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If you love eatingsalads, you probably like making your own, especially at restaurants with a self-serve salad bar. From the restaurant’s standpoint, hosting the salad bar allows the restaurant to expand their menu selections with more options. Still, it is a challenging feat, especially when the salad bar gets busy. While many diners follow restaurant etiquette, some well-intended gestures can create more work for restaurant staff. We talked to restaurant owners and experts who have encountered different situations—check out these six things that diners do at a salad bar that are actually rude.
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1. You Use the Same Plate Each Time
Using the same plate is good for the environment and means less work for the restaurant’s dishwasher. In reality, though, reusing your plate instead of getting a clean one could contribute to germs spreading. Using the same dish for seconds is just unsanitary—serving utensils that touch your dirty plate increase the risk of cross-contamination and germ transmission.
2. You Clean Up Your Own Spills
3. You Use the Same Utensil for Different Ingredients
When you notice that tongs or serving utensils are missing from an ingredient, we know you won’t use your hands to pick something up. But, taking the serving utensil from an adjacent food item isn’t any better. Paul Kusher, owner ofSteam Pubin Southampton, Pennsylvania, and CEO ofMy Bartender, indicates that using the same utensil in multiple foods can create many issues. “You are promoting cross-contamination, especially whenfood allergensare a major concern,” Kusher says. “Using separate utensils for each ingredient keeps everyone safe and the ingredients tasting their best.” So, if you can’t find what you’re looking for, just ask the staff to bring you the right tool for the job.
4. You Use Your Own Cutlery to Get the Food
Sometimes when you grab a plate from the start of the salad bar, you get silverware too. If a serving utensil is missing, you can use your fork since it’s clean, right? While you may have clean cutlery in hand, asking for serving utensils is recommended. Silverware is often smaller than the utensils paired with the ingredients on a salad bar, so they’re usually not the right tools for the job. Their small size can increase the chances of dropping things in other ingredients, a recipe for cross-contamination, or on the counter or ground, creating unnecessary work for the staff.
6. You Don’t Tell Anyone That an Item Is Empty
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