- Tempting as fast food may be, the industry at large has earned a relatively lousy reputation.
- Past and present fast food employees on Reddit took to the internet to set the record straight about what you should — and should not — order at restaurants.
- Tips include letting the soda fountain run for a few seconds before filling your cup and avoiding drink garnishes at all costs.
Fast food's appeal can largely be boiled down to three factors: accessibility, convenience, and reliability. You know just what you're getting when you order a number five with a strawberry shake — or do you?
Like most businesses, the fast food industry has an underbelly, and we've amassed a collection of insider tips and secrets from variousRedditthreads to help you navigate the mysterious waters of your favorite restaurant chain.
From making sure to avoid the ice machines to never ordering fish on a Monday, here are 13 secrets from fast food employees that will save you from a nightmarish meal.
While INSIDER can't independently verify any of these tales, they do make for some wild reading.
Run the soda fountain machine for a few seconds before pouring it into your cup.
Many fast food chains and restaurants have regulations in place that ensure soda fountain machines are cleaned routinely. However, allowing the soda to run for a few seconds before filling your cup helps eliminate any chances that you'll wind up with mold or bacteria in your drink.
"It gets any air out of the line and washes out the built up syrup from however long it's been since its last run. [...] If they don't clean the machine often enough (zero restaurants/gas stations do), it'll hopefully wash away the built up mold/bacteria in it. If it's a freestyle machine, it'll wash out the other soda from the last drinker."— Reddit user oddHamster58
Forgo ice if you can.
According to an anonymous Reddit user in this thread, the National Restaurant Association lists ice as a potentially dangerous beverage element "...for the danger of spreading food borne illness because of neglect of cleaning ice machines... Nobody thinks of ice as food so people are more lax about preventative measures (like scooping the ice with the cup which occasionally has ungloved, possibly gloved hands touching the ice, dropping the ice scoop and using it without sanitizing it, etc.)."
Don't order any specialty items without checking the ingredients first.
According to Reddit user -eDgAR-, some "specialty" items are essentially just overpriced and glorified iterations of a cheaper menu item — so read the ingredients list carefully before placing your order.
"I worked at a Japanese casual fast food restaurant that had two locations, but this applies to other places. We had this thing called a Volcano roll and it cost $7.25. A California roll there cost $3.75. The Volcano roll was a Cali roll cut into the shape of a triangle and topped with spicy mayo that has been heated up with about $.10 worth of fish, literally just a few bits. You are much better off ordering a Cali roll and paying $.50 extra for spicy mayo on the side and asking them to heat it up."— Reddit user -eDgAR-
See the rest of the story at Business Insider