Two men from Houma, LA say they were banned from the Manchuria Restaurant for eating too much, too often.
restaurants
TGIFridays Apologizes For Refusing Service To Disabled Teen
By 12.11.07
The manager at T.G.I. Friday’s in Wheeling told the Arlington Heights family on Saturday that the restaurant couldn’t accommodate Dawn even after Greenberg showed him her Public Access card, which explains the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Quickly Spot Restaurant Tip Fraud On Your Credit Card Statement
By 11.15.07
Punny Money has a neat, simple trick for protecting yourself from restaurant tip fraud, which is when a waiter will change the numbers on your credit card receipt in order to increase his tip. The best way to prevent it is to match all your monthly receipts to your statement, but you can use this simple checksum technique to scan a statement and quickly spot any suspicious transactions without referring to your receipts.
Schwarzenegger Vetos Menu Labeling Legislation
By 10.15.07
Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed California’s menu labeling legislation, claiming that the burden of having to post calorie info on menus was “unfair” and “inflexible.”
IHOP To Abandon Trans-Fats By Year End
By 10.1.07
IHOP has announced that they will be going trans-fat free by the end of the year. The chain said they’ve found a replacement oil that tastes the same as the old heart-killing trans-fat oil.
Pay More Attention To What You Eat At "Healthy" Restaurants
By 9.17.07
That councilwoman from L.A. isn’t going to like this: a new study says that when people eat at what they perceive to be “healthy” restaurants, they underestimate the calories, which could help explain why Americans are continuing to get fatter even as healthy restaurants have grown faster than fast food restaurants over the past 5 years.
L.A. Considers Temporarily Banning New Fast Food Restaurants In South L.A.
By 9.12.07
NYC isn’t the only big city picking fights with fast food restaurants these days. Citing high obesity rates in her mostly working-class district, Los Angeles councilwoman Jan Perry has proposed a 2-year ban on new fast food restaurants in parts of South L.A., in the hope that it will make room for healthier restaurants to compete.
Study Shows Fast Food Zombies Are Made At An Early Age
By 8.6.07
A new study is reporting that very young children are highly susceptible to the daily onslaught of branded fast food advertising: “most 3- and 5-year-olds who taste-tested a variety of foods said they preferred the ones in the McDonald’s wrapper — even though the foods were exactly the same.”
Restaurant Week Returns To New York City
By 7.23.07
If you ever wanted a literal taste of the good life, this is your lucky week. Through the 27th, over 200 New York restaurants are throwing open their doors to New Yorkers on a budget. Participating restaurants offer a three-course prix fixe menu; $24.07 buys you lunch, while dinner costs $35.00. Some of the city’s top restaurants deign to welcome the relatively impoverished, including Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill, Le Cirque, and Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto’s Nobu. You can try to snag a reservation through OpenTable, but your best bet is to call restaurants directly. Don’t fret if traveling to New York is too much to sate your gluttony: Boston’s Restaurant Week starts on August 5th, with Washington’s starting the day after.
Restaurants May Use Portable Credit Card Readers To Prevent Identity Theft
By 7.14.07
Portable credit card readers have the potential to make your dining experience safer and faster. The portable readers make it unnecessary for customers to hand over their credit cards, preventing waiters from stealing personal information with skimming devices. Up to 70% of skimming scams take place in restaurants.
Pay-at-the-table systems are popular in Europe and other parts of the world, but they haven’t yet caught on in the U.S., largely because equipment makers have been unable to point to a reason restaurateurs should invest in the gear.
By 6.30.07
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St. Louis will allow dogs to dine outdoors with their owners at fine restaurants that make waterless hand sanitizer readily available.
Mad Pizza's Hold Music: "Yeah, I'm a gangsta, but still I got flavor"
By 6.19.07
Forget muzak, Seattle-based Mad Pizza decided to spice up their hold music by playing N.W.A’s “Fuck Tha Police.” Clint Brownlee over at Seattlest made the discovery on Sunday night while trying to order a pizza.
When the Mad Pizza dude picked up the line again we were conflicted–should we ask if he knew (or cared) what people on hold were hearing? Should we pretend to be offended and hang up? We stammered and, lacking the adventurous nature of our 15-year old self, just ordered a pizza.
We would gladly listen to N.W.A rather than the bland mix of soft jazz or lite rock most companies use to avoid offending anyone’s delicate sensibilities. Do you care what you listen to while on hold? Tell us in the comments. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
Buffalo Wild Wings Would Rather Lose A Customer Than Make A Subsitution
By 5.22.07
Reader Dan begs our pardon for not having a more egregious complaint, but would like to share his irritation at Buffalo Wild Wings refusal to substitute breaded chicken tenders for naked ones. Lest you assume that Dan was asking for something unreasonable, he writes:
Now keep in mind I wasn’t asking them to scrape bread off my tender or invent some new, exotic expensive dish. I was asking them to just toss in the 4 naked tenders they sell on the menu instead of the breaded ones. I think we can see where this is going. The waitress told me they can’t do that. I was dumbfounded because this seemed like such an easy request. I asked her why and she said the cook can’t do substitutions.
Buffalo Wind Wings stood firm. Dan was not allowed to have naked tenders with his combo, forcing him to purchase less food and resulting in less money for Buffalo Wild Wings. Read his entire email inside.
Would You Like To See The Coffee List, Sir?
By 5.19.07
Coca-Cola and Sara Lee are developing tools to pair beverages with food in the hopes that soda, beer, and coffee may be the new wine.
The tool helps sales people figure out for restaurateurs that cheesecake, with its high fat content, calls for a dark roast, heavy bodied coffee with a high acidity level, she said. A fudge brownie, however, calls for a lower acidity level. And pound cake goes down better with a light roast coffee with high acidity.
Sara Lee’s pairing tool was unveiled two weeks ago, and Coca-Cola expects to implement a similar program next year. Ron DeSantis of the Culinary Institute of America thinks such tools will become prevalent as “U.S. palates become more sophisticated.” We never realized ordering water at a restaurant was the mark of an unsophisticated boor. Pairing tools will undoubtedly present restauranteurs with an opportunity to upsell certain beverages. Would you trust their recommendations? Tell us in the comments. — CAREY GREENBERG-BERGER
Wendy's Wins Fast Food Zagat Survey
By 5.16.07
Wendy’s was the clear winner in the recent Fast Food version of the Zagat Survey commissioned by the Today Show in its near infinite wisdom. The burger chain won “Top Burger” as well as “Top Overall” of the mega-chains. If you include the smaller chains, Panera Bread took “Top Overall” and “Top Food.”
How Waiters Steal Your Credit Card
By 4.11.07
Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do except watch your credit card statement and report any suspicious transactions as soon as possible. — BEN POPKEN
Most Likely Site of Credit Card Theft: Restaurants
By 3.30.07
Visa reports that more credit card information is stolen at restaurants than at any other type of business. 40% of all credit card information theft is traced back to restaurants. But don’t blame your waiter!
