Real Food is continuing its disappearing act from restaurants across America. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the restaurant is a franchise or boasts 5 stars.
At a franchise restaurant like Applebees, Chilis, or Bob Evans, you would expect that cheap, processed food dressed up with a gourmet presentation would reign supreme. Food in these types of restaurants is only a small improvement over fast food in most cases and will make you feel just about as rotten shortly afterward (unless, of course, you already feel so rotten from eating processed food much of the time that you don’t notice).
But a 5 star restaurant?
I recently learned that Bern’s Steakhouse, one of the premier 5 star restaurants in my metro area, uses bouillon cubes (aka MSG cubes) to improve the flavor of its signature french onion soup (source: Bern’s waiter). I was devastated! This was one of the few restaurants I thought I was safe to order soup!
Who cares if Bern’s serves organic baby green salad and grassfed steak sourced locally if you still get a migraine from the MSG laced bowl of soup? It makes you wonder what other corners are being cut that you don’t know about yet despite all the lip service being paid to high quality.
Earth to Bern’s:Â Â Bouillon cubes are NOT high quality and should NOT be in your french onion soup.
Just sayin’.
I was also disappointed recently when I enjoyed an evening out at one of my favorite restaurants, Boizao, a Brazilian style restaurant also considered very high end for my Mom’s 80th birthday bash. Â One of my favorite dishes at Boizao is heart of palm with a special dressing. While serving myself a second helping that evening, the restaurant manager happened by and I took the opportunity to ask if it were possible for me to get the recipe for the heart of palm dressing. He then told me that they buy the dressing from a food supplier and that it came in “big bottles” (translation:Â cheap, rancid vegetable oils included). Â I was shocked speechless. Even more amazing, the manager didn’t even seem embarrassed by telling me this!
Didn’t know you were talking to a Real Food blogger, eh buddy?  Oops!  Secret’s out now!
Am I wrong to expect a high end steakhouse to mix up its own dressings fresh with quality ingredients like extra virgin olive oil? Is this too much to ask anymore?
I have reluctantly come to the sad conclusion that pretty much all restaurants have gone to the dogs in America. The only exceptions I come across anymore are tiny little restaurants where the owner is also the chef and simply will not allow these low quality substitutions.
5 star or no stars, the American restaurant dining experience has been relegated to a processed food affair regardless of the size of the tab.  Even if the meat and veggies are decent quality and prepared fresh, little effort is expended on the condiments, dressings, soups, and other extras that round out the meal and make a huge difference to the digestibility and overall nutrition of the experience, not to mention whether you will feel terrible the next day!
Bye Bye Maple Syrup
Another insidious trend taking place is the disappearance of real maple syrup from restaurants serving breakfast.  In a related story, Food Renegade wrote about the disappearance of butter from restaurants in a recent post.
Well, the maple syrup has disappeared too I’m sorry to add!   It used to be when my kids were begging for pancakes when we were traveling, I could at least ask for real butter and maple syrup to cover the bromated, bleached, synthetic vitamin enhanced white flour, garbage pancakes.
Not anymore!  My husband was at a Conference recently at a 5 star resort and when the kids and I joined him for breakfast one morning, I was shocked to discover that only fake, corn syrup sweetened syrup was available with the pancakes or waffles.
You would think that $8 for a plate of pancakes that probably cost the restaurant about 25 cents to make could get you some real maple syrup!   Of course, there was no butter to be found either.
Gotta pay all those property taxes for the golf course view, don’t we?
I saw the disappearance of maple syrup coming a couple of years ago when my family and I were eating at a fantastic little breakfast nook in downtown Sarasota FL.   Upon asking for some maple syrup, I was informed that it would be a $3 additional charge per 1 oz bottle of maple syrup that was provided.  Of course, the high fructose corn syrup sweetened ersatz maple syrup was free.
We paid extra for 3 tiny bottles of real maple syrup but I commented to my husband that it wouldn’t be long before even that option was no longer available.
Sure enough, here we are some months down the road and I haven’t been able to find maple syrup anywhere for quite some time.   I realize the price of maple syrup has gone through the roof, but is that really an excuse?
For IHOP? Â Maybe.
For a 5 star resort or a specialty breakfast nook that prides itself on quality? Most definitely not.
Maybe I should start bringing my own maple syrup to restaurants tucked discreetly into my purse.  But, then I would have to bring some butter and maybe some sea salt too.
Oh, forget it!  How weird and OCD would that be?   I’ll just eat at home!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
This is so true. Restaurants are no longer worth going to. No matter how famous or expensive, almost all of them use crappy ingredients and chemical cheats, like MSG in all its myriad forms. Cheap factory ingredients mean more money for the Restaurant. And I have yet to find more than one that does not rely on the cheapest factory vegetable oils for dressings and cooking. And so many of them rely on microwaves. Many just cook on one day, store the entrees in a freezer, and nuke them in the microwave when ordered, even several days later.
The ersatz fake maple syrup is absolutely disgusting.
I have decided just not to go to them until they clean up their act and serve real food. The only exception I personally know is Che Panisse in Berkeley, which has used real food since the 1970’s and has never betrayed its roots.
We were eating in a restaurant that we thought used quality ingredients, a family owned place that had become really successful., and always boasted of the local, high quality ingredients they used. They had a very interesting petrale sole entree, which I was about to order, but I was lucky enough to ask if the fish was farmed or wild. It turned out that it was farmed, which shocked me, as I did not think they farmed such an unusual and high end fish. I guess now any fish can be farmed. Which means they are fed GMO soymeal and other unnatural feeds.
Many Restaurants have now switched to canola oil, because it is “so healthy”. I think they switched to canola oil because it is so cheap.
This Valentines day, I’ll be making some beautiful grassfed steaks, with sauteed mushrooms in real butter and some other homemade sides. Not only will it be healthy and high quality, we will save a lot of money. And we will feel much better after we eat.
“And so many of them rely on microwaves.”
A while back I went to a supposed quality restaurant and ordered a petite steak. When it arrived at the table I could smell the microwave! My husband always though I was strange when I said that when meat has been nuked I sooo can smell it. It has a rancid smell that makes my stomach turn. I spoke with the kitchen and yes they heated the meat in the micro. They did bring another and I had my husband smell the two side by side, and yes he too can now smell the difference. Needless to say I didn’t eat anything there that night.
It’s sad that we are being fed these awful things and paying so much for it, not just with our money either.
I’d rather have a pot luck lunch/dinner with friends and taste a lot of new recipes from safe kitchens than dining out anytime 🙂
Haha- this just makes me think of “Elf” where he pulls his maple syrup out of his sleeve after he realized his new family didn’t have any for his spaghetti…lol! That’s going to be you! 🙂 Love it!
LOL that’s hilarious!!!
I was at a diner type restaurant while on a trip (not too many options) and did ask for real butter. They were able to provide it, which was great.
I have never traveled with maple syrup, but have considered it. I would advise getting one of the tiny syrup containers that are sold for gift packs and then just refill it as need be.
I actually know someone who takes her own Brita pitcher everywhere she goes – including restaurants – so a little tiny maple syrup container isn’t too noticable by comparison.
OMG that is going to be me! I find I can’t even drink coffee or tea out anymore if they don’t, at minimum, use filtered water!
A Brita water filter?? An utter waste of money, mostly. Get a home filtering system which uses a ceramic candle to filter the water and then carry THAT with you. I do it all the time. I carry my water in a food-grade stainless steel pitcher (there are many sizes and types available). Brita filters and PUR filters and that type just make you THINK they’re actually doing something.
I was talking to a friend recently about restaurants and she made a great point. She said that restaurants care about one thing: taste. They do not care about your body, mind, or spirit. It doesn’t matter how fancy or how cheap the place is. I had never thought about it like that until she uttered those words. I think she is absolutely correct and I will never think about restaraunt food the same way again.
My husband enjoys taking our 3 grand daughters out to breakfast. He started carrying his own real maple syrup for them a couple of years ago. I just assumed the ones in all the restaurants were fake. Yuck! He doesn’t bother trying to hide it. Why would the restaurant care since it isn’t a product they charge for so it actually saves them money.
I’m pretty sure Crackerbarell still serves real maple syrup with their pancakes. Do you know?
I just called and the lady in the Crackerbarrel retail office said they no longer carry the 100% maple syrup anymore. She said it is a blend of maple syrup and the fake syrup.
I should also add that the first person who picked up the phone insisted it was maple syrup and the bottle was labeled “maple syrup’. But when I asked to speak to someone in the office, she admitted it wasn’t 100% maple syrup but in fact a blend.
And their *homemade* fried apples – hello, they sell them out front and the ingredients are listed right there – HFCS. I mean when was the last time you made something homemade and thought “Now where’d I put the high fructose corn syrup?”
I was just about to chime in on the Cracker Barrel syrup switcheroo! My family loves to go there for breakfast and have for a long time. They’d always served real maple syrup in small glass bottles. One day we were there, I happened to look at the bottle and instead of saying 100% pure maple syrup, it said 100% pure natural syrup! Upon closer inspection, it says 55% maple syrup and 45% cane syrup (which would still be slightly better than corn syrup?) I was floooooooooored! I immediately asked the manager about it, and he said that Cracker Barrel is one of the largest maple syrup buyers in the US and there is a shortage of maple syrup, so this is their answer! (Answer to not depleting the supply, or to keep costs down?) I told him I didn’t like the change!
That being said, I’d still rather have their 100% Pure Natural Syrup in tiny glass bottles than ANY syrup (most definitely fake!!) at any other breakfast place!!!!!! The second they switch to chemical syrup, we will stop going there!
And speaking of carrying your own condiments, the times when I let my kids have breakfast at school (ugh!!), I have brought the small glass bottles of maple syrup for them to use on their ‘french toast sticks’… Not that they are great to begin with, but I just couldn’t let them eat the syrup when I can clearly read what’s in them!!
Hi C,
What a SCAM! Putting it in little glass bottles and calling it “Natural Maple Syrup” does not make it REAL maple syrup!! At least there is no corn syrup in there.
How do we get truth in advertising?
Hi Sarah,
I just looked in their bottles in my fridge (we reuse the bottles!) and it’s called “100% Pure Natural Syrup”. At least they don’t call it Maple Syrup when it’s not 100% Maple Syrup!
Last we visited Cracker Barrel, they served a blend of fake & real in the little glass bottles.
Most of the time it is not worth the effort of having a nice dinner out when all you get for the high price of food is “nonfood” that will kill you! I found out that the butter seasoning that Outback puts on their steamed veggies has Msg.. Yet they claim their steaks. etc dont have it. Go figure that one out!!! But their “Vegetables” do.
I bring my own butter without hesitation. Syrup is a little messier, haven’t found a great way to keep that in my purse yet. I should start bringing salt. If you are thinking of the same little breakfast nook in Sarasota I am, you can still pay the up charge for real maple syrup. At least in their Palmetto location. Sad to hear about Bern’s. Guess we won’t be heading there for our anniversary. I appreciate the heads up.
What were you talking about when you mentioned Bern’s? Do you mean the steak house? I used to love it when I lived in Tampa. The two couples who I know who have been there in the past almost 30 years are straight SAD eaters.
Here’s an idea on syrup. The morning you are going out, pour some in a little travel bottle that you put shampoo in when you go away.
I also thought I should bring my own sea salt ,butter and maple syrup when eating out–I look to see if they have butter instead of margarine -and at times -YES!
Jennifer, I need to move to your neck of the woods!
I really can’t believe you don’t already keep sea salt,real milk,butter, and Kombucha always in a cooler when you travel or jaunt about town!!!;)