Food
Top 10 Fast Food Items You Should Never Order
While some people say that the internet basically brings out the worst in people there are some parts of the internet that are actually beneficial to society (while also exposing, at times, the worst in people outside of the internet). This is an example of just that, as the website Reddit’s /r/AskReddit section had a question to the tens of thousands of Redditors that work in the fast food industry (or restaurant industry as a whole) what items people should definitely NOT order. So, we went through the nearly countless amount of responses to find the top 10 items you definitely shouldn’t order the next time you hit up the drive-thru.
10. Chili at Wendy’s
One of the things that separate Wendy’s from its fast foot competition is its chili (and baked potatoes, and frostys and never frozen/round square hamburgers), so if you’re one of the many who stops by Wendy’s drive-thru late at night to get some delicious Cowboy food, you might want to skip (or really pay attention to) this entry. Not just one, but multiple workers from Wendy’s let people know that the chili is made from that never frozen hamburger. The problem there is that they typically use the hamburger that is too old for those square hamburgers to make the chili, which means you’re eating old, dried up and even (sometimes) expired meat when you order that chili. Beyond that, they also use the excess hamburger that’s left on the grill to make the chili as well, which is just disgusting. Want the trifecta? Apparently, if the chili that they’ve made doesn’t sell fast enough and ends up getting too cold to sell (despite being in the warmer), employees add hot water to the expired meat smorgasbord to just really up the grossness of this former favorite fast food item.
9. Steak and Beans at Taco Bell
While the previous entry was confirmed by multiple Wendy’s employees, a lot of these are based on the individual entry of a single employee. That’s just a disclaimer before you completely write off a favorite item from a restaurants menu (especially considering that a lot of these restaurants are franchised and thus have standards that vary wildly from restaurant to restaurant). Reddit user Beefcake21 said of the beans and steak: “The beans start out looking like cat food, and the directions are, ‘Add water and stir until you can’t see white anymore.’ The steak was just the worst on dish duty. If it would sit too long it would become like hair gel. It was the worst.” Disclaimer or not, we’re definitely going to think twice next time we get the urge to eat “Mexican” food.
8. Dunkin’ Donuts’ Sandwiches
Dunkin’ Donuts is really popular on the East Coast of the United States, especially in cities like Philadelphia where people go to get their coffee jones corrected. Beyond just coffee, obviously, Dunkin’ Donuts has attempted to expand it’s offerings and brand beyond, you know, just donuts and coffee by offering breakfast and regular sandwiches as well. While that makes sense as all fast food places are attempting to expand what they offer in both items in general and healthy items in particular, one employee and gigantic fan of either Michael Jackson or Michael Jordan, named “mjforever33”, warns against purchasing the relatively new sandwiches. Mjforever33 says: “The donuts are fine. But don’t order the sandwiches, “The tuna/chicken is scooped out of a little container. I don’t even know what’s in it. The eggs come ‘pre-cooked’ and look disgusting. Donuts = Good. Sandwiches = You’re nuts, stoned, or hammered.” Say what you will about his assessment of the level of quality of the ingredients in the sandwiches, he’s not wrong about the customers level of sobriety.
7. Chipotle’s Quesorito
One (very valid, if you’ve read out Top 10 Grossest Things Fast Food Employees Have Done list) that every customer at any restaurant fears is somehow pissing off the waiter/employee and/or chefs/cooks that make your food as there’s always a good chance that that person will spit or otherwise mess with your food/order. While Reddit user and Chipotle employee “Thedudeiscj” didn’t necessarily say that people at Chipotle are spitting in food (most likely because his username includes his initials and he doesn’t want to be fired or sued), he does lay out all the ingredients for doing just that. He warns against people ordering the Quesorito (which is burrito that has a quesadilla in lieu of a tortilla shell), an item that takes a lot of time and care to make, during busy hours at the restaurant. While it’s fine to order when it’s slow, if you order it during a rush, Thedudeiscj says: “employees will hate you. The people behind you in line will hate you. Everyone will hate you.” That’ll increase the chances that something bad might end up in your food, especially if you order it by fax or online, i.e., when you’re not there to watch the food being made.
6. Anything Fried… Or At All from Olive Garden
Now, sure, adding Olive Garden to a list of fast food restaurants is a bit of a stretch, as it’s more of a chain restaurant, but this entry is so gross that it had to be included. Olive Garden prides itself on offering relatively luxurious food, at least from the standpoint of chain restaurants, which implies a quality that apparently doesn’t exist. Just ask Reddit user ‘UppersArentNecessary’, whose username might just disqualify him from being taken seriously, but that’s an issue for another list (or drug counselor). He works at Olive Garden and said this of deep-fried food; “I don’t know how often the frying oil is changed, but judging by the color… ugh. I know it smells rancid.” Beyond that, though, he expanded his critique to food in general, saying; “I don’t know which dishes this comes with, but the potato and pepper mixture, which is fried, will often have pieces of pepper in it that have started to rot. Not growing-mold rotten, but definitely soft-discolored rotten.” So, moral of the story is… Perhaps make your own spaghetti next time.
5. McNuggets that Aren’t Made Fresh
Who doesn’t love McDonald’s’ McNuggets? Sure, they’re made from the “pink slime” chicken that went viral a few years ago and end up on a production line that looks like a factory that’s making car parts, and they’ve also recently been linked to cancer thanks to all the preservatives used to ensure that they stay “fresh” as long as possible, but… They’re just so delicious! Well, add one more reason to not order what apparently is going to end up killing us all, as Reddit user and McDonald’s employee “Ritch88” said that unless nuggets are made to order (which typically means you’ll have to pull ahead to a spot and wait for them, which is actually good because then you’ll know they’re fresh); “If you order, especially chicken nuggets, just ask for them fresh. Otherwise they’ve been just sitting in their container in the heat. They have a timer, but 9/10 times when that timer goes off, people just reset the timer instead of making new ones. This could go on until all the nuggets are sold.”
4. McDonald’s McAfee Machine
McDonald’s used to get a TON of business from people who were simply ordering coffee (like Dunkin’ Donuts), and once their breakfast coffee market share started slipping thanks to the addition of drive-thrus at places like Starbucks or Caribou (not to mention all the hipster coffee joints that have popped up), and the at-home coffee machine revolution headed by companies like Keurig, McDonald’s decided to up the quality of their coffee by launching the McAfee side of their business. McAfee was the “high-end” version of regular McDonald’s coffee, which makes the info provided by McDonald’s employee and Redditor “Envirometh” (again, take that with a grain of salt… Or Meth) all the more ironic. Basically, just don’t order the “fancy” coffee, as; “All McCafe beverages run through a horrifically dirty machine; we’re talking 5+ inches of uncleaned, liquid bulls–t making up its inside parts, and the smoothies have glass cleaner in them.” McYuck.
3. Milk Shakes at Jack in the Box (Especially If You’ve Got a Fruit Allergy)
Fruit allergies are no joke, as something as small as a grape can literally kill some people. Because of that, having a severe food allergy can be a nightmare for people as they can never be really sure that what they’re about to eat won’t kill them. While a lot of people like to make fun of those allergies, especially peanut allergies (as there’s been a lot of bad PR in that regard, like parents getting admonished for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for their kids’ lunch), there’s a pretty logical rationale behind that fear/those notes as the entry from Reddit user “RingoTheCraftySquid” points out. Ringo works/worked for Jack in the Box and mentioned how the same machine makes both smoothies and milkshakes, which means that your milkshakes could have remnants of fruit in it. Ringo says that it’s also not a very clean machine, per company policy: “We do not clean the mixer very well, and it’s used for smoothies and milkshakes. Like, we’re TOLD to just half-ass it. In the training video.”
2. Ballpark Hotdogs
Attention sports fans, the questions/theories/fear you’ve always had about those $12 hot dogs were right! Despite the fact that the markup on hotdogs should allow those in charge of concession stands to buy new hotdogs every single day, apparently they’re too greedy or lazy to do so and end up saving already cooked hotdogs for days and days. Stadium worker and Redditor “FreakyCheeseMan” says the following of his experience at the ballpark; “[The hot dogs] made it out of the package okay, and might even have been edible after we finished grilling them, and then they went into the water. Any hot dogs left at the end of the day went back into the fridge, and came out again the next day. Me and the other cook put our feet down on throwing out the water and old hot dogs after two full days, but the management didn’t want to let us.” Hotdog… More like Lukewarm-Pre-and-Re-Cooked-Food-Poisoning-Waiting-to-Happen-Dog.
1. Seafood Sandwiches at Subway
Subway is having a lot of problems right now. Not only did their spokesperson for a decade end up being a pedophilic monster, but they’re also losing customers left and right now that they’ve moved away from their five-dollar footlong program (which wasn’t great for profits, anyway). Subway is the largest fast food company in the United States, with almost 2,000 more locations than the second place company, McDonald’s and they’re closing restaurants left and right. That may be a good thing, at least for sea-life, as when they’re not substituting seafood with imitation meat and mixing in way too much mayonnaise (per multiple Subway employees on Reddit), they’re also potentially using seafood that contains dolphin and/or sea turtle meat. According to one Subway employee; “Worked at Subway 2010-12. Only thing I have to say is that tuna and seafood packages used to have a label on it that said that it didn’t contain dolphin or turtles in the meat, then that label suddenly disappeared in 2012.” That could just mean they’re only using imitation meat and thus they don’t need the label, which is still bad. When the options are either they’re lying to you or killing dolphins and feeding them to you, you know a company has problems.