I work in a kitchen. At 3 we close lunch down. From 3-5 only the bar menu is open. At 5 we open for dinner. At that point most of the food should be prep'd that we need that night. So early birders food shouldn't be of any less quality, however it may be older food that they just had to use up before they get into the newer prep'd stuff.
And to those who say food quality should never go down, well you're right in theory, however realize that the people making the food are humans and not robots.
One night 1 of our cooks didn't come in due to confusing scheduling conflicts. The cook thought he had his shift covered when in fact we were expecting him to come in. So I was bumped up to whats called the oven station, a station I've never worked before, and my station was covered by only 1 guy, when usually 2 or even sometimes 3 people is needed (because my station also does any prep the kitchen might need done during dinner). To top that off the kid at salad station (my usual station) was new and didn't quite know everything yet. All would have been good if it was a slow to average night, but as luck had it we got bum rushed 2 o 3 times during the night, getting 20-25 slips at a time. Because I was trying to learn this new station alone on a very busy night, and salad station was being run by 1 new guy some of the food was not of the best quality. We tried our best to get all these meals out, however some of it was dry, slightly over cooked, or whatever else because we were one cook short of a very busy night.
Oh and if you go to a restaurant 5 minutes before close, expect some saliva in your food
. I'm kidding of coarse, however 5 minutes before close we are cleaning the kitchen up and are damn well ready to leave, and if a slip comes in we are pissed. The exception is a very busy night that doesn't end so the slips coming in 5 minutes before close are from people who have been waiting for a table.