When you’ve been in the restaurant business for some time, chefs and restaurateurs get some common questions from customers. Here, chefs dish on what they are and answer them. One local restaurant, Boca Chica, has even gone as far as to make T-shirts with the answers to the most often asked questions from customers.

We get asked, “what is the secret in making your garlic toast — it never comes out the same when we try it at home?” We tell them we use a fresh French loaf sliced thick, melted butter, granulated garlic (no garlic powder or salt). And the big secret, an extremely hot and time seasoned flame grill. Another common question we get is about steak, such as how many times do you flip a steak on a grill? It mostly depends on how hot the grill is, but a rule of thumb is:

Once for rare, twice for medium rare, three times for medium. Also for medium well, keep flipping until it stops bleeding. It does not matter how many times you flip it. Just don’t burn the outside.

— Pat Mancini, co-owner, Mancini’s Char House

Some of the questions we get asked are very specific to a Mexican restaurant. We make these T-shirts that our staff wear to play on the questions that are most frequently asked.

“It comes in one size”: It refers to our margaritas being served in a 12-ounce, which my pops would say was the perfect pour. The drink stays potent and doesn’t get watered down in the time it takes someone to finish it.

“It’s on the rocks”: It answers the question on how we serve our margaritas. It’s thrown into a blender but we don’t turn on the blender. We’re just physically shaking it in the blender but people think we’re going to blend it. We shake it in a blender because that way for a table of five, we can make five of them all at once instead of making each one individually, which would take too long.

“The sauce is on the inside”: We serve our chimichangas with the sauce on the inside.

“It’s Pronounced Moh-Lay”: We often get asked how you pronounce mole.

“Chips are on the way”: The busser brings salsa and water to the tables and people will ask them if they get chips. The servers will come around shortly after and bring chips to the table.

“Banos”: Our bartenders have T-shirts that read banos with an arrow pointing to the right. The T-shirt points customers in the direction of where the restrooms are.

— Jose Frias, Boca Chica

At Eastside Thai, people ask ‘how spicy is Thai spicy?’ The answer is we have Minnesota hot and Thai hot because most people can’t handle Thai spicy — not even people who can handle a lot of spice. I can’t handle it myself. Basically Thai spicy is two teaspoons of crushed Thai chili pepper. It’s better for most people to go with the Minnesota hot, which is one teaspoon of chili pepper instead of two. It’s still hot. Another question that’s common is whether our curry is gluten free. The answer is, yes as a lot of our dishes are served with rice products. And our curry is made with coconut milk to make it thick, so there’s no flour or starch in it.

— Elle Kunsawat, Eastside Thai and Soberfish Restaurant

A question we get is why is your chicken so expensive. At Brasa, we use the same type of sourcing as fine dining restaurants so that’s why it costs more. Often we still sell it at a loss. Another question we often get asked is if we take reservations. We don’t take reservations with one exception. At the St. Paul location, we take them only for larger parties for our large table, which seats eight or more.

— Alex Roberts, Brasa Rotisserie

We get two often asked questions. The first is how do you get your omelettes to be so fluffy and light. The secret is to run the eggs through a sieve and then beat them well. We finish the omelettes off in the oven. The second question is what is the sauce for your bacon wrapped apricots. We use chilli peppers, honey and the rest is our secret.

— Sara Remke, co-owner Black Dog Cafe

Does it have gluten in it is by far the most common question. The answer is 80 percent of our dishes don’t have gluten in them but depending on if they’re celiac, that gets trickier depending on where food comes from and how it’s prepared.

— Adam Prince, W.A. Frost

One of our most frequent questions is, can I make a reservation. We don’t take reservations. Although it gets pretty busy here on the weekend, we find that as long as people don’t try to “reserve” tables there is almost never a wait to get a seat after ordering. The only time we get into trouble is when a group comes in, one person goes to save or reserve a table for the group while the rest order. We do our very best to discourage this when it’s busy. As far as a pro-tip for making sure you get a table … Like most restaurants that are open seven days a week, we have busy days and slow days. Monday and Tuesday are always our slowest (if it’s not a holiday), but even Wednesday and Thursday are significantly quieter than Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you really want to try the breakfast all day offerings on Sunday, come before 11 am.

— Matt Clayton, J. Selby’s

We’re really well known for romance, creating special moments and delivering memorable dining experiences — from countless weddings, private events and date nights – and I am often asked how diners can take part in more specialty events. We held a wine dinner this past summer with D’Amico & Partners CMS Advanced Sommelier Higor Valle, which sold out immediately. This upcoming season, we’re looking to hold some phenomenal craft dinners, more wine dinners and even a jazz dinner with distinguished local artists.

— Jordan Swiler, Cafe & Bar Lurcat