--- title: Bobby Flay Shares His Restaurant Etiquette Rules description: There’s one rule of restaurant etiquette that Iron Chef Bobby Flay says he would never break: sending back food. canonical: https://time.com/4974853/bobby-flay-etiquette-rule/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-13T20:50:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:57.895Z og:title: This Is Bobby Flay's Number One Restaurant Etiquette Rule He Never Breaks og:description: But he doesn't mind if people do it as his restaurant og:url: https://time.com/4974853/bobby-flay-etiquette-rule/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05cee9bd0a0f6692/6988e121cf40a88993c49bcc/bobby-flay-etiquette-rule.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Tribute Dinner Honoring Jonathan Waxman, Rob Sands and Richard Sands With Master Of Ceremonies Tom Colicchio Presented By Bank of America - 2016 Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by FOOD & WINE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is Bobby Flay's Number One Restaurant Etiquette Rule He Never Breaks twitter:description: But he doesn't mind if people do it as his restaurant twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05cee9bd0a0f6692/6988e121cf40a88993c49bcc/bobby-flay-etiquette-rule.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is Bobby Flay's Number One Restaurant Etiquette Rule He Never Breaks by [Elisabeth Sherman / Food & Wine](https://time.com/author/food-wine-2/) ## Elisabeth Sherman / Food & Wine Oct 13, 2017 8:50 PM UTC  Chef Bobby Flay attends a Tribute Dinner Honoring Jonathan Waxman, Rob Sands and Richard Sands With Master Of Ceremonies Tom Colicchio Presented By Bank of America during 2016 Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival Presented By FOOD & WINE at Loews Miami Beach Hotel on February 27, 2016 in Miami Beach, Fla. Chef Bobby Flay attends a Tribute Dinner Honoring Jonathan Waxman, Rob Sands and Richard Sands With Master Of Ceremonies Tom Colicchio Presented By Bank of America during 2016 Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival Presented By FOOD & WINE at Loews Miami Beach Hotel on February 27, 2016 in Miami Beach, Fla.Denis Contreras—SOBEWFF®/Gety Images by [Elisabeth Sherman / Food & Wine](https://time.com/author/food-wine-2/) ## Elisabeth Sherman / Food & Wine Oct 13, 2017 8:50 PM UTC There is so much [etiquette](http://www.foodandwine.com/news/bobby-flay-horse-racing-commentator) to be aware of when you’re out to dinner. There are some [‘nice’ things](http://www.foodandwine.com/lifestyle/5-nice-things-you-do-actually-annoy-restaurant-staff) that you, as a diner, might think are helping your server, but that actually only annoy her. Then, there are some fancy restaurant [rules you can ignore](http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/6-fancy-restaurant-rules-you-can-forget-about)—like wearing a tie. But there’s one rule of restaurant etiquette that Iron Chef [Bobby Flay](http://www.foodandwine.com/news/bobby-flay-horse-racing-commentator) says he would never break. In an interview with [_Popsugar_](https://www.popsugar.com/food/Bobby-Flay-Wont-Send-Dish-Back-Restaurant-43868071)to promote his role as an ambassador for the Naked Juice Drink Good Do Good campaign, Flay elaborated on how his rules for eating out. “I won’t send food back to the chef. Never,” he said. Surprisingly, though, Flay doesn’t mind when people do the same thing at one of his restaurants (he runs five of them). “It happens in all my restaurants for one reason or the other,” he said. “I want my customers to be happy, and I will try to the end of the world to make them happy. That’s it,” he explained. Sounds like he’s an exceptionally gracious chef, but it’s an attitude that some of his peers also seem to be on board with. [Gordon Ramsay](http://www.foodandwine.com/news/worst-day-year-go-out-dinner-according-gordon-ramsay), for instance, thinks that if you’re out to a nice dinner, you should feel free to complain about food that you’re not satisfied with. “You are going out for a special night, so if it’s an unsatisfactory experience, take the opportunity to let the staff know…Don’t be shy,” Ramsay said. When he does go out to eat, Flay says that he has some dishes he always likes to order, sticking to menu items that he’s not likely to have in his pantry at home. “I don’t easily have crushed ice at home, so if I can get oysters or anything else served on ice, that’s what I go for,” he said. Even though Flay clearly loves his seafood, the one fish he never touches on a menu is cod, because he thinks it “doesn’t taste like anything.” By the way, Ramsay also revealed the menu item he never touches when he’s out to dinner: the soup of the day. “Ask what yesterday’s soup du jour was before today’s special,” he said. “It may be the case that it’s the soup du month.” _This_ [_article_](http://www.foodandwine.com/news/restaurant-etiquette-rule-bobby-flay) _originally appeared on_ [_FoodandWine.com_](http://www.foodandwine.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4974853/bobby-flay-etiquette-rule/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4974853/bobby-flay-etiquette-rule/"},"headline":"This Is Bobby Flay's Number One Restaurant Etiquette Rule He Never Breaks","datePublished":"2017-10-13T20:50:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:57.895Z","description":"But he doesn't mind if people do it as his restaurant","url":"https://time.com/4974853/bobby-flay-etiquette-rule/","keywords":["Living","Food & Drink","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05cee9bd0a0f6692/6988e121cf40a88993c49bcc/bobby-flay-etiquette-rule.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elisabeth Sherman / Food & Wine"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt05cee9bd0a0f6692/6988e121cf40a88993c49bcc/bobby-flay-etiquette-rule.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Tribute Dinner Honoring Jonathan Waxman, Rob Sands and Richard Sands With Master Of Ceremonies Tom Colicchio Presented By Bank of America - 2016 Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by FOOD & WINE","caption":"Tribute Dinner Honoring Jonathan Waxman, Rob Sands and Richard Sands With Master Of Ceremonies Tom Colicchio Presented By Bank of America - 2016 Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by FOOD & WINE","creditText":"Denis Contreras—SOBEWFF®/Gety Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4974853/bobby-flay-etiquette-rule/","name":"This Is Bobby Flay's Number One Restaurant Etiquette Rule He Never Breaks"}}]}] ```