Did the pandemic shift my tastebuds or are restaurants and coffee shops worse?

[Anonymous]

Almost any takeout is too salty for me now. Costco and Whole Foods prepared meals are stringy/gristly and salty. I can taste bad oil in fried items. Almost every casual restaurant I go to has tiny flies milling around. Coffee shops have tiny flies milling around the pastry cases and even Starbucks cannot even get drip coffee right -- the one nearest me often gives me cups of Pike Place with tons of grounds sitting in the bottom. There is ONE cafe I feel like I can go to regularly to get a fresh sandwich and good salad. Am I tasting and seeing things differently, or has everything gone way downhill?

[Anonymous]

I have the same experience. I thought I was going crazy.

[Anonymous]

I think taking a break from eating out made me see how sweet and salty those foods are. And the quality hasn't improved at all..

[Anonymous]

It's the salt for me. Two years of cooking mostly at home and my salt tolerance is waaaay down from where it used to be. I had chipotle for the first time in ages this week and couldn't deal with the salt. And I didn't even get any meat!

[Anonymous]

The Whole Foods prepared food bar is vastly worse at the location I go too than before the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think taking a break from eating out made me see how sweet and salty those foods are. And the quality hasn't improved at all..

It's this.

[Anonymous]

Ingredients are more expensive so to keep from raising their prices too much they sacrifice quality. And it’s hard to find and keep good experienced employees. That’s it.

[Anonymous]

Everything is way too salty, thought it was just me, too.

[Anonymous]

Yes, and I find service to be so much worse too.

[Anonymous]

Yup. The salt for me. Much harder to eat out now.

[Anonymous]

Not sure if this is supposed to be in the health forum or not, but since recovering from COVID earlier this year my taste and smell have been all over the place. A positive is that I now have a far better tolerance of Mexican food. Prior to COVID I always found it to be too hot.

[Anonymous]

I have definitely noticed lower quality products and smaller quantities. It's so disappointing. D*mn inflation.

[Anonymous]

I’ve always found take out food to be too salty. I have to triple my water intake if we get takeout.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know about this, but I am sick of restaurants being “out” of things.

[Anonymous]

I think everyone upped their cooking so it’s harder to feel impressed.