I used to deal with a lot of businesses. A few of them were restaurants.
Most were fairly clean but a few were dirty enough that I wondered how they had passed inspection.
I recall a Mexican restaurant in Dodge City, KS. It was run by a classy looking Hispanic lady. It may have been even cleaner in back than in front. Basically spotless.
Another one in Western Kansas that I would never have eaten there after being in back. It looked nice enough in the front dining area.
For the last 30 years, I have just about quit eating out because of my experiences.
In a past life, I had to inventory radio equipment atop one of the major skyscrapers in downtown Chicago...and to access the radio room, my crew and I had to go through the kitchen and back area of a top-floor exclusive club. Looked spectacular in the front...in the back, OMG!!!
I’ve never looked at restaurants the same way since....
The 1947 Bugs Bunny cartoon “Slick Hare” parodies the Los Angeles nightclub Macumbo, a hangout for the Hollywood Elite. While making the cartoon, the animators got a look into the kitchen and drew it in the cartoon just like they saw it, complete with grease dripping from the stove, greasy hand prints on the refrigerator and crates of vegetables sitting on the floor. Reportedly, after the cartoon came out, the animators were banned from the nightclub.
Me, too, also...
38 years a firefighter doing routine annual fire inspections to businesses including local eateries...IMHO the public would be appalled by the filthy conditions in the kitchens/food prep areas, and the slovenly personal appearance and apparent (lack of) personal hygiene of the help in too many of the chic high end establishments...
I found in general the Mom and Pop places had the cleanest kitchens, the best food and the reasonable prices...But gradually lost my enthusiasm for dining out...I got exposed to more than enough just doing my job without paying for the exposure...