Every restaurant menu is a mix of hidden gems and quiet disappointments. Some dishes look like obvious choices, but experienced chefs will quietly steer past them every time. The reasons vary: inflated markup, frozen shortcuts, staleness dressed up with sauce, or simply the knowledge that the kitchen’s heart isn’t in it.
Dining out costs real money, especially now. Restaurant prices at casual dining and fast-food establishments rose nearly four percent over a recent twelve-month period. That makes informed ordering more valuable than ever. Here’s what chefs say you should skip, and what to reach for instead.
1. Mozzarella Sticks
1. Mozzarella Sticks (Image Credits: Unsplash)
Mozzarella sticks are one of those appetizers that's far easier to buy frozen than make from scratch, so most restaurants do exactly that. This means they're not fresh, and you're paying a premium for something that costs the kitchen very little. The markup on a basket that arrives from a freezer bag is hard to justify when you look at what's on the rest of the menu.
Mozzarella sticks are also one of the heavier appetizers available. If you're ordering them before your entrée, you may well find yourself completely full by the time the main course arrives. A better move is to scan the starters for something the kitchen actually makes in-house, like a charcuterie board, a composed salad, or a chef-driven small plate that shows actual craft.
2. Soup of the Day
2. Soup of the Day (Image Credits: Unsplash)
Head chef Jon Davis of City Grocery in Oxford, Mississippi, puts it plainly: "The one thing I do not order at restaurants is the soup du jour. Was it really made today? How long has it been in the steam well? Did the prep cook cool it down properly? It's a crap shoot I'm not willing to take." That's coming from someone who works inside professional kitchens daily.
Restaurants also have a tendency to serve their soup of the day several days in a row. This is done to decrease food waste, but it can result in ordering a fairly expensive dish that's neither special nor particularly fresh. If you want something warming and broth-based, ask your server what was made this morning, or opt for a dish where freshness is more transparent, like a tartare or a crudo.
3. The Margherita Pizza
3. The Margherita Pizza (Image Credits: Unsplash)
If you're eating at a spot that may not be spending top dollar on its ingredients, you're best off giving the margherita a miss for the sheer reason that you're falling prey to an obscene markup. For chef Julia Helton, ordering the margherita is a significant error. The ingredient cost is tiny compared to what you pay at the table.
You'd be far better off ordering pizzas that feature ingredients you can't get anywhere else, or that combine toppings in a way you'd never thought to try. Go for something different rather than ordering the same old thing. A restaurant's specialty pizza, something with house-cured meats or seasonal vegetables, is usually where the kitchen's real effort lands.
4. Plain Pasta at a Non-Italian Restaurant
4. Plain Pasta at a Non-Italian Restaurant (acme, Flickr, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>)
Spaghetti, fettuccine, or penne is common on non-Italian restaurant menus, yet pasta dishes are often overpriced, especially if you calculate the cost of the ingredients. Executive chef Marcus Mooney rarely orders pasta at restaurants. The economics of a bowl of marinara simply don't hold up once you know what goes into it.
How it's cooked depends on the expertise of whoever is on the line that night. If it's not cooked how you like it, you've spent a lot of money on a dish you could easily replicate at home. Skip the generic pasta and look for the handmade or filled varieties instead, like fresh ravioli, a house-made carbonara, or pappardelle with a braised meat ragu. That's where the skill actually shows.
5. The House Salad
5. The House Salad (Image Credits: Unsplash)
Executive chef Kayson Chong of The Venue in Los Angeles tends to stay away from the house salad. He prefers something that a chef created with seasonal products and interesting combinations, noting that he goes to restaurants to experience new and exciting things, not something he could easily find anywhere. A house salad is rarely a reflection of a kitchen's talent.
One chef noted he's always shocked at salad prices on menus, which can run fifteen to twenty dollars and up. As he put it, many places are simply taking some lettuce and already prepared items, throwing them in a bowl, and mixing them with dressing. Order something seasonal instead, a composed salad built around an interesting protein or ingredient that's actually in peak condition right now.
6. Scrambled Eggs at a Busy Brunch Spot
6. Scrambled Eggs at a Busy Brunch Spot (Image Credits: Unsplash)
Scrambled eggs can feel like a safe choice at a restaurant. It seems hard to go wrong with this all-time breakfast dish. Chefs, however, tend to steer well clear of scrambled eggs when they're eating out. The problem is that so many kitchens simply don't make them properly. It's one of those dishes where the gap between a great version and a bad one is enormous.
If you're dining in a busy restaurant at peak breakfast time, your plate may simply have been sitting on the pass for too long. Perfect scrambled eggs need to be served almost immediately, otherwise they harden, and this is something chefs know all too well. A better brunch order is usually something that's meant to sit, like a shakshuka, eggs benedict with house-cured salmon, or a frittata that holds its texture through service.
7. Anything Labeled "Truffle" at a Mid-Range Restaurant
7. Anything Labeled "Truffle" at a Mid-Range Restaurant (Image Credits: Unsplash)
Pastry chef Saura Kline of Local Jones in Denver advises diners to never order anything that has the word "truffle" in it. Unless you're at a high-class fine-dining restaurant, this usually means truffle oil, which is very rarely made with actual truffles. It tends to be used aggressively and will immediately inflate the price of any dish, regardless of its actual quality.
Ingredients like white truffles and caviar, if you have a taste for them, are better enjoyed at home. Compared to wholesale, the markup on these ingredients at a restaurant is astronomical, and neither requires much skill on the part of the chef. Instead of chasing a buzzword, look for dishes built around seasonal produce or proteins where the cooking technique itself is the selling point.
8. Raw Oysters at an Unfamiliar Venue
8. Raw Oysters at an Unfamiliar Venue (Image Credits: Pexels)
When it comes to eating oysters, Cordon Bleu-trained chef Mark Nichols won't go near raw oysters if they were harvested more than one hundred miles away from the restaurant serving them. It's a surprisingly firm line, but it comes from a clear-eyed understanding of how quickly shellfish quality can degrade in transit.
Oysters filter water, meaning they absorb toxins, bacteria, and pollutants. If not stored correctly, they can contain Vibrio bacteria, which causes severe food poisoning. The safe bet is to only eat oysters at high-quality seafood spots with fast turnover and fresh regular shipments. If you're unsure, ask when the oysters arrived and where they're from. A knowledgeable server at a good seafood restaurant will answer that without hesitation.
9. Risotto
9. Risotto (slgckgc, Flickr, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY 2.0</a>)
A prime example of a dish that trips up many restaurant kitchens is risotto. Brian Motyka, executive chef of Longman & Eagle in Chicago, says the number one main dish he never orders at a restaurant is any sort of risotto. Proper risotto demands constant attention, precise timing, and the right ratio of liquid to rice. In a high-volume kitchen during a busy service, that's a tall order.
Fragrant ingredients like bacon and cream can be all-too-easy ways for restaurants to mask flavors and cut corners, and risotto is especially vulnerable to that kind of shortcut. A gluey, over-salted bowl priced at twenty-five dollars is not uncommon. If you're drawn to rich, comforting grain dishes, look for something like a polenta with braised greens, a slow-cooked bean stew, or a house-made gnocchi where the kitchen's technique is more visible.
10. The Daily Special When It Sounds Too Convenient
10. The Daily Special When It Sounds Too Convenient (Image Credits: Pexels)
Ever notice how restaurant servers push the special of the day? Their reasons may be more economic than culinary. Some restaurants build their daily specials around what's about to expire or what they're trying to move faster, according to executive chef Alberto Morreale of Farmer's Bottega in San Diego. He asks servers instead to recommend something made with local ingredients or what arrived fresh that day.
Some restaurants use "specials" specifically to get rid of old ingredients before they go bad. In reality, some dishes are bought pre-made, frozen, or pre-cooked to save time and reduce costs, particularly appetizers and side dishes. The smarter approach is to ask what the kitchen is proud of this week, or which dish the chef would personally eat tonight. That question almost always leads somewhere more interesting than the laminated special insert.
None of this means you should approach a restaurant menu with suspicion. Most kitchens genuinely want to cook something good. The point is simply that some items have structural problems that even a talented team can't fully overcome, whether it's a frozen starting point, an impossible time constraint, or a markup that no ingredient can justify. Knowing which dishes tend to disappoint gives you more room to find the ones that genuinely deliver.