Health Inspectors Describe The Worst Conditions They’ve Ever Seen In A Restaurant

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and seen a score below 80 for their cleanliness or health rating, and just wonder what that means, exactly? Maybe you just ate without thinking about it, or left before finding out. Either way, those ratings are there to steer people away from sub-par quality.

It can definitely be challenging to keep a restaurant or fast food chain up to par when it comes to the stringent requirements of health inspectors, but the these inspectors have some stories that just stand out above the rest. These are bad. Like, real bad. If you think rats in the kitchen are bad, you’ve got another thing coming. Some of these restaurant stories will make you reconsider your next night dining out, and you’ll probably be more grateful than ever for your next home-cooked meal…

Feeling Great

I once finished up a foodborne illness investigation, not finding much that could have caused the illness, and left. I parked my car on the other side of the street in full view of the restaurant I was just at. I watched the dishwasher come out the back door, light a cigarette, smoke for a minute, then hunch over and puke all over the grass.

Then he took another drag and went back inside. I’ve got a lot of stories, but that was the worst for me. Reddit User: TheYellowRose

Secret Squatters

Was a health inspector long ago. Was at a Golden Corral going through the kitchen area. As I was squatting down to check a dishwasher, my foot broke through the tile floor and into a sewer pipe that ran underneath. Cockroaches came roiling out of the hole. Turns out the entire floor was rotten from a water leak in the sewer pipe. 

The general manager tried to fight me when I told them they had to close down until they fixed the open hole into a pipe full of cockroaches and waste. Reddit User: hoffmantransfer

Zits Not Ok

I managed a pizza delivery store, and the health inspector came by kind of late and asked me to step outside. He proceeded to tell me a customer complained that while they were in the store, two workers had popped each other’s pimples on the counter and didn’t even wash their hands. I very dryly responded that couldn’t have happened, as we ALWAYS wash our hands after popping each other’s pimples on the cutting table. 

With a small grin, he said that’s what he thought, and he appreciated our efforts. He was a nice guy. Reddit User: ratcnc

Border Patrol

14-inch border of mold/dirt scum all the way around the edge of the restaurant. They had boxes that had 5-year-old shipping labels blocking the path to the mops/mop buckets/mop sink. There were no sanitizer buckets and no sanitizer cloths. No sanitizer. There was mold in the fans blowing over open food in the cooler. I didn’t bother finishing the inspection. I just shut them down. 

How it went that long without them getting shut down before that day is a mystery to me. Reddit User: jordanleveledup

Mopping The Floor And Prep Tables

Well one day, I was half an hour early, and I walked up to my department. The cleaner was mopping the prep tables and the equipment with the same water he had used to clean the floor. I wish I was joking. To use the mop on the tables to begin with is stupid, but using the same water as well? Insane. I told his boss when he came in because I simply had to, and his face was a picture. He really didn’t believe me until I got him to have a look at the CCTV.

Oh, I forgot, he wasn’t supposed to even touch the machinery; that was my job. So he was dirtying my already clean equipment. Reddit User: [redacted]

Different Strokes For Different Folks

The horrors of roaches and mice in one restaurant was unlike anything I have seen. Literally, both creatures walking over your feet, over the food, on the counters, in and out of the coolers, stoves, food storage bins, you name it. We eventually gave up rather quickly, since the restaurant owners didn’t really care. I talked to the owner of the building, the man who initially called us.

I asked why they hadn’t been shut down by the city, and he said, “Because no white people come here, so no one cares.” Completely insane. Never seen or heard anything like it since. Reddit User: Grabbian_Aoggles

The Secret Ingredient

A guy working the fry station had a magnetic kitchen timer above the fryer stuck to the hood vent above. One day, the timer fell into the hot grease. They managed to fish out the main plastic part, but the batteries were nowhere to be found. It was determined that the batteries must have disintegrated into the grease. 

The owner was too much of a skinflint to stop serving fried food and change out the grease during the dinner rush. So whoever ate catfish that night had it fried in a tangy alkaline grease. Reddit User: [redacted]

At Least We Don’t Have A Rat Problem

A tuna canning plant in Los Angeles was off of Terminal Island, and the processing plant owned the entire island a few miles offshore. Needless to say, they had to take a boat to the plant to look at some machinery that needed to be repaired. We get to the plant, and there are dozens of cats inside the plant, outside the plant, warehouse, etc. CATS EVERYWHERE!

Nobody said anything. They were even in the office building. After a few trips, I finally asked. One guy said in a joking voice, “It’s either rats or cats. We don’t have a rat problem here.” Reddit User: FatMan832

Don’t Trust Rust

I do a lot of polishing and chrome plating. I am NOT a health inspector, but I do a lot of work for restaurants. I got a call to chrome plate some refrigerator racks. These are large 36″ to 48″ long racks/grills that the food sits on. This one high-end steak house that I used to go to calls me in. Their racks were literally falling apart: rusted joints, old food hanging off of them, just disgusting.

I refused the job, left, and wanted to throw up. I never went to that restaurant ever again. Immediately called the health department on them. Don’t know what happened. Reddit User: FatMan832

Changed Expiration Dates

I can tell you what they didn’t find. When I worked at Denny’s when the health inspector came, the cooks took all the expired food out of the fridge and stored it in their cars and by the dumpster until after the health inspector left, and then they put it all back. 

I ended up quitting that job after I got written up for refusing to change the dates on the labels of all the expired food, which was one of the primary jobs of the graveyard server. Reddit User: LegendofDylan

 Cat’s Out Of The Camper

So, a friend of mine is a health inspector. She walks into a local convenience store and discovers a litter box behind the counter. Totally unacceptable. Tells the proprietor that he needs to get rid of the litter box. That’s kind of a health code violation. He replies, “Well, it’s for the cat. We’ve been having mice/rat issues.” She tells him he can’t have a cat in a food establishment. 

He hands the cat to his wife, and she takes it out of the store to their camper trailer near the store. She just waits for her to leave, then brings it back. Reddit User: a4thpipeforsherlock

Eat Around The Mold

Not a health inspector but an ex-shift manager at a Sbarro. I watched the GM regularly drop dough on the ground, pick it up, dust it off, and then continue to prep it for pizzas. He also told the entire staff to cut around the mold on the product because it was too costly to buy new products when our stock went bad. 

He was a trashy GM (they also promoted him to a much busier location), and I regularly tell people not to eat there. Reddit User: [redacted]

 Please Marry Her

In the dry storage area, they had cleaning chemicals directly above all of the to-go food packages and plastics ware. In that same room, there was a sleeping bag and pillow tucked away. It stuck out, but I never really thought too much into until I went back to grab a bottle of wine and sure enough had stepped on a sleeping woman. 

She started yelling, and I just ran out. The manager offered me $25,000 to marry this woman so she could get a green card. Reddit User: KrakenWarg

Glass In The Tacos

After I inspected this vegan restaurant and everything seemed okay, I ordered some tacos. When I bit into the taco, I immediately felt a hard chunk gently slice into the roof of my mouth. I pulled out a one-inch shard of glass from my taco. Management said they “accidentally broke a glass near the tacos, and they thought they got all of it.”

They offered a new plate of free tacos, but I was like, “My mouth is bleeding, why would I want another taco?” Reddit User: woodsfullofbears

Sewage Smell

Worked in a popular sandwich shop. Our floor drains were smelling rancid for weeks, and we were backing up with what was assumed to be sewage. My manager told our owners every single day for three weeks that this needed to be fixed, and they did nothing. So in the middle of my shift one day, a health inspector came in and immediately shut us down. 

My manager told me right there that she anonymously called the health department because that was the only way the owners were going to end up fixing the problem. Reddit User: 12truths

No Cooling For The Meats

The worst I’ve inspected, at least in terms of public health safety, was a place that let their sandwich-making food sit out on a countertop without any cooling, and they were also using a residential dishwasher that couldn’t sanitize their dishes. The owner just didn’t manage any of their employees (owners make a huge difference; it’s super obvious if they’re consistently involved and care).

We know the back of the house gets warned and all chefs/staff throw on gloves real quick, but it’s easy to spot when something is a chronic issue. Reddit User: The_Revisioner

36 Out Of 100

The worst was a restaurant a friend took me to. He loved it and said it was on him, but boy if it wasn’t the sketchiest joint. If he hadn’t spent the whole trip talking about how he ate there twice a week and loved it so much, I probably would’ve left. The place was disgusting. Mold on the walls, dirty floors, piles of unwashed dishes on the customer tables, etc. 

When we left, I happened to notice the health inspection sign. They’d gotten a 36/100. I didn’t even know it was possible to score that low and stay open! Reddit User: SpidermanAPV

Mystery Sludge

This Mexican restaurant in Washington state was the worst. I showed up and they were cooking in ankle-deep sludge from a backed-up drain. What was the mystery sludge, I don’t even know. The under-counter refrigeration was going out, so they loaded up hotel pans with ice to keep things cold. Every time they pulled their doors open, nasty melted ice meat juice would slosh out. 

I had to go out and tell everyone to stop eating the food it was so bad. They got shut down pretty quick. It was so gross. Reddit User: CarsoniousMark

No Sink

Okay, so this is my friend’s story. He was doing a ride-along in medical school with a health inspector, and they stopped at a gas station that sold pizza that was made at the station. It didn’t have a sink. NO sink. They had one restroom sink that was broken. But they were making pizza to sell to customers. 

The health inspector immediately called the cops and shut the whole place down within an hour. I still shudder thinking about the people who ate that pizza. Reddit User: KindredsGirl

No Soap For Dishes

Health inspector had a problem with us, noticing our veggies on the sub-making station, stacking open cheese buckets on top of each other in a pyramid shape when shredding cheese so all the nasties off the floor would sometimes fall in the lower buckets. But his biggest problem was that our dishwasher didn’t use soap when washing our dishes. 

There was a container next to the dishwasher that at one point held soap and dispensed it every cycle, but by this point, it was completely dry. Needless to say, I hated working at that place. Reddit User: WhereTheJawnsAt

From The Trash To The Cooler

When I came to inspect this steakhouse, I checked the bar for health code violations first, leaving the manager enough time to rinse out a garbage can and pull all of the outdated/unlabelled products out of the walk-in and stack them IN THE CAN. He just covered it with a trash bag and set it to the side so it just looked like garbage waiting to be taken out. 

He was planning on putting the stuff back in the cooler after I left. He thought he outsmarted me. Reddit User: MammaSquid

Rotten Food Under All Equipment

Worst I saw in a restaurant was a kitchen so filthy that there was a 2-inch thick covering on the floors under all the equipment that was just rotten food that had decomposed into a black sludge. Cockroaches were EVERYWHERE. They had pieces of stainless steel screwed into the walls that the roaches were living behind, and every time I treated back there, thousands would run out. 

So many you could hear them. The wall between the kitchen and the dining area was so wet and moldy that slugs were reproducing and would slime their way across customers’ tables. Reddit User: sccrj888

Don’t Eat The Cheese

I worked in a McDonald’s years ago, and I had a co-worker that would lick her index finger every time she peeled a cheese slice off of the stack of cheese we would use to make cheeseburgers. She didn’t seem to do it secretly either. It was as if she was trying to separate a sheet of paper from a stack of papers. I would watch her do this all day. 

I never said anything, and I sure as heck never ate the cheeseburgers. Someone else eventually caught her. Reddit User: vdragzy

Multi-Generational Family Affair

During a fire inspection of a fast food chain, I went to check the extinguisher in the kitchen, and when I lifted it out of its cradle, I was swarmed by a multi-generational family of cockroaches. I proceeded to drop the extinguisher and squeal at a frequency that I haven’t been able to produce since, and fleed the kitchen….

Not a lot bugs me, but the sheer volume of the roaches and the velocity at which they attacked is something I have not experienced since. Reddit User: [redacted]

New Inspector Has Already Seen Some Things

I’m a fairly new health inspector, but I did see a bar in a Bojangles once where someone had the idea to close off the cabinet part underneath by sealing the door. This prevented any cleaning under the hot hold wells. I just happen to glance in there when an employee lifted up one of the containers. 

There was a black “mass” of food debris and grease. I also saw the manager of a different Bojangles in town step on a few roaches in the kitchen. Reddit User: Stumpinators

The Ceilings Hide Some Secrets

Not a health inspector, but I work in different restaurants daily installing data lines. I have seen so many disgusting things. Recently I have been working at Hardee’s in the midwest; just an FYI, every surface is greasy, nobody mops, and there is garbage everywhere. I was at one just the other night in Sikeston, Missouri that had at least ten different kinds of bugs.

I have been to Arby’s where it was clear nobody mopped in weeks. At almost every Red Robin, the floors are so greasy you can skate. Not to mention just about every chain has rat droppings in the ceilings. Reddit User: KrackerJoe

Uninvited Guests

My girlfriend works as a product safety inspector at factories that make the stuff you find on grocery store shelves. She tells me stories of watching dudes drop product on the floor and put it back on the production line, and of finding rat droppings and boxes of product nibbled by rats. She hates her job. 

I also hear all the time that the workers get really defensive about being called out on their nasty practices and give her a bunch of crap because of it. Reddit User: FraterProphilo

Not The Same As Water

My coworker’s husband is a health inspector. They also inspect daycares since they serve food. Sadly he says that the daycares can be terrible. He went to inspect one of the local daycares and found one of the workers had mixed up a bleach cleaning solution the night before and for some reason stored it in the fridge, where the next day, it was accidentally served to several children as water. 

They had to send several children to the hospital. I don’t know why they would need to put the bleach in the fridge in the first place. Reddit User: shanbie_

Remove And Keep Cooking

I worked at a bento shop in a fancy department store in Japan. I was a food inspector there, and what I saw scared me. All the kitchens were located level -2. There were a lot of cockroaches living under the prep tables and fridges, as it was really hard to access with a brush. I found some dead ones in the fryer. 

The boss told the employee to simply remove them before reheating the oil to start cooking. So gross. And this is pretty common from what I’ve seen. Reddit User: pi_jay

Cola Was Off-Brand

Years ago, I worked at a local fast food chain. The manager from my restaurant told us that in another restaurant that was about 6 streets from ours, many customers were complaining about the taste of the soda. After changing the water, the syrup, and the CO2, the problem remained, so they decided to call to check the whole thing internally. 

Turns out there was a dead rat inside one of the tubes. I cannot even imagine how that thing managed to get there and how many employees puked after knowing that they were also drinking rat-seasoned coke. Reddit User: [redacted]

The Black Spot

Years ago, I was waiting for my pizza to be made at a well-known chain. One worker was feeding the dough through a rolling machine. When the dough came out, I could clearly see a big black splotch in the middle. The co-worker said that was gross, then threw a handful of flour on it and said “can’t see it now” and proceeded to feed it through the machine again. 

They made a pizza from it. I called one of them over and canceled my order for a refund. What on earth? Reddit User: rpitchford

Blasphemous Blizzards

Not a health inspector, but an ex-friend of mine used to work at Dairy Queen. The assistant manager was cheating on her husband with a guy who worked for the health department or knew someone in that department or something; either way, she would always get a heads up on when inspections were coming. 

Anyway, my ex-friend would tell me how they’d go into deep cleaning mode. Once they pulled the Blizzard ice cream machine out to clean it and there was a huge roach nest; hundreds of them scattered everywhere. Reddit User: Crowbar_Faith

Black Goo Steak

Not a health inspector, but I’ve been working at a grocery store with a VERY popular meat department. One night, I was doing some stocking and cleaning and offered them a hand in the meat department. What I saw in there was absolutely horrible. The meat wrapping machine had never been cleaned in the two years they had it. 

When I cleaned it, I pulled about 5 pounds worth of black, gooey steak out of it, plus pounds of wrap in it. Let’s just say I don’t go there for meat. Reddit User: [redacted]

Un-Refrigerated Food 

I do work in food safety, and I’ve definitely seen it all. Probably the worst was seeing a restaurant employee attempting to separate raw frozen chicken breasts with a rusty crowbar and hammer. I had to make a few phone calls for that one. I’ve also been to the location of a large restaurant chain that had no working coolers in the entire facility and wasn’t actively doing anything to resolve the problem. 

I checked their temp logs and quickly realized they’d been holding and serving un-refrigerated food for about 3 days straight. Reddit User: jzburnett

Half-Eaten Salsa Bowls

I had just started work as a busboy at a Mexican restaurant. On the first day, I noticed the guy training me was pouring the half-eaten salsa bowls in a large plastic container. I asked him if the containers then go in the trash. He said no, they go in the refrigerator for reuse the next day. I lasted like a week. I just could not do that. 

I guess I should have turned them in to the health inspectors, but I was young and naive. Reddit User: ps4_gamer1

Re-Usable Cheese Dip

I heard a story about a health inspection at a Mexican restaurant in my hometown. There were rumors that they would take the un-eaten cheese dip and put it back in the vat to be resold. Well, apparently two health inspectors went in posing as normal customers, ordered cheese dip, ate a little bit of it, then put BBs or some small metal object in it that would sink to the bottom of a vat.

They went back later and sure enough, they found those suckers in the bottom of the vat of cheese dip. Reddit User: Steven2k7

Mildew In The Cappuccino

Not a food inspector, but was a server. Worked at a local family chain that’s EXTREMELY popular. My side work for the evening was to break down and deep clean the “cappuccino” machine (one of those powder and hot water deals). Black, slimy mold and mildew on EVERY piece inside. Oh, it was SO gross. I can’t tell when/if ever it was broken down. 

I assigned myself that side work every Sunday as long as I worked there. I’ve never been able to drink that “cappuccino” style drink anywhere in over a decade. Reddit User: bexx411

Well, That’s A Mouthful

My great-uncle worked as a health inspector in (I believe) the ’80s in South Florida, and his favorite story is from the very end of an inspection at a restaurant. They’re standing in the kitchen with the chef when a cockroach runs across the table. He looks at it; the chef looks at it. Then the chef grabs it and puts it in his mouth to hide it. 

I don’t know how long he kept the roach in there, but how gross. Needless to say, the restaurant didn’t pass. Reddit User: kjvp

Not So Kosher

I’m a NY dairy inspector, and I inspect a lot of Jewish dairy farms. What I’ve noticed is the Jewish community in my area loves to do their own inspection, and a lot of them do a decent job. The problem with a few of them though is that they don’t do such a great job, and tend to leave milk tank doors open. The end-result is that rats, flies, and other critters get into the milk. It’s so gross, and I doubt anybody even notices.

The big problem is they never ask to do the inspection, they just walk onto the property and do their thing. Actions like that can shut down the whole industry. Suffice to say, I’m pretty sure their milk isn’t kosher. Reddit User: sidvil

Moldy Soda

Not a health inspector, but at a company I worked for, they had a soda machine. Several months after I started working there, I heard someone mention that it must be time to clean the heads on the soda machine, because it hadn’t been done since it was installed (a month or two before I got there). 

So we figured out how to disassemble the heads, and the built-up syrup was a horrifying mess. Not to mention I also found mold in the ice maker. So. Gross. Reddit User: gcanyon