“Unlocking the Hidden World of Chain Restaurants: 18 Insider Secrets Revealed by Employees You Never Knew Existed!”
Ever wondered what goes on behind the golden arches of McDonald’s or the Colonel’s secret recipe at KFC? Chain restaurants might seem like a familiar comfort zone, but trust me, they’ve got a whole lot of quirks and secrets lurking in their kitchens. It’s like they’re hiding a treasure trove of culinary tales just waiting to spill. To unearth these hidden gems, we took a deep dive into the treasure chest of social media discussions, unearthing intriguing insider secrets shared by employees from various chains. Spoiler alert: some of them might just change the way you look at your favorite meals! Curious? Let’s dig into the juiciest revelations that could leave you both amused and slightly shocked! You won’t want to miss this… LEARN MORE.
From McDonald’s golden arches to KFC’s colonel, chain restaurants operate all around the world. However, there are still plenty of things we don’t know about them—every business wants to get ahead of the competition, and to do so, they might try practices they want to keep on the down-low.
To gain a better understanding of the industry, we started digging around the internet and discovered a few discussions where people who worked at these establishments have been sharing insider secrets they learned on the job. Here are some of the most interesting ones.
At Chipotle, the servers usually put more ingredients into the bowl version rather than the burrito version. However, you can ask for the wrap on the side when you order the bowl version for no extra cost. This way, you can make your own burrito with more ingredients for the same price.
I used to be a waiter and it wasn’t my fault that it’s taking forever for your food to come out. That’s the kitchen’s fault. Yelling at me won’t make it come out any faster. You’re just making me sad and ruining my night 🙁 I’m a person too.
Not a restaurant, but we serve food too. The $7 tub of popcorn you buy at a movie theater costs about 9¢ to make.
Panera is pretty much just as bad for you as McDonald’s. People come in thinking they’re eating healthy, but they’re really not.
The Italian Combo used to have more than a thousand calories, but they took some stuff off so it’s 980 now. All the soups have >1000mg of sodium (Italian Combo has >2000mg or a day’s worth). A You Pick Two with Broccoli Cheddar, Frontega, and bread on the side is not significantly different from a McDouble with medium fries.
EDIT: And the “fresh-squeezed lemonade” is made from cartons of concentrate and regular old faucet water. Green tea is the same.
I work at a Papa John’s and as you may know Papa John’s brags about never frozen ingredients. Well, that’s a big lie. Every time that we get a truck with food all the meats are frozen. The apple pie topping also comes frozen. The only things that don’t come frozen are the dough and the vegetables.
I used to work at Romano’s Macaroni Grill and their delicious Rosemary Herb Bread comes in frozen and is stored at room temperature. It must be loaded with a million kinds of preservatives to last sitting two weeks in a storage closet.
I also used to work at Applebees, and can confirm that steaks are microwaved. At the location I was at the cooks threw them on the grill after the microwave to get char marks on them. Seriously guys, don’t order steaks there.
Chipotle’s deep, dark secret… It’s 50/50 lemon lime juice in the rice. Oh no! Seriously, that place was above-board all around.
The servers are in charge of making bread sticks at Olive Garden. I can’t remember exactly how it worked but all the soup/salad/bread sticks were done by the servers. Two servers would usually be scheduled to be in charge of those things. I can’t remember if the breadsticks were frozen or fresh…but I think they were fresh. As soon as they came out of the oven they were slathered in butter and salted, and they usually didn’t last long. So chances are the breadsticks you get at Olive Garden are gonna be fresh and tasty. We were told that a table gets one bread stick per person and then one extra…this did not help curb massive consumption of bread sticks.
Once we had to throw out a bunch of old boxes…one of which I managed to take home. I ate bread sticks for at least a month…it was glorious.
I worked at a Culver’s a few years ago, and some people know, but I don’t think many do, the burgers are fresh. They are portioned out hamburger, not pre-made patties. They take a cube of hamburger and press it on the grill as soon as you say you want a Butterburger. Also, chicken salad is made fresh every Wednesday morning.
So unlike Wendy’s that says they have fresh, never frozen burgers (I find it hard to believe), Culver’s actually does. And for those that don’t know Culver’s, it’s a “fast food” burger/ice cream restaurant. After eating there for a year, I still am not sick of it.
