Karne Garibaldi, a popular restaurant in Guadalajara, holds the Guinness record for the world’s fastest food service: 13.5 seconds from order time until the food hits the table.

Usually, when visiting a popular award-winning restaurant, you expect waiting times to be on the long side, but that’s definitely not the case at Karne Garibaldi, a restaurant best known for its carne en su jugo dish and for having the world’s fastest order time. After patrons finish giving their orders to the waiters, it takes just over a dozen seconds before the plates hit their tables, which, as those who have eaten there at least once will tell you, is downright impressive. Karne Garibaldi has held the world record for the world’s fastest food service (13.5 seconds) since 1996.

Photo: El Souvenir

So how does the staff at Karne Garibaldi do it? Well, it should be said that the traditional Mexican dishes served at this popular restaurant require hours of slow cooking, so they are ready by the time it opens. Now, plating the food and getting it from the kitchen and to the diners’ tables in under 15 seconds actually requires speed and coordination.

“It began as a game between the waiters to see who could bring the food to each table the fastest,” Daniel Flores, the manager of the largest of Karne Garibaldi’s six branches, told VICE Magazine. “That competition led to us attempting the Guinness Record.”

Only it didn’t end with the place getting a mention in the Guinness Book of Records. Over 25 years later, waiters at Karne Garibaldi still take pride in being the fastest in the world, sometimes bringing orders to people’s tables than the official 13.5 seconds, or at the most, within one minute of taking them.

“Waiters, captains, cooks and all of our Karne Garibaldi staff are the soul of our kitchen,” Laura Mariaud, head of digital communications at Karne Garibaldi, told Yahoo. “Therefore, the speediness of our waiters is not all that matters to make our service the fastest of all. Of course, we train our staff to learn how to be efficient, but there’s a whole process behind the preparation of the food that allows the workflow to be fast and effective. This is how our service turns into a production chain that makes the waiter serve in the fastest way possible to our customers.”

 

Several restaurants have tried snatching the Guinness record from Karne Garibaldi over the years, but, until now, none have succeeded.