Going out for a drink at your local bar is a pleasant way to spend an evening. Bars are considered great backdrops for date nights, social outings with friends, and more. Even individuals who are riding solo can enjoy time at a bar if they’re looking to sip on their favorite cocktail while clearing their heads.
Some bars are classier than others with upscale ambiances, fabulous décor, and soothing music in the background. Other bars are less than chic with dimmed lights, dirty bathrooms, and music blasting. Regardless of what kind of bar you’re visiting for the night, there are several things you should avoid ordering for your well-being. This rule of thumb occasionally includes food items. While we’re on the topic of bars, click here to learn about the 18 things you should never do at a bar.
To compile this list of everything you should avoid ordering at a bar, 24/7 Tempo consulted several food, entertainment, and travel-centered websites.
Long Island Ice Teas
A Long Island Iced Tea is a drink you’ll want to avoid ordering when visiting your local bar. Bartenders complain that making Long Island Iced Teas can be time consuming and annoying when they have big crowds to serve. Long Island Iced Teas are complicated drinks that require a long list of ingredients. This includes tequila, white rum, triple sec, vodka, gin, lemon juice, gimme syrup, and cola.
Frozen daiquiris
Frozen Daiquiris aren’t great drinks to order at bars since they require an extra step in the process. Bartenders must blend frozen daiquiris to serve them with the right texture and consistency. Instead of serving similar drink over ice, waiting for daiquiris to be blended will potentially slow everything down. To make matters worse, blended cocktails are often packed with loads of unnecessary sweeteners and sugars.
Appletinis
No matter how intrigued you might be by the idea of ordering an Appletini at a bar, this is one drink that will certainly land you on a bartender’s bad side. The reason this drink has such a bad reputation is that it’s not necessary classified as a “real Martini,” but it somehow stole the name. One of the worst details of all? There isn’t any real apple juice used in an Appletini, regardless of its name. Don’t be tricked into thinking there are any health benefits that come along with ordering this cocktail.
Mojitos
You might want to skip out on ordering a Mojito next time you visit a bar. This drink consists of sugar, lime, juice, soda, water, white, rum, and mint. If the combination of ingredients doesn’t already sound complicated enough, this drink is actually very complex to make.
It requires an abundance of attention and care from a diligent bartender. To make the perfect Mojito, the bartender must do a lot of “muddling.” The muddling process isn’t quick to get through, either. A muddling tool is required to gently crush the ice and fresh mints together. You’ll have to develop some patience for this one because you likely won’t get your hands on the drink as soon as you hope.
White Russians
The reason it makes sense to avoid White Russians at a bar is that this is a drink that requires cream or milk as a main ingredient. Cream and milk both need to be properly refrigerated to survive. Bars can get messy and disorganized, which means cartons of cream and milk are accidentally left out to spoil all the time. Unless the bar you’re visiting is perfectly in order, this might not be a risk you should be willing to take.
Vodka Red Bull
Energy drinks have a terrible reputation for a reason. They cause an increased heart rate, anxiety, and other unwanted health issues. Combining energy drinks with alcohol is a huge red flag for just about anyone. The most popular combination would be ordering a vodka Red Bull. Mixing an alcoholic drink like vodka with an energy drink like Red Bull together inside one cup is just asking for trouble.
The Adios Drink
An Adios Mother F***er is a cocktail with a reputation for being quite dangerous. It’s one of the strongest drinks a person can order since it has so many different forms of alcohol swirled together in one cup. The drink calls for vodka, rum, gin, and tequila together. This cocktail will instantly remind you of the ocean when you add blue curaçao to it. It might look visually pleasing, but you’ll have to be extra careful when sipping on a powerful concoction like this one.
House wine
You’ll want to avoid ordering house wine at a bar is because it’s typically the cheapest possible wine an establishment will have available. House wine is typically ordered in bulk so bars and restaurants can save as much money as possible. Since house wine starts at such an undeniably cheap price point, don’t expect for it to taste classy or high-quality.
Ice
Watch your back by ordering drinks without ice whenever you’re at a bar. You might think you’re supposed to be ordering cocktails with ice included, but you simply don’t have to do that. Unfortunately, too many bars and establishments aren’t consistent when it comes to the cleaning processes of their ice machines. When ice machines aren’t thoroughly cleaned on a regular basis, they grow mold and slime.
To prevent this from happening, bar managers and owners are supposed to enforce deep cleaning and sanitizing schedules. In reality, that doesn’t always happen. Remember that bartenders use their bare hands on top of cups to dig into ice machines when gathering ice for cocktails they’re making. Because of that, ice machines are often full of festering germs.
Any cocktail made with ice cream
You might be curious about ordering a special cocktail made with ice cream from the bar you’re visiting. You might want to avoid this option since it’s unclear how frostbitten the ice cream at the back of an establishment really is. Once a necessary amount of ice cream has been scooped out and added to your cocktail, all traces of frostbite will instantly melt away inside your cup of alcohol. It’ll be difficult for you to decipher how frostbitten the ice cream actually was.
Olives, cherries, or any garnishes
It’s common practice to receive a cocktail adorned with a garnish such as an olive or a cherry. Some cocktails come with garnishes like lemon slices, orange wedges, or mint leaves. Although these garnishes help your cocktail look more aesthetically pleasing, keep the hygienic side of things in mind.
Bartenders often grab garnishes with their bare fingers to place on top of cocktails without properly washing their hands first. These workers often so busy making different drinks for clientele, they aren’t going to stop to wash their hands in between every single beverage.
Pizza
No matter how hungry you are while visiting a bar, one menu item to avoid ordering would be pizza. Any pizza you order at a bar is coming straight out of a plastic bag from the back of a freezer. Don’t expect the pizza you’re ordering at a bar to be made with fresh dough, sauce, mozzarella cheese, or toppings. Pizza is commonly added to typical late-night bar menus, but it’s never made fresh. Save your pizza cravings for restaurants that specialize in this dish or like Grimaldi‘s or Giordano‘s.
Refills on free pretzels, potato chips, or snack mix
Plenty of bars set out free bowls of pretzels, potato chips, or a snack mixes for customers to grab as they’re waiting for their drinks. Avoid asking the bartender for a refill of these free snacks at all cost. Bars love setting out salty snacks to keep their clientele thirsty enough to order more drinks.
Since just about anyone can stick their hands in these open bowls to grab handfuls of salty snacks, the idea of germs swarming around is a bit too overwhelming to ignore. Pretzels, potato chips, and snack mix are popular snacks whether you’re at the bar or at home. For another drink-related list, click here to discover the oldest bar in every state.