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It's not always a good idea to eat at a restaurant.
Holidays like Valentine's Day can be overly expensive and crowded.
Restaurants with dirty bathrooms might not have the cleanest kitchens.
Dining out is one of life's great pleasures. Restaurants are wonderful places to try new dishes and expand your gastronomical horizons, but there are certain times that you might want to avoid eating out.
INSIDER consulted with chefs and food experts to figure out when you should skip eating at a restaurant.
Chef Kristina Miksyte of Doma Kitchen in Marina Del Rey, California told INSIDER that one of the top times to avoid a restaurant is during the dinner rush. This period is a little different for each restaurant depending on location and scale, but most places get crowded between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
During the dinner rush, servers and staff can become overwhelmed and the dining room itself can feel crowded. Instead, Miksyte recommended arriving between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to take advantage of a calmer dining atmosphere.
"The staff has just arrived and are more relaxed and not as rushed as during the dinner rush. As the team has already prepped for dinner, they can make more accommodations and time out to chat with our diners to give them a great dining experience," she said.
Dining out on Valentine's Day isn't always pleasant.
Valentine's Day is almost synonymous with a fancy dinner in a romantic restaurant, and plenty of families want to celebrate Mother's Day with a nice meal out. However, opting to dine out on these holidays can be a major headache. Tables at trendy restaurants can be hard to come by and reservations can dry up months in ...
Firoz Thanawalla, chef and owner of Chef's Satchel, told INSIDER that dining out on special days like Valentine's Day or Mother's Day can mean dealing with crowded restaurants and intense pressure to make the experience special.
"Such days are just nothing but madness in the kitchen, which needs to pump out plate after plate, sometimes without any attention to detail. It isn't always the cook's fault. The amount of pressure that it creates is not worth being on the other side as a guest," said Thanawalla.
Clemente Heredia, owner and restaurateur of Calo Kitchen & Tequila in El Segundo, California, told INSIDER that Valentine's Day can be an especially unpleasant time to eat out. Instead, she suggested picking a different day to celebrate the holiday.
"It's one of those days of the year where expectations are so high, even for the guests. Kitchens and restaurants get swamped. One of the biggest tips I can give is to celebrate Valentine's Day the whole week - not just on the 14th. This way you can enjoy dinner at your own pace and not feel rushed," said Heredia.
Proper hygiene is important in any kitchen, but it's especially crucial that restaurants maintain a high level of sanitation and cleanliness to prevent the spread of foodborne illness or animal infestations. In some cases, you might be able to get a sense of the restaurant's hygiene standards by taking a look at their ...
"It is always said that the cleanliness of the restaurant is reflected by how clean the restroom is. While on a road trip, I decided to stop at a restaurant for a quick bite. Not only was the restroom not clean, but I could clearly see the kitchen and it was not the best view. I walked right out and swore never to visi...
Restaurant bathrooms have to be clean.
A clean floor, fully-stocked paper products, and well-maintained fixtures can be indicative of a staff that takes cleanliness seriously. In the case of a grimy bathroom, the opposite might be true.
"If the public-facing bathroom is dirty, how committed is the operator to assuring that the less-public food-preparation area is clean and safe?" Ronald Ruggless, Southwest bureau chief at Nation's Restaurant News, told USA Today.
The holidays can be a busy time for many restaurants. Some establishments close for a number of days or weeks over the festive period to give their staff a break or retool their menus for the new year. Booking a table at a restaurant as soon as it opens back up after a holiday break might mean you're eating food that's...
"Restaurants can see the pre-holiday period as an opportunity to put some food away in their freezers to use once the restaurant is open for business again. Always pack a meal from home to avoid eating out on such days; you'd rather be eating a day-old homemade turkey sandwich than week-old frozen Bolognese sauce," Tha...
Though all restaurants must conform to strict food preparation and storage laws, you might want to skip dining out right after the holidays if the thought of frozen ingredients makes your stomach turn.
Food and restaurant columnist Luisa Ruocco told INSIDER that diners might want to avoid eating at restaurants with massive menus. Though variety is nice, having more dishes on the menu means that a restaurant needs to have lots of different ingredients on hand to keep those options available.
At a restaurant where there are fewer options, the food might be better.
"Anywhere that has a really broad choice of food rings alarm bells as to how fresh the food is. For example, a restaurant will not buy fresh meat every morning if the chances of someone ordering a steak are one in fifty. Compare that to a steak restaurant that only offers five different cuts of meat, where the chances ...
In some cases, restaurants with huge menus might be keeping ingredients or even entire meals edible by freezing and reheating them. Though this is usually perfectly acceptable by food safety standards, it can result in less than stellar dish.
Councilman Steve Langer, chair of the council’s Land Use and Environment Committee, will act as a direct liaison with the commission, and the mayor has made himself available for clarification of the charter.
The charter clearly states that the commission will focus on policy instead of a line-by-line review of the plan. This should help it stay on track. If it cannot, the council’s commitment to have direct communication will provide regular opportunities to check on the commission’s work.
By putting tighter reins on the comp plan process, controversies and challenges should rise to council’s attention more quickly, thus avoiding the SMP quagmire, and producing a draft that will more closely resemble the final plan. The idea is to build changes into the comprehensive plan update with agreement among the ...
By setting clear goals, defining responsibilities and creating a mechanism for adjustments, the council is showing it learned lessons from the SMP process.
Exactly what’s so wrong with keeping score?
From the files of our never-ending quest to bubble-wrap our children, protecting them from all that is negative and scary, comes the latest tale of trying to make sure no one ever feels bad about anything.
Seems a minor hockey squad (eight-year-olds) in Ontario managed to eke out a 41-0 win over a rival team in recent action. Interestingly, though officials involved said there weren’t a barrage of complaints, the news of such horror quickly spawned the usual array of examples of groups working to ensure losing big isn’t ...
Perhaps I’m a tad curmudgeonly here, because the notion of fun being paramount in any sport remains sacred, especially for the kids. But on many levels, sports also offer a remarkable chance for kids to learn about life.
Part of life is learning to deal with failure — or defeat.
We seem determined to forget that (and not just in sport) a lot more these days.
This incident reminds me of a news story a few years ago about a children’s soccer league (up to age 18) that instituted a rule that said any team that got ahead by more than five goals would lose by default.
If delicate little Billy’s team is losing 6-1 and an unsportsmanlike cad on the other team happens to score one more, they lose.
When I was a sports-mad lad, I hated to lose. My Little League baseball team went 59-0-1 in three years and decades later, I’m still bitter about the tie. Even playing my sister at tiddlywinks was high-stakes competition.
In any sport, I was always taught to play as hard as you could, all the time. If the result was too overwhelming for the other team, too bad.
If you did your best and still lost, that wasn’t the end of the world either. I remember in school a visiting British rugby side came for an exhibition and beat us by about 70 points.
Did we wilt and cry and feel bad about ourselves? No. It made us realize just how much work had to be done to get better.
Our coach told us there was no shame in losing, to hold our heads up and keep working and maybe one day we’d be that good.
Now, I get that many arguments that begin with ‘well, that was the way they did it when I was a kid, and I turned out OK’ can ring hollow. We must evolve. But it seems more and more that we must coddle our little ones and not ever let them lose a game or fail a test or deal with hardship of any sort. In turn, we can re...
Life isn’t always fair. There are winners and there are losers. Learning to deal with those situations at a young age isn’t going to harm anyone. And even if you tell them you’re not keeping score, many of them will be keeping it in their heads anyway.
I still coach kids baseball. My approach will always be it’s all about fun and learning how to play the game. Get out there and get after it and we’ll worry about the result later. But if it reached a point at a ‘keep score’ level where it was a tight game in the last inning, then everyone might be told “we need two ru...
Get excited when you win, try to figure out what you can do better if you lose. Little kids whose team loses a blowout game won’t be permanently scarred, they’ll still just want to go to Dairy Queen.
Trying to teach them it’s not OK to excel or that changes will always be made to protect them from big losses might not always be the best course of action.
VIFD editor Philip Wolf can be reached at philip.wolf@blackpress.ca or follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
for the US Post Office, where she met her beloved husband Roy Min.
family and friends – and everyone who got to know Mary was her friend.
Jessica, nephew David, her family and many friends.
with her wide smile, twinkling eyes, and hearty laugh.
niece Jessica Min, and nephew David Morrissey.
Huntington Beach, at 10 am on Wednesday, December 11th.
The first funnel deadline in the Legislature advances some, kills other bills.
The first round of bills have been sifted through committees in the Iowa Legislature. The surviving bills are one step closer to becoming law in Iowa, from expanding the CBD program to dispensing birth control without prescription and more.
By March 8, any bills that have not been passed through a House or Senate committee die, meaning they can’t be considered later during the session. This self-imposed deadline on March 8, known as the funnel deadline, was created to keep the legislative process moving.
Rep. Michael Breitbach, R-Strawberry Point, said the Legislature usually receives around 2,500 new bills and amendments each year.
“But only between around 170 or 175 seem to make it all the way through [funnel week],” he said.
As of March 7, approximately 180 bills were eligible for debate on the Senate floor and 125 in the House. These will progress to be debated on the chamber floor starting March 11.
A number of bills approved for floor debate are picking up momentum.
Gov. Kim Reynolds proposed a bill Feb. 12 to allow hormonal contraceptives to be purchased without a prescription, which was recommended for unanimous passage by a House subcommittee March 6.
Under the bill, Iowa Department of Public Health’s medical director would sign a statewide standing order to serve in place of a prescription so that adult Iowans could more easily receive contraceptive products such as birth-control pills, hormone patches, and vaginal rings. Pharmacists would be required to undergo sp...
Legislation, introduced by Sen. Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, and Sen. Nate Boulton, D-Des Moines, could expand the availability of CBD in Iowa. The bill would increase the list of medical ailments to be treated with cannabidiol.
Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, said a similar House bill passed through committee earlier this week. He said its expansions are modest in comparison with the Senate bill.
Other bills that have successfully progressed past the deadline include a bill to allow firearms in the parking lots of school grounds and a bill to give legislators a role in the the judicial-commission selection.
Legislation to establish a children’s mental-health system picked up support in committee as well. The initiative would require specific core services for children’s mental-health services.
Other bills will be left on the cutting room floor of the Capitol, not having successfully passed out of their respective committees.
One bill in the House which would require that the state Board of Regents adopt a written measure to ensure that Iowa universities do not infringe on college students’ free speech, was not taken up for debate by the House Education Committee.
A Senate version, however, did pass the Senate Education Committee, and is eligible for floor debate.
Rep. Art Staed, D-Cedar Rapids, voted against the regent bill in subcommittee.
Another university-related bill that was not picked up by the Senate Education Committee included a bill to end professor tenure in universities.
Breitbach, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said one bill could have prevented the state from continuing to buy land for conservation efforts. However, the bill stalled in committee.
Critics of the bill say it could negatively affect the state’s conservation efforts of Iowa’s nature.
Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, said in an interview March 3 he was working to get one of his bills through committee this week before the funnel deadline. March 7, his puppy-mill legislation was approved for floor debate.
“One of the bills that’s important to a lot of folks in Johnson County that I just recently worked on is a bill to combat puppy mills and try to hold some of the bad actors that don’t do a good job of caring for their puppies … accountable,” he said.
Editor’s note: a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that a bill to end tenure at Iowa universities did pass committee. The bill was not taken up in the Senate Education Committee. The Daily Iowan regrets the error.
Two security guards at Citicorp Credit Services at Citicorp Drive in Hagerstown were arrested Friday by Washington County Sheriff's deputies and charged with stealing computer equipment from the firm.
Cris Alan Newcomer, 26, of 115 W. 2nd St. in Waynesboro, Pa., and Tony Ray Foley, 24, of 9451 Sharpsburg Pike in Hagerstown, were arrested, deputies said.
Officers said Newcomer was charged with one count of felony theft and one count of scheming to steal items worth more than $300, while Foley was charged with two counts of misdemeanor theft, one count of felony theft, one count of scheming to steal, possession of fireworks without a permit and one count of illegal comp...
Officers said a Washington County District Court commissioner released Newcomer pending trial. Foley was waiting for a bond hearing late Friday, they said.
Cpl. Roy L. Harsh said he was told on June 27 of possible internal theft of computers and equipment from Citicorp. The same day, $5,000 worth of laptop computers and other equipment was found in Newcomer's possession, he said.
On July 11, Foley's apartment was searched and more computer equipment and fireworks were found, Harsh said. He was arrested Thursday and charged with theft of fireworks, computer hardware and with copying Citicorp software, Harsh said.
Citicorp investigators Jerry Iannacci and Rick Ziolkowski helped in the investigation and recovery of stolen property, Harsh said.
Someone took $616 worth of goods from an unlocked Chevrolet Cavalier parked in the driveway of a home in the 19000 block of Keedysville Road in Keedysville late Thursday or early Friday, according to Washington County Sheriff's deputies.
Officers said thieves took a Sony portable CD player worth $150, and 24 assorted CDs worth $466.
The theft occurred between 10:30 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m. Friday, officers said.
A Hagerstown man and 17-year-old boy from Washington, D.C., were arrested on drug charges by Washington County sheriff's deputies Friday morning at Freddies Corner in the 18000 block of Oak Ridge Place in Hagerstown, police said.
Deputies said the juvenile and Curtis Antonio Haston, 25, of 316 Henry Ave., Hagerstown, were charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The teen was being held at the juvenile detention center in Hagerstown, and Haston was expected to go before a Washington County District Court bond commissoner.
Deputies who went to Freddies after getting a call from employees said they saw the suspects try to hide a duffel bag under their table. The suspects denied owning the bag. Officers said they found 197 grams of suspected marijuana with a street value of about $1,500 inside the bag.
Officers said the juvenile was also carrying suspected marijuana.
A Maryland State Police trooper and a Hagerstown teen escaped serious injury Friday morning in a two-car crash at the intersection of Md. 632 and West Oak Ridge Drive south of Hagerstown, police said.
Melissa Jean Ray, 18, of the 17000 block of College Road, was charged with failure to yield the right of way, officers said. Ray was driving a 1994 Saturn, they said.
Trooper Lewis F. Blenard III, 49, was treated at Washington County Hospital for a minor arm injury and released, officers said. Blenard was driving a marked cruiser, they said.
Investigating state police Cpl. Kevin W. Lewis said Ray was northbound on Md. 632 when she started to make a left turn onto West Oak Ridge and hit Blenard, who was southbound on Md. 632.
Blenard was on routine business and not using his lights or siren at the time of the accident, Lewis said. Both drivers had a green light, he said.
Both drivers were wearing their seatbelts, and airbags in both cars deployed, Lewis said. There were no passengers in either car, he said.
A mix of clouds and sun. High 67F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph..

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