Why do you think food at the restaurant are unclean?

I used to have a friend that worked as a waitress, she told me that if you want to go dinning out, you better not see how the chef cooks, she said the chef's behavior will just make you want to throw up and make you not appetized. Bascially, she meant all the chef have their own bad habits like pick nose, not washing hands after "doing business", stuff like that, it sounds very gross.

I've worked in a lot of restaurants, and I can tell you very simply that I've never experienced an overly dirty kitchen. BUT, you have to remember that in a commercial kitchen things are done differently. Chefs and restaurant workers don't have the time to sanitize the same way that you would personally in your kitchen. Things are prepared and cooked much faster, and they have to be in order to satisfy customers. Sadly, one side effect of this is that the food and cooking surfaces may not be as clean as what your used to in your kitchen at home. But, this is simply a trade off of eating out.

I work in a restaurant and while I cannot speak for every restaurant out there, ours is kept clean. We would never do such disgusting things as to pick our nose or prepare food with unwashed hands, yuck. We don;t leave food in the sink and food preparation areas are sanitized frequently. Our kitchen is semi open so customers can see what is happening in the kitchen if they wish. I think a good indicator is if the restaurant is dirty ( has dirty windows, floors, uncleaned tables, ect..) I personally wouldn't eat there. If that is happening up front where customers can see it what is going on in the back?

I agree that some places are unclean especially when you see the place that they are not really clean literally. There are restaurants that insects are all over the place, the ambiance is filty and it does not smell good somthing like that.

The discussion about restaurants reminded me about some interesting read. In Taiwan they have a restaurant named Toilet restaurant and I bet it is so classy compared to any high-end picks you may have. Don't go by the name, but the food served here is extremely delicious and there is a thrill holed up in enjoying the same in a toilet decor! Read more about the restaurant here - http://www.ifood.tv/blog/taiwans_toilet_restaurant

I'm a window cleaner among other businesses I do the windows at 7 restaurants and I have to go through the kitchen to get water. I would never consider eating at any of the places even though 2 of them are BBQ joints and I love BBQ! The kitchens are greasy, there left over food in the sinks, the large plastic carts they move the food around with are dirty and crusty. There's crumbs and dirty utensils under the tables or on the window sills. And don't get me started on the crusty food on the windows. And these are national chains, not local dives.

I am the same as you, I believe that the restaurants are pretty clean. If they werent, they would be shut down by the health department! I have seen lots of television shows and news reports about restaurants being unclean. I remember watching a show once where they asked for help from a chef because the restaurant was failing. They made way too much food ahead of time. They had roaches all over the place. The food sat around for way longer than it should have before they served it. They even had a trashcan full of refried beans that they served to people! It was really gross. From those shows and news reports, I can understand why people would be afraid. I dont think that restaurants happen very often, though. I think mostly they are clean and do their best to stay that way. They dont want word getting out that they arent. They want to keep their customers and make more money! Being unclean would be counterproductive to that.