As I stood in the lobby waiting for my order that was placed 40 minutes prior I had decided to critically observe the cooks of this establishment.

My background: I have been working in restaurants of the Ann Arbor area since the age of 16. I am now 27. Having now gone to school on the East-coast and worked at high end restaurants my eye for detail has grown.

While watching the staff of this place work I witnessed three critical violations. 1- Gloves do not get changed unless they are visibly immersed in some type of food matter. They are supposed to be changed in between orders to avoid cross contamination or the buildup of bacteria that could make someone go ill. 2- Every fried food goes into the same fryer. So if you adhere to a specific diet you will get a variety of different “flavors”. 3 - Everyone who works here, with the exception of the big guy, has hair over three inches. This means that they need to be wearing hairnets In order to avoid ‘the hair in food’ situation.

Its a requirement that employees must wash hands after coughing, sneezing, touching their face, clothes, and hair. Within five minutes I watched an employee do all three of the last listed within 5 minutes and never wash his hands. I understand that some people lack training, i can even understand that when you’re busy and only relying on short term memory that things get forgotten. Unfortunately this is how customers get sick ... from unclean habits.

I hate the idea of a restaurant with good potential to go down the drain so here are my tips for them to be on top. They need more fryer space - six baskets for one fryer doesn’t do anything. Need a longer flat-top so that more orders can be cooked at the same time(Look at what 5guys uses). A ticket machine for the online ordering needs to be by the cooks so the response time can increase. Hairnets and powder-free nitrile/latex gloves. Also a secondary Wireless phone, In the back of the house so that when the cashier decides to pull a disappearing act - the phone can still be answered in time.

Don’t bother trying to order a rare, medium rare, or medium temp burger because those don’t exist here. Everything comes out well no matter what. Except for the chicken wings. I’ve been forgiving to many times due to the fact that when I get home from work at 10:30 in the evening I do not want to cook so I go to the nearby open place and order something “quick”. No matter how many times I say it, or how I say to make the wings crispy when I get home and take a bite that first bite it’s like chewing on a live 🐣 chicken. Which brings me to the most important tool that this place needs to implement. The food thermometer/temp checker. In the past I have been reprimanded for not using one and here this place is without one in sight. Maybe ypsi has different standards for business operations.

There are a handful of the staff that could learn to have a sense of urgency but there is only so much that can be done. Its a miracle that this place has been open for so long. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had the health inspector on the take.

Hopefully the owner(s) read this review and make some necessary changes. Until then I’m going to stay away and prep my meals again.