Restaurant Employees Dish About the Foods You Never Want to Have Delivered

Most of us have at least one food delivery app on our phones, and we use them regularly. In today's fast-paced world, outsourcing dinner has become less of a luxury and more of a routine. With just a few taps, a hot meal shows up at your door, often in under an hour. However, is every food delivery menu item ideal for delivery?

The rise of on-demand food apps has transformed the way we eat. In cities where multiple delivery platforms operate, we've grown accustomed to this near-instant access to anything from sushi to smoothies. But just because a dish is available for delivery doesn't always mean it travels well or is safe to eat when it arrives at your door.

Certain foods are more prone to spoilage, sogginess, or even contamination if not stored and transported properly. To identify the worst offenders, 24/7 Tempo reviewed health and nutrition reports, FDA food recall data, and anonymous restaurant employee confessions. We focused on foods that spoil easily, degrade in quality during transit, or present health risks if not kept at proper temperatures. Let's dive into the details now.

This post was updated July 7th, 2025, to reflect additional information.

Fish in many sushi establishments is often labeled incorrectly, and when you order delivery, your odds of getting the wrong thing are increased. What you think is tuna may be swordfish, a fish that's high in mercury and is also a health risk if it's been at room temperature for too long, and what is labeled as white tuna is another fish, escolar.

You should only order sushi if you're dining in at a restaurant with ethical, transparent sourcing.

Unless you are ordering eggs that are sunny-side up, eggs from many fast food and delivery joints can often come from a carton of liquid that contains multiple additives and stabilizers. But even real eggs, which, again, unless they are sunny-side up or over-easy, are most likely microwaved rather than fried or poached.

When this is fresh, it can be outstanding but for a sandwich that is slathered with sauce, what should be a crispy roll or hero, is invariably a soggy mess. Plus, it takes a while to get from the restaurant to your home and is most likely cold too. You're better off ordering it in-house or picking it up yourself to avoid a lengthy delivery ride.

Steak is frequently cooked incorrectly when you're eating at the dining establishment. When you order it from a delivery service, it often leaves it lukewarm and chewy and it isn't likely that you'll send it back for a re-cook. You ordered the steak for the way a steak should be cooked, fresh-from-the-kitchen warm. You'll probably be disappointed every time.

There is something so enjoyable about getting that first bite of a fresh sandwich – that spongey, just-right texture of bread that holds a freshly made tuna salad. This is invariably never how you'll receive it. Tuna salad, which is not the most popular menu item, may sit around for days – sometimes even weeks – before a new batch is made. It can also go bad rather quickly if not refrigerated properly.

The best part of nachos is the crispy, crunchy tortilla chip under a pile of delicious toppings – warm, melted cheese, fresh avocado, and sour cream. But unless you order them disassembled with chips or shells on the side, these are guaranteed to be a soggy mess by the time they make it to your house.

When you order a cheeseburger from most establishments, it can be a perfect combination of melted cheese, crispy lettuce, firm tomato, and a bun with just the right measure of crispiness and chewiness. But for delivery, you rarely get any of this. Instead, you'll find a cold, congealed, soggy mess by the time it reaches you.

Having a smoothie or acai bowl fresh from the blender can be so refreshing, a fruit-forward smoothie or bowl that has just the right consistency and allows for ultimate enjoyment. But when you order one for delivery, not only do they melt rather quickly, but they can often be loaded with added sugar and dairy, and what you may have ordered with special requests is made with the regular ingredients.

The ideal way to eat a fry is crispy and hot, fresh out of the fryer. This is how most of us prefer our fries but when you wait for delivery, your fries become cold and soggy, leaving them rather unappetizing. Plus, most places use low-quality oils that can leave you feeling sluggish. Even if you try to reheat them in your air-fryer, it's not the same.

Rice noodles, when fresh, are delicious, tender noodles that are somewhat chewy but when you order take-out, they tend to arrive cold which can make them either rock hard, make them one giant glob of noodles, or cause them to soak up all the liquid if they're in soup or sauce. Either way, it's best to eat these fresh.

Soup needs to be served immediately, fresh from the stovetop. Even the slightest amount of time, even when dining in, can render it cold. This makes it even riskier to order out – your soup is most likely to arrive lukewarm or cold, depending on how long it's been in transit. However, it is transferred to a plastic container while hot, and hot liquids are known to leach chemicals from plastic containers, and most delivery joints don't use BPA-free plastic.

The only way to enjoy bacon is crisp, hot, and fresh. Even the slightest delay in eating this breakfast staple can result in less-than-stellar results. It is undeniably best when served right out of the pan but when you order it from an app or online, it will most likely arrive either cold and floppy or the exact opposite cold and slightly burnt. Either way, it's going to be cold.

Most, if not all, deep-fried foods are enjoyed best – and most delicious – when they are hot and crunchy, and onion rings are no exception.After sitting in a closed container for 15 minutes, however, the breading will fall off leaving you with soggy, cold, and breadless onions.

Salads are often thought of as a refreshing and healthier alternative lunch option. Oftentimes they are but many eateries generally make them once or twice per week, leaving what appears to be a fresh choice, really a pre-made food that has been sitting in a plastic container until toppings are added.

Due to the moisture levels and the fact that they'll be served raw, salad greens are a breeding ground for bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. Plus, many places will add the dressing to the mix, and by the time it reaches you, that once crispy lettuce is now a soggy mess.

When made fresh, chili can be a delicious bowl of comfort, but as a delivery item, it is often made from leftover beef patties that dried out under a heat lamp, or ground beef that needs to be cooked before it expires. Chili is already a catch-all for old meat but when it moves from the fridge to the warmer for days, being reheated each morning, it doesn't make it a comfort to enjoy.

Restaurants don't typically like to serve steak well done (some countries are even horrified should you ask for your meat this way) but at times, it is the perfect opportunity for the cook to use up the oldest piece of beef in the fridge, cooking it to a crisp to disguise everything that is wrong with it. You never know what you may get so it's best to save the steak for dining in.

Many establishments might try to push off older lunch meats and cheeses that may not be quite so fresh by serving them in an antipasto salad covered with Italian dressing that can mask the less-than-fresh food.

Avocado typically goes great with everything – burgers, salads, and of course, toast. It is a food that most of us can agree is simply perfect. But even perfection has a fault. This creamy fruit oxidizes so quickly it's likely to be brown by the time you receive it.

While it's easier to find restaurants that serve more of a variety now, it's still exciting when you see a menu that offers veggie burgers, not just for those non-meat eaters but for some who prefer changing up their diets on occasion. These plant-based burgers are becoming more widely available at fast food establishments, but they may not always be as fresh as you think. They are often taken from the freezer, microwaved, and then finished on the same grill that's used for meat.

Sprouts are always served uncooked and coupled with their moisture content are the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. In 2018, a multistate outbreak of salmonella at Jimmy John's was linked to contaminated sprouts.

Refried beans are used in many foods – from burritos and tacos to nachos – but they are likely prepared in bulk, sitting in a large container, and kept warm for serving. This can result in bacterial growth that causes food poisoning if the beans aren't heated to a high enough temperature to kill the bacteria.

Hummus is a healthy snack high in protein and fiber, but unless the restaurant you're ordering from makes it fresh daily – which not all places do – it can cause this once-healthy snack to become dangerous. Unless it's from a place that specializes in hummus, this high-protein bean spread is likely to be days old and possibly full of bacteria and microbes.

Deli meats are one of the more popular items in delis everywhere – pastrami, ham, and turkey are just some of the favorites among sandwich consumers. But they can carry a high risk of food poisoning from various bacteria including listeria, which can infect meat in the processing plant, even when it's kept refrigerated.

Fruit is another item that is a great healthy option and when ordering delivery, it may seem as though you can't go wrong with fresh fruit salad. However, in addition to arriving soggy and mushy, fruit is typically cut and stored for days and isn't an item that's typically cooked, which increases the risk of contamination. Certain fruits tend to carry bacteria, including listeria, that are hard to remove unless thoroughly washed, which once they're cut up, won't be cleansed.

Rice may seem harmless but it can have severe health risks. This is a food that unless served immediately after cooking, may cause food poisoning. Bacillus cereus spores, which are carried on dried rice straight from the field, can survive the heat of cooking. They're not a problem if the rice is eaten right away, but if the cooked rice starts to cool and sits in a warming pot all day, the bacteria proliferate and can cause illness.