery, a Washington, D.C., restaurateur did what some of his foodie kin could not — issued a restrained, thoughtful and apologetic response. [More]
Friendly’s Staff Fails To Live Up To Restaurant Name, Writes “100% Sh*t Show” On Receipt
By 12.12.12
A New Hampshire family says that after a night out to eat at Friendly’s didn’t go so well, a restaurant staffer decided to express their inner feelings through the increasingly preferred medium of the restaurant’s billing system, dropping the phrase “100% sh*t show” at the bottom of the dinner bill. [More]
Restaurant Offers 50% Discount After Employee Labels Diners As “Fat Girls” On Bill
By 12.10.12
To every restaurant manager in the entire world: Sit your employees down now and tell them that if they ever use the “customer name” field on the POS system for anything other than the customer’s name, they will be fired. Because yet again, some moron thought he was being hilarious by using that field to insult his customers. [More]
As Economy Recovers, Americans Are Drinking More Alcohol
By 12.4.12
It looks like Americans’ spirits are up — or at least the sales of spirits to Americans are up, as a new survey shows that people are buying more beer, wine and liquor when they go out to eat. [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]
Waitress Gets Crafty, Creates Sippy Cup For Adult Who Spilled Drink
By 11.16.12 — Updated: 11.17.12
Anyone who has ever spilled a large drink at a restaurant knows how humiliating it can be as everyone flees the spill and then dives in to mop up the mess. But is it a good or bad thing when the waitress brings you a replacement drink with a lid secured by tape? [More]
Is It Ever Acceptable For Waiters To Be Unpleasant?
By 11.13.12
The “snooty waiter” who looks down his nose with disdain at his customers is a character that has been trotted out on film and TV too many times to count. But while we may not blink when we see this well-known caricature on screen, it’s a different story when that same snob is taking your lunch order. [More]
Would Chipotle Be The Same With Drive-Thru Windows?
By 10.25.12
To many Chipotle customers, part of the reason for going to the restaurant chain is that you get to watch your burritos and bowls made to order right in front of you, but the company apparently needs to bring in new customers and thinks that adding drive-thru windows might help. [More]
Denny’s Is Really Hoping You All Want To Chow Down On Hobbit Food
By 10.23.12
Given the runaway success of the three Lord of the Rings films, marketers are banking that Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth with the first part of The Hobbit will be equally lucrative. Which is why you’ll soon be seeing an actual Hobbit tie-in menu at Denny’s. [More]
Some Residents Claim Pay-What-You-Can Panera Is Hurting Neighborhood
By 10.3.12
Over the last couple years, the folks at Panera have slowly been expanding their pay-what-you-can Panera Cares eateries beyond the initial experiment in Missouri. But the latest Panera Cares, located in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, is drawing some jeers from local residents who say the restaurant is attracting an undesirable element. [More]
Why Don't More Women Dine At Hooters?
By 9.13.12
The new leadership at Hooters — long deemed a restaurant for people who are afraid to be seen at a strip club, and who haven’t figured out it’s cheaper to just eat at home and watch cable TV — says it’s tired of being a mostly-men joint and wants to make the eatery more appealing to those not drawn in by the allure of women wearing tight T-shirts. [More]
