12 Things At Restaurants That I Love & Hate

The inspiration for this post is a recent dining experience where I could smell the bathroom air freshener from our table in the dining room. The scent was so strong that I could taste it in my mouth when we walked outside after the meal. This post is also inspired by our favorite restaurants who make us feel at ease and serve great meals time and again.

In no particular order, here are 12 things restaurants do that I love and hate:

I wrote a similar post about grocery stores in 2015. 

Things I HATE:

  • Air freshener smells: I do NOT want to smell bathroom air freshener anywhere except for the bathroom. Ever. Under any circumstance. There’s nothing grosser than trying to decide if you want to order a burger or chicken wings while you can smell a sickeningly fragrant air freshener. If your bathroom’s air freshener flowing into the dining area smells worse than your actual bathroom than I don’t want to eat here and need to leave.
  • No salt on the tables. Please. Provide some salt on the tables. Your seasoning better be spot on if you’re going to withhold salt. Let me worry about my own blood pressure. Honestly, it really comes down to being very annoyed when the food’s bland.  Once I wrote a whole post dedicated to the topic.
  • The expensive small plates thing: Is it just me or does it seem like every  other new restaurant’s concept is “small plates?” They’re like smaller plates of food and cost the same amount as a big plate or require three to fill you up. I guess they’re perfect for sharing? That is, if you want to share that tiny portion of calamari.
  • Upcharching to swap fries for chips: Burger and sandwich-heavy restaurants that upcharge customers for swapping potato chips for french fries drive me nuts. NO ONE WANTS YOUR CHIPS. Especially when you bagged, broken potato chips accompany an expensive burger. I never go to a restaurant because I want to eat boring, mass-produced, plain potato chips. If I wanted chips, I’d walk to the gas station down the street and buy my own bag. Somehow, a burger with chips that can be uncharged for fries feels almost worse than a $10+ burger that doesn’t come with anything else at all. I would rather that a restaurant writes the extra $2 into the cost and includes fries.
  • Bad, overpriced signature cocktails: For a while, I became so disgusted by bad, pricey signature cocktails that I stopped ordering them all together. I’ve spent way too much money on disappointing drinks. The menu titles and descriptions always sounds so magical. But, about half the times, they’re too sour or sweet and I wished I had just ordered a martini or Manhattan.  Other times, signature cocktails are too weak to give me a buzz. I’m a lightweight and if I order a $12 cocktail, I should always feel a buzz. I’ve started branching out again and have found some successes, but often stick with the classics. Restaurants whose signature cocktails blew me away: Bellecour in Wayzata & The Rabbit Hole in Minneapolis.

This is the single, worst, most expensive drink I have ever ordered. A $17 sweet, weak monstrosity in a mason jar. This celebrity chef’s restaurant recently closed in NYC.

  • Greasy, sticky menus and condiment dispensers: At the restaurants I worked at, I frequently wiped down all of the napkin dispensers, laminated menus, and condiment dispensers. There was no way someone was going to write a bad Yelp review calling us out for dirty ketchup bottles on my watch. I’m completely fine with my own filth, but strangers’ filth freaks me out. Before I eat, I do not want to get a stranger’s saliva residue, hand grease, and food residue on my hands.

Things I LOVE:

  • Unpretentious “Come as you are” vibe: We don’t like dressing up in our free time. We dress up every day for work. When we’re ready to kick back and relax over a great meal, we want to wear comfortable clothes like our favorite t-shirts and stretchy pants.  On other occasions, we were out and about when we stopped for a meal and randomly found ourselves in a restaurant fancier than we expected. With maybe one exception, upscale restaurants we’ve wandered into made us feel at ease when even we were kind of self-conscious about our attire. I can’t imagine a restaurant I want to visit less than one with an enforceable dress code. Sorry, but I don’t care how good the food is. Our favorite restaurants make us feel at ease.
  • Good non-alcoholic cocktails: There are so many reasons why people don’t want to order alcoholic beverages. I really appreciate restaurants that have added cocktails to their cocktail menu. I remember feeling delighted by a sparkling fruit lemonades the bartenders created at Mezzaluna in Fargo, ND. And the last two distilleries. At Vikre in Duluth, MN I enjoyed a refreshing, complex beet drink. At Du Nord, the bartender offered to make most any cocktail NA.
  • Good ranch: I’m a side-of-ranch gal. It’s the upper Midwest. There’s a lot of us side-of-ranch people; enough to warrant good ranch. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I will judge you harshly if you serve bad ranch. Good ranch is as simple as mixing up one of those Hidden Valley packets with mayo and buttermilk. Sure, you can make it completely from scratch. But the difference between packet ranch and the cheap jarred stuff is remarkable. The fact that you are serving good ranch makes me feel like you care about the small details. We ranch dressing lovers appreciate you! Fun fact: Jake actually hates ranch.
  • Websites with easy-to-find hours, phone numbers, and prices: It just makes it all the easier to visit you! Prices let us know if you’re fitting our budget at the moment and make ordering take-out a smooth process with no surprises.
  • Consistency: I have so much respect for the restaurants that serve good food year after year. For example, take Broder’s Cocina Italiana. The decade that we’ve been visiting them is just a blip on their timeline, as they opened in 1982. We’ve ordered countless Eggplant Special pizzas from them (among our many other favorite dishes) and they are perfect EVERY SINGLE TIME. Each time we order one of our favorite dishes, it’s as delicious and consistent as the ones before. The same goes for our other favorites like pho at Quang (open since 1989), Jucy Lucys at The Nook (founded in 1938), beef tartare at 112 Eatery (open since 2005) and everything at Cafe Latte (open since 1984).
  • Welcome snacks: Complimentary welcome snacks like chips and salsa or bread and butter are certainly not something I feel diners are entitled to. They sure are fun, though.

*In the featured photo at the top of the post: A recent, fantastic meal from one of our favorite Minneapolis restaurants, 112 Eatery.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this list below. Am I missing anything or do you think any of the items are completely off base? 

22 Comments

  1. Joe

    I agree!!

  2. Katy F

    Love these!!! Fantastic list!!! Also, restaurants that don’t have “side” prices on things like onion rings and cheese balls. I don’t need to pay $10 for a burger and $8 for onion rings. Just give me a side order for $4! ?

    • Jeni

      Thanks Katy! Side prices are so nice so that you don’t have to purchase an entire appetizer. Totally agree.

  3. Donna Hup

    This list is spot on!
    Did Jake tell you he didn’t like ranch before you were married?

    • Jeni

      i can’t believe we never discussed. Actually I think living in Iowa really awakened my ranch enthusiasm

  4. Bre

    I hate when there’s no vegetarian option. Something more than a $14 plate of iceberg lettuce with half a cherry tomato.
    And if salad is my only option (I enjoy a good salad, whatevs), but the price listed includes chicken/shrimp but I opt out, shouldn’t that cost me slightly less?
    And this one is slightly petty, but condiments in glass bottles. It’s impossible to control, and too often ends in a tsunami of ketchup over my fries

    • Jeni

      Agree – there should be at least one fantastic vegetarian option or ways to modify with a veggie protein – if they simply leave out the meat but don’t swap something else that doesn’t make sense at all to pay the same amount.

  5. Jennifer Miller

    HATE: Soggy and/or rusty lettuce, salad swimming in dressing, taking my dirty fork/knife off my plate and laying on the table, not keeping on top of water fills, upcharges for subs – like salad for fries (you cannot tell me that a handful of lettuce costs more than a handful of fries, especially if they’re homemade fries ’cause those are a lot of work), typos/punctuation errors, servers that know nothing about the food.
    LOVE: Unobtrusive service, free snackies as you mentioned (there’s a place in DM that brings a tiny little homemade choc chip cookie with the bill – totes adorbs …) good classic cocktails like a killer martini, fresh squeezed juice, dessert choices beyond cheesecake and something with the words “lava” or “flourless” in it.

    • Jeni

      Great list! Rusty lettuce makes me mad. Will have to check out that DM place someday with the little cookies. That sounds lovely and so generous.

  6. SmilynStef

    Warm Bread always tops my list too … if I’m going to use some calories on bread, I want it to be fantastic

    • Jeni

      Warm bread is so delicious.

  7. S

    One of my pet peeves in addition to hours, phone numbers, and prices on websites is the complete lack of any information regarding their happy hour.

    • Jeni

      I wonder if some restaurants lose money on HH so they want to keep it less public? It’s something we love and look forward to.

      • S

        That may be true, but if it keeps me from walking in the door in the first place and then potentially returning for full price later because I was so impressed they have lost a customer before even knowing I existed.

  8. Julie

    I’m so so so with you on websites. I honestly no longer even care if you just have a facebook page since half the time that has more info than the dang websites. I’m planning a big trip abroad and I know I’ll be arriving in rural Highland towns after 7 PM. I just want to know if you’ll be open for dinner still!

    And here in St. Louis I want to know if you’re the kind of place that happily does takeout. Some places will do UberEats/SkiptheDishes but won’t make it easy for me to just grab and go. If I just spent the day painting my bathroom I assure you I am doing you a favor by asking for takeout. Shoutout to Pastaria/Porano who not only have takeout but have their own apps for it and have a pickup process written out (and Pastaria brings it straight to my car like I’m royalty).

    • Jeni

      I’m with you on the Facebook page- if it has hours, address, menu that works! I’d think grab and go would be way easier than the meal delivery services. When I worked at the bakery, it was such a pain. You’d have random tickets flying in on gads of iPads and half the time their menus were outdated. Chef Craft is such a class act.

  9. Val - Corn, Beans, Pigs & Kids

    Love this post!

    My biggest pet peeve is refill charges on kids drinks. I’m sorry but my kids drink the one cup of milk you give them before you’ve even finished taking our order… There are some restaurants that we don’t go to again simply because of the drink prices/refill prices.

    I love a good ranch dressing too, or at least a good house dressing. I usually get a side salad with most of my meals so I appreciate this.

    • Jeni

      Thanks Val and thanks for adding your thoughts. I can imagine kids drink refills would add up a lot. Living in Iowa really helped me appreciate good ranch. And you hardly have to ask for it on the side like I do in MN!

  10. Beth Ann Chiles

    Great list. Really great list. I agree with everything and I am trying to think what I would suggest as additions. Okay–here it is. It is probably silly but I like good napkins. I don’t care what kind of establishment it is the napkins make me happy if they are sturdy and big enough to actually do something. I am a napkin in the lap gal and those flimsy ones that come out of the metal dispensers rarely satisfy me and I end up using 3 or 4 at least. I am sure I am not alone. They don’t have to be fancy, just substantial enough to hold up to my greasy fry fingers. 🙂 It’s the little things, right?

    • Jeni

      Thanks for sharing Beth! Sturdy napkins are great. It is the little things indeed

  11. Josh

    Spot on! I hate touching bbq, mustard, ketchup bottles & or menus in restaurants, sooooo gross to watch people licking their fingers and then touching this stuff. YUCK!! I once worked FOH at a joint in MN, when I saw a server get ranch on her finger she quickly licked it off. I pointed at the sign that simply states don’t lick your fingers… She looked at me and quickly replied, it’s okay, I’m just cleaning my fingers. BLURG, that is so gross.

    • Jeni

      ewwww – yuck indeed.

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