One Way to Judge a Restaurant…
Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover, Instead, Judge a Restaurant by its Bathroom
I know this could be a somewhat distasteful topic for a foodie blog, but it just may have some merit. I believe that one of the ways a restaurant can be judged is by their restroom facilities. If the restrooms are dirty and not maintained, my guess is that the kitchen will be equally grimy and scary. I’ll explain.
I ate at two very different restaurants over the weekend. The first one was in Manhattan. We were in the city with a couple of friends seeing a concert, and decided to go out for a late night snack before coming home. We went to a Greek restaurant which had that grubby, old city feeling to it, but I knew from experience that it was typical of city places. We sat at a table in the front, and pretty much enjoyed our food. However, before leaving my friend and I, as we women will, decided to visit the restroom before heading home. We walked back through a narrow corridor that went through the dining room and bar, past the kitchen, and then turned through these hanging plastic slats to go downstairs to find the bathrooms. Everything along the way felt sticky, and there was a mess at the bottom of the stairs. The bathrooms were equally grubby feeling. As we headed back to the table, we both agreed that if we had taken this walk before eating, we wouldn’t have stuck around. I can only shudder at the thought of their kitchen hygiene.
The next night we ate dinner at one of the new restaurants in Atlantic City. The place was spotless, clean, and the service and food was as spot on as the decor. The single toilet bathroom is in this photo. It literally gleams, leaving no doubt in my mind that the kitchen is equally gleaming.
Maybe Louisa, who always enjoys checking out new bathrooms, is onto something.
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5 Responses to “One Way to Judge a Restaurant…”
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I was stunned by that picture. I never thought I would see a picture of a bathroom on foodplanetblog.com Actually I never thought somebody would take a picture of a bathroom but I digress.
Anyway I do think eating out is an experience that has to be enjoyed by all 5 senses and anything that distracts from the ambience distracts from the pleasure of the meal.
And likewise, the confidence gained in a sparkling restroom adds to that ambience.
My point exactly!
I agree that if the restaurant spends time assuring their bathrooms are clean then I would hope that even more time is spent assuring the cleanliness of their kitchen. It is interesting that this popular restaurant had a single bathroom. Maybe because there was only one room to keep clean, it is deceivingly clean. Hmmmmmmm….
Ooh, there’s a cynic among us. I like that.