The Restaurant Odor Red Flag That You Can't Ignore

When you first walk into a restaurant, ideally you should be greeted by the smell of delicious food cooking in the kitchen. If you instead sense a foul stench like stale grease or burnt food, it's a big red flag that this restaurant may not be up to par. If a restaurant has a noticeable stench, and nothing is being done about it (even if you can't see the source), it's a sign that the management doesn't care. It can also signal that employees are not properly trained, which can result in serious food safety mistakes. For the same reason you might want to skip the gas station slushy, you also don't want to eat from a kitchen with a build-up of bacteria.

Three restaurant odors that you should watch out for are burnt food, strong grease, and rotten garbage. They have separate causes, but all can indicate one thing — a lack of proper cleaning. These odors don't form overnight. They're the result of days, possibly even weeks, of neglect. Here's why these odors are often an indication of bigger problems.

Let's start with burnt food. Accidents will inevitably happen in a kitchen, so a short-lived burnt smell may not be serious. But, if there's a particularly strong, lingering burnt smell it's a sign that the residue from food burning is not getting cleaned up properly. This is both unsanitary and also a health hazard since burning food creates carcinogenic compounds. Just like how you should clean your grill after each use, restaurant equipment needs to be properly cleaned after food or oil has been burned.

Another red flag smell in a restaurant is grease/oil, particularly stale grease. If you can smell grease from the dining area, it has likely been building up for some time. Cooking oil needs to be properly managed and collected regularly from restaurants. Letting grease build up for too long is not only a fire hazard but can lead to contaminated cooking oil, impacting food safety.

Lastly, a big smell to watch out for is garbage. If you can smell rotten garbage from your table, it means it's not being disposed of properly. Maybe the restaurant doesn't have proper garbage pickup, or maybe they just aren't taking out the trash as often as they should. Additionally, the garbage is likely attracting pests such as flies and rodents, which can spread diseases and contaminate the kitchen. The bottom line is, when you walk into a bad-smelling restaurant, you may want to turn around and leave.