10 Restaurant Chains That Actually Microwave Their Food

Some chefs simply transcend time: Auguste Escoffier, Julia Child, and Anthony Bourdain, to name a few. But there's another chef to whom very few culinary greats can compare. He's been an oft-overlooked staple in kitchens all over the world since the '50s, and yet, some of the legendary chefs we mentioned above would probably scoff at his very existence. But let's be honest: Who among us hasn't benefited from the most efficient and dependable chef of all time?

We're talking, of course, about Chef Mike. You may know him as "the microwave." Love him or hate him, Mike is potentially working in your favorite chain restaurant's kitchen as we speak, steaming up a plate of veggies or a lobster tail, and even melting lava cakes. He has a hand in prepping classic pastas, soups, and mac and cheese, too. The microwave gets a bad rap for changing the texture and taste of some foods, but that doesn't stop chain restaurants from using them to save time and resources.

We're not saying that these restaurants only use microwaves to fully cook their food, but that they call in Chef Mike to reheat, thaw, and at times even prepare some food. But is this a good thing, or a bad thing? We looked at Chef Mike's resume to see which restaurants he works at and exactly what he does to the food.

Applebee's considers itself a neighborhood staple — a comfy, cozy, family-friendly alternative to expensive fine dining establishments. But "family-friendly" doesn't mean we want our food to taste like our go-to TV dinners. When you dig into your chicken quesadillas and onion rings, you don't want to think, "This tastes like something I could've made at home." But some customers and even some former employees say that Applebee's has done just that with some dishes by popping them into the microwave.

A former employee who worked front and back-of-house at Applebee's revealed on Facebook that they often saw the microwave in use in the chain's kitchen. "As a broil cook I remember watching them microwave most side dishes, and pasta was prepped and then flash cooked when an order came in," they said. Even the chain's fan-favorite lava cakes are reportedly prepared by Chef Mike. "They're from a brand called Lone Star and we literally just microwave them," another employee said on Reddit.

When you discover that a restaurant chain as ubiquitous as Applebee's depends on microwaves, you might feel duped. Whatever happened to sit-down restaurants being a luxurious alternative to fast food? For what it's worth, microwaves don't always zap the high-quality nutrients we crave out of our favorite foods, so a microwaved meal isn't inherently less nutritious — or less tasty — than its non-microwaved counterpart.

At Cracker Barrel, microwaves are apparently a much-used tool. On Reddit, a former employee claimed that everything from broccoli to desserts to some soups is either prepped or reheated in the microwave. "Baked potatoes are baked in oil/sea salt and reheated by Chef Mike," the employee put it. Of course, this doesn't exactly inspire praise from customers hoping for a fresh meal. "I always assumed the mashed potatoes were [microwaved] because they are so blah," one Redditor replied.

Even if some dishes really are made from scratch, microwaving is an undeniable part of Cracker Barrel's lore. Another former employee said the microwave was used to fix certain problems with, for example, Cracker Barrel's beloved biscuits. "At my personal Cracker Barrel (I was a server) the only things microwaved are desserts, broccoli, and soups ... everything is made in house, unless of course we have some overcooked biscuits which are shortly put in the microwave to be made softer."

In 2025, the restaurant chain received flak for allegedly making its meatloaf ahead of time and then popping it into the microwave as needed. "Before, we cooked it in our oven and the cook would cut it up still in the pan, which was in our steam line," an anonymous Cracker Barrel cook told the New York Post. "It was fresher." While procedures have since changed, and this is nothing out of the ordinary for some restaurants, we can't help but remember the USDA's warning that microwave ovens can cook food unevenly.

Ah, Panera's mac and cheese. It's rich, it's gooey, and it's microwaved. How do we know? Because Panera employees have lamented how the chain's bags of macaroni stick together when put in the microwave. Other dishes have also been microwaved, including a since-discontinued pasta dish. "The pasta came in a bag and was microwaved, it was not made or topped in the store," a former employee admitted on Reddit. The replies were, well, predictable: "In a bag? Plastic bag? Then microwaved???"

Yes, this doesn't sound particularly appetizing. But keep in mind that some chain restaurants ship frozen or pre-made foods in microwave-safe plastic bags. And in the case of Panera's mac and cheese, many locations use plastic vacuum-sealed boil bags. This means the mac and cheese is actually prepped in boiling pots of water, not always in the microwave.

And yet, Panera has long been plagued by rumors that its kitchens are dominated by Chef Mike. Multiple employees have mentioned microwaves in the kitchens, and when you browse health inspection reports at several Panera locations, you can see for yourself just how prevalent microwave use really is — and how little some of these microwaves seem to be cleaned. One employee posted a video of a Panera microwave to Reddit in 2022, and let's just say that it didn't exactly make people crave a classic broccoli cheddar soup. "I don't even understand how someone works in such nasty conditions," one user wrote. Of course, conditions will always vary from restaurant to restaurant and from time to time, but it's hardly a reassuring sight.

We expect thick, juicy steaks at Outback Steakhouse — it is in the name, after all — and thankfully, the restaurant seems to provide just that. But has the chain's dedication to well-made steak made its other menu items more inconsistent? While steaks get the grill, other foods get the microwave at Outback. One employee revealed Outback's surprising microwave habits on Reddit. "Veggies are prebagged each day with a scoop of garlic butter, then microwaved for 1 minute before being served. Pasta is prebagged and microwaved," they claimed.

For the record, cooking with a microwave may actually preserve vitamin C and other nutrients better than other methods. However, things get more complicated when you swap out veggies for other foods, like, say, lobster tail. A few years back, an Outback employee filmed the process of steaming lobster tails in the microwave, leading to a viral video and lots of raised eyebrows. 

After all, when Outback promises steamed lobster tails that are cooked to order, people probably don't expect the steaming to happen inside a microwave. "I can't unsee this," one person commented on the TikTok. "What do we pay for anymore?" Another raised the point that it wouldn't be so hard to accept if the lobster didn't cost $30 or more.

When we think of Chili's, we think of the sizzling appetizers and uncomplicated Tex-Mex fare that have helped push the chain into a major resurgence. But that doesn't give the restaurant chain the right to serve rubbery, reheated noodles, does it? "I've had enough frozen pasta meals to know when pasta has been reheated in the microwave or not," one Chili's customer wrote on Reddit. "There's no way that this [pasta] isn't frozen and microwaved." This customer's hunch was allegedly correct; a former Chili's employee confirmed that the chain's pasta is "not frozen, but definitely microwaved. I was so glad when they took it off our menu. ... As a cook, it hurt my soul to serve microwaved pasta."

Reheating pasta in the microwave may sound like a culinary sin, but it's not actually an unusual practice in chain restaurants. In fact, microwaves are a saving grace when restaurants need to cut corners. "Noodles are cooked and cooled in big batches," one former Chili's employee claimed. "Alfredo is pre-made, frozen, and heated up in hot water. When ordered, it's microwaved (chicken is microwaved too!)."

However, it's not clear if Chef Mike works long hours at every Chili's location. On Reddit, employees disagree about how microwaves are used in the kitchen. "All of the chicken crispers, chicken fried steak, fried chicken were all breaded and fried to order. (I thought these came frozen before I worked there)," one person said. They say that only "side items that can easily be cooked quickly or heated to temp quickly" end up in the microwave. 

A former TGI Fridays employee confirmed on Reddit that some foods — namely veggies and some rice — get the Chef Mike treatment. "Our... grill cook would just nuke them for however long," he said. While it's been nearly a decade since they worked in the restaurant as of writing, more recent anecdotes from employees on Reddit and the likes of Indeed suggest that the chain still regularly uses microwaves. However, the extent to which stores use the microwave seems to vary; one worker claimed that their location primarily used the device for the likes of desserts and soups.

Several health inspection reports from TGI Fridays restaurants across the country mention microwaves in their citations, but it's unclear which dishes they were on hand to cook or reheat. You can even glimpse microwaves in the background of a 2020 episode of "Undercover Boss" featuring CEO Ray Blanchette. Does this really come as a big surprise? Microwave use doesn't always mean food prep is subpar. One particular TGI Fridays health inspection report claimed that it's okay to thaw some foods in the microwave as long as employees follow up with more conventional cooking methods.

Still, some customers believe that microwaves are out of place in a restaurant kitchen. When asked if they enjoy TGI Fridays, one Redditor replied, "Nah, I have a microwave at home." It doesn't help that Fridays is in direct competition with other chain restaurants — and often finds itself on the losing side. TGI Fridays filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024, which one customer jokingly chalked up to microwave use. "There's gonna be a lot of used microwaves for sale," they quipped on Reddit.

The last thing you want to see when you walk into a seafood restaurant is a microwave. And to Red Lobster's credit, it was difficult for us to find evidence that the seafood chain uses microwaves to prepare or even reheat fish. But side dishes? Red Lobster has used microwaves for sides for years, according to one former employee. "I worked at Red Lobster in 2009 and 2010 — everything was microwaved except the fish and the biscuits of course," they wrote on Reddit, adding, "I'm talkin mac n cheese, even broccoli came in little bags, [we would] pop em in the microwave." 

Still, there are rumors that some seafood does end up in the microwave. "I know they microwaved my lobster," one customer complained on Reddit. We obviously can't verify whether this is true, but this customer also described a more common chain restaurant practice: microwaved pasta. "Noodles on pasta had the consistency of rice pudding," they said. "The mac and cheese was like an Aldi can of mac and cheese." Indeed, one former employee claimed on Indeed in 2025 that "almost everything is just thrown in a microwave."

The problem with microwave use in chain restaurants isn't always the act of using them, but how employees use them — and if they use them properly. A health inspection report for one Red Lobster location in 2022 found that staff had microwaved rice and potatoes but failed to keep the food at the proper temperature, which counts as a critical violation. The problem was corrected, and the health violation only pertained to that specific Red Lobster location (although it's not the only Red Lobster with a report that mentions microwaves). But it still raises an important question: How many other chain restaurant employees misunderstand the importance of reheating food safely?

If we're being honest, Denny's has become something of a cultural punchline thanks to its breakfast-at-midnight hours and infamously just-okay food. So it's not altogether surprising that one employee brought up Denny's use of Chef Mike. "Unless it's pancakes or eggs, chances are your food was probably previously frozen or microwaved," they alleged on Reddit. A health inspection report of one Denny's location in Florida confirms the use of a microwave, and other stores have seen additional mentions of Chef Mike in similar reports.

Now, when it's 2 a.m., and all you want is a Moons Over My Hammy combo, you probably won't care if employees nuked the sandwich before putting it on your plate. In fact, nutrition probably isn't going to enter your mind at all. A former Denny's employee took to Reddit to wax poetic about the chain's microwaved biscuits in particular. "The biscuits we used came in this big plastic bag and you microwaved them for like. Maybe 8 secs? And it would come out like a freshly baked biscuit, at least fresher than you'd expect from a bag biscuit."

Microwaved breakfast foods aren't all bad, but some customers still prefer authentic diner dining over Denny's. "The food is so much better at a local diner than Denny's," they wrote on Reddit. "It's become a microwaved food establishment, [you] definitely can do better elsewhere." Someone else on Reddit put it even more succinctly, describing Denny's as "overpriced, extremely shrinkflated, poorly reheated ... slop with nothing to offset it." Tell us how you really feel...

You go to Golden Corral for the buffet, stay for the family-friendly value, and then leave again when you realize some of the food has taken a spin in the microwave. Rumors abound that Golden Corral's buffet fare ends up with Chef Mike.

On Indeed, a grill cook described Golden Corral's employees as "microwave chefs" and claimed that "nothing is made fresh." This is a bold claim, but thanks to health inspection reports, we can at least confirm that Golden Corral uses microwaves in some of its kitchens, most likely to reheat certain items before they're served.

And some customers find that Golden Corral's vast array of buffet foods leaves much to be desired. When this Redditor returned to Golden Corral as an adult, they made a startling discovery. "I was disgusted. The magic was gone," they wrote. "I could have gotten a few $1 frozen pizzas and appetizers from Dollar Tree and had the same experience." To Golden Corral's credit, former employees have insisted that not everything receives the reheating treatment, but it seems like microwaves do play some part in its kitchens.

We associate Culver's with comforting, down-home, Midwestern-style food, the kind that your Aunt Gladys would spend hours cooking up in her kitchen. So the rumor that the restaurant chucks some of its most classic menu items into the microwave is enough to make any Culver's fan — and Aunt Gladys herself — gasp in horror. Alas, the rumors might be true: Health inspections prove that some Culver's locations use microwaves to reheat at least some dishes, including chili.

Employees, too, confirm the use of microwaves, with one claiming that Culver's uses a microwave to reheat mashed potatoes, broccoli, and gluten-free buns, to name a few. "And, at least for us, [to] fast cook bacon to portion for salads," another Redditor added. Picturing a gluten-free bun in a microwave isn't exactly pleasant — won't it just get dry and crumbly? — but picturing bacon is even worse.

These foods might not thrive in a microwave, but others actually do. Pediatrician Karen Gill told Healthline that vegetables in particular do quite well in a microwave. There's a reason why broccoli has popped up several times on this list. Broccoli is high in water content, which means it cooks quickly in the microwave without needing extra water. It usually retains its crisp flavor, too. A cooking or heating method that saves both water and time is bound to tempt any chain restaurant, and Culver's is no exception.