The biggest hassle of dining at a buzzed-about restaurant is usually just trying to score a reservation. But one eatery in Washington, D.C., is going the extra step and requiring diners to fill out and sign a two-page contract that covers everything from its cancellation policy to cell phone use. [More]
dining out
Report: Woman Served Meal Only A Vampire Could Love
By 6.30.11
According to a news report in Houston, a woman stopped eating halfway through her meal at Cracker Barrel when she noticed what she believed to be human blood on her food. She suspects an injured worker at the restaurant left bloody fingerprints on her grub and is asking the restaurant to have the worker in question take a blood test. [More]
Denny's Customer Accused Of Firing Gun To Protest Slow Service
By 3.15.11
Waiting for slow service at a restaurant can be frustrating, but that’s no excuse to go firing off your gun like Yosemite Sam. A frustrated Florida Denny’s customer was allegedly irritated past the point of reason when he stepped outside and shot off his gun three times. [More]
Angry Restaurant Workers Secretly Tape Bosses
By 1.28.11
Some employees at a famous restaurant NYC’s Central Park got so fed up with the way they were being treated by their bosses that they took matters into their own hands and began secretly tape-recording workplace conversations. [More]
Diners Ask Restaurant For 47 Separate Checks… And That's Before They Pulled Out Their Groupons
By 12.20.10
If you’ve ever wondered why you hear stories of restaurant staff doing nasty things to your food before they serve it to you, this might be enlightening. [More]
Things Chefs Will Never Tell You
By 9.10.10
An anonymous survey of chefs across the country revealed insider tips about how to get the best value when eating out, as well as some other things that might curdle your appetite: [More]
5 Secrets Your Waiter Doesn't Want You To Know
By 7.29.10
The kitchens and pantries of restaurants are a strange and mysterious place to many people. We’ve all heard horror stories on the news about staffers committing heinous acts of food molestation or heard whispers that you should never eat the shellfish special. But the editors at Reader’s Digest went straight to the source and spoke to real restaurant wait staff to get the inside scoop. [More]
Crazed Ice Creampreneur Keeps Inventing Horrific Flavors, People Keep Buying Them
By 7.6.10
If you were tricked into volunteering for a Big Brothers Big Sisters-style program, and you live in San Francisco, here’s an easy way to get out of the job. Take your kid to the Humphry Slocombe ice cream shop in San Francisco’s Mission District and order her some Coconut Candy Cap Caramel sorbet–the “candy cap” is mushroom! Or try the Salted Licorice, which Elizabeth Weil in the New York Times says her kids threw on the sidewalk. Or leave the kids at home and try the Secret Breakfast, which contains so much bourbon that “the scoop always runs soft.” [More]
Arizona Restaurants Choose Sides On Letting Diners Bring Guns To The Table
By 6.1.10
Arizona has a lot of gun lovers. Almost anyone in the state over 21 will be able to carry a concealed weapon without a permit starting June 29th, but some pro-gun advocates are already visiting local businesses with their weapons in plain sight in an attempt to make the practice more socially acceptable. Arizona lets businesses ban guns at their discretion, so this weekend the Arizona Star looked at how restaurants and bars are deciding who to piss off more: gun carriers or the people who feel uncomfortable around them. [More]
Does Your City Spend A Lot On Eating?
By 5.24.10
When it comes to spending on munching and swigging, how do you think your city stacks up? Bundle crunched the numbers and turned it into a plump and juicy infographic, served up piping hot inside… [More]
POLL: Which Services Do You Tip For?
By 5.6.10
As many Consumerist readers have pointed out over the years, you’re generally under no obligation to leave a tip for someone who provides you a service. That being said, most of us still do — and for a seemingly increasing number of services. That’s why we want to know about those situations in which you almost always leave a little extra. [More]
Visit NYC, Eat Breast-Milk Cheese
By 3.9.10
If you want to try human breast-milk cheese, make sure you stop in at Klee Brasserie in New York City the next time you visit. It’s made from the chef’s own wife, and he tells the New York Post, “It tastes like cow’s-mik cheese, kind of sweet,” and changes flavor depending on “what the mother eats.” His wife says, “The breast is there to make food.” Maybe, but I’m thinking this is a good way to shave a little off the cheese budget. [More]
Restaurant Bans Customer For Not Tipping Enough
By 2.26.10
The menu of a restaurant in Winston-Salem, NC, says a gratuity of 15% will be added to parties of six or more. A former customer says she was in a party of three and saw that an 18% gratuity had been added, which she complained about but paid. She said the next time she showed up, she was met at the door by staff and told that she had to agree up front to pay 18% or she couldn’t eat there. [More]
Man Claims To Have Found Condom In Soup
By 7.23.09
A man in Mission Viejo, California, says when he began eating his french onion soup over Easter brunch at the restaurant Claim Jumper, he bit into something rubbery. He “spit out the piece of cheese only to discover he had been chewing on what his wife claimed was a condom.”
20 Tips To Eating Healthy When Dining Out
By 7.23.08
Eating healthy and dining out may be two unrelated concepts in your world. But with the help of Debra L. Gordon and David L Katz, M.D., authors of “Stealth Health,” these two concepts can work together in harmony. Readers Digest has assembled 20 tips to eating smart when dining out which are excerpts from the aforementioned book. See some of our favorite tips, inside…
