restaurants

We're thrilled to present this smart Kiplinger story here on Savvy!

When dining out, I love to enjoy great food. After all, that's why I'm there in the first place. But if you’re going to be spending your hard-earned cash on a restaurant meal, there are some things you want to stay away from when you go out to eat so you’re not just throwing away money.

This advice comes from someone who has spent the better part of his professional career managing the kitchens of various restaurants. Although most places are committed to the highest food service standards, there are a few common traps to avoid.

So without further ado, here is my list of four things to skip when ordering at a restaurant.

1. Fish on a Monday. Have you ever heard this phrase? I sure have. The reason behind it is that even if a restaurant claims their fish is "fresh daily" or "flown in fresh," most fish markets and purveyors do not deliver on Sundays. Therefore, the majority of the time, the fish you order on Monday was actually delivered to the restaurant on Friday or Saturday. Although fish going on three-days-old probably won't get you sick (i.e. food poisoning at a restaurant), why take the chance? It isn't exactly "fresh" as advertised either.

2. Featured items. This word is a definite red flag to me. When I worked in the restaurant business, we featured food we were trying to get rid of. In many cases, the food had not sold well or was about to expire, so we drew extra attention to it or advertised it at a lower price. The bottom line was that we wanted to sell what we could while it was still acceptable for human consumption. In most corporate kitchens, recipes are produced in batches and used over time. If a restaurant has chicken and cheese nachos on their menu, it's a safe bet that the cook mixes the chicken and cheese sauce in advance and marks it with an expiration date. Leftover and expired portions have to be discarded, and it goes without saying that throwing out food can put a serious dent in a restaurant's profitability. Add in the fact that restaurant managers are under great pressure to produce a profit, and voila!, you have a featured item. If my chicken and cheese sauce imagery didn't do the trick, I'll say it again: Stay away from the featured items. If you wanted leftovers, you would have stayed at home.

Read on for more things to avoid at restaurants.

For the past 18 or so years, Kate Krader has been the restaurant editor at Food & Wine magazine. If there is anyone who knows about dining trends, it's Kate! After she candidly described a day in her glamorous life, she spoke with us about cocktails, menus, and more. Here's how the conversation went down:

YumSugar: You recently came out with Food & Wine Cocktails 2011. What's your favorite drink in the book?
Kate Krader: There's a bunch of awesome cocktails. Phil Ward's old-fashioned with tequila. The new drinks that are made by chefs are cool. More chefs are getting involved in cocktail programs! Linton Hopkins's sidecar is really good. Wylie Dufresne's sake drink is the best one I've ever tasted.

To see if Kate prefers a short or long menu, keep reading.

Forget bacon flapjacks, bacon meat loaf, and maple bacon sundaes: Denny's has moved on to lighter pastures with Fit Fare, a new line of lower-calorie options. The items fall under four different classifications: "lean," with less than 15 grams of fat; "light," which comes in under 550 calories; "protein," for items with 20 grams of protein or more; and "fiber," with at least 8 grams of fiber.

The menu includes the Fit Slam, with scrambled egg whites, spinach, grape tomatoes, turkey bacon, fruit, and an english muffin; a chicken avocado sandwich and cranberry apple chicken salad for lunch; and tilapia ranchero for dinner. Some of these dishes — like the Fit Slam breakfast and the tilapia ranchero — actually sound healthy in a refreshing way. Could you see yourself heading to Denny's more, now that they've created a lighter menu?

Source

In hopes of boosting sales, Jack in the Box is thinking, well, outside of the box. Amidst criticism that the fast food chain has lost brand focus, the company has announced plans to drop toys from kids' meals, add new menu options for children such as apple bites, and cut a number of premium food items, among them the mini sirloin burgers, steak teriyaki bowl, pita snacks, and chorizo burger. These changes, Jack in the Box executives hope, will help the staggering chain distinguish itself from competitors.

Jack in the Box claims that the move to kill toys in kids' meals wasn't in response to outside pressure, but the hubbub surrounding Happy Meal bans couldn't have hurt its decision. Note that while other fast food establishments like McDonald's and Chipotle have been seeing growth, Jack in the Box sales still haven't managed to return to pre-recession levels. Do you think dropping the toys from kids' meals and simplifying the menu will kick-start sluggish sales?

Source: Flickr User Roca Chang

What's next for Subway, now that it's surpassed McDonald's and Starbucks in store locations? According to Nation's Restaurant News, it's tackling the ever-popular café culture. Meet the chain's new Subway Cafés: slightly larger outlets designed to be a cross between a sandwich store and a coffee bar, with baked goods, hot and cold espresso drinks, and frozen blended beverages, among other offerings.

The decor, which might include coffee tables, lounge chairs, bookshelves, and a fireplace, mimics the cozy coffeehouse ambiance of — you guessed it — a McCafé or a Starbucks. In addition to his aggressive growth strategy of opening 2,000 new North American locations in 2011, President Fred DeLuca will also add about 10 more Subway Cafés to the franchise's current roster of 15 by the end of this year.

What do you think of the concept? Will tonier seating arrangements make you want to eat at Subway more often?

The recession has curtailed consumer food spending, but some restaurants refuse to let that keep customers away — literally, at all costs. Take the honor-based billing system, for instance: drink and dine, and what you pay is entirely up to you and your conscience. On many occasions, customers don't receive bills but rather "suggested donations."

That's the case at Panera Bread's Panera Cares Community Cafes. One year into opening its first pay-what-you-can concept in Clayton, MO, the national chain's nonprofit cafes have been deemed a success. According to Panera, 60 percent of patrons fulfill the requested "suggested donation," while 20 percent actually exceed the amount; in total, the cafe sees $100,000 a month in revenue. Panera's since opened two more community cafes — one in Dearborn, MI, and another in Portland, OR.

Other establishments are following in the chain's footsteps; even Jon Bon Jovi is opening a pay-what-you-can concept. It's refreshingly hopeful to see that this model can work, even when times are still tough for the average American. Would you welcome the rise of more charitable cafes?

Source: Flickr User samantha celera