3 Ways to Avoid Tourist Trap Restaurants
Here are 3 ways to avoid tourist trap restaurants.
1. Dodge the Shepherds
If the restaurant has people outside fishing for guests, it’s a red flag. If the restaurant has excellent food, that will speak for itself, and they wouldn’t need to pay people to herd guests into the restaurant.
2. Check with Locals
Locals, especially the blue-collar local workers, always know where the best spots are. Word-of-mouth is the best recommendation for a restaurant, and local folks know which spots are going to be worth it.
3. Check Out the Menu
It never hurts to pull up the menu ahead of time, just to get a feel for what options you have. If the menu could pass for an encyclopedia serving cuisines from all around the globe, skip it— trust me, smaller menus are the way to go if you want good, fresh food.
If you’re visiting somewhere and really want to experience it, trying local restaurants is the way to go.
Skip the chains and the subpar tourist trap bullsh*t, and get yourself a meal you’ll remember for the right reasons.
– Chef Mike
#touristtrap #localfoods #travelhack
38 Comments
This is so true!
Disagree on when there are employees outside inviting for guests to come in. There are many places in ME and Asia where cafes are in the open market with massive traffic and stores being packed together in a row with no end in sight. It is easy to miss a cafe when all stores look similar. And the competition is fierce. Basically selling same stuff you do…
Guy needs to stop chatting on the make-line
It's nice to be a little bit humble and even though you might have a successful restaurant now, a lot of people are struggling to make it, try to be a little bit less cocky, you're just making a sandwich buddy
Cheesecake factory has left the chat
So true
The larger menu the worse doesnt apply for a lot of asian restaurants. Those Chinese spots got 30 fire ass dishes lmao. All cooked by 2 dudes at most
My dad was a stereotypical traveling salesman – he taught me to
1) look for where the police, ambulance, and truckers eat;
2) ask the cab drivers (uber/lyft, now), and
3) if you find an ethnic place run by the actual ethnicity, offer them $20 and ask to eat what they're having for dinner, not what's on the menu.
Those rules have served me well, locally and travelling. In fact, if I see a feed truck and cabs or police are parked and eating, I'm gonna stop. 🙂
For a while, I tried to look for placed where a bunch of construction workers are eating, but I've learned they don't have consistent good taste…
Eat where the cops eat, decent food for decent price, no drama
this guy has the worst business ideas.
Monster pro tips!
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A tight menu is key for me, it shows that you specialize in something, and aren’t a jack of all trades master of none.
toniteeeeeeee 🕺
For the first one, the only exception is usually if the restaurant literally just opened, or if you're in Japan, where it's more common to have barkers on the street.
Anthony Bourdain said it best. “Don’t eat and drink at your hotel. Ask the workers at your hotel where they go to eat and drink.”
Years ago, went to Hawaii, walking around a very tourist area, and all the popular breakfast spots were full. A lady was pulling customers for her restaurant that was off the beaten path and we just decided to go with her because the wait was too long. The restaurant was small with not a lot of customers but the food was great. Went back recently and they're still there, and now they're also one of the popular places with long waits.
I stay away from all tourist traps
I avoid restaurants where the cooks are yapping into cameras while customers’ food is getting cold in front of them.
I agree with number three.
When I was in Prague for a trip and asked a local for a place to eat, he took me to a brothel. There was no food.
Tourist joints have volume but low quality. The menu that reads like a book is a sign of frozen food. I love to see a place run out of something. It says their product is fresh.
Mulberry Street in Little Italy (NYC) fits the bill for #1.
Being a tourist and asking a local doesn’t always work. They’ll give you a spot but they won’t give you THE SPOT, simply bc they don’t want you to blow their favorite spot up.
“The larger the menu the worst” look at McDonalds yikes😂
This guys food sucks
Here in 505 that restaurant is, Vic's Vittles.
I remember an Indian restaurant in Spain did exactly what you described. They flagged us down in the street, handed us menus and practically tried to pull us into the restaurant. We did not end up eating there lol
Of the menu is massive I instantly avoid
Ok Chef. Thank you. G.
My rule is: on the first night i can't be bothered. I always walk into the tourist trap and establish a baseline. Over the following days I explore the city and eat in the unassuming places with lots of locals. We ate in a place with no english menu und legit no english explanation at all in Portugal once (that was before google translate). We just picked soups at random. And my then GF caught the garlic soup 😂😂😂.
FACTS
detroit doesn't have tourist traps, just large menus of bad food
Cheesecake Factory, you got 24 hours to respond 🤣
(BTW, most of their menu is actually good lol)
My wife and I went to the Gran Lux Cafe at Roosevelt field mall on Long Island. They have a long thick menu, the encyclopedia Brittanica isn’t as thick😂
The larger than the menu the worst the place is. Words to live bye
They're not traps they're selling western food and that's what a lot of dumb tourists want
I mean they do that for sales boss.They don’t care if you don’t like the food after you buy it. You’re a tourist. They don’t expect you to be a regular