That was the right thing to do. Reporting to the restaurant might or might not have any effect depending on the integrity of the managers. Easy to ghost a few dozen complaints if no one knows about other cases.
Few years ago here some place made a bunch of customers sick. Only after it made the news / health inspectors did any action get taken.
Think it had to do with restroom plumbing and the salad bar. It was during an economy low and the owners would not put any $$ into maintenance.
Me and my lunch buddies ate there on a winters day. The heating was out and we could see our breath inside.
A the Best,
Jeff
I’ve gotten really good poisoned twice that I can remember from a restaurant. We don’t eat out much since its super expensive and my wife is an amazing cook, but when we do its usually fast food. Sickest I got recently was from a Japanese food place. It was a buffet with sushi. We went when it was fairly new and after the evening rush when food was on the warmers a bit long. Should have known better. My wife was fine. I wasn’t. Probably the frog legs or one of the sushis. Never eating there again. I also got sick from a higher end place called Mcmenamins in Portland. Paid like $30 for fish and chips and diarrhea. Fun times. Not super impressed with sit down restaurants these days…
When I read the OP title, I thought, I avoid it at all opportunities!
Anyway, cooked shrimp is bad if you get the teensiest wiff of ammonia when chewing it. Learned that the hard way but as long as it’s not swallowed, you’ll likely be fine. Send it back!
Bought a 2 pack of smoked salmon from Costco. Froze one, put the other in the fridge. Ate the fridge one, got fairly sick. Costco shortly afterwards announced a recall due to salmonella.
About a month later I pulled the second pack out of the freezer and after it thawed, ate it. The ensuring sickness helped me remember that they had recalled the product. But I ate it all. Not a big fan of food wastage.
As a cop I learned a few things; many fast food cooks are on probation or parole. From health inspectors I learned bathrooms and kitchens get cleaned at the same time. If the bathroom is dirty so is the kitchen. Health inspectors check about every six months and don’t give notice. Health inspectors also check schools, hospital, daycare, anyplace that serves food or keeps children.
I eat all sorts of food from all sorts of places, including low budget and high budget sushi.
It’s my understanding that a common issue with food poisoning is using the same cutting board (usually by accident) for meats and vegetables/fruits.
Over the years, the few times I got it were usually from common, popular places which I’d least suspect it, e.g. local grocery store. The worst case was from spinach I fully cooked in boiling water for an hour. The news had a recall the day after I ate it, and I suffered for 2-3 days.
Currently, I’m nursing a family member in their 80’s that is suffering food poisoning from what I think was the local McDonalds… he had one double quarter pounder (the one without lettuce) and the fish sandwich.
With some FF places i noticed people that serve food do not know what the purpose of the gloves is, they think it is to protect their hands from food, so they do everything with same gloves, prepare food, do garbage, handle money, and other things we do not know or see.
One time I was waiting in line at one of those food trucks, the guy ran out of chicken on the grill, so he opened the fridge, took a plastic bag full of marinated chicken, and instead of opening/cutting the bag to dump that chicken on a hot plate, he just put the bag on the hot plate, let the plastic bag melt, and chicken fall out onto the hot plate. i walked away, but the strangest thing, several people in front of me, and behind did not even flinch, they stood there waited for that chicken with plastic to cook.
While I don’t disagree with reporting the illness to the local health department if necessary based on facts rather than assumptions, I just feel it needs to be part of a broader process, including a trip to a hospital or local clinic to be evaluated, tested, and have symptoms treated. Therefore, I still feel strongly that RC should have at least contacted the restaurant’s owners immediately to report the suspected matter. But then how affective is reporting a “suspected case of food poisooning” a week after the onset of symptoms.
Assuming again that RC’s symptoms were the result of a food-borne pathogen, if he had at least notified the restaurant immediately, making sure he was speaking with only the owners, at least this small family business could have had a chance to investigate the incident and isolate and sequester the potential cause. Doing so is in the their best interest for many reasons, including if the cause is an ingredient purchased from a restaurant supplier, meaning it had nothing to do in any way with the restaurant’s operations.
I’m curious how many here have any idea how difficult is for a restaurant to make it past a year? Did any of you take the time to look up John’s Restaurant in Palm Desert, California? Is so, you would have found that they have been in business since 1985, which is forever in the restaurant business.
Do any of you have any idea how many family-owned, small businesses went out-of-business due to Covid? A restaurant of any size doesn’t stay in business for 38 years by taking chances with the only reason for their longevity and success…customer loyalty!
Again, I’m in no way suggesting to withhold reporting the incident to the health department if necessary. I will reiterate that it’s in the public’s best interest for the restaurant’s owners to have been notified immediately of anything that could place the public at risk.
I didn’t realize exactly what happened until shortly before I created this thread.
It took me quite a while to figure it out completely.
I don’t think it would be wise to contact the restaurant–I want to remain anonymous.
I think that contacting the local health department was the best thing to do.
The owner, (if you even get to speak to one, usually they are not on site and restaurants ran by managers, unless it is really small place), would ask what proof do you have that it was our food, common things to say, “if it was our food more people would complain, but no one did” they would deny anyone else complained even if someone did. It is absolutely pointless to talk to owner, they would always deny it was their food that caused it.
For the week before and after going to John’s Restaurant, the only food that my mom and I had in common was the food at John’s.
My mom and I usually eat at home, and we usually eat completely different food.
Both my mom and I got sick at exactly the same time.
The brutal headaches that I experienced is a classic food poisoning symptom, as are the horrible intestinal problems that my mom and I experienced.
If it wasn’t food poisoning, I’d love to know what it was.
Maybe it could be, though of course they would be able to hear and maybe identify my voice.
I have been to that restaurant many times, and I have a very distinctive voice.
Why should I give them a heads-up that the local health department may be on the way to their place of business?
That would just give them time to clean up their act, and possibly not face any consequences (if they deserve any consequences.)
Precisely… but not to avoid the authorities, maybe to prevent others from getting sick… Or maybe track down the source of bad food, and keep lots of people from getting sick.
I haven’t decided yet.
Considering this was the worst food poisoning that I have ever experienced, I don’t want to go back any time soon.
No one in my family, including my sister and niece, want to go back any time soon, and my sister and niece didn’t even get sick (of course they didn’t go with myself and my mom to John’s that day.)
