Resturant Rules

We eat out from time to time, mostly at small establishments, if we are not grabbing fast food after a long day.  I have come up with a small list of things that I look for in judging whether my dining experience will probably be a good one .. or not.

Here they are in no particular order

1-If the coffee is bad, the rest of the meal will be too.  It's not hard to grunge the pot and if they haven't done that, they don't care about the rest of the food either.

2 If the tables are sticky, the place is not clean.

3   If the menu goes on for pages, they probably don't do ANY of the dishes well ( thank you Gordon Ramsay)

4 If you ask the waitstaff what THEY eat and they hem and haw, leave IMMEDIATELY.  It's not good when the staff doesn't eat their own food.

5  Try to see if your waiter or waitress is running all over the place and doesn't have a clear work station before you decide he or she is just a poor server.  Sometimes mismanagement shortchanges the staff.

There are probably more but that's all for now.  Last night we went to a place called the Hill Street Cafe in La Canada.  DON'T go there.  My "fajitas" resembled bad chicken soup and the waitress tried to tell me that the over-boiled mess was something I should "expect" when you order from the "Fit Fare" menu.  YIKES!  I can cook something that is low fat and low sodium and tastes good.  It's not that hard if you have an idea of what you are doing.  I am NOT a master chef, but it IS possible.  Just NOT at the Hill Street Cafe in La Canada.  I posted a negative review on Yelp.  This was the third time we went there. The first time the breakfast was pretty good.  I only remembered the negative experience of the SECOND visit after we sat down.  I recall thinking I should never come back to this place.  The third time's the charm, as they say.  Never again!