Would you eat a restaurant that you learn has had a past incident of food poisoning?

Over the years I have gotten major cases of food poisoning about a half dozen times. This is the kind that keeps you in bed for days because you are so sick. Each time after I was well I called the manager of the restaurant or dropped by in the case of my favorite family diner, and talked to them about how sick I was.

If it is a chain location I also write or call the corporate office to let them know about the problem. What is important to me is that the problem is addressed and I receive a sincere apology about the experience. I have no problem giving a restaurant a second chance and I don't think that it to much to ask of any place that has gotten me sick.

I have received varying responses over the years and those that are not sincere to me are the places I refuse to give my business to. If a restaurant doesn't put its customers first, then they must not need or want my business. When I was 12 I ate at a breakfast buffet with my parent while I was in Arkansas at the lake we go to every summer.

I was sick for days after eating there and when my mother went to talk to the manager she was pretty much blown off. To this day we refuse to eat there and let anyone staying in town or on the docks know to avoid eating there. We also later called the health department to notify them.

While I was in Kansas about 8 years ago I ate at Cracker Barrel and again was sick for 2 days causing me to extend my visit by 2 days because I was to sick to drive. Before I left town I spoke with the manager who was sincerely apologetic and also refunded me the price of my meal. He encouraged me to call the corporate office and let them know about my experience as well.

When I called they spend quite some time with me on the phone and addressed my problem. A month later out of the blue I was sent a gift card and a long letter encouraging me to come back. This is a company that goes above and beyond what I expect from a restaurant and I have no problem eating there and do so occasionally with my inlaws.

Last year I was visiting my family in St. Louis and ate out twice in one day, which is unusual for me. I stopped at my favorite Chinese restaurant and also at the family diner that is open all night. I have been eating at both for years and never had a problem.

I wasn't sure which restaurant was the source of the problem so I spoke with the managers at both places. They apologized for the problem and every time I am in St. Louis I still frequent these places. I haven't gotten sick again from either place.

All that being said, I have eaten in some of the most dirty looking restaurants and never gotten sick. I've always been partial to the little hole in the wall places you find when traveling because you end up with some of the best food. I have also gotten sick in restaurants that look spotless.It is impossible to tell when and where you will get sick.

I try not to let looks affect where I eat as long as they are reasonably clean, but I do check out the health department rating sticker on the outside of the buildings. A and B are passable to me, but anything lower I usually avoid, I'm not a glutton for punishment. I also avoid places that I know frequently get people sick, why risk it if you know this is happening.

Sure, I'd eat at a restaurant with a past incident of food poisoning. All things considered, food poisoning isn't that uncommon of a thing. And if it's a single incident, not an epidemic like, say, the E.

Coli-spinach scare, that makes a big difference. But a single case? Perhaps there was a mistake on the supply-chain end.

Perhaps one of the staff members just got careless that day. Perhaps someone was even faking it for insurance money. I don't know, and the odds are against it happening again.

That's the other thing. If a restaurant has a past case of food poisoning, they're likely going to take that very seriously and clean up their act. And if they don't take those steps, well, they probably have plenty of other problems too.So I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Accidents happen. But thankfully, they don't happen all the time!

I probably would actually. There are just too many variables; it can happen anywhere. All you need is one angry employee who doesn't care about their job.

That employee can quit and work somewhere else. If they're fired, they *will* be working somewhere else. If the restaurant cares about the incident and tries to fix it, that's the best you can hope for.

It would depend on if it was just one incident of food poisoning or if it had occured more than once. If I liked the restaurant and it appeared to be clean, the food was good, the service was prompt, then I would give it a second chance.

I would and I have. Back when Chi-Chi's was still around, my husband and I ate there every week. (We loved their tortilla soup...oh mannnn.) Unfortunately, they got hit hard with the bad publicity and never really recovered.

But we figure that it happens everywhere and we would run out of places to eat if we stopped going to places that had had food poisoning! I always felt bad for Chi-Chi's because the e. Coli thing wasn't their fault; it was the distributor they used for their ingredients (and I think it was part of the spinach debacle).

But because they were the restaurant where the incident happened, they bore the brunt. I remember our local branch's kitchen was clearly visible at some tables. That kitchen was SPOTLESS.

I always felt safe eating there.

Speaking from experience, no. I did that once after being told that the place had cleaned up their act. Bad mistake.

I resolved then to wait and if a place had re-opened after an instance of food poisoning, I would call the health department to see if they had passed a re-inspection. I would also watch the news- here a big deal is made over restaurants both bad and good. When a place cleans itself up, it makes the "good" list.

If the incident happened to me, then no I would not return. And, sadly it did happen once a long time ago. My husband and I, pre-baby, ate out a lot.

One night we decided to try this new mexican restaurant. He and I both got very sick and never returned. We knew other people that went there all the time, but we couldn't bring ourselves to do it.

The other thing is that you don't really necessarily know all the people that may have gotten sick unless it was a big enough event to make news. When my husband and I got sick, we didn't call the health inspector or anything, we just vowed never to go there again. I suspect that it may happen more than we know.

But with as many times as we have eaten out over the many years together, that is about the only time I can think of that it happened to us both at the same time.

Many people went back to Jack in the Box and they had a huge event about ecoli. They taught all the other fast food places a few lessons when they realized that had caused the problem. Now all places are more aware of cooking temperatures.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.