Is the health department asleep or ?

Since the Covid pandemic, I have noticed a huge decline in quality of food served at restaurants. The suburbs are the worst. I try to cook food at home for me and my fiance as much as possible but ofcourse there are times we will eat out especially on weekends. I would say half the time, the food or experience is pretty bad especially in the Katy, Richmond, and fulshear area.

Bc we have had so many bad experiences eating out at new restaurants the last few years, we have a few on rotation that we go to that we are ok with. However, every once in a while, we will try a new place. I have been craving a specific type of food and after reading some google reviews, decided we should try out this restaurant in Katy that was “highly” rated. I was nervous about trying it given I had gotten food poisoning from another establishment in Richmond two years prior with the same type of cuisine but I figured it just can’t be bad with all these positive reviews. Well boy was I wrong. We both ended up with food poisoning! We ordered a bunch of things to try and the meat on one plate tasted rancid, the shrimp in another dish was fishy, and the beef dish included some pieces of seared meat that was raw inside. The food was cold too which is never a good sign. We even notified the waiter and he could care less. Did absolutely NOTHING to resolve the issues and ignored it. I have now gotten food poisoning multiple times from eating out. One time it resulted in me having to take antibiotics bc I was sick for weeks and lost so much weight. I want to also mention I have taken notice of restaurant workers not properly washing their hands before returning to work or restaurants just having filthy bathrooms and no soap in the dispensers. Maybe it’s bc I have gotten so health conscious and germaphobic, these are things I do not take lightly. There was a restaurant worker I recently saw in a popular Houston restaurant bathroom who barely washed her hands. She just swooshed them in water and walked out.

It seems there is so many restaurants that have opened in the last few years but I am starting to think there’s too many to be properly monitored or something…how are these businesses getting away with serving such awful food? Serious question? Are they being properly checked by the health department? It seems that anyone can now just open a restaurant. I also don’t believe in reviews anymore bc these places we’ve gotten sick usually have high ratings. I cannot be the only person to have experienced this or noticed the clear decline in quality and service since the pandemic. It’s just such a shame. After last night I am done eating at any new establishments and am going to focus on eating at home. My health and well being is too important to me. Excuse me while I run to the restroom.