Cockroaches in the restaurant, what would you do?

[Mackey Mouse]

So after we saw a very good movie, we thought we would go to a Chinese Restaurant that we have eaten at many times for dinner... We were sitting there drinking our tea and waiting for our order when my DH spots a cockroach.. I jump out of my seat and he kills it with his napkin.. we did not panic, we just said... it was just one.. OK...then we are sitting there hearing them cooking our dinner in the kitchen, when my DH spots another one....I am out of my seat like a shot and go over to get the waiter..

He tells me that they have had a problem and have had the exterminator make a big smoke in the dining room, but they keep coming back.. Now I am almost freaking thinking there is no way I will eat this food... and I know that kitchens have issues sometimes, but the waiter was not making feel any better by telling me they have a big problem...

Anyway, he told us we did not have to take the food or pay and we were out of there so fast.....I feel bad, but I never want to go there again......

 

[beck0321]

EH?! OMG! I would have started screaming if I saw that. Well no actually I would have froze up and started hyperventilating. I have this immense fear of roaches, it's ridiculous! I hate myself for being so helpless in their presence, but I can't help it.
One time I was at the gym and one flew right at me onto my machine. I could see it coming, it was like going in slow motion. I just jumped off the machine and stood there, doing nothing, but freaking out inside. Someone yelled at me, go get someone to kill THAT THING! It took a moment to register.

so, I don't blame you for freaking out about it, I wouldn't have stayed there either. I'd be too scared.

 

[liamsaunt]

I would have left also. I know that roaches are common in restaurants, and it can feel like a losing battle to control them, but I don't want to eat in a place where they are walking all over the table.

At the Chinese restaurant near my in-laws, they also had a "nature problem." in this case it was a mouse that ran over my husband's arm as he leaned on the bar waiting for a take out order! YUCK!

 

[taylor1293]

There's never just one!

The same thing happened to us at a steakhouse in Tampa a few months ago. One ran across the table by our food! The manager happened to be right next to us at a time and saw it too. He killed it, apologized over and over and told us we didn't have to pay.

We left ASAP without paying, with the exception of tipping the waiter, as it wasn't her fault the restaurant had bugs.

Yuck, I know there are bugs everywhere, but when I have one run across my table while I'm eating. I can never go back to that place again.

Teresa

 

[Disneyland1084]

I don't blame you, I would of done the same. It's sickening. Sorry to hear you had to go through that.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

"There's never just one!"

See that is what I think too.....and I was so ready to leave after the first sighting but we have eaten there so many times and they are so nice to us, I thought ok..no big deal, but the second one made it a big deal and I was out of there.....

I said to him you know if the town that you live in knows you have this problem, they can close you down until you take care of it.. I think that is when he said we could leave without paying.....I wonder why...

 

[Cool-Beans]

If they are in the dining room, they are all over in the food areas.

I waitressed when I was young and my experience was that they go where the food is. If a place is dirty and there is food around, the roaches show up...and they ARE hard to get rid of. But they usually stay in the back. The restaurant has to be seriously infested before the critters go out to the dining room.

A Pizza Hut I worked for was so absolutely disgusting that they did make their way out to the dining room. We were giving away meals left and right. If you could have seen the back of that place, you wouldn't have eaten there - GROSS!

While we're on the topic of grossness in restaurants, let me say that when you're at the salad bar, take the food that is on top of the cannister...don't dig. In clean places it won't make a difference, but in gross places, well, just trust me. Don't dig. Blech.

 

[momrek06]

Sorry, OP, that is a horrible situation. But OT , my DS is a pre-med student and his bio Prof at college did his thesis on the eyeball of the cockroach !!! DS said it was really fascinating reading.....DS, you are !!!!!

 

[Mackey Mouse]

They make grown women freak.. those bugs and it was running all over where I was just sitting near my pocketbook... No food for me tonight, I am still pretty squeamish....

Would you call the Board of Health of that town if it were you who saw this?? I am just wondering.

 

[Cool-Beans]

No, I wouldn't call the Board of Health. But I wouldn't eat there, either.

 

[mickeysgal]

I remember a bunch of years back a very famous pizza restaurant in Chicago was shut down because the roach problem was so bad that they literally were being cooked into the pizzas. I remember it being on the news. They actually showed this pizza with roaches in it. Can you imagine???

We once pulled up to a Mexican restaurant and as we were ready to get out of the car, we saw a huge rat run along the front of the building. I wouldn't even get out of the car.

Another story... when my son was a toddler, DH had taken him grocery shopping (during the day). While in the frozen section, out from the back swinging doors comes a rat and runs down the aisle! Not your normal sized rat, those huge water rats. He ran so close to the cart, DH could have hit it with it. A stockboy runs after it, and manages to put a garbage can lid over it. This was a huge chain grocery store.

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I know.. scary isn't it??? I did not want to even stop anywhere else to have dinner, I was not eating restaurant food anywhere tonight.. no way, no how.

 

[Alex2kMommy]

A group of us from the office went out to lunch together one day; the Chinese restaurant just around the corner had a buffet, and I think we all chose the buffet. We were about 2/3rds through our meal when one of us found a cockroach...dead on her plate, it had been in one of the buffet dishes. UGH!

We alerted the waitstaff immediately, and the manager offered to take 10% off the bill. Can you imagine?! We're all ready to hurl, and that's the best he could do?

Needless to say none of us ever went back, and we told EVERYONE in the office about it. They went under pretty quickly after that.

 

[Honu]

Would you call the Board of Health of that town if it were you who saw this?? I am just wondering.

Yes, without hesitation. I would probably whip out my camera phone and take pix too. The restaurant has the responsibility to keep it's facilities clean. I don't want to get sick from unsanitary conditions and I don't want anyone else to suffer that either.

 

[minnieandme]

I hate roaches. They're nasty and disgusting and make my skin crawl. If I saw one in the restaurant I was eating at, I would leave and never come back again. If they are in the dining room area, no telling how many are in the back where all the food is kept and prepared.

I remember there was this Chinese restaurant that we used to go to when I was younger. It was take out, so you just order your food. They had a big problem with mice, rats and roaches running around. The Health Dept told them to clean up their act. A few months later they didn't get any better and they shut down. Makes me wonder what they really put in the fried rice.

 

[RitaZ.]

Would you call the Board of Health of that town if it were you who saw this?? I am just wondering.

I would call. Cockroaches carry a lot of diseases. Who knows what else they've got going on in the kitchen.

One of our local channels does a regular segment called Dirty Dining. They basically get copies of recent restaurant inspections and pursue the matter with the restaurant/manager. It's quite disgusting when they show these reports... The findings in these reports range from improper food storage, improper food handling, fresh rodent and cockroach droppings. Some restaurants have been ordered to close until they clear all the problems. Some have what inspectors call "critical violations". All these things can cause diners to get sick. As disgusting as it all sounds, I think it's a good idea to expose them. If anything, it will keep restaurants on their toes and, hopefully, keep them cleaner and better maintained.

I know that where there is food, there will be pests. However, if you have two roaches in the dining room, you've got a much bigger problem in the kitchen. I doubt roaches are the only problem they're dealing with.

 

[Mickey527]

This is something I was told long ago about cockroaches and I have followed this advice with every bug I have seen since then. I don't know how true it is but why take chances.
I was working as a nurse aide while putting myself through nursing school. I worked nights and one night I saw a cockroach walk out of the kitchenette area. I squashed it with my shoe. Another nurse aide said that cockroaches carry their eggs in their body and if I squash one the eggs can still survive in the cracks of my shoe and I could take them home and they will hatch in my house. I left those shoes outside for months.
I never squashed another bug since then with my shoes, but I have used tissues or anything I could find that I could dispose. Peggie

 

[momrek06]

This is something I was told long ago about cockroaches and I have followed this advice with every bug I have seen since then. I don't know how true it is but why take chances.
I was working as a nurse aide while putting myself through nursing school. I worked nights and one night I saw a cockroach walk out of the kitchenette area. I squashed it with my shoe. Another nurse aide said that cockroaches carry their eggs in their body and if I squash one the eggs can still survive in the cracks of my shoe and I could take them home and they will hatch in my house. I left those shoes outside for months.
I never squashed another bug since then with my shoes, but I have used tissues or anything I could find that I could dispose. Peggie

OKAY...now that is totally...

 

[spazzyjazzy]

Ah! The cockroaches ::shaking head::

We were at a mexican food place and we were ordering our food. As my husband was finishing the order at the counter I spotted something in the corner of my eye. I turned my head and there was a cockroach walking across the counter towards my husband's hand. I looked at the gal taking the order and she saw it too. The lil sucker went under the counter and went away. I didn't say anything for 2 reasons 1. my husband would have flipped and 2. My husband has a very weak stomach when it comes to food and he would have lost it.
We got our food I was kinda uneasy about eating the food but, I was sooo hungry.
When I got home I got online and found under our county website you can report an eating establishment. They gave me a report number where I could check up on their visit to the establishment. A few days later the county health people paid a visit to them and found nothing. I was so mad because it made me feel like a liar. But, in a previous investigation they did find a can of RAID and they had gotten in trouble for it. I have a feeling that the gal taking the order must have told someone and they must have sprayed because she totally knew that I had seen it.
I finally told my husband about a month later and he thanked me for not telling him at the time. We have not been back since.

I would definately report it.

 

[RitaZ.]

This is something I was told long ago about cockroaches and I have followed this advice with every bug I have seen since then. I don't know how true it is but why take chances.
I was working as a nurse aide while putting myself through nursing school. I worked nights and one night I saw a cockroach walk out of the kitchenette area. I squashed it with my shoe. Another nurse aide said that cockroaches carry their eggs in their body and if I squash one the eggs can still survive in the cracks of my shoe and I could take them home and they will hatch in my house. I left those shoes outside for months.
I never squashed another bug since then with my shoes, but I have used tissues or anything I could find that I could dispose. Peggie

I don't know how accurate that is. If you look at the pic that Momrek posted in page 1, you can see what a roach egg looks like (the small "log" looking thingie). There is one coming out of one of the roaches.

OMG!!!! I can't believe I'm discussing roach eggs!!!!