Finding out too late

I've had two interesting experiences with restaurants in as many weeks.

And please understand that the word "interesting" is relative.

The first experience was this: I stopped into get dinner for myself at a burger chain. Which burger chain is not important. But if you must know, the name rhymes with Mendy's.

The fact that there were only two other people in this Mendy's at 5:45 p.m. on a Thursday should have been a clue. I ordered my food and paid. As I was waiting for them to bring my dinner to the counter, I noticed the health inspection.

87.

The food was already purchased. All I could do was take it to my table and eat it, knowing that a few things were amiss sanitation-wise in the kitchen.

Fast forward to the second event: I took a client to an Italian buffet for lunch yesterday.

My clue at this place should have been that it was a buffet. But this client is a little old lady, and we all know how much old people love buffets.

(Speaking of buffets, last year I was at my former company's home office for meetings. One night, one of the big dog executives hosted dinner for us at his house. He's this hard-core blue blood guy and kept calling the buffet a boo-fay, which sounded really pompous. Of course, if I had this guy's house and paycheck, I'd probably call it a boo-fay too.)

Anyhow, little old lady and I ate lunch and while I was paying I noticed the health inspection.

87.

Now, I thought those health inspections were kinda like the SAT - you get a 90 just for turning the lights on. So just how foul does your kitchen need to be for them to dock you three points?

All of that explanation is to get you to this question: Would you rather see the 87 before you eat the meal or would you rather see the 87 after you eat the meal?

I've had it both ways in the past two weeks. I'm not sure I like either way.