[design219]

I have three Chinese restaurants close to my work. One cooks their food sweeter than the other two and I like their food best. The problem is, twice I've seen a roach crawl up the wall next to my table.

Each time I stopped going for a few months and then decided to give another try. I'm going again today, because I REALLY like their food.

So my question is are roaches really a danger, or do we over-worry about such things?

And share your ugly restaurant experiences (roaches or anything else).

[Luca Rescigno]

You know what's funny? I've only ever seen a roach in a restaurant once. I don't remember where it was because I was probably only about 6 years old when I saw it.

I lived for ten months in China, eating at restaurants probably 75% of the time, and not once did I see a cockroach. Pretty surprising.

[Mastrap]

Call the health inspector. Get them to check the place, once it's clean you can go again.

[turtle777]

I never saw a roach in a restaurant.

I'm not sure if I would go back.

-t

[BlueSky]

Found a sizable sliver of wood in my take-out from a Thai restaurant. Never went back.

In related news, went to a restaurant where the waitress had dirty fingernails. Never went back.

[design219]

Originally Posted by Luca Rescigno 

I lived for ten months in China, eating at restaurants probably 75% of the time, and not once did I see a cockroach. Pretty surprising.

That's interesting. I wonder if they allow more drastic measures to deal with roach problems in China? I know the EPA limits what restaurants can do in America.

[ort888]

What about grocery stores and rats? We used to have a chain called National, and in the late 80s they had all sorts of financial problems. All the stores closed for a while and then re-opened. I forget the details. At any rate, the stores were never quite the same after closing and going through all the turmoil.

One day I was buying some bread in my local National and was looking around the rack. I noticed that something moved, so I pulled away a loaf of bread from the very bottom rack to reveal a hole in the riser... inside this hole were (no exaggeration) dozens of rats. So many rats that they couldn't even move to get out of my way. It looked like a wall of writhing and squirming brown fur. It was crazy.

I was about 13 at the time, so I actually found it somewhat cool and funny. Needless to say, I never went back, and that location was back out of business in a few months.

[design219]

Ugh, reminds me of this image.

[Shaddim]

I saw a couple silverfish in a salad bar once, I discreetly alerted the management and went back to eating.

[Eug]

Luckily I stopped eating at this place long before this picture was taken.

[olePigeon]

YouTube - Rats Take Over KFC/Taco Bell

[design219]

Good lunch. No roaches today.

[silver]

I find the best tasting food in hole in the wall places. The only thing is in Hawaii you also find Huge "B-52" type roaches not in your food(haven't found one yet) but on the floors and walls of these establishments. Mind you, not all the time but you will see them every now and again.

A few months ago, I was eating at some Genki Ramen place and out of the corner of my eye I saw one of them "B-52" roaches come out of hiding only to be eaten by a Gecko that came out of no where. I kept on eating, chocking that experience as some type of bug safari. I never went back.

There's many many stories similar to this one here in Hawaii, a lot of my friends are chefs in high end restaurants and they have crazy stories about roaches, rats, and the general what the hell is that. It's kind of funny really. Main reason me and my lady friend cook at home and go out to eat when we want to see the "wildlife".

[mindwaves]

McDonalds near the 5 freeway heading towards SF has a lot of crickets. They had outside bathrooms with crickets everywhere. Hordes of crickets were basically hoping around like mad in the parking lot and getting crushed by the hundreds under car tires, but they were still very prevalent. Not sure what to do in that situation.

[Eug]

The worst scare of my life was at a local Italian bistro.

They sent me the bill and when I opened up the plastic folder, two cockroaches jumped out. I told the waitress and all she said was "Yeah, I guess they're all coming out now, cuz we sprayed yesterday." Ewww...

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by mindwaves 

McDonalds near the 5 freeway heading towards SF has a lot of crickets. They had outside bathrooms with crickets everywhere. Hordes of crickets were basically hoping around like mad in the parking lot and getting crushed by the hundreds under car tires, but they were still very prevalent. Not sure what to do in that situation.

Well that's easy. You simply introduce 400 Australian toads into the ecosystem. That'll take care of the crickets.

[subego]

At the Bagel in Chicago we saw a 5-incher on the ceiling. It fell on to the table of the people behind us.

We ended up staying, but we moved to the other side of the restaurant. Crazy? Maybe...

But the people who it fell on stayed too.

I'm guessing it has something to do with it being where pastrami goes to heaven when it dies.

[Face Ache]

Originally Posted by design219 

I have three Chinese restaurants close to my work. One cooks their food sweeter than the other two and I like their food best. The problem is, twice I've seen a roach crawl up the wall next to my table.

Each time I stopped going for a few months and then decided to give another try. I'm going again today, because I REALLY like their food.

So my question is are roaches really a danger, or do we over-worry about such things?

My question would be "do roaches taste sweet?" because they may be the special ingredient that keeps you coming back.