re: What's the #1 turnoff for you that will lead to you not returning to an establishment?

The closest Subway to my house is run by a guy who refuses to accept Subway coupons, and spends 5 - 10 minutes in the back room rattling bread trays etc before he comes out and takes orders and makes sandwiches. And he’s the only employee.

Stopped going a couple years ago.

When a cockroach dropped from the ceiling onto our table. We told the manager. Next visit, the owner was there and came over friendly as usual. We mentioned our previous problem and it came as a surprise to her. She left our table and called her pest control people before she got to the kitchen door.
That was our Tuesday lunch spot for years. Then the portions started shrinking as the prices started rising.

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Gay pride flag everywhere in sight but no American flag.

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We went to Nando's in the Perimeter area today for lunch. Gay pride shite everywhere and our waiter was a tranny. I say waiter because it was a man pretending to be girl.

As good as their chicken is I was repulsed.

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Seeing unhygienic practices.

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Long, disgusting, dirty, colored hair and facial piercings. All highly unsanitary and don’t need to be working where food is served.

Seeing inmates working there.

I am more proactive than reactive, so here are my red flags to not order. These are also outside the obvious dirty restaurant type stuff.

1). Thick menu with random options- Cheesecake Factory or a Mexican restaurant with sushi
2). Empty restaurant during busy time plus no To go Orders
3). For cafes- I order an espresso based drink and they respond with “what size”.
4). Overdone Gimmicky theme or extra emphasis on mundane shvt.
5). Large proportions of food that’s not meant for family style
6). I’m in a major city and the customers all look like MAGA boomers.

Terrible service. I can look past or forgive a lot of things. But you accepted a job where you had to interact with people, and your compensation it directly dependent on this interaction. You only need to fake giving a shite about us for a few minutes over the course of the meal.

Wife insisted on stopping by a cracker barrel on our last road trip. The entire staff acted like they were pissed they had customers. We had to ask for the biscuits that come with the meal, and the waitress assured us would come out so the little ones have something to eat while waiting for their food. I actually went into the kitchen to get the ketchup that we requested 3 times. When we were done with our meal, we could not get anyone to come to our table to bring us the check. It was not until I was done trying to fight with my youngest having a mini restless tantrum and I packed up to leave that someone ran to me with the receipt as I was walking out with all 3 kids. Had to tell her that is the only reason my wife is still sitting at the table.

Fingers crossed that I have convinced her that all cracker barrels are now like this

-eaux

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Seeing unhygienic practices.

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Was at a restaurant a few years ago and the young man clearing/cleaning the table next to us spilled something on the floor as he was clearing the dishes, so he wipes up the mess on the floor and then used the same rag to wiped down the table.

I'm sure stuff worse than this happens quite a bit in eating establishments but usually we don't see it.

"it's for a cop..."