First time visiting the T-Mobile District and decided to stop in for a good cheeseburger after this…read moreplace caught my eye. At first, everything seemed fine. We were greeted, seated inside, and our order was taken with no issues. Unfortunately, the experience quickly went downhill and became one of the most unsanitary restaurant experiences I've ever witnessed.
While we were waiting on our food, a man walked in with a dog. It was obvious the staff knew him because several employees immediately started interacting with the dog. The first thing I noticed was our waitress using both of her hands to pet the dog while the dog repeatedly licked her hands. In my mind, I thought surely she would go wash or sanitize her hands afterward. Instead, she proceeded directly toward the kitchen area and started preparing the condiments for our burgers without washing or sanitizing her hands at all. She then brought those condiments directly to our table.
At that point, I politely told her she needed to wash her hands and that we no longer wanted the condiments. She walked away to the back, but the situation only got worse from there.
The dog was approximately one foot away from our table the entire time. Personally, I do not believe dogs belong inside restaurants, especially around food preparation areas. Dogs carry germs, and anyone who owns dogs knows one of the first things they do when greeting other dogs is sniff each other's private areas. Watching staff pet the dog and immediately return to handling food and kitchen items without washing their hands was honestly disgusting.
As we waited for the manager, another employee came up and allowed the dog to lick all over his hands. Right after that, he proceeded directly into the kitchen area to continue cooking food -- again, no hand washing, no sanitizer, nothing. We watched at least three more employees interact with the dog and only one person actually washed their hands afterward.
When the manager finally came over, I explained exactly what had happened and asked him if he truly believed this was sanitary. His response was basically that dogs are welcome in the establishment and that he would "tell the staff to wash their hands." His attitude came across very dismissive, like he really didn't care about the seriousness of the situation.
At that point, I asked for the bill for our drinks because there was absolutely no way I was going to eat food from an establishment operating like that. To make matters even worse, while we were paying, the man with the dog proceeded to take the dog toward the back near the kitchen area.
Completely unacceptable and unsanitary. I understand some places are dog-friendly, but there still has to be health standards and proper hygiene when employees are handling food. Watching staff pet and get licked by a dog and then immediately touch food items and kitchen equipment without washing their hands ruined the entire experience for me. I will definitely not be returning.
