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
I guess nothing is safe anymore. My mom always insists on eating out at places like Olive Garden, Bob Evans, and Cracker Barrel. Well, I always assumed it was better than eating at McJunk (which I would never do anyway) so I usually go with her and always wonder why I end up feeling like complete crap afterwards. And I admit that I love Olive Garden food still. Nothing beats cheese-covered pasta baked in tomato sauce. Italian food can be very difficult to fix at home so it was always more convenient to go to Olive Garden.
I’ve actually taken to bringing condiments with me when I travel. Two to three times a year, we drive 2400 miles to visit my family, and we usually stop at 3-4 restaurants along the way. When I realized that we COULD get good-quality meats, fruits and veggies but COULD NOT get good fats or condiments, I started packing my own. We walk into these restaurants with our own butter, maple syrup, HFCS-free ketchup, raw cream and salt (Real Salt). We take our own milk into the hotel breakfast room. I realized that being able to stay healthy on our cross-country trip was much more important than eliminating any potential embarrassment that might arise. Once I did it on trips, it became pretty easy to start doing so home. Not that we eat out a lot, but when we do, I take along the basics. The best of both worlds – I don’t have to cook, bit I don’t have to put junk in my body either.
My husband recently went to a large Cuban restaurant that juiced their own sugar cane for Mojitos. That’s a start! Their menu looks delicious, but I have to wonder if they skimp in other areas…
At Chili’s, I asked for melted butter and what they brought me looked disgusting- nothing like butter! They didn’t tell me it wasn’t the real thing, but whatever they gave me was definitely NOT.
It’s a shame that we can’t go out anymore without coming home feeling sick.
What’s more, what some restaurants are insisting is real butter is actually “butter blends” which have some real butter in them but are full of vegetable oil fillers to cheapen the mix. Using the Real Food name for a complete imposter is becoming more common. Don’t fall for that one!
I know what you mean! I was shocked to find that butter was literally not available in some restaurants anymore! Going out to eat has become such a fiasco, we do it only when necessary on the road, and even then, it is a hassle. I try to ask for omelets to be cooked in butter not oil, and I have them bring me olive oil and balsamic vinegar in little cups, so I can make my own dressings for salads. What is the world coming to!
I’ve been wanting to try the Refinery for ages…let’s have a field trip!
Here are few places I find that I can eat without feeling sick later, although I haven’t quizzed anyone to check their ingredients:
Al Gusto on Kennedy (fantastic guac, beans, cheese and salsa)
Ocean Prime at International Plaza (delicious tomato salad and crab cakes)
Square One Burgers – South Tampa (wonderful black bean burger)
Pane Rustica – even further in South Tampa (yummy pizza)
I recently took my own dressing to a restaurant. I will definitely be doing that more often! It was no big deal and I don’t think anyone even saw me pour it on my salad! I’ve been thinking for a long time how nice it would be to have a small carrying case with vessels for all kinds of items that you might want in a restaurant; dressing, oil, vinegar, maple syrup, salt, honey. When taking all of that it does make you wonder what the point of eating out is, but sometimes it’s unavoidable and would be really handy to have healthier options with you at all times.
I use to work at a chain restaurant and they also microwaved pretty much EVERYTHING! Looking back now, I am disgusted. They made NOTHING from scratch!
Sarah… have you seen this place, yet?
http://www.thetamparefinery.com/
Their website says all the right things… who knows?! I’ve never been, but Amy has and loved it.
Hi Casey, I have not been there but the menu looks intriguing and they seem to be making an effort in the right direction. There are a number of fried dishes .. I would expect that it isn’t fried in beef tallow and those should be avoided. If it is a one off restaurant that isn’t a chain and owned by a single proprietor, then it could be great. I have been burned so many times by restaurants though that I would have to quiz the chef personally to be sure before I would say it was good.
My son is a culinary arts student at Kendall College in Chicago. This college prides itself on being the only “green” culinary school in the country. They learn to cook from fresh, raw, natural ingredients, have a garden on campus, and take courses on sustainability. My son works at a very popular Irish pub, and is highly disappointed that many of the foods they serve come pre-packaged, needing only to be heated up, and are laced with artificial ingredients and preservatives. He has convinced the owner to change over to real, fresh food for some of these ingredients. However, the problem doesn’t seem to be the cost of the food. For the most part, it’s the fact that the fresh items are “labor intensive” and the restaurant owner wants to keep the labor prices down. In addition, he keeps the labor down by hiring people who don’t have the skills needed to prepare the fresh items. How sad! According to my son, preparing fresh, natural foods can actually cost less than the packaged stuffl
Barbara, I always thought it was the real food was more expensive and that was the reason for restaurants buying the processed foods! The fact that preparing real food is labor intensive makes so much more sense though. Finding/hiring good help is a real headache for employers so if that can be minimized by buying processed food that just needs to be nuked before it’s served makes a huge amount of financial sense the for the business. Thank you for posting this information. I understand this problem much better now and why real foods keep on disappearing from restaurant establishments.