Just when we’re feeling lulled into a sense of security at the fact that we haven’t had to report on any peeping toms lately, a guy in Texas has admitted that he’s been hiding cameras in the stalls of women’s restrooms in various restaurants around town. [More]
restaurants
Mexican Restaurant’s Alcohol Menu Divided By Gender Because Obviously Ladies Like Weak, Sweet Drinks
By 6.4.14
While there’s no reason you can’t order whatever you want off a given menu — unless you are trying to order a kids’ meal and aren’t an actual child, in which case you could run into some issues — one Brooklyn Mexican restaurant has a helpful guide for those who might not know which part of the menu you should be looking at. Namely, there are the drink categories “For Everyone,” “For Kids,” “For Men” and “For Ladies.” [More]
Airbnb Wants You To Have Strangers Over For Dinner
By 6.4.14
Airbnb has had a lot of success turning homeowners into semi-professional innkeepers, so why not see if it can do the same for users’ kitchens? That’s the idea behind tests the home-sharing service has been performing in the San Francisco area. [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]
Is It Wrong For A Restaurant To Tell Diners To Remove Google Glass?
By 5.27.14
The culture war (more of a slap-fight) over where and when it’s okay to sport Google Glass continues. A Manhattan restaurant is the latest to get caught up in the fracas after it asked a customer to remove her Glass device while dining, resulting in a burst of negative reviews from those who think the eatery crossed a line… and a backlash from those who aren’t impressed with the headgear and don’t see why anyone would wear one to dinner. [More]
Would You Opt Out Of Tipping While An Employee Watches You?
By 5.21.14
Reader Bill was getting some sandwiches and paying with a credit card when he noticed something new and unusual on the payment machine. It prompted him to leave a tip between ten and twenty percent, to choose his own tip amount, or to decline tipping entirely. This makes sense in a country where most of us don’t carry much cash anymore, but there’s something about it that Bill doesn’t like. [More]
Bratty Kids Top List Of Restaurant Diner Pet Peeves
By 5.21.14
In our recent round-up of Bad Consumers, we questioned the parenting skills of moms and dads who let their kids run wild in stores while the adults are busy doing their shopping. But anyone who has ever had a nice meal ruined when an impromptu game of Hide-and-Seek takes over a restaurant can tell you that these bratty youngsters and their self-involved parents also like to dine out. [More]
Mystery Diner Pays $485 Lunch Bill For Students With Autism & Their Teachers
By 5.13.14
A group of 25 elementary school students and 21 staffers in New Jersey received a special Teacher Appreciation Week gift from an anonymous customer who volunteered to pay for the group’s entire bill at a Tex-Mex restaurant. [More]
Restaurant Adds Surcharge For All-You-Can-Eat Customers Who Don’t Clear Plate
By 5.13.14
“All you can eat” isn’t an open invitation to waste food. That’s the message that one Swiss restaurant is trying to drive home to its lunch buffet customers by charging extra to diners who fail to clear their plates. [More]
Restaurant Knocks $5 Off Brunch Bill For “Well Behaved Kids”
By 5.12.14
While parents who let their kids run wild in public are often the object of (much-deserved) scorn and derision, moms and dads whose youngsters behave themselves rarely get the high-five they deserve for reducing the world’s general level of brattiness. But yesterday, a restaurant in Canada decided that a family with a non-rowdy kid deserved a break on their bill. [More]
If Someone Left You A $5,000 Tip, Would You Share The Wealth With Co-Workers?
By 5.9.14
The “Tips for Jesus” movement appears to have struck again, with a mystery diner here in Philadelphia giving a $5,000 tip to his waitress and leaving another $2,000 for the restaurant’s bartender. These two can now do what they want with the money, but what about the co-workers who weren’t lucky enough to serve the generous tipper? [More]
The Most Calorie-Filled, Super-Salted Menu Items At Your Favorite “Italian” Chain Restaurants
By 5.1.14
Most of us are fully aware when we step into an American-style, sort-of-Italian restaurant like Olive Garden, Carraba’s, Maggiano’s, or Macaroni Grill that we’re going to leave in worse shape than we entered. But while the calorie counts vary greatly from menu item to menu item, almost everything you’ll get at one of these chain eateries is full of sodium. [More]
California Pizza Kitchen Manager Starts Chain Of Kindness That Extends To Corporate
By 4.24.14
When a family with four kids stopped off to eat at California Pizza Kitchen, disaster was looming. Their 13-year-old son, who has autism, was upset and on the verge of a meltdown in the middle of a crowded restaurant on Valentine’s Day. As the mother dreaded what would happen next, the manager came to her rescue, treating the family as if nothing were out of the ordinary. [More]
Let’s Play “Guess Why This Person Broke Into Restaurant While Wearing A Box On Their Head”
By 4.23.14
While it’s not exactly a case for Adrian Monk (or even Encyclopedia Brown), police in Bismarck, ND, do have a puzzler of a crime on their hands after someone broke into a restaurant after hours and appears to have done nothing but walked around the place with a cardboard box covering his/her head. [More]
Restaurant Allows Customer To Bring In Big Gulp, Then Shames Her About It Online
By 4.22.14
You might think it crass or crude to bring a 7-Eleven Big Gulp into a fine-dining establishment, but if a restaurant lets you have that huge cup o’ soda at your table, do they then have any standing to call you out publicly? [More]
After Being Called Out Publicly, Joe’s Crab Shack Says It Should Be 100% Trans Fat-Free This Summer
By 4.17.14
Yesterday, restaurant chain Joe’s Crab Shack was called out by the Center for Science in the Public Interest for continuing to use margarine with a high level of trans fat, in spite of claims made on the eatery’s menu that Joe’s doesn’t use the controversial oils. In response, the company says it plans to get rid of this last bit of trans fat in the coming months. [More]
Health Advocates Say Joe’s Crab Shack Is Breaking Its “No Trans Fat” Promise
By 4.16.14
Seven years ago, the new owners of the 130-location Joe’s Crab Shack restaurant chain promised to completely stop using controversial artificial trans fats in the cooking of its menu items. But the folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest say Joe’s is breaking this promise by serving up heaps of trans fat-heavy margarine on some dishes. [More]
Are You OK With A Restaurant Googling You If It Improves Customer Service?
By 4.14.14
If you apply for a job, you can rest assured that someone will Google your name or look you up on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and elsewhere before hiring you. If you meet someone via an online dating service, he or she has probably (and wisely) made repeated efforts to look you up on publicly available social media sources in order to make sure you’re not a suspected serial killer. But when you make a reservation at a restaurant, you probably don’t expect anyone there to do any research about you. [More]
