Comments on: Felix TV: Do you want real food or clean food?

By: hsvkitty

hsvkitty — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 21:09:23 +0000

You eat out too much if you think real food is served at restaurants. There are some (few) that shop daily, provide from ‘live’ real food (which is the only real food) and do not provide you with twice your daily caloric limit in an appetizer that has been frozen prior.

More expensive doesn’t mean value and the Ritz Carlton food doesn’t mean good food even with an A rating in cleanliness. An elitist “star” chef is more likely to be hated by staff, insist no one but he knows good food, and return it if you send it back.

Having eaten in too many different hotels and restaurants I now can choose only those I trust will give me a better food experience than I can offer myself, and so I choose neither the Ritz nor MacDonald’s and you can’t make me!

I am also betting you spoke to a hotel manager who really didn’t know anything about the restaurant’s rating.

By: ORD

ORD — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 20:56:21 +0000

An aside: the histogram looks like a classic “nice teacher” distribution, with a spike in the number of restaurants above the A/B and B/C divides, and a mysterious dip below. It appears the sanitarians are reluctant to drop someone to a B or C “just because of one or two violations.” Not surprising, since restauranteurs usually try to cajole, threaten, guilt, shame or flatter sanitarians as much as legally allowed. Sometimes more…
An alternate hypothesis: restaurants make the minimum number of repairs/changes to reach the next grade. But I doubt it.

By: ORD

ORD — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 17:54:51 +0000

As Najdorf says, this is no surprise to anyone who has worked “back of the house.” Major franchises like Yum! Brands restaurants are literally idiot proof; there is no raw meat in a Taco Bell (employees aside, of course). In my personal experience, it is the linen napkin stores that ignore modern HACCP procedures to pursue delicious but dangerous techniques, both modern (sous-vide) and ancient (Chinese “red cooked” barbeque). My advice is trust your immune system, your nose, and your instincts- and don’t eat at hotel restaurants. Their management is generally focused on extracting maximum profit from the operation as a whole, and when they invest in the facility, they spend where patrons can see it, not on a new compressor for the cooler or food handling training for the prep cook. Read Tony Bourdain’s classic “Kitchen Confidential,” where he describes making Sunday brunch at the Rainbow Room from banquet leftovers from Friday or Saturday night.

By: najdorf

najdorf — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 17:18:53 +0000

q – it’s obvious you don’t know anything about restaurants or cleanliness. A new coat of paint on the walls and nice outfits on the waiters does not make up for the actual health violations that exist in many clean-looking restaurants, such as:

Staff not washing hands properly.
Food not stored at correct temperatures.
Raw meat not segregated from other food.
Expiration dates not tracked.
Disinfection of surfaces not performed.
etc.

I have been in some lovely-looking places with huge amounts of money who don’t do these things right. McDonald’s usually scores well because they train their employees on these points and will fire people/revoke franchises if they’re not up to code. It’s not about the money.

By: q_is_too_short

q_is_too_short — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 17:06:20 +0000

uh huh, walk around chinatown or washington heights and see all the completely marginal places getting As whilst the moneyed places are getting Bs and Cs. clearly different standards apply if you have $. you don’t have to be cynical to see how cynical this is – just another form of blackmail for the city to generate revenue.

By: GregHao

GregHao — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:34:06 +0000

As I mentioned over there on the comment thread in the original post about restaurant grades, I’ve rarely been to a chinese restaurant either in new york or LA that had an A grade.

Put another way, if I headed down to a restaurant and right before going in I see a “C” grade on a window by the door, it wouldn’t deter me from going in.

Also, wtf is up with the manager saying you can’t film? What an utter load of tosh. So if I walk by the Ritz I need to poke my eyes out? Pathetic.

By: Sunset_Shazz

Sunset_Shazz — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:07:01 +0000

George Orwell: It was amusing to look round the filthy little scullery and think that only a double door was between us and the dining-room. There sat the customers in all their splendour--spotless table-cloths, bowls of flowers, mirrors and gilt cornices and painted cherubim; and here, just a few feet away, we in our disgusting filth. For it really was disgusting filth.

By: Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:20:54 +0000

That’s a silly question, Felix. It all depends on your budget. If I had a Ritz-Carleton budget, I’d eat there every time. But if I had a MickyD’s budget, all of the real food of the Ritz wouldn’t do me any good.