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Rabbi Heinemann (shlit"a)'s opinion:
Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, Rabbinic Administrator of the Star-K, is of the opinion that if the restaurant is known mainly for the traif, non-kosher, products it sells, McDonald's, for example, then going into such a place [just to buy a plain coffee] would constitute marris ayin. An establishment like a coffee shop or ...
9
You don't need to jump straight to declining the invitation. There might be things you can eat, and even if not you won't be impolite to the restaurant by joining a paying group. The key is to communicate clearly. You can explain to the person who invited you -- or, more likely, his administrative assistant -- that you would be delighted to come to the ...
8
I sent an e-mail message to the Institute of Halacha at the Star-K. Here is the response that I received shortly after:
Hello,
Rav Moshe Feinstein writes that there is an issue of maaris ayin if a person goes to a non-kosher restaurant. McDonalds would certainly classify as a non-Jewish restaurant. However, even though Starbucks does sell some non-...
7
And as for the matter of whether it's permissible to eat in a restaurant in which they prepare only dairy foods but which is of people who desecrate the sabbath, lo, even in that place there can be a number of forbidden foods such as non-kosher fishes, and the fat in which they fry [things] can be from non-kosher animals or animals not properly slaughtered, ...
6
There are problems with food from a vegan restaurant.
See this Chabad site
A vegan restaurant would not have a hard time getting kosher
certification. However, as long as there is no such certification one
should not eat there. There are many reasons why a strictly vegan
establishment requires kosher certification. Here are a few of them:
...
6
It would seem to be that this establishment is not to be patronized and or trusted to be serving kosher food unless they have a kosher certification.
This is based on a rule enacted by the Vaad Ha'arba Artzot - The Council of the Four Lands, the central body of Jewish authority in Poland from 1580 to 1764. The Vaad
instituted that it is forbidden to eat any ...
5
I was told by R' Dovid Fink shlita that, speaking very generally, Ashkenazi poskim tend to require kosher certification, the reasoning being that the standards of kosher might be different from your own. Sefardi poskim, on the other hand, tend to consider a restaurant kosher if there is a visible observant Jew working there, exactly as you describe. As ...
5
Yes a Mashgiach can enter a restaurant, hotel or factory on Shabbos for the purpose of supervising. It happens all the time. In Israel too.
(Source: Experience and people I know who have done it and do it. I once worked a Pesach Hotel over Yom Tov. The 20 minute Seder was particularly fun /sarc).
A restaurant has some particular complications when it is ...
5
In my experience, most agencies in america are strict in only allowing the Mashgiach to watch, or to do things that are related to his job, like washing lettuce, etc. Every kosher agency I have come in contact with requires a certified, trained Mashgiach to wash Lettuce, because, truthfully, it's not just washing the lettuce, it's also looking for bugs, and ...
5
As you said -- Shulchan Aruch allows one to use a cold, clean non-kosher dish or cup "derech arai" -- occasionally. No taste will transfer, and if only done on rare occasion, we're not concerned you will forget and use it for hot.
(When we say a non-kosher dish, we mean someone baked ham on this plate; this plate went through the dishwasher, cooled off, ...
4
According to a YUTorah shiur by Rabbi Elie Weissman, one of the enactments of the Vaad Arba Aratzos (Poland, around 1600) was not to buy food or wine from someone -- even if he keeps kosher! -- unless he's certified by the town Av Beit Din.
I'd be fascinated to learn more about this...
4
The only analogue I can think of offhand (not that I know vast areas of Torah) — that is, where someone has contracted for an unlimited amount of a product within a finite amount of time — is the right of a foodworker to eat from the food he's working with: see Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 337. Paragraph 18 there says he may not give of the ...
4
I wrote to Dr. Ari Greenspan and R' Dr. Ari Zivotofky, who have hosted "Mesora Dinners," serving foods with interesting Halachic statuses, in various places. As far as they know, there are no kosher restaurants that include locusts on their menus.
When they held the Mesora Dinners in the United States, the menu did not include actual locusts; they just got ...
4
The Shach (7) to Yore Dea 87:4 says clearly there is no marit haayin when there is a evident possibility that you are doing something permitted, for example cooking for the sick. This is based on the Shach when describing cooking non-kosher milk with meat:
בבישול לחודיה ליכא משום מראית העין, דהא יכול להיות שמבשל לצורך רפואה או שאר דברים
The cooking of it (...
3
As discussed elsewhere, Rabbi Heinemann's opinion is that it's a problem if it's mainly known for the non-kosher stuff.
Do a reasonable amount of people go in there for just beer? If so, you should be okay.
3
The CRC says:
Coolata (Dunkin Donuts): Not all are certified kosher. Only recommended when purchased from a kosher certified location.
I would read that as saying it depends on the flavor, primarily.
3
My understanding of Halal (and therefore take that with a significant grain of salt - but I did read an article about it once) is that it would actually make things more complicated. The supervision would be duplicative, and the issues, while overlapping are not fully satisfied. And it would only be possible if something about the Halal certification was ...
3
I defer to the others who can answer when kosher certification was required, but I think you might also be interested in hearing what has changed over the last 20 years with regard to requirements for a mashgiach temedi (full-time, on-site supervision). When I first came to my community, the city's only shomer Shabbos butcher did not require a mashgiach ...
3
It is forbidden to eat food that was produced by non-Jews or non-observant Jews (i.e. a Jew who is not fully observant of the laws of Shabbos) because it cannot be assumed to have been produced in accordance with the laws of kashrus. (This is true regardless of the producers assertions to the contrary. We cannot rely on the testimony of a non-Jew or non-...
3
They are committing fewer transgressions though I believe it's controversial whether or not the ones that remain are more/less severe since there are texts that indicate that rabbinic prohibitions are more severe (plus there may well be biblical prohibitions still present since shellfish and non-kosher meat are not the only biblical prohibitions). If we ...
3
A woman is permitted (as they are also required to eat Kosher therefore they can supervise on this). Someone who is not Shomer Shabbat cannot be (as you cannot trust them).
The kashrut authority will have their own set of standards beyond this. This is quoted from London Beit Din:
MASHGICHIM -WHO IS ELIGIBLE? What does KLBD look for in a mashgiach?
“...
3
According to Rabbi Yitzchak Abadi, there is no issue with Maarith Ayin. Here are some quoted examples and responsa. Some of these responsa are from his son A Abadi.
Example 1:
Questioner: How can you compare a treif restaurant where
people go to eat treif to an airplane that serves kosher meals, also
the kosher meal is clearly distinct to those who look at ...
3
I think you're missing the most important issue:
The pots been used to cook the food may have recently been used to cook unkosher food - and thus render the food unkosher.
While we normally assume that pots are not ben-Yoma (i.e. have not been used in the past 24 hours and hence don't make the food unkosher) in a restaurant that assumption is clearly ...
2
It's not exactly a restaurant, but Yonah Shimmel's Knish Bakery, according to their site yonahschimmel.com, has been operating at the same location on East Houston Street in Manhatten, NY since 1910 selling kosher knishes, blintzes, and other goodies.
2
You should check that the Kashrus certificate is available and not expired, each time you go.
Many of the kashrus agencies now have signature stamps AND holographic stickers on them to ensure that it's not a photocopy.
For example, see information about Badatz Beit Yosef with a picture of one of their teudot kashrut.
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If the restaurant is open on Shabbos, is the Shabbos being publicly and knowingly violated there?
If it is, then the transgressors have the law of non-Jews. Their food will be food cooked by a non-Jew "bishul akum" and forbidden.
Please see Chazon Ish, Hilchos Shechita 2 (23).
2
Shulchan Aruch Yorah 63:1 tells us that the Rabbis decreed that any meat that has been out of eyesight of the Jew (even in his own house) is forbidden unless it has a sign on it, or the person can definitely recognize it. If it is wrapped and sealed it is not a problem.
This is based on Rambam, Hilchot Ma'achalot Assurot 8:11, which in turn is based on ...
2
Generally, any pre-packaged cold foods that have a kosher symbol on them are fine. The 3 widely used kosher product symbols are "OU", "OK" and "Chaf K". (I won't delve into the various opinions of who relies on which symbols, as that's too complex to list, here.) But you will find one of these symbols on a wide array of products from dairy items to pre-...
2
There are at least three positions most people refer to when they say mashgiagh. The following are things I've heard from my Rebbeim and fiends who are in the hashgacha business.
The person who's name or organization is on the store or taking care of an event, who, either in person or through an employee, is supposed to pop in once in a while to make sure ...
2
This is a question you should be asking to kashrut agencies, for instance
OU
OK
Star K
or see this broader list of agencies
Personally I am nearly certain this is impossible because of the risks of "cross-contamination" between the two kitchen. I also never encountered such a "mixed restaurant" anywhere. The most I have seen are Israeli McDonald's with a (...
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