Debra Ginsberg is the author of 'Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress.'
Before heading out to your favorite restaurant or a hot spot for dinner, here's what you should probably be keeping off your plate.
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When it comes to bread at the table, Debra Ginsburg, a former server and author of Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress, says noshing on it may not be the best idea.
“Maybe you don't want to eat all the bread all the time because sometimes bread tends to circulate from table to table," she told Inside Edition.
The same goes for the little bowls of nuts, olives and other snacks at the bar. She claims they are the items that get "taken out and put back and taken out and put back again."
She says that the best way to judge a restaurant’s cleanliness is to check out the bathroom.
“It tells you a lot about the standard of cleanliness that this restaurant has,” she said.
She also says to keep an eye out on a particular meal, like the seafood pasta special some restaurants serve up.
“If it's a seafood pasta buried with other stuff and it's a special, then it may have been around for a while,” she said.
Another rule the former waitress gave is if you want a high quality steak, don’t order it well done.
"The chef tends to get insulted if you order a steak well done," she said, adding you might get a lesser cut of meat because of how you like it cooked.
In New York City, famed Chef Rocco DiSpirito shared tips on how to get a reservation.
He says that restaurants do save tables for walk-ins.
“If you walk in, you are very likely to get a table,” he told Inside Edition. “It is hard for a restauranteur to turn away someone in from of them.”
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Life happens and sometimes you need to cancel a reservation, should you need to, he recommends doing it a day before, rather than not showing up.
DiSpirito, who now has his own line of protein powder, said that restaurants keep track of customers with online reservations.
“So if you are a great customer it's written there, if you are not a great customer, it's written there,” he said.
