When To Order And When To Avoid Restaurant Specials

Restaurant specials are often seen as the perfect option when you aren't exactly sure what you want from a new restaurant; why not try the thing on the menu that the establishment itself recommends you order? However, restaurant specials can range from high-quality, cost-effective dishes to bland, overdone items with leftover ingredients. While this general inconsistency is why you won't see chefs ordering the specials at restaurants, there are ways to tell the difference between good specials and bad ones.

Rocco Carulli, owner and executive chef of R House in Miami, noted that the quality of a restaurant itself is likely the easiest indicator of what the special really is. "At a high-caliber spot, a 'special' is the chef showing off something he got at the market that morning — think diver scallops or figs that flirt back," Carulli explained. "But at a low-tier joint? 'Special' might just mean 'it's been in the walk-in too long and we need to move it.'" This key difference between a restaurant special being a matter of marketing rather than an actual special occasion dish can be detected easily by finding out how long the special has actually been on the menu. "If the special's been 'running all week,' it's not a special, it's leftovers with good PR," Carulli warned.

Beyond other observable signs that a restaurant's specials aren't worth ordering — such as Gordon Ramsay's menu red flag about avoiding specials when there's a long list of them available — the best way to get a feel for a special is to ask your server for their opinion on the dish. Similarly to how you can get the best cut of meat at a butcher shop by chatting up your butcher, waitstaff can give you plenty of insight into what specifically makes a dish great — including who made it, and with what ingredients. "When the staff lights up talking about it — that's your sign," Rocco Carulli confirmed. "A great special has energy behind it. It's what the chef is most excited about that day, not what they're trying to hide. [...] Specials are often where the passion lives, not the profits."

Conversely, a poor special can also be detected through your server's reaction; even if they aren't willing to outright call the menu item bad or low quality, there's a lot to learn from the tone of their response. "If your server shrugs and says, 'Uh ... it's okay,' believe them," Carulli noted. "Specials should be fresh and focused, not fumbled."