Should I stop going entirely?

[Rubystars]

There's a Chinese buffet I've been going to every once in a while for years. It has a pleasant atmosphere, friendly, attentive staff, and the food tastes great. Hence, why I've gone back so many times.

I don't think I'm going to go back for a long time though, and I may just want to stop.

I went in there and ate a couple of plates of nice food, my favorite part being the sushi rolls with wasabi and soy sauce that I dip them into. Yum! Then I went to get some ice cream for dessert. They don't have any ice cream toppings so I usually get a cookie and crumble it over the top.

Anyway, I took the tongs and picked up a cookie, and a small roach crawled out from underneath it and then under some other cookies on the tray. I just stared in shock for a moment. I'd just eaten two plates full of food from that kitchen!

I motioned over one of the servers and told her about it quietly, and we looked through the cookies with the tongs trying to find it again but we didn't see it. God knows where the gross thing went.

Anyway, she said thanks and and took those trays of cookies out and replaced them with fresh ones.

The grossest thing is that people had already been eating cookies off that tray I almost ate off of!

I don't think I want to go back to a place like that, but then, before that, it was one of my favorite places. Should I wait a while and give them another chance later?

Contrary to the North and other parts of the country, roaches being present here isn't so much a cleanliness issue as it is a weather issue. Now in a restaurant, I admit, the standards should be MUCH higher, and the food should be stored in a way that roaches can't get to them, but still, that was icky!

[ReadyToRetire]

Well, this is really only a decision you can make, since it all depends on how much that roach being there bothered you.
I have 2 instances in my personal experience.

I got a milkshake from a burger place and found a roach at the bottom of it.
I have not gone back since and it's been years.

Another was at a pizza joint I used to work at. One of the other guys was eating a leftover pizza and found a roach underneath the crust. Pretty gross, but I knew we kept a pretty clean place and this was just one of those things.
I still ate there.

[blas]

There's a China Buffet in my hometown that I grew up in. I wonder to this day how this place can still be open, and the health dept hasn't shut it down.

If you take something from the buffet and don't finish it, the buffet runners put it BACK in the buffet. Even if it's already been bitten into.

I have seen entire dishes be emptied back into the buffet.

I'm not being racist or ignorant, I realize that in their culture, they don't waste food the way we do, but in America, we have health inspectors, and there's a certain cleanliness that has to be met, otherwise your establishment is shut down.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Personally, I would not go back to a restaurant that has roaches crawling all over the food.

[LostMyMind]

Well, you'll never find a kitchen anywhere in Florida that don't have a roach or two. As gross as it looks, roaches are good proteins Personally I dislike flies more than roaches. One thing you learn living in Florida, you can never kill all of the roaches.

I would go back, roaches are a fact of life, just like flies are. The fact the server promptly went and removed the food says alot. I would bet it was more of a fluke than the kitchen being overrun by roaches.

[Bella_Vixen]

I refuse to buy the donuts at work anymore because I saw a spider crawling all over them.

Not a friendly looking spider, either. It was a nice shiny black with bright yellow spots and about 1/3 inch long. I made my boss get it out of the case and kill it.

I know it was a one time thing, because I am constantly facing the donuts, but I still can't bring myself to buy them anymore. Not like I needed to eat them in the first place. :Þ

The point is, if you don't feel comfortable eating there again, don't.

[COMINATCHA]

There's a China Buffet in my hometown that I grew up in. I wonder to this day how this place can still be open, and the health dept hasn't shut it down.

If you take something from the buffet and don't finish it, the buffet runners put it BACK in the buffet. Even if it's already been bitten into.

I have seen entire dishes be emptied back into the buffet.

I'm not being racist or ignorant, I realize that in their culture, they don't waste food the way we do, but in America, we have health inspectors, and there's a certain cleanliness that has to be met, otherwise your establishment is shut down.

Eeeewwww! That is just beyong gross, how could anyone want to eat there? They are paying to eat other people's food scraps basically

[Rubystars]

There's a China Buffet in my hometown that I grew up in. I wonder to this day how this place can still be open, and the health dept hasn't shut it down.

If you take something from the buffet and don't finish it, the buffet runners put it BACK in the buffet. Even if it's already been bitten into.

I have seen entire dishes be emptied back into the buffet.

I'm not being racist or ignorant, I realize that in their culture, they don't waste food the way we do, but in America, we have health inspectors, and there's a certain cleanliness that has to be met, otherwise your establishment is shut down.

Not only would I not eat there, I'd report them to the authorities immediately. God knows what kind of diseases they could be passing along that way!

[Rubystars]

I've decided not to go back, simply because I think they should keep the food in secure places so that doesn't happen.

I could have been a sucky customer and screamed about it where all the other people could hear it, or demanded a free meal, but I just let her know, and have decided never to return. so I guess I handled it pretty well.

If I found a roach inside a pizza crust that I had ordered, I definitely would be demanding my money back. Coupons wouldn't do me any good as I wouldn't be ordering from there again.

[AFpheonix]

How do you know that the roach didn't get into the cookies after it had already been set out?

[Rubystars]

side note

Oh I just thought of something that I thought I should post. If you're never shopping or patronizing a place again, then don't shout it or tell the people working there that. Just stop going.

If it's something really horrific, like deliberately dumping half eaten food back into the buffet, then you can write or call the management about it and complain, but do so in a calm, adult manner.