17 tried-and-true ways to determine whether or not you're dining at a bad restaurant.

While most restaurant owners and staff members are simply trying their best, there are some establishments that make customers wonder if they're trying to give everyone casual food poisoning...

It's important to cut people some slack when it comes to your stressed server forgetting your diet coke, but it's hard to ignore the party of cockroaches in the corner of the back bathroom. So, when a Reddit user asked, 'What is a Red Flag that you are in a bad restaurant?' people were ready to share their favorite way to determine whether or not they're in a restaurant that's one suspicious puddle away from shutting down for health code violations. Where's Gordon Ramsay when you need him to emerge from under an old lady disguise?

1.

You’re there only one there - Neither_Presence_522

2.

There’s carpet - Weinertotheface3

3.

lipstick on the coffee cups. - winkersnacc

4.

Pictures of the food on the menu. 9/10 times it’s gross. - Disastrous-Special30

5.

They overspend on decor. Big neon lights and stylized menus with pictures of idealized versions of what their food would look like, to distract you from the dumpster fire they serve. - RedWestern

6.

Order something complicated and it comes out immediately. - prince-pauper

7.

If it’s a restaurant that tries to act like it’s upscale and yet hires a bunch of teenagers to work in the kitchen or front of house. Speaking from personal experience as a past server. - SevIsGoth

8.

Very often the better the location, the worse the restaurant. If there’s an amazing view, they don’t need to make good food to fill tables. - legalbeaver

9.

Sanitation rating isn’t in plain sight - No-Strawberry-5541

10.

If it smells like fish. Even fish-selling restaurants (the good ones) aren’t supposed to smell fishy. No pun intended. - Competitive-You-6317

11.

A dirty bathroom means a dirty kitchen. - ManifestsOnly

12.

Dirty floor, if they can’t keep the floor clean, they aren’t cleaning the important stuff. - lovelynutz

13.

Bad lighting or sticky tables - trashbagbum

14.

It’s sometimes difficult to tell until you try the food. There’s a restaurant in my town that is consistently crowded. Fairly expensive. My wife and I went there and waited a few minutes for a table. Restaurant was dirty, food tasted stale, and my wife happened to walk by the kitchen and see like 6 microwaves on a table heating stuff up. - jonahvsthewhale

15.

Sushi, pizza, AND burritos are ALL on the menu. - financialfreeabroad

16.

We once saw a large rat scurry across the dining room floor. - LadyMidnite1014

17.

Long menu. Pages and pages of food that doesn’t really make sense or go together - blackaubreyplaza