Anthony Bourdain's Tip For Getting Better Service At Any Restaurant

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

When you want to understand the inner workings of the restaurant industry, it's vital to listen to those with the most knowledge: the chefs and other employees who operate them every day. Late chef and media personality Anthony Bourdain, who helmed several notable restaurants before his days on television, provided some of the most valuable and unique insights about restaurant life ever put to print. He offered one bit of simple but vital advice for improving your dining experience at nearly any restaurant. All it requires is taking a closer look at your server.

Like many of his most practical and well-known tips, this one is drawn from the pages of Bourdain's hit book "Kitchen Confidential" — "Look at your waiter's face. He knows," Bourdain writes. In other words, reading the body language of your server can tell you quite a bit about what's a good idea to order, or more commonly, what isn't.

For example, it's possible for those considering fish to catch a glimpse of hesitation, unease, or unhappiness if, as Bourdain puts it, "the chef has ordered [the server], under pain of death, to move that codfish before it begins to really reek." He highlights how those who are polite to waitstaff may be warned off certain dishes with subtle signals or even an outright recommendation to order something else. The precise reasons can vary, from less-than-fresh food to reported complaints or negative reviews from other diners, but the objective is the same: helping you dodge a dining bullet.

Bourdain's succinct acknowledgment, "He knows," may be one of the biggest understatements in the restaurant industry. Servers are doing a surprising amount of things behind closed kitchen doors, from checking dishes for errors ("working expo") and accommodating special requests to crying in the walk-in fridge or taking a smoke break and gossiping about customers. They have opportunities to see all parts of the restaurant's operation, including any potential hiccups or hazards the kitchen may present to their tables.

Of course, if you're struggling to decipher nonverbal cues from a server, or they simply aren't giving any, you could always just look to Bourdain himself for advice the next time you go out for a meal. His strong views on what not to order at a restaurant included skipping fish on Mondays and mussels every day, ground beef, and all of brunch, primarily for food quality or safety reasons.

Although some things from "Kitchen Confidential" don't hold up these days (it turns out that fish deliveries do happen on weekends), understanding human behavior is not among them. By paying attention to how your server reacts when certain menu items are brought up, your dining out experiences may improve dramatically in the future.