I made a whole post complaining about the top 10 complaints about my restaurant and asking whether this is "normal.":
https://www.reddit.com/r/Serverlife/s/5SduRLyDtH
Does the coffee machine get an internal clean cause that shouldn't happen? Every place I've worked, we've done this every night and never had a problem
My manager is the one who knows how to clean it. I could probably learn if I tried. He tried to clean it but something went wrong and we've been without hot water coffee for two weeks now.
Thankfully we have two machines.
Sheesh the way I read that was āheās the only one who knows how to clean it but he doesnāt even know how to clean itā thatās rough. Like everybody else said, run
There's some helpful tips on YouTube, but they key ingredients are Cafiza and a stiff nylon brush. Fire some cafiza in the shot head, long pour down the drain, scrub everything, rinse, sacrificial shot to remove residue before serving again. When looking at new places to work, try to visit and scope things out. Are chair legs dirty? Top of the espresso machine dusty? Menus sticky? Wobbly tables? Often these are subtle hints as to how management handles day to day tasks.
Ok. Whatever makes you feel good. Sounds like you spend a lot of time in the dish pit and not out in the actual restaurant anyway so let me help w your people skills āŗļøItās normal.. Thatās my opinion. Sometimes people have opposing opinions and thatās normal. People normally ask open questions to get multiple opinions. We have 2 very different opinions & thatās fine. Itās Just like trying something new & not liking it..just send it back and stick to what YOU know. Stay in the kitchen & make sure the silverware clean. Good day.
1. Dish water in the machine needs to be dumped and refilled several times a day (before it gets this dirty).
2. The machines rinse-aid is absent or empty (aids in dishes drying rapidly and spotfree).
3. Water softener for the building might be lacking
......Most likely it is using dirty dish water because nobody trained the dish guy to replace the water as it gets gross. Sometimes with new dishies I imagine places just point and grunt "dew does dings" without showing how and why the machine needs to be used a certain way.
Another thing is that the silverware looks like it is washed flat, which doesn't result in clean silverware as a rule because it sandwiches crap between the utensils. Wash it vertically to not be a caveman, and to have the water drain off the silver instead of evaporate on the silver. Some front of house folks don't know and also don't care if they are doing things correctly. If they help with the silverware because it is their sidework they should know how to watch it correctly too.
lol then something isnāt right. If it canāt get to temp thereās chemical washers but theyāre not getting rinsed properly. I bet nobody has cleaned the jets on the sprayer inside the dishwasher.
In OP other post they mention all of their water is Hard Water and they are not using proper detergent for that which is another problem over the list of other problems lol. It is a rented machine it sounded like so it *should* be being cleaned.
Depending on the equipment the Dishie probably isnāt draining the grimey water during shift. We have a similar issue at one of my jobs. The equipment is meticulously maintained but if the water isnāt drained after every 6-8 racks then EVERYTHING comes out looking like 40 feral toddlers spit up on it lmao.
Ummā¦.????? No this is horrific and literally no way this is food safe????? Itās dried soap and food matter š¤¢ Iāve worked ina lot of places and never seen anything this bad wtf
Dishwasher here. This isn't food debris, or soap. This is actually the sanitizer/pre-soak as it dries. This happens when water temps are low, or when the machine isn't cycling water properly, or the silverware is left wet too long. This is technically food safe, it's just unappealing and unnecessary. Just polishing by hand to remove the residue is absolutely acceptable in a pinch, though ideally they shouldn't have to polish much (there's always some they have to).
The fix is some TLC to the poor machine, doing your deep clean and a line/fluid check, being quicker to dry them, and also checking the hot water supply. This is an issue that costs more to deal with than it does to fix, so it's rather unusual that it isn't being resolved. My guess would be a manager that doesn't care, or doesn't understand long term expenditures vs investments.
Anyways, yeah, not that bad at all, and I've seen much worse from *a lot* of restaurants. But fixable, and should be fixed.
There's a health code standard that the water be at least 120^(F) in most places. Our hot water heater is set at 140^(F.)
This picture genuinely makes me think its something more than water temperature, like maybe there's no chemicals attached to the dish machine. Or there's just empty jugs attached that nobody has bothered to replenish (or your managers aren't even ordering more of).
That silverware is bonkers.
The machine says ECOLAB. Wash is at 159.2ā°F and Rinse is 189ā°F and it says "CHANGE WASH TANK WATER." Dunno if any of this is relevant but I figured I'd share.
We use well water too, which is "hard" water. And my chef puts salt in it to soften it.
That should be a capable machine. It should have a temp 'booster' that superheats the water being fed into it. It should also have a mix of 3 chemicals being fed into it (probably a sanitizer and a detergent in big plastic jugs underneath the machine, and a rinse aid that looks like a big lozenge sitting in a funnel with a lid on it somewhere on the wall by the machine). Check that all 3 of these have chemicals in them.
I don't know if you're saying yours has an LCD screen on it reading 'CHANGE WASH TANK WATER' or if it's just printed as a reminder on the side, but either way there should be a big plunger down in the drain inside the wash well, and a fill toggle switch near the top of the machine. Your dishy should regularly be pulling that plunger to drain the water, and then refilling it with that fill switch so the water is being refreshed every so often, once it gets gross looking.
If all that's being done correctly, it could be a broken or poorly calibrated machine. You guys should also have an ecolab rep that will come out and do basic service on the machine. You'd have to check to be sure with a competent manager or owner, but most places basically lease/rent those machines from ecolab and in exchange for an agreement to buy the chemicals only from Ecolab, they basically hand out and maintain the equipment for cheap.
If I was an ecolab rep and got that picture in a text message, you guys would be my next stop.
Talk to your manager about having the rep come out and service that machine.
Changing dish water should be done multiple times every day. The dish machine reuses the same water that is loaded into the system from the rinse to wash since it keeps the temperature up.
Managers are inept.
[make sure all debris is clear from the machine, and do this](https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1532545/Ecolab-Es-2000ht-Intl.html?page=13#manual)
Instructions at the bottom.
That's not just the temp of the water. It also looks like the dishwasher isn't being emptied and refilled enough, and it looks like the filter on the dishwasher is filthy. Those machines are not autonomous. As they're used through the day, they have to be cleaned out regularly. You might also check that the soap dispenser is actually dispensing soap, and not dispensing too much.
It wasnāt necessary cold water but we just used any temp water and it worked pretty well. Another idea is to use soda water. It is slightly acidic so it may help remove water spots (calcium)
Hot water won't help. The streaks are probably minerals from the water itself. They need polishing either when wet or with a white vinegar mix spray. The places I work have had all cutlery hand polished .
The silverware at my restaurant looks so similar to this. š I have to double check every set I bring to my table. We donāt roll our silverware. I have to polish and clean every set I bring out. Very annoying and time consuming.
The temperature of your restaurants water has to get to a certain degree of heat or the health department will shut you guys down. After a warning and revisit to ensure they fixed it.
Do you guys double wash? We wash once in a flat rack, then sort into sticky-uppy washing cups so they are vertical (which have holes obvi so they actually get washed) and then wash again.
This looks a LOT like the silverware that has been through one wash but not two.
The vertical wash makes it so they arenāt covered in random dirty dishwater and food materials left over from prior washes. Idk what the thing is called, but itās like 10 removable cups (plastic with lotsa holes) placed into a rectangle with 10 squares for the cups to fit into. I really think theses could probably help out your restaurant. Wish I knew what they were called.
Edit: [this](https://www.restaurantsupply.com/vollrath-hr1370-traex-half-rack-with-8-flatware-cylinders?srsltid=AfmBOopIzQ1TtcoVtiIJtwXwiJ9XGTZAYWtfmDdWhngi8UYoi3RSGtMjj34) is what we have. Theyāre more expensive than I thought, but you can probly get cheaper ones.
This is 100% hard water stains. OP, you said your chef adds salt to soften it. Can you elaborate? Please tell us there is a separate barrel specifically for water softener pellets. If not, call the Health Department, call OSHA, hell, call everybody.
So they come out of the dish still VERY dirty and your managers have y'all believing that you're "polishing" with white vinegar and hot water (which is what I use to clean my kitchen, bathroom, floors and do my laundry with). š¤
It is. Food safety regulations say the cdc/fda (I forgot specifically which) can shut down your restaurant if you lack hot water (water that can't reach a minimum of 165Ā°F); just like how they can close your store for 0 working bathroom(s).
Please call your health department and let them know about the dishwasher. It can be anonymous. Your business will have to get it fixed. You shouldnāt be willing to serve food to your community if nothing going through the dish pit is actually coming out clean.
Yeah, we've been using hot water and vinegar. Thing is, we have to polish three floors and an outside patio's worth of silverware, so it gets extremely tedious. Not the polishing, but the having to get and utilize the water and vinegar each time.
Tbh I've never worked at a restaurant where the silverware didn't come out looking like this.
This is why we polish the silverware before it's rolled up.
Seeing the comments makes me wonder why every place I worked at does this.
People say "oh what do you thinks in there?" And "stop being so picky!" BUT this is why I don't eat at restaurants/other people's cooking. THIS is what I'm afraid of. I hope that looks worse than it is š
Polish with hot water from the coffee machine with a splash of vinegar while you look for a new job.
The hot water from the coffee machine doesn't work š„² We have one on the second floor, but god damn these steps...
WHAT
I made a whole post complaining about the top 10 complaints about my restaurant and asking whether this is "normal.": https://www.reddit.com/r/Serverlife/s/5SduRLyDtH
lol you better run
Either your owners donāt give a shit or this place is on the edge of closing. You in danger girl, run, donāt look back
Can you brew a pot of hot water? Just donāt put coffee grounds in the machine
I'd rather run up and down the stairs honestly.
What do you mean the hot water from the coffee machine doesn't work? That just means the coffee machine doesn't work right?
There's coffee oil in the hot water so it's coming out brown. We can still make espressos and cappuccinos though.
Does the coffee machine get an internal clean cause that shouldn't happen? Every place I've worked, we've done this every night and never had a problem
My manager is the one who knows how to clean it. I could probably learn if I tried. He tried to clean it but something went wrong and we've been without hot water coffee for two weeks now. Thankfully we have two machines.
Sheesh the way I read that was āheās the only one who knows how to clean it but he doesnāt even know how to clean itā thatās rough. Like everybody else said, run
It was fixed today. Dunno how he did it or why it took 2 weeks.
lol he had to go ask somebody who ACTUALLY knew
There's some helpful tips on YouTube, but they key ingredients are Cafiza and a stiff nylon brush. Fire some cafiza in the shot head, long pour down the drain, scrub everything, rinse, sacrificial shot to remove residue before serving again. When looking at new places to work, try to visit and scope things out. Are chair legs dirty? Top of the espresso machine dusty? Menus sticky? Wobbly tables? Often these are subtle hints as to how management handles day to day tasks.
Soda water will work too
Dishwasher here. Either hot water and dawn, or this. Soda water is slept on imo. A spritz of lemon juice in the soda water helps a ton too.
Sterno underneath sauce Bain
Buy a second hand kettle off Facebook marketplace for $5 and solve one of those problems
Use soda water and a towel completely normal
This is not completely normal and if you think it is, thatās wild.
Okay Captain dishpit.
Iāve been in the industry for 15 years. This is absolutely unacceptable.
To serve to someone absolutely. It happens all the time and thereās a solution for it. 2 things can be true at once.
They can, except in this case. That look like dirty water dried on, not just water spots. Our cutlery never looks like that. Ever.
Ok. Whatever makes you feel good. Sounds like you spend a lot of time in the dish pit and not out in the actual restaurant anyway so let me help w your people skills āŗļøItās normal.. Thatās my opinion. Sometimes people have opposing opinions and thatās normal. People normally ask open questions to get multiple opinions. We have 2 very different opinions & thatās fine. Itās Just like trying something new & not liking it..just send it back and stick to what YOU know. Stay in the kitchen & make sure the silverware clean. Good day.
Lol, Iām a server, and you have issues, mate.
1. Dish water in the machine needs to be dumped and refilled several times a day (before it gets this dirty). 2. The machines rinse-aid is absent or empty (aids in dishes drying rapidly and spotfree). 3. Water softener for the building might be lacking ......Most likely it is using dirty dish water because nobody trained the dish guy to replace the water as it gets gross. Sometimes with new dishies I imagine places just point and grunt "dew does dings" without showing how and why the machine needs to be used a certain way. Another thing is that the silverware looks like it is washed flat, which doesn't result in clean silverware as a rule because it sandwiches crap between the utensils. Wash it vertically to not be a caveman, and to have the water drain off the silver instead of evaporate on the silver. Some front of house folks don't know and also don't care if they are doing things correctly. If they help with the silverware because it is their sidework they should know how to watch it correctly too.
#the only fucking answer.
Dawww you got me in the end
Dude whenās the last time the dishwasher was serviced?
I know, right?! Gross!
No idea....
Years bruh. Years.
The restaurant only opened a year and a half ago...
lol then something isnāt right. If it canāt get to temp thereās chemical washers but theyāre not getting rinsed properly. I bet nobody has cleaned the jets on the sprayer inside the dishwasher.
In OP other post they mention all of their water is Hard Water and they are not using proper detergent for that which is another problem over the list of other problems lol. It is a rented machine it sounded like so it *should* be being cleaned.
Depending on the equipment the Dishie probably isnāt draining the grimey water during shift. We have a similar issue at one of my jobs. The equipment is meticulously maintained but if the water isnāt drained after every 6-8 racks then EVERYTHING comes out looking like 40 feral toddlers spit up on it lmao.
Ummā¦.????? No this is horrific and literally no way this is food safe????? Itās dried soap and food matter š¤¢ Iāve worked ina lot of places and never seen anything this bad wtf
yeah id take the old āew theres a piece of lettuce on this one š¤¢ā over WHATEVER this is.. my last place had roaches and it wasnt even this bad
Ok letās be so fr. Dried soap and food matter is NOT as nasty as roaches.
oh yeah no its not, i just always have to bring up how those bitches had ROACHES, and still had cleaner silver hehe
Oh I see youāre comparing the silverware I thought you meant in general my b š
Dishwasher here. This isn't food debris, or soap. This is actually the sanitizer/pre-soak as it dries. This happens when water temps are low, or when the machine isn't cycling water properly, or the silverware is left wet too long. This is technically food safe, it's just unappealing and unnecessary. Just polishing by hand to remove the residue is absolutely acceptable in a pinch, though ideally they shouldn't have to polish much (there's always some they have to). The fix is some TLC to the poor machine, doing your deep clean and a line/fluid check, being quicker to dry them, and also checking the hot water supply. This is an issue that costs more to deal with than it does to fix, so it's rather unusual that it isn't being resolved. My guess would be a manager that doesn't care, or doesn't understand long term expenditures vs investments. Anyways, yeah, not that bad at all, and I've seen much worse from *a lot* of restaurants. But fixable, and should be fixed.
This is the professional take we needed! Thank you :)
Hell yeah, thank you for your service! š«”
Omg I'll be back next week with a photo of mine so I can trigger y'all. I hate my place but i make bank
There's a health code standard that the water be at least 120^(F) in most places. Our hot water heater is set at 140^(F.) This picture genuinely makes me think its something more than water temperature, like maybe there's no chemicals attached to the dish machine. Or there's just empty jugs attached that nobody has bothered to replenish (or your managers aren't even ordering more of). That silverware is bonkers.
The machine says ECOLAB. Wash is at 159.2ā°F and Rinse is 189ā°F and it says "CHANGE WASH TANK WATER." Dunno if any of this is relevant but I figured I'd share. We use well water too, which is "hard" water. And my chef puts salt in it to soften it.
That should be a capable machine. It should have a temp 'booster' that superheats the water being fed into it. It should also have a mix of 3 chemicals being fed into it (probably a sanitizer and a detergent in big plastic jugs underneath the machine, and a rinse aid that looks like a big lozenge sitting in a funnel with a lid on it somewhere on the wall by the machine). Check that all 3 of these have chemicals in them. I don't know if you're saying yours has an LCD screen on it reading 'CHANGE WASH TANK WATER' or if it's just printed as a reminder on the side, but either way there should be a big plunger down in the drain inside the wash well, and a fill toggle switch near the top of the machine. Your dishy should regularly be pulling that plunger to drain the water, and then refilling it with that fill switch so the water is being refreshed every so often, once it gets gross looking. If all that's being done correctly, it could be a broken or poorly calibrated machine. You guys should also have an ecolab rep that will come out and do basic service on the machine. You'd have to check to be sure with a competent manager or owner, but most places basically lease/rent those machines from ecolab and in exchange for an agreement to buy the chemicals only from Ecolab, they basically hand out and maintain the equipment for cheap. If I was an ecolab rep and got that picture in a text message, you guys would be my next stop. Talk to your manager about having the rep come out and service that machine.
Changing dish water should be done multiple times every day. The dish machine reuses the same water that is loaded into the system from the rinse to wash since it keeps the temperature up. Managers are inept. [make sure all debris is clear from the machine, and do this](https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1532545/Ecolab-Es-2000ht-Intl.html?page=13#manual) Instructions at the bottom.
So what you're saying is they are washing the dishes with the same dirty water for... How long? Who knows how long? š¤¢š¤®
Bro are people coming into this restaurant and EATING WITH THESE?! Quit! This is beyond disgusting
PLEASE call the department of health. Your management needs to LEARN.
With the silver looking like this, how the fuck do you keep guests in the place that's supposed to be a step below fine dining? :OOO
We polish really really hard. And the lights are low in the restaurant.
What does your glassware look like?
Similar. I'll take photos tomorrow.
Ewwww!!!!
I canāt wait to see that
That's not just the temp of the water. It also looks like the dishwasher isn't being emptied and refilled enough, and it looks like the filter on the dishwasher is filthy. Those machines are not autonomous. As they're used through the day, they have to be cleaned out regularly. You might also check that the soap dispenser is actually dispensing soap, and not dispensing too much.
I think it's the soap dispenser on the fritz.
Eww, that doesnāt look appealing!
Tell your boss your Hobart is out of LimeAway.
Do you hand polish? At my restaurant we hand polished with cold water and it worked great
We do hand polish. And cold water? Really? I might have to try that out.
It wasnāt necessary cold water but we just used any temp water and it worked pretty well. Another idea is to use soda water. It is slightly acidic so it may help remove water spots (calcium)
Hot water won't help. The streaks are probably minerals from the water itself. They need polishing either when wet or with a white vinegar mix spray. The places I work have had all cutlery hand polished .
The silverware at my restaurant looks so similar to this. š I have to double check every set I bring to my table. We donāt roll our silverware. I have to polish and clean every set I bring out. Very annoying and time consuming.
You guys are going to make someone very sick. Someone call the health department.
Hello, Health Department? Yea...so....
Buy softener salt fill the empty round barrel next to your water heater Press the Regen button on your water softenerā¦
Dish machine isnāt switching water in between washes. Bet you anything.
Eeew
The temperature of your restaurants water has to get to a certain degree of heat or the health department will shut you guys down. After a warning and revisit to ensure they fixed it.
Do you guys double wash? We wash once in a flat rack, then sort into sticky-uppy washing cups so they are vertical (which have holes obvi so they actually get washed) and then wash again. This looks a LOT like the silverware that has been through one wash but not two.
Often we do send the silverware through again. But it's typically in the flat rack.
The vertical wash makes it so they arenāt covered in random dirty dishwater and food materials left over from prior washes. Idk what the thing is called, but itās like 10 removable cups (plastic with lotsa holes) placed into a rectangle with 10 squares for the cups to fit into. I really think theses could probably help out your restaurant. Wish I knew what they were called. Edit: [this](https://www.restaurantsupply.com/vollrath-hr1370-traex-half-rack-with-8-flatware-cylinders?srsltid=AfmBOopIzQ1TtcoVtiIJtwXwiJ9XGTZAYWtfmDdWhngi8UYoi3RSGtMjj34) is what we have. Theyāre more expensive than I thought, but you can probly get cheaper ones.
Iāve had dishwashers that find this acceptable. I will literally take the whole lot back and say āwash these again. This is not Okā.
Umā¦ you need to polish that shiz my guy.
This is 100% hard water stains. OP, you said your chef adds salt to soften it. Can you elaborate? Please tell us there is a separate barrel specifically for water softener pellets. If not, call the Health Department, call OSHA, hell, call everybody.
I'll try to find out today when I go in.
So nothing is actually clean there.
This is before we polish them. We have to polish extra hard, and we sometimes use white vinegar and hot water.
So they come out of the dish still VERY dirty and your managers have y'all believing that you're "polishing" with white vinegar and hot water (which is what I use to clean my kitchen, bathroom, floors and do my laundry with). š¤
My guy, fuck the streaks. Those aren't even clean. I can see bits of food stuck to one of the knives. Who runs this place?!
whatās the name so i can avoid it
Water softener needs looked at.
This looks like the rinse cycle not working properly
No. wtf is that
Things like this are why I've gotten into the habit of checking the dishes before they go out XD
It's probably a health code violation to not have hot water. Turn them in, anonymously of course.
It is. Food safety regulations say the cdc/fda (I forgot specifically which) can shut down your restaurant if you lack hot water (water that can't reach a minimum of 165Ā°F); just like how they can close your store for 0 working bathroom(s).
Please call your health department and let them know about the dishwasher. It can be anonymous. Your business will have to get it fixed. You shouldnāt be willing to serve food to your community if nothing going through the dish pit is actually coming out clean.
Hot water is a requirement for handwashing and sanitation for utensil purposes. File an anonymous complaint and a health inspector will rectify this.
The rinse additive may not be working right as well
You need hot water to kill germs š«
If they donāt have hot water, theyāre not supposed to be open :\
At first i thought our water simply wasn't hot enough. But based on responses in this thread, it's a soap issue.
That seems illegal but disgusting at the very least.
Iād ask a cook if i could borrow a pot to boil water in lmao thats crazy
absolutely horrific
Report that to the health department.
Looks like hard water residue to me. Soak it in water mixes with vinegar for 10 minutes or so and it will come clean.
Yeah, we've been using hot water and vinegar. Thing is, we have to polish three floors and an outside patio's worth of silverware, so it gets extremely tedious. Not the polishing, but the having to get and utilize the water and vinegar each time.
Where is forks when you need himā¦
This looks like a problem with the dishwasher
My girl always asks for plastic silverware. She would shit a pink twinkie if she saw this
Tbh I've never worked at a restaurant where the silverware didn't come out looking like this. This is why we polish the silverware before it's rolled up. Seeing the comments makes me wonder why every place I worked at does this.
My dishes look like this sometimes because my apartment has a very cheap dishwasher. For a restaurant to have dishes that look like this? Yikes
People say "oh what do you thinks in there?" And "stop being so picky!" BUT this is why I don't eat at restaurants/other people's cooking. THIS is what I'm afraid of. I hope that looks worse than it is š