Nobody Likes It When A Restaurant Gets All 'Clever' And Doesn't Just Use Plates

Published October 1, 2021

Even before the pandemic put such a deadly squeeze on the restaurant industry, making it in that sphere was about as tough as it gets.

If the high operating costs and unstable profit margins weren't enough, it's hard not to set up shop in a place where you aren't either surrounded by competitors or too far from your customers.

With that in mind, it's hardly a surprise that so many restaurants would want to stand out from the pack with a gimmicky theme or a niche specialty. But while this has worked out well for a lot of local favorites and regional chains over the years, there's a point where a restaurant's quirkiness can stop being fun and start being annoying.

And one of the biggest red flags for an overly "clever" restaurant is when they ditch the plates and start thinking of other goofy things to serve your food on.

Most of the time, these bizarre plate replacements are just irritating to use and don't work as well.

Reddit | Mister_Squishy

For instance, have a look at this questionable decision to serve a steak on the griddle it was cooked on.

Not only is it making a mess and dripping grease towards the customer, but they said it looked like it was still cooking while it sat there. So it probably didn't feel safe to touch that surface.

While this is an extreme example, it nonetheless illustrates that objects that weren't designed to be plates aren't as good at catching a meal's mess and staying out of a customer's way as they are.

And let's not pretend that it's any easier for the servers, either.

Reddit | gahd95

After all, this slab of slate may seem aesthetically pleasing (even if it probably makes a horrible scraping sound when you try to use that fork), but we can actually spot a few reasons why a server is likely to hate it.

Much like in the last photo, there's nothing that even tries to prevent food from falling off the sides and making a mess. And it becomes even easier for that to happen when it's hard to tell where the slate ends and the table begins.

Worse yet, one server mentioned that it's very hard to take them off the table and the rubber pads that people sometimes install for this purpose tend to fall off easily.

These little flourishes could also have the effect of undermining a customer's confidence in the actual food.

Fox Network via YouTube

That's not to say that gimmicky restaurants can't also have capable chefs, but it's a bad sign that the restaurant's management places more emphasis on the presentation of the food than how it tastes.

For example, one contestant on the first season of Hell's Kitchen tried to make a unique impression on Gordon Ramsay by roasting and serving his salmon on a plank of cedar.

But while Ramsay found the idea ridiculous on its own, the big problem was that he immediately noticed the salmon was raw on the bottom.

For that matter, think back to that steak we just saw. Griddle aside, did that look appetizing to you?

Ultimately, I'm saying all of this to drive home one simple message: We want plates.

Reddit | oknp_

While there's plenty of room and even a necessity for innovation in the restaurant industry, applying it in this area often leads more to a reinvention of the wheel than something customers and staff will actually find practical.

A cast model of a foot surrounded by real worms (seriously) could work in some sort of modern art gallery, but I'm not sure what would possess someone to think we'd want to look at that while we're trying to eat.

And some folks apparently need a reminder that that's all we're trying to do.

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Food & Drink