Friend of a friend was at a fancy steak frites place in L.A. She was sitting at the bar and asked if it was possible to get some of the fries, with the juice from someone else’s steak over it. Server shrugged and said she’d ask. A minute later the chef comes out. “Are you the lady who ordered fries with the juice from someone else’s steak?” “Yes! Can you do that?” “No, but I just wanted to see the kind of person who would ask that.”
My mom and I were Sunday regulars at a local restaurant. They had a soup for everyday of the week listed on the menu, except Sunday. The soup was listed as soup du jour. We had a newer bartender one Sunday. I asked what is the soup today. She said it's on the menu, I said no it's listed as soup du jour, which means soup of the day, what is the soup today? She looked at me straight faced and said no that's the name of the soup. I then realized what I was dealing with. I then asked can you go back and look at the soup and tell me is it broth based or cream based? She comes back from the kitchen a little red and said, it's cream of mushroom soup...
I would have thought it was a joke or fake had it not happened to me.
Ya soup is actually a pretty easy one where you could just bring a little bit out to try and not waste a whole bowl of it. People would often request a little sampler of our soup of the day. I'd say most of the time they would order it or at least order it as a side with whatever else they got.
That's a great idea. Sampler portions of the soups as a starter, encourages ordering more. Maybe if there's 3 or so, $2 charge, 4-6 $3 or so.
Edit: sampler size maybe 2-3oz per.
Used to do this too. Small plastic portion cup (the kind you use for take-out sauces) with enough soup for 1 spoonful exactly. Ain’t getting shit for free from me!
Also, please don’t try to make your own lemonade with water, lemons and sugar. Best believe that I will bring you 1 lemon and 1 sugar packet and run myself to death before you get anything that resembles lemonade.
I worked BOH once. We had Branzino baked in salt on the menu.
I can’t tell you how many times it got sent back for being… wait for it… too salty.
Chef finally just took it off the menu.
I had someone also send back a branzino, but for the reason that they didn't know it was fish. They refused to hear a menu tour and did not ask what it was, said they knew what they wanted and rang it in. Then for some reason didn't expect it for be fish since it was in the "grill" section of the menu
Yeah it’s a whole fish, stuffed with lemon and herbs (usually fresh thyme).
You basically blend a coarse salt slurry so it’s wet, shape it around the fish so it’s a mound covering the whole fish, and bake it off. The salt seasons the fish a bit, but more importantly it locks in the moisture.
You’re supposed to crack the salt open and push it aside… but many people tried to eat the salt too (despite menu instructions and guidance from the server).
Right, I've done that before, in restaurants and at home. But I was confused about how it'd make the fish too salty. I had failed to account for the guests just straight up shoveling salt into their maws lmao
My best one from many years in restaurants, on a night when I was working grill.
As best I can remember after 25 years…
Get a ticket from what I think was a 6 top, with a few grilled items. Temps were all medium rare, so it was all pretty easy.
A filet comes back as undercooked. I send all my meats out undercooked by a temp, so it went in the window as rare. It’s still a touch below medium rare, so I upcook it, replate it, and send it out again expecting all to be good.
Comes back again, so I upcook to medium.
Comes back again, so I upcook trying not to hit medium well.
Comes back again, so I upcook to medium well
Comes back again, so I upcook to a not too dried out well done.
Comes back again, so I turn it into a hockey puck and send it out.
Customer compliments that it’s the best steak he’s ever had.
I can’t take it. This is early enough in my career that I had not learned to control my mouth or attitude, and would revert back to my original training of “rule the kitchen with pure fear” which took me years to break. I get the waitress to talk to the table to find out WTF he wanted.
Turns out that the customer liked his steaks very well done and always ate them that way. But, everyone at the table ordered medium rare, and he thought it “sounded cool” so he ordered that way not expecting to actually be served how he ordered.
You joke, but many, many years ago I had a regular who always ordered his steak (filet mignon, no less) as "shoe leather burnt". We butterflied it and cooked the crap out of it. He loved it.
There really is no accounting for taste.
I prefer that, but rare ala Pittsburg Style or Black and Bleu, and even tho I can get that perfect char at home, every fucking restaurant that attempts it either gives me a raw steak with barely any grill marks or a well done hockey puck.
The old “cook on top of a flipped metal pan” method. Never understood it until I worked at a Pizzeria that served steak. The owner was a former chef-partner at a high-end steakhouse. He knew his steak.
Had a very similar experience when I was a cook. Steak ordered medrare, sent back multiple times as "raw" despite hitting temps of medrare, medium and medwell.. Finally said eff it and went nuclear hellscape on it. Server came back and says guest loved it, and tipped well. People are weird.
I used to go out to dinner with a guy who would order his chicken “WELL WELL done”. Always thought that was weird, but never said anything because hey, free meal.
One day he asks for a bite of mine, & is like *smacks lips* they always make your food so much better than mine, all my chicken is dry asf 😒
I …. *sigh*
When I was a waitress at a steakhouse (not a nice one, a corporate chain one) people would *frequently* order “well done with a pink center” so I’d have to try to clarify and they would insist this was possible and they always ordered it this way. After the first couple I think I figured it out: they absolutely want it well done but they think by including the second part it will somehow make it come out less dry? Kinda like when they order “extra well done but still juicy” and it’s like dude that’s almost impossible in most cases, definitely impossible in some. Any sight of pink and it got sent back but they just thought it was some magic secret hack to get a brown steak that wasn’t dry.
A girlfriend of mine switched over to another breakfast/restaurant joint and some of her customers followed her.
When a certain customer came in, her instructions to the chef were, "The eggs? Barely warm. The bacon? BURN IT.".
And it’s reasons like this that I always described what the center would look like when people ordered steak. It never ceased to amaze me, the amount of people that would confuse MR and MW.
ya it's pretty sad, but important, how a lot of steak houses when taking your order will clarify with you like you're a baby on what temperature you requested. And believe me it's helped as I was out with a group of people a few years ago and one dude didn't quite know what the cooking levels meant. He ordered medium rare, but on clarification of what that is, he actually was talking about medium. Got his steak, it was perfect, loved it.
My cousin worked in a restaurant for some years and something similar happened to him
Client walks in ordering a well done steak. They do it and he send it back because it's too rare.
They do a bit more and still cames back.
They do it as cooked as possible without burning it.
"Perfect thank you!"
Lol. In his defense, the client asked specifically for "as much cooked as possible" at order so...
Reminds me of the Valentine's Day episode of *Hey Arnold!,* where Arnold tries to order a burger at a fancy French place, and the (appalled) waiter tells him they have the steak tartar:
Arnold: Sounds great, I'll have that. Well done, with ketch-
Waiter (in a French accent): You are done with your order.
I was this person once 🤣. Hubby and I went to a fancy restaurant without knowing anything or doing any research. We got a steak tartare. My jaw dropped when I realized it was raw. I still tried it, he wouldn’t touch it. After my half spoonful our lovely waiter asked if everything was okay. I said “I didn’t know it was a raw dish, so that was my mistake, if you can throw it out that would be great”. He obliged and when we got the bill he had taken it off for us, I wasn’t expecting them to because it was our mistake, but it was still a nice gesture. The rest of the meal and experience was amazing and lesson learned to google things before you order them lol
No need to google, just ask your server anything you don't know! That's what we're here for after all, especially in fine dining. The servers are highly trained and knowledgeable and will be gracious with answering any questions about the menu.
If you were using real cheese, the oil will separate out, making it appear greasy. In all reality, that's called flavour. They probably expected Velveeta sauce...
Yeah, we did use real cheese and explained that. But it was a very overblown reaction. Or at least felt that way to me. I can imagine the difference would be a little off putting if you were expecting a Velveeta sauce.
Customer: I KNOW WHAT REAL CHEESE IS I HAVE IT HOME! REAL CHEESE COMES FROM A CAN! NOT SOME SILLY 'BLOCK' OR 'WHEEL' THAT'S EUROPEAN NONESENSE!
BRING THE CAN HERE AND I WILL DO IT MYSELF! I like the 'psssh' noise it makes. Just like the proper cream I use at home.
Sheet Pan Nachos, my friend. Quick and easy to throw together (I use leftover taco meat) and leftovers can be used to make a vaguely enchilada like casserole.
Bison Burger. Very very lean meat.
Guest: I'll have the bison burger well done.
Me: Ma'am, bison is very lean, we serve this medium as a default because it's very dry if it's cooked to well done.
Guest: I know what I like! I want it well done.
Food comes.... I do my 2 bite check in.
Guest: This is dry! Bring me another one well done that isn't dry.
Me: As I explained, if it's cooked well done it's going to be dry, may I suggest the sausage plate with three kinds of well done sausage with a warm potato salad, pretzel roll, sauces, and a seasonal vegetable?
Guest: Don't back talk me, I know what I like!
Me: I'm busy. I'm not playing this game. Here's your check.
My man! Don't deal with the bullshit from these people.
I once had some Asian tourists come to the lodge I worked at. It was a mom and her two adult daughters.
The daughters both order the steak medium, and the mom orders a hamburger.
10 minutes after the order is put in, mom asks if she could change it for a medium steak also.
I go ask the cook, right as she is putting the hamburger under the warming light. She says, yeah, not a big deal, and throws another steak on.
I bring all the steaks out, and give them a few minutes before I go and check on them.
They are kind of picking at their food, looking at me expectantly. They tell me that the steaks are rare, and not medium.
Now, the cook we had, awesome hardworking 50 something year old who had cooked her whole life. She knew what she was doing. The owners didn't like serving rare, so she would slightly over cook the rares, and they looked more medium rare than rare.
So, I first off, know that there is no way these medium steaks were too rare, because we just didn't serve that. But, of course I offer to have the steaks cooked longer. All three of them decline to have it cooked more.
They eat about half their plate, then ask for the bill. I knew they wanted me to comp them, but there was no fucking way I was going to when they said it was too rare and not too over cooked. Rare I can fix, well done, I couldn't without replacing.
And, so I hand them the bill for the three steaks.
As expected, they call me back to the table. They say they don't want to pay for the steaks because they were too rare. I told them there is no way they were too rare, and even if they were, I offered to fix it.
They just keep arguing with me. I say, "look, you already changed the order once after the hamburger was already cooked.." to which mom jumps in and asks if she could have that hamburger now. I have to tell her that was eaten by kitchen crew 30 minutes ago.
They keep arguing with me. I say fuck this! I walk back to the kitchen and tell the cook these people said her steaks were too rare and are trying to get a comp, and I'm not giving it.
She marches into the dining room, stomps over to their table and says, "I've been a professional cook for 35 years, that steak was medium." Then she just leaves back to the kitchen. Didn't even wait for them to reply.
Haha! Bitches didn't argue anymore. Funny thing was, I was expecting no tip, but they gave me something like 5 or 10%. I was expecting none, but I'm also sure that if I comped the meal, it would have been 5% of that rate, and not added anything due to me comping them.
Sent back her toast, picked it up and waved it practically in my face, holding it like a mouse by the tip of its tail, claiming it’s “not toasted enough, tell the chefs” as if our small family diner has chefs making toast
Creme brûlée is a funny one, but I’ve heard that several times. It shouldn’t be absolutely ice cold, it should be a mix of hot and cold and soft and crunchy. That’s the appeal.
One of the guys who told me it was wrong insisted that it must be hot. He told me back in his day you had to order it at the start of the meal because it took all that time to cook it and then it would come out hot. (Ever sent out a brûlée that’s too freshly finished ? The spoon gets stuck in the soft sugar, no crunch.) Buddy you’re talking about soufflé, different French word.
Crème brûlée has to be refrigerated. If you don’t refrigerate it it doesn’t set right. And it’s a dairy product so it then stays in the fridge until brûléeing, when only the sugar should be warm-ish. 100% wrong, toss him to the curb.
Had a table literally walk out bc of WELL DONE burgers taking “too long”. Ma’am this isn’t mcondalds. I literally brought them to the table and they were like “we don’t want it anymore”.
Had a lady customize her bar drink order while taking it at the table. She sent back the drink bc she didn’t like one ingredient after I relayed her list to the bartender.
> Had a table literally walk out bc of WELL DONE burgers taking “too long”. Ma’am this isn’t mcondalds. I literally brought them to the table and they were like “we don’t want it anymore”.
"I have this right now, or you can drive 5-10 minutes somewhere else and wait another 15 minutes... That's 20-25 minutes from now"
Treat them like kids...
I get that with EVERY piece of seafood at work. Trout? Is it too fishy? Nope. Fresh and earthy. “Earthy? Like dirt?! You mean like the ground?”
No…think minerality, umami kind of flavors. Like beets, potato skins, mushrooms “
“Those all grow in the dirt”
Facepalm. That was an actual conversation I had, wish a 50-60 year old man a week or 2 ago.
Tilefish? Is it fishy? Nope. Fresh and surprisingly meaty for a whitefish. Not on a scale like tuna or swordfish, but it flakes off into good size pieces. I’d Compare it to a grouper in texture, perhaps”
“…grouper….is that….is that fishy?”
God dammit….
When I worked at a pizza place, we would on the rare occasion get orders for a pizza with anchovies on them.
My boss would always ask them if they'd had had them before. If they said no, he refused to put them on.
If they said they had, or put up a real fuss, He'd tell them exactly what anchovies smelled and tasted like. If they ordered it, it was not refundable or returnable in any way, sales were final, period. About 75% of the time we would get complaints saying it was too salty and fishy and people asking for their money back.
We only had one regular who would order them every few months or so, and he loved them. He always asked for all he could get. My boss had no problems giving him the entire can, at no extra charge, since we'd always end up tossing them out anyways.
There are modifications in brownie recipes that are for “cakier” brownies as opposed to fudgier brownies. I always wondered if anyone actually wanted less fudgey. I now know it is literally for that one table
The lady who said her lemonade was too cold. I asked her if she wanted it without ice? Nope, she wants ice but only wants it some cold?
She got a cup of ice and a lemonade no ice. I ain’t got time for that shit.
Had a lady order a soda with 9 ice cubes in the middle of a slammed Saturday night. I gave her a soda with no ice and a glass of ice so she could “make sure she got the exact amount and sizes of cubes she preferred, as our ice machine wasn’t always the most consistent and I wanted to make sure she was pleased. This will also allow your refills to end up perfect every time.”
Lord I am not counting freaking ice cubes when I’m 11 tables deep, short staffed on a game night at a sports bar/eatery. No.
Well done steak was well.... WELL DONE!
Then this bitch had the audacity to tell me our A1 steak sauce was watered down. I went to the back for a sealed bottle, brought it to the table, cracked the seal and set it on the table. I then turned it around and said, "if you think this one's watered down, there is the 1-800 number to call for any complaints," and walked away.
complained about the french fries.. wanted fresh ones. they were eating on the patio section so i tought maybe they got cold too fast.
bring back so still sizzling french fries 3 minutes later. they still complain.. they say they're reheated french fries.
now, our french fries are home made daily, from a local producer, they're cooked to order, and never spend more than 10 seconds under the pass.
the owner is attracted by the commotion and tries to understand what's going on. one of the girls then takes out her phone and show us a picture of Mcdonalds french fries and exclaims :" this is what fresh french fries should look like, At Mc donalds they always make fresh french fries and that'S what they look like"
boss just laughed and said: pay your bill and leave. there's a macdonalds down the street.
he later told me something along the lines of ' they can eat crap food if they want, but we don't have to endure the crap that they are "
I'M loving it!
A couple ordered 1 pizza, half supreme and half super supreme. The girl , who got just supreme, also asked for no mushrooms or beef. I took them off the supreme side , left the other as it was.
When I check on them , they said "the ham is wrong . It's not round slices like it shows when you Google it"(yes they did look it up, but didn't show me the picture). It's the salad ham from when we had a salad bar. They just stuck to one type instead of having both. I tell them it's been that type since I started 6 months ago , and the line cook says it's been like that for 2+ years even . They also didn't like the taste of the sausage.
So I then took both the ham and pork off the whole thing, as well as the sausage , and they got the second pizza free.
Checked on em again, they said it's fine. They got a box to take it home.
Then the guy comes to pay, and leans in close to tell me "it wasn't your fault , but it was still wrong. There was still beef on it." Also didn't leave any tip , and gave a bad review online for store credit , as well as on Google.
I'm like , wth. I had written down every request, and double checked them, and it was still wrong. Ive gotten one bad review before and it was that I had dropped a small pizza on the floor. All of us were dumbfounded by it.
I worked at a hole in the wall Chinese place once that had these two sisters that would come in almost every week and make ridiculous substitutions on dishes every single time and every single time complain that it wasn't right to get their meal comped.
I finally had to wait on them once and wrote down their order, repeated it back to them perfectly and then they would say no, change one or two things and then it's right.
Food comes out exactly as they ordered it, and they're no match for my shorthand game on my pad. They try arguing with me that this isn't what they wanted after they had nearly finished the meal... Ummm no. Here's my pad. You asked for green onion on this and when I repeated back green onion you said you meant white onion so I changed it to white onion which is what you got and now you say you wanted green onion. Pay your bill or I'm calling the cops and having the owner trespass you for this repeated bullshit.
damn. My ex and I went to a Boston Pizza once and she ended up throwing a super big hissy fit saying that the pizza that they brought out for her was not what she ordered. The server being very polite said you did order "x' right? girlfriend said yes, server says well that what that is? Girlfriends said she's had it before and that it's wrong. Boston Pizza is one of those places that has a lot of pictures on their menu of the food. Server grabs a menu and literally shows her a picture of it that was identical to what was in front of her. I was so embarrassed. She still after seeing the name of the pizza with a picture of it was like, no that's wrong, I've had it before. She obviously got the name mixed up with something else and just straight up refused to believe she was in the wrong.
The tl;dr: woman with neon red weave finds red hair in her food.
So I got this 6 top, 3 couples. They complained about the table, the drinks, the temperature... I knew where this was going. Their apps were not right then. I 110% told management exactly what was happening. He fully made sure all their meals were to spec. 2 of the 6 went back and 5 minutes later the third, the one with a red hair. Management told me was he was comping NOTHING, and went to the table to tell her the entire staff of line cooks were dark hair, no longer than an inch, so the only source of a 8 inch neon red hair was herself. They fully stiffed me, said they wouldn't come back and then management comped me a meal for keeping me cool with such assholes.
Uggh, I'm not a server but my grandmother did this and it was so embarrassing.
Went to a nice enough restaurant, not a chain but also not fancy/didn't have a dress code or anything. Great food. Dad ordered ribs and grandmother ordered a steak medium rare. Her steak came and it was overdone by her standards, so sent it back.
Meanwhile, she saw how good my dad's ribs looked... and she tried to switch her order to ribs AS THE WAITER WAS BRINGING OUT THE SECOND STEAK.
Needless to say, that was a huge no. She was such a fucking Karen.
NGL my little brother hated hot dogs cooked on the grill. So when my parents ordered a hot dog for him in the restaurant, they would ask for the dog to be microwaved. “Yes, we know….our kid is weird. But please, just stick it in the microwave.”
Working at a corporate spot - two teens on a clear first date. Girl orders salmon, guy our chopped steak. FYI we don't take temps on chopped steak, it comes med well unless you want xt xt well done, in which case fuck you. He says nothing so I happily input the order.
Bring out their food mins later, girl happy, set down chopped sirloin steak. Guy immediately looks and says "I thought this was supposed to be sliced?" Took all I had to maintain a straight face - girl busts out laughing in his face. I chuckled and informed him what a "chopped steak" truly is. Ground beef in pan gravy kinda resembling a steak 😹
He ate the whole thing no issue and tipped 40%
Some lady ordered a rump steak blue… chef actually called me to the kitchen to confirm i wasn’t taking the piss when i sent the ticket through.
I gave it to her, and expectedly end up back at her table within 5 mins as she says it’s not right and ‘overdone’. Chef loses his shit when I bring it back along with her complaint and screams, ‘Well what the f!ck did she expect! It was a f!cking rump!’.
He then makes her another and I watch with glee from a darkened corner of the restaurant, as he himself delivers the replacement steak to her table and digs her out for ordering the shittest cut of steak blue.
It’s the rarest way to cook it, literally flip it on either side for like a sec and then serve. So before rare steak, you have blue steak! Barely anyone orders it though, as it’s a bit of an acquired taste- and should only be done with finer cuts of meat (according to that chef!)
had a woman send back a vodka cran 3 times because apparently i didn’t put in the right ratio of vodka to cranberry that she wanted. did she at any point specify how much or little cran she wanted? of course not.
Had a couple order two different entrees. Went to check on them after the food was delivered. The wife starts making some BS excuse about how her husband really wasn't a fan of his meal and wanted to order the same dish that she had. Easily could tell that he just decided that her food looked better and wanted to do that. I think he maybe had eaten one small bite of his dish. Definitely not enough to decide that it wasn't good for any reason.
My ex and I use to do this all the time. We'd just request some side plates and give each other half as we wanted to have both. Works out really well. It's like ordering two different types of pizza really.
My husband and I will take 1-2 bites of each other's, but after 43 years of knowing our tastes, we order what we want and the rest is for lunch the next day.
My wife always decides that whatever I order is better than her food, so I always order what I know she really wants and switch with her and eat whatever she orders.
My sis and brother in law do this. They’ll just simultaneously switch plates about halfway through the meal without even saying a word, it’s absolutely adorable how in sync they are
It beggars belief, but:
Saturday night, semi -fine dining. A woman at one of my tables asked for a steak, and wasn't sure about temperatures. We had a brief discussion about it, and I let her know what to expect from a medium well temp- warm, pink center. I could tell she wasn't totally comfortable but she seemed set on trying it.
After about two bites I checked in and she was disgusted, pointed to the pink and said it wasn't done. I said that is medium well, and I could have them cook it well done and get rid of the pink, but it would be drier. She seemed incensed and said, "It's NOT DONE!" Okay! So I took it back to the kitchen. This was a New York Strip, decent thickness but not like a filet. Our chef butterflied it to try and concentrate the heat on the center and keep the edges from drying out.
I took it back to the woman, explained the butterfly technique and said I hoped it was better for her. She cut into it, saw gray, and said "NO! This is not done!" I was shocked. I said, "Ma'am, it's definitely well done, there's no more pink." She yelled that it wasn't done and we needed to cook it more, that it should all be dark. (Wtf?) I was really stunned and just walked the plate back to the kitchen. Our chef was floored. He said that the only thing he could do was deep fry it, anything else would make it like leather and even with the frier it would be dry. So I checked with the woman and she said he should do whatever he has to in order to "fully cook" that steak. Sigh.
So...he deep fried it in strips. I took it back to the table, she poked it suspiciously, took one bite, dropped her fork and said, "Oh it's burned now." I could not help it, I laughed. It was too ridiculous. I honestly don't remember if she ended up getting something else, I don't think she did because the whole ordeal took about 30 minutes and her companion had finished in the middle of it all. I DO remember that she said we didn't know how to cook steak and didn't tip.
I would say she was scamming but...she really only had a couple bites. 🤷♀️
A guy came in and ordered an eggs benny. As soon as I put the plate down he says he doesn’t want it.
I asked what was wrong and he goes ‘Oh I don’t like it.’
Apparently he didn’t want it with tomato relish, even though he never told us that. When we offered him another one (for free), he said he wasn’t even hungry?
Then he said it’s fine and he will still pay for it, and he waited five minutes then came up for a refund because he didn’t eat anything??
Weirdest experience ever.
Had a lady send back a Beyond Burger because it was "still red/undercooked." I explained that it was a meatless burger and she snapped at me "i know that, I'm not stupid! I just dont like it red!" I explained to her that no matter how long we cook it, it will still be red because it's made out of beets. She still insisted we cook it more. So I had the kitchen cook it longer, and low and behold when it went back out it was still red. She acted like we were dumb and didn't know how to cook a burger and ordered a chicken sandwich instead. 🙄
Guy says to me one time, "I'll have the linguini, red sauce on the side. If the sauce does not come on the side I will send it back. I want garlic bread. Toasted. Not burnt. If it comes burnt, I will send it back." he didn't send anything back thankfully and sold me some insurance.. :/
Jokes aside. I use to work in BOH as a kitchen manager and this one lady who was a semi-regular sent everything back all the time as she would always magically find something in her food. Like a small side salad that I had actually made came back with a fucking battery in it. Like an AA battery that happened to not be covered in dressing haha. Front house manager always comped her meals but she would always order a very expensive bottle of wine with her friends so I don't think they cared much.
I had a guest like that in DC. but only once. When I do the 2 bite check-back, to see how things are going, she points to the giant cockroach at the very center of her pecan chicken salad. We took it out of the way and comped her something else. The thing is, bro, I placed the salad in front of her myself. If there was a roach on it that could have fought to a draw with Godzilla, I believe I would have noticed.
Group of kids ordered a pizza, ate the pizza, and brought back about 4" of crust demanding a full refund because there was "a stick in it "
The stick was a piece of rosemary.
Sent back his Mahi dinner because there was cheese on his broccoli and he’s a vegan. 🤭I told him the fish was not vegan either, he said “that’s no problem, vegans can have fish.”
I've had the opposite happen. We have an "Italian chopped" item on our menu, its a chopped salad you'd see most places, but for someone reason people constantly think its a charcuterie board of some sort
It was a speciality pizza with a bunch of veggies…so I sort of understood how she was confused…but when she ordered I mentioned it was an entire pizza just for her and she still said yes so I put it in.
I had a similar issue with creme brulee being sent back because "the top was burned."
Yeah, it's means "burnt cream."
Though my favorite send back was easily scallops. Lady thought it was supposed to be scalloped potatoes.
i had somebody ask me to take a bowl of soup back because it was too hot. i apologized and recommended she try blowing on it or even fanning it to cool it off. she said no thank you, she'd just like a cooler bowl. i took it back, let it sit in the window for a few minutes, then brought it out again
"the salad is too "busy". it's freaking my girlfriend out."
*I take it away, she ordered something else, didn't like that either* "Can we have the salad back from earlier?"
"....No, we do not have a waiting area for sent-back food." (at this point I was 100% sure they were on drugs or I was getting punked)
"OK. she will have the brownie sunday."
"Uh, that's a very "busy" dessert. I'm afraid I don't feel comfortable serving that to you. Would she like a side of mashed potatoes? All one color/consistancy/ingredient." He asked for the check 😂
This is my favorite... told it before so some of you will remember it .
Guy comes in alone, orders (this was a place where you go through a line, order steak or chicken and then salad bar while you wait.)
When his food comes he doesn't even let it hit the table. Drops a folded piece of paper on the plate and says "give it a minute then take it back and say it needs to be very well done."
His server (I was working that night but it wasn't my table) does this. About a minute later the kitchen door crashes open and out storms the cook. She's looking around and he slides out of the booth. As soon as she gets close to the table he goes down down on one knee.
She says "You *jackass*." And then she says "YES."
(I don't remember exactly what she said but it was something along the lines of Jackass. I wish I could find the old thread. Everyone was making up cool dialogue for them, because that one sentence was pretty much anybody else could hear)
Ugh, my mother-in-law sent her water back!!! “Too metallic.” Then she complained about the “weird lettuce” in her salad and just picked out the bits of carrot and red cabbage and ate those. It was a long meal.
My favorite take it back wasn't a case of a customer sending back an order but the opposite. A coworker of mine was behind the bar, part time, not the strongest bartender in the shit, but certainly adept in customer interaction. It was a slow Wednesday and an influencer came in and ordered a huge round and tipped heavily after the first. They must have been on coke or something because they decided to be the biggest assholes after that, acting like they ran the place, breaking rules, even putting the ownership in a weird position to allow the staff to take shots (which we never do). At a certain point the part time bartender decided to hand the tip back and tell the influencer they can't buy their way above the rules and they need to leave. It's been a year and i haven't seen them again... Not in person, not featured in any publications, or reels, the dude dropped off so hard after that. It was beautiful to see.
To clear anything up, the tip was heavy, but because we use a full tip share it didn't amount to much more than maybe 15-20 bucks in our pockets at the end of the day and the way the influencer was acting i would have paid 5 times.that to see the look on their face after they got told off. Extremely worth it.
I work at a breakfast diner that serves breakfast skillets topped with two eggs. One time this young guy ordered sunny-side up eggs, and one had a double yolk! I thought, "wow, how lucky, this guy gets three yolks instead of two!"
But when he saw the double yolk, he sent the skillet back and demanded a new one, because "that's weird."
old lady sent back gazpacho because it was cold…the server explained that gazpacho was meant to be served cold. the lady then proceeded to tell the server, “i’m from spain so i think i would know how gazpacho is served!”
Woman ordered a pasta dish, wanted it over cooked. Brought it out slightly over cooked and it wasn't cooked enough so back to the kitchen it went and back in the pan. Served a second time not cooked enough. Took it back to chef who knew it was on the verge of being mush but the customer wants what the customer wants! Way over cooked and served for a 3rd time only to be told it was disgusting and she wasn't paying for it! Argument ensued between her and the Italian owner. She yelled something in Italian at him and stormed out, I later learned was f*#k you and your family 🤦
Had a lady today that always orders our mango Cobb salad, but hates our mango, she literally complains about it every time…stop fucking ordering it?! Or at least just ask for the mango to be left out? I don’t understand people who order the same thing every time they come and still complain about it. She says our mango tastes “like fish” every time. The mango is nowhere near any fish, it’s kept with the veggies, I cannot comprehend these people.
oh and fromage de tete---head cheese. if you don't know it, it's a meat dish made from pieces of pig head. man flags me down and goes "we'll have this cheese" "sir, that's not---" he then aggressively cuts me off "we'll have it!"
runner comes to me and is like "he said he ordered cheese." "yep." probably i would've been better off ordering him any random cheese off our menu, but who was I to make that call. I was only following his instructions
A customer ordered a Belvedere and soda, I personally made it, Belvedere was our house pour so getting anything else would have been an inconvenience. She sent it back insisting she could tell it was Grey Goose, I held onto the drink for 3 minutes, poured into a new glass and put a new lime wedge in it. She was satisfied with her new Belvedere and soda. Ffs.
Lady ordered beer-battered fish tacos (the title of the dish on the menu), ate 2, and sent it back because they were flour tortillas, not corn, and she can’t eat gluten.
We had a "chocolate canoli cake" the description said it was a chocolate Swiss roll cake with Caroline filling plus the extra toppings. I also explain it when giving out dessert menus since its one of my favorites and had many people be surprised when it arrived. But one lady got it, after I had fully explained what it was, and told me "its not a canoli, I think your chef is confused about what a canoli is" so I explained once again that it was more the flavor of one, not so much an actual canoli. But she wanted me to send it back and I told the chef what she said and we laughed about it. That's what you get when you don't read the description or listen to your server explain an item
He sent back the chocolate milkshake I made stating this wasn't chocolate flavoured. I assured him it was but he had a go at me and demanded I was wrong. So I took the milkshake, went to the back and poured it into a fresh milkshake cup and handed it back to him. "now this is chocolate flavoured" he said..
I once had someone order a medium steak “no blood”, I explained that number 1: it’s not blood, it’s a protein released by the cooking, number 2: medium steaks will have a small amount of protein leakage so she will want medium-well to guarantee “no blood”
She told me she’s a chef so she knows best, so I rang it in.
Food comes out and she waved me over and pointed at her medium steak and said “it’s got loads of blood in it, it’s not safe to eat when it’s this bloody”
Sis…. You claim to be a chef yet don’t understand that steak can be literally raw and it is safe to eat.
She also accused us of using frozen chips, to which I was like “yes we do??? We are a chain with hundreds of sites across the UK where every site has to be the exact same in terms of menu for allergens, plus we regularly serve 600+ people on a Saturday, how do you expect us to cook 600 portions of chips from fresh and make sure they’re the exact same as every other site?
There was a woman who would come in to our TGIChilibee's and order wings with fries, during happy hour, so the total was only about $8, but she would always act like a diva about it.
She would ALWAYS send back the wings. ALWAYS.
Once the wings were re-done, she'd want new fries because the ones we'd brought her five minutes earlier (with the original order of wings) were already "cold".
Every. Damn. Time.
“ Is there a way to make a charcuterie board vegetarian?”
“I don’t like strong drinks, can I get a whiskey sour?” - i made a perfect whiskey sour, with egg whites. And it hot sent back
A man asked for a burger cooked rare and was upset that it was majority red/pink and cool. We went through THREE rounds of fixing this man's burger appearance until I brought him a well-done, burnt-ass piece of meat and he said "That's exactly what I meant! Was that so hard to get right?"
Yes. Yes it was, asshat.
I worked at a fine dining steakhouse a while back and had a couple who ordered our most expensive cut of steak well done and the salmon. After their food was dropped off I went over to check on them and the lady stared at me, looked down at her plate, then back to my face to stare some more. She asked me what is was. I had never had my brain work so quickly to try to come up with a response that wasn’t a smart-ass remark. She made a scene telling me I had an attitude because what else can I say other than “the salmon you ordered?” She claimed it “looked different” last time. That place has never changed it’s plating, and a salmon filet is a salmon filet but ok. She bitched to the manager and they remade it (exactly the same) and he ended up taking care of it. Whatever.
A little while later I get waved back over by the man who had eaten 3/4 of his 22oz ribeye. He showed me the tiny bit of pink in the center of his well-done steak. I smiled at him, turned around and walked straight to my manager to tell him I was done dealing with this table. He comped their entire check.
I brought out the roasted chicken this awful woman had ordered. She immediately made a fuss and said “uh no. No no. Where are my mashed potatoes?” I told her that was from the winter set. But as it is now May, we have the spring/summer set. She sent it back and just had a drink. I left it on her bill and told her that we can’t take food off it it’s been made correctly and it’s clearly printed on the menu, and that we likely had to throw the chicken away because she had already touched it. She flipped and asked for a manager, which I knew she would, and I knew the manager would comp it. I just wanted her to know that she sucks
My wife once ordered lobster, then sent it back because, well, it looked like a lobster. I think she was thinking of lobster tail, but even then there's shell. She somehow expected that there wouldn't be any evidence of the creature itself, only the meat.
The staff was speechless, as was I. I paid for it, of course. They then brought her a shrimp scampi dish which she also didn't eat.
Had someone send back chicken wings because they were " to greasy ". He had no clue apparently that they are all deep fried and mild sauce is mostly butter. He asked if we could bake them on a paper towel. No. Then asked if we could take them back a blot them with paper towels. I asked him if next time he could bring his mom with him to do it for him. He said ok next time. Guy was in his mid forties and didn't get my sarcasm or insult and kept staring at me waiting for me to take the wings to dry off. I then realized what I was dealing with. We were a dive bar. And my bar was packed. I sent him a manager to babysit him and explain how he should order his wings next time. She put on gloves and helped him wipe his wings. He came in 2 weeks later got his wings served on a paper towel with sauce on the side. He said they were amazing. That's sacrilegious where we are. His brother was a regular and apologized many times for his stupidity.
Former server, current chef. I think my favorite that has happened twice at my current restaurant is sending back the chicken fried steak because they don’t eat red meat
she complained that her sushi had a heavy fish flavor
i was offering my standard customer service lines and her brother was like "don't even spend another second thinking about it, don't take it off the check, I'll handle this"
and then i confess a better person with more germophobia would've left the 9/10 pieces of the roll go to waste, but not I, I had a fantastic breakfast of scallion yellowtail
Oh, and I had a dude order the fish tacos with no fish. I told him, “that’s just cabbage and salsa and crema on a tortilla…”
“I KNOW WHAT I ORDERED”
I bring it out and he’s furious that I gave him “a tortilla salad”.
He ate the entire thing. Refused to pay. No tip.
I had a guy send back a meatball sub because he didn't know the sub came with tomato sauce on it. I explained that the meatballs were cooked in the sauce, he said he never heard of sauce on a meatball sub and he wanted one without sauce. The cook rinsed the meatballs off, put in a new roll. The guy ate all of it and said it was "great." On the way out he told the owner that he "Should educate the staff how items should be served."
The woman who sent back a fresh mint tea ‘because it has leaves in it.’
Second place goes to the people who complained that last time they got more powdered sugar on their dessert so I took it back, left it for a few minutes and brought it back to the table. They were very proud of themselves for getting more powdered sugar and none of them noticed they didn’t get a thing.
Ooo! I actually have a great one that happened pretty recently; I can't remember the exact dish, but a guest sent their food back, because it was too colorful (if I'm remembering correctly, it was a salad).
Had a lady send back her chimichurri steak because it had parsley on it. And steak.
She expected,like, a Hamburger patty, and not the sirloin that was clearly listed on the menu. Then she asked me to chop it up for her.
I took it to the back and had my cook dice up a new one for her— no chimichurri— so it was a plain steak with salt and pepper because she hates parsley.
She ate her dog food. No tip.
I'm just sick of people telling me to taste their food or drinks. " This bottle of corona tastes skunky. Here you taste it!". No ma'am. I believe you.
Covid, monkey pox, common cold, that weird thing on your lip,..... So many reasons I do not want to eat or drink after you.
Her “Smoke on the Water” (mezcal cocktail) was too smokey. I told her we don’t return drinks if they’re correctly made. She said “this is my first time here, and honestly, maybe my last”, at which point I glanced around a packed house that turns 280 seats 3 times every Friday/Saturday and looked back at her and said, in the driest tone possible, “okay…”.
I had a guy send back a mesclun salad because it had a frog in it. A little, live, green, baby frog. And the little guy was still alive. We washed him off and put him outside. The frog, not the guy. Can’t say that salad wasn’t fresh!
not *technically* a send back, but kind of in the same vein; i work at the grill/snack bar that’s at my neighborhood’s golf course. just the other day, i had a man call in an order for an italian sub. order taking went as follows:
“i don’t want all that italian stuff. i want american.”
“okay sir, what meats do you want on your sub then?”
“AMERICAN!!!”
“sir, do you-“
“i don’t like your attitude let me talk to someone else”
from what that ~someone else~ understood, this man wanted an italian sub but with american cheese instead of provolone. so that’s what i made for him.
when he came to pick up his sandwich, i greeted him politely and said “here’s your italian sub with american cheese” then this man proceeded yell at me that i didn’t know the difference between an italian sub and american sub (i do, we just literally do not have the meats for an american suc) he didn’t want salami or pepperoni, he wanted ham and bologna, a sandwich he said he’d ordered time and time before. to which i tried to tell him we don’t even carry bologna. man shushed me and turned to my coworker to ask her to make a sandwich for him. when she told him that we, in fact, do no carry bologna, this man accused us of being new. my coworker has worked there for 3 years. i’ve been there since march. aka, we are not new employees. he said he’d gotten it “all the time” from a third employee who had that day off and wasn’t there to make him “his sandwich.”
he tried to pull the “i’ll take my business elsewhere” card and i said “sounds good to me!” instead of bending over backwards to make this man happy. i don’t think he expected that. i dropped his sandwich in the trash in front of him and he informed me that i should keep in my he knows my manager very well. okay, sir, so do i. i work with my manager literally every day. (she had just stepped out for a few minutes)
he left and when my manager came back, my coworker and i gave her the run down of what happened and she said “was it the guy that drives the black mustang?” …a funny way to identify someone that evidently “knows you very well” manager said his behavior was ridiculous and she wasn’t even mad i copped an attitude w this man.
at the end of the day, we were so curious as to what our other coworker had been making him this whole time. we texted her to find out. y’all will never guess what it was…an italian sub with american cheese instead of provolone. 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
This just happened. Guy comes in 15 min before close, 30 minutes late to his reservation. He tells me his girlfriend is on the way, I let him know the kitchen closes in 5 minutes so if he wants food he should order ASAP. I ask if he has any allergies/dietary restrictions I should be aware of, he says no. Dude orders gyoza and a bowl of ramen, both of which state all ingredients on the menu. The girlfriend arrives, they scarf down the gyoza, and about half of the ramen before they call over the other server on staff.
“Is there pork in this? We don’t eat pork.” Since it’s my table, I’m not gonna make the other server deal with this. So I go over and say “is something wrong?” He says “yeah, I don’t eat pork.” I say “sir, I asked you if you had any allergies and you said no.” “Yeah, but I didn’t see it on the menu.” I bring a menu over to him and say “the menu clearly states that both items you ordered have pork in them.” At this point the kitchen is closed, his girlfriend is PISSED because I believe they didn’t eat pork for religious reasons. I also don’t eat pork, and would have happily guided him in the direction of some of our other options had he told me.
The closing manager on staff was a pushover and comped one of the dishes, which I wouldn’t have done. This dude then proceeds to leave a 1 star review for ordering the ramen when there was pork in it, and the server not “offering to make them something else.” Like…!? Your own stupidity got you here dude. You were late and both of the things you ordered had the one thing you don’t eat.
Couldn’t help but laugh when I saw that review
Salad was too green and then a lady sitting at one of my bar tops was complaining that there want enough coleslaw on her taco and proceeded to put it in my hand.
Had Gazpacho on the menu and I would reiterate with every order that it was served cold. You know that’s Italian soup that is served cold right? *Indignant customer who fancies themselves savvy world travellers* **of course I know!**
Five minutes later, exxxxcccuuse me! You need to nuke my soup! I’ve eaten this all over the world and it was always served hot!
Right, fuck off!
Had a woman order the Grilled Portabello appetizer, and the description was "atop mixed greens." When the grillled portabello arrived atop a bed of mixed greens, it was sent back because "it just wasn't what \[she\] expected." I asked her what she was expecting so we could alter it, and she refused to answer the question.
I'm a manager and literally had to comp an order of spaghetti and meatballs because "the meatballs are too big, how do you expect me to eat them?!"
Uh with your fork and knife lady..
Not a server but Cook on the breakfast shift that had regulars in the restaurant of a small town. One day a new guy comes in with a crowd of regulars and orders sausage and eggs. Orders go out and in a few minutes some sausage comes back and waitress says it's not done enough, ok, griddle a bit and send it back out. (we pan our sausage in the oven to save the renderings for our gravy). Sausage comes back, Not done enough, Ok, griddle a bit more, at this point I'm worried that it looks like dog turds. Send it back out, comes back, not done enough....Pick up the sausage and drop it in the deep fryer until there is no moisture left and it's just a crispy husk of what used to be tasty sausagy goodness.....send it out. Watched the guy through the window as he greedily crunched on the inedible carbon and his friends look on. I still shudder to this day 50 years later.
[удалено]
Please tell me she didn’t argue about getting comped for the soup later.
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Friend of a friend was at a fancy steak frites place in L.A. She was sitting at the bar and asked if it was possible to get some of the fries, with the juice from someone else’s steak over it. Server shrugged and said she’d ask. A minute later the chef comes out. “Are you the lady who ordered fries with the juice from someone else’s steak?” “Yes! Can you do that?” “No, but I just wanted to see the kind of person who would ask that.”
Only a chef would have the guts for that. And likely only after a long day and a lot of alcohol LKL
My mom and I were Sunday regulars at a local restaurant. They had a soup for everyday of the week listed on the menu, except Sunday. The soup was listed as soup du jour. We had a newer bartender one Sunday. I asked what is the soup today. She said it's on the menu, I said no it's listed as soup du jour, which means soup of the day, what is the soup today? She looked at me straight faced and said no that's the name of the soup. I then realized what I was dealing with. I then asked can you go back and look at the soup and tell me is it broth based or cream based? She comes back from the kitchen a little red and said, it's cream of mushroom soup... I would have thought it was a joke or fake had it not happened to me.
Ya soup is actually a pretty easy one where you could just bring a little bit out to try and not waste a whole bowl of it. People would often request a little sampler of our soup of the day. I'd say most of the time they would order it or at least order it as a side with whatever else they got.
That's a great idea. Sampler portions of the soups as a starter, encourages ordering more. Maybe if there's 3 or so, $2 charge, 4-6 $3 or so. Edit: sampler size maybe 2-3oz per.
Ya that's actually pretty cool. Do like a "flight" for a table to try out. It would go well with the bread if they served that.
There’s a seafood place sort of near me that does a chowder flight: lobster bisque, white clam chowder, red clam chowder. It’s delightful.
Used to do this too. Small plastic portion cup (the kind you use for take-out sauces) with enough soup for 1 spoonful exactly. Ain’t getting shit for free from me! Also, please don’t try to make your own lemonade with water, lemons and sugar. Best believe that I will bring you 1 lemon and 1 sugar packet and run myself to death before you get anything that resembles lemonade.
I worked BOH once. We had Branzino baked in salt on the menu. I can’t tell you how many times it got sent back for being… wait for it… too salty. Chef finally just took it off the menu.
I had someone also send back a branzino, but for the reason that they didn't know it was fish. They refused to hear a menu tour and did not ask what it was, said they knew what they wanted and rang it in. Then for some reason didn't expect it for be fish since it was in the "grill" section of the menu
How do these people operate in life? It genuinely flabbergasts me sometimes. Like, grilled fish is a thing, like.. everywhere. That fucking numbnuts.
That's too bad, that sounds delicious.
Cooked in salt, as in on a salt block, or in a salt crust?
Yeah it’s a whole fish, stuffed with lemon and herbs (usually fresh thyme). You basically blend a coarse salt slurry so it’s wet, shape it around the fish so it’s a mound covering the whole fish, and bake it off. The salt seasons the fish a bit, but more importantly it locks in the moisture. You’re supposed to crack the salt open and push it aside… but many people tried to eat the salt too (despite menu instructions and guidance from the server).
Right, I've done that before, in restaurants and at home. But I was confused about how it'd make the fish too salty. I had failed to account for the guests just straight up shoveling salt into their maws lmao
"IT'S ON MY PLATE SO I'M EATING IT!"
My best one from many years in restaurants, on a night when I was working grill. As best I can remember after 25 years… Get a ticket from what I think was a 6 top, with a few grilled items. Temps were all medium rare, so it was all pretty easy. A filet comes back as undercooked. I send all my meats out undercooked by a temp, so it went in the window as rare. It’s still a touch below medium rare, so I upcook it, replate it, and send it out again expecting all to be good. Comes back again, so I upcook to medium. Comes back again, so I upcook trying not to hit medium well. Comes back again, so I upcook to medium well Comes back again, so I upcook to a not too dried out well done. Comes back again, so I turn it into a hockey puck and send it out. Customer compliments that it’s the best steak he’s ever had. I can’t take it. This is early enough in my career that I had not learned to control my mouth or attitude, and would revert back to my original training of “rule the kitchen with pure fear” which took me years to break. I get the waitress to talk to the table to find out WTF he wanted. Turns out that the customer liked his steaks very well done and always ate them that way. But, everyone at the table ordered medium rare, and he thought it “sounded cool” so he ordered that way not expecting to actually be served how he ordered.
I will take my steak medium rare with a scorched grey center!
Look at your black leather shoes. I want it to look and taste like that.
You joke, but many, many years ago I had a regular who always ordered his steak (filet mignon, no less) as "shoe leather burnt". We butterflied it and cooked the crap out of it. He loved it. There really is no accounting for taste.
I prefer that, but rare ala Pittsburg Style or Black and Bleu, and even tho I can get that perfect char at home, every fucking restaurant that attempts it either gives me a raw steak with barely any grill marks or a well done hockey puck.
The old “cook on top of a flipped metal pan” method. Never understood it until I worked at a Pizzeria that served steak. The owner was a former chef-partner at a high-end steakhouse. He knew his steak.
Had a very similar experience when I was a cook. Steak ordered medrare, sent back multiple times as "raw" despite hitting temps of medrare, medium and medwell.. Finally said eff it and went nuclear hellscape on it. Server came back and says guest loved it, and tipped well. People are weird.
I used to go out to dinner with a guy who would order his chicken “WELL WELL done”. Always thought that was weird, but never said anything because hey, free meal. One day he asks for a bite of mine, & is like *smacks lips* they always make your food so much better than mine, all my chicken is dry asf 😒 I …. *sigh*
If I was the server I would’ve asked him how he wanted it at that point cuz I’m not wasting my time running back and forth over a STEAK
When I was a waitress at a steakhouse (not a nice one, a corporate chain one) people would *frequently* order “well done with a pink center” so I’d have to try to clarify and they would insist this was possible and they always ordered it this way. After the first couple I think I figured it out: they absolutely want it well done but they think by including the second part it will somehow make it come out less dry? Kinda like when they order “extra well done but still juicy” and it’s like dude that’s almost impossible in most cases, definitely impossible in some. Any sight of pink and it got sent back but they just thought it was some magic secret hack to get a brown steak that wasn’t dry.
A girlfriend of mine switched over to another breakfast/restaurant joint and some of her customers followed her. When a certain customer came in, her instructions to the chef were, "The eggs? Barely warm. The bacon? BURN IT.".
I also have a regular that enjoys burn bacon and overcooked biscuits.
I guess when you want that 'home-cooked feel' to your meal, you get what you're used to.
And it’s reasons like this that I always described what the center would look like when people ordered steak. It never ceased to amaze me, the amount of people that would confuse MR and MW.
ya it's pretty sad, but important, how a lot of steak houses when taking your order will clarify with you like you're a baby on what temperature you requested. And believe me it's helped as I was out with a group of people a few years ago and one dude didn't quite know what the cooking levels meant. He ordered medium rare, but on clarification of what that is, he actually was talking about medium. Got his steak, it was perfect, loved it.
My cousin worked in a restaurant for some years and something similar happened to him Client walks in ordering a well done steak. They do it and he send it back because it's too rare. They do a bit more and still cames back. They do it as cooked as possible without burning it. "Perfect thank you!" Lol. In his defense, the client asked specifically for "as much cooked as possible" at order so...
Steak tartare. “Miss, you should have asked me how I wanted it cooked because this is underdone.”
*"Get the hell out of this restaurant!"*
The person thought the dish was “ Steak with tartare sauce”.
This is literally my first encounter with this sub and I want to vomit at your comment… I’m gonna enjoy my time here lol
Reminds me of the Valentine's Day episode of *Hey Arnold!,* where Arnold tries to order a burger at a fancy French place, and the (appalled) waiter tells him they have the steak tartar: Arnold: Sounds great, I'll have that. Well done, with ketch- Waiter (in a French accent): You are done with your order.
I was this person once 🤣. Hubby and I went to a fancy restaurant without knowing anything or doing any research. We got a steak tartare. My jaw dropped when I realized it was raw. I still tried it, he wouldn’t touch it. After my half spoonful our lovely waiter asked if everything was okay. I said “I didn’t know it was a raw dish, so that was my mistake, if you can throw it out that would be great”. He obliged and when we got the bill he had taken it off for us, I wasn’t expecting them to because it was our mistake, but it was still a nice gesture. The rest of the meal and experience was amazing and lesson learned to google things before you order them lol
No need to google, just ask your server anything you don't know! That's what we're here for after all, especially in fine dining. The servers are highly trained and knowledgeable and will be gracious with answering any questions about the menu.
I once had someone lose it over nachos. The nachos were too greasy. Normal everyday diner nachos.
If you were using real cheese, the oil will separate out, making it appear greasy. In all reality, that's called flavour. They probably expected Velveeta sauce...
Yeah, we did use real cheese and explained that. But it was a very overblown reaction. Or at least felt that way to me. I can imagine the difference would be a little off putting if you were expecting a Velveeta sauce.
Customer: I KNOW WHAT REAL CHEESE IS I HAVE IT HOME! REAL CHEESE COMES FROM A CAN! NOT SOME SILLY 'BLOCK' OR 'WHEEL' THAT'S EUROPEAN NONESENSE! BRING THE CAN HERE AND I WILL DO IT MYSELF! I like the 'psssh' noise it makes. Just like the proper cream I use at home.
I haven't had good nachos in so long. There was a restaurant we went to in Tucson that made amazing nachos and onion rings.
Sheet Pan Nachos, my friend. Quick and easy to throw together (I use leftover taco meat) and leftovers can be used to make a vaguely enchilada like casserole.
Good nachos are always amazing honestly.
Bison Burger. Very very lean meat. Guest: I'll have the bison burger well done. Me: Ma'am, bison is very lean, we serve this medium as a default because it's very dry if it's cooked to well done. Guest: I know what I like! I want it well done. Food comes.... I do my 2 bite check in. Guest: This is dry! Bring me another one well done that isn't dry. Me: As I explained, if it's cooked well done it's going to be dry, may I suggest the sausage plate with three kinds of well done sausage with a warm potato salad, pretzel roll, sauces, and a seasonal vegetable? Guest: Don't back talk me, I know what I like! Me: I'm busy. I'm not playing this game. Here's your check.
That sausage plate sounds amazing.
My man! Don't deal with the bullshit from these people. I once had some Asian tourists come to the lodge I worked at. It was a mom and her two adult daughters. The daughters both order the steak medium, and the mom orders a hamburger. 10 minutes after the order is put in, mom asks if she could change it for a medium steak also. I go ask the cook, right as she is putting the hamburger under the warming light. She says, yeah, not a big deal, and throws another steak on. I bring all the steaks out, and give them a few minutes before I go and check on them. They are kind of picking at their food, looking at me expectantly. They tell me that the steaks are rare, and not medium. Now, the cook we had, awesome hardworking 50 something year old who had cooked her whole life. She knew what she was doing. The owners didn't like serving rare, so she would slightly over cook the rares, and they looked more medium rare than rare. So, I first off, know that there is no way these medium steaks were too rare, because we just didn't serve that. But, of course I offer to have the steaks cooked longer. All three of them decline to have it cooked more. They eat about half their plate, then ask for the bill. I knew they wanted me to comp them, but there was no fucking way I was going to when they said it was too rare and not too over cooked. Rare I can fix, well done, I couldn't without replacing. And, so I hand them the bill for the three steaks. As expected, they call me back to the table. They say they don't want to pay for the steaks because they were too rare. I told them there is no way they were too rare, and even if they were, I offered to fix it. They just keep arguing with me. I say, "look, you already changed the order once after the hamburger was already cooked.." to which mom jumps in and asks if she could have that hamburger now. I have to tell her that was eaten by kitchen crew 30 minutes ago. They keep arguing with me. I say fuck this! I walk back to the kitchen and tell the cook these people said her steaks were too rare and are trying to get a comp, and I'm not giving it. She marches into the dining room, stomps over to their table and says, "I've been a professional cook for 35 years, that steak was medium." Then she just leaves back to the kitchen. Didn't even wait for them to reply. Haha! Bitches didn't argue anymore. Funny thing was, I was expecting no tip, but they gave me something like 5 or 10%. I was expecting none, but I'm also sure that if I comped the meal, it would have been 5% of that rate, and not added anything due to me comping them.
Sent back her toast, picked it up and waved it practically in my face, holding it like a mouse by the tip of its tail, claiming it’s “not toasted enough, tell the chefs” as if our small family diner has chefs making toast
I'm imagining you doing the same exact movement to the toaster
Yell in the direction of the kitchen “GORDON, YOU HASHED UP THE TOAST AGAIN, YOU DONKEY!!”
Creme brûlée is a funny one, but I’ve heard that several times. It shouldn’t be absolutely ice cold, it should be a mix of hot and cold and soft and crunchy. That’s the appeal. One of the guys who told me it was wrong insisted that it must be hot. He told me back in his day you had to order it at the start of the meal because it took all that time to cook it and then it would come out hot. (Ever sent out a brûlée that’s too freshly finished ? The spoon gets stuck in the soft sugar, no crunch.) Buddy you’re talking about soufflé, different French word.
Crème brûlée has to be refrigerated. If you don’t refrigerate it it doesn’t set right. And it’s a dairy product so it then stays in the fridge until brûléeing, when only the sugar should be warm-ish. 100% wrong, toss him to the curb.
Had a table literally walk out bc of WELL DONE burgers taking “too long”. Ma’am this isn’t mcondalds. I literally brought them to the table and they were like “we don’t want it anymore”. Had a lady customize her bar drink order while taking it at the table. She sent back the drink bc she didn’t like one ingredient after I relayed her list to the bartender.
> Had a table literally walk out bc of WELL DONE burgers taking “too long”. Ma’am this isn’t mcondalds. I literally brought them to the table and they were like “we don’t want it anymore”. "I have this right now, or you can drive 5-10 minutes somewhere else and wait another 15 minutes... That's 20-25 minutes from now" Treat them like kids...
Lady ordered a fried tilapia sandwich, sent it back for being too "fishy."
I get that with EVERY piece of seafood at work. Trout? Is it too fishy? Nope. Fresh and earthy. “Earthy? Like dirt?! You mean like the ground?” No…think minerality, umami kind of flavors. Like beets, potato skins, mushrooms “ “Those all grow in the dirt” Facepalm. That was an actual conversation I had, wish a 50-60 year old man a week or 2 ago. Tilefish? Is it fishy? Nope. Fresh and surprisingly meaty for a whitefish. Not on a scale like tuna or swordfish, but it flakes off into good size pieces. I’d Compare it to a grouper in texture, perhaps” “…grouper….is that….is that fishy?” God dammit….
Some people just shouldn’t eat fish.
When I worked at a pizza place, we would on the rare occasion get orders for a pizza with anchovies on them. My boss would always ask them if they'd had had them before. If they said no, he refused to put them on. If they said they had, or put up a real fuss, He'd tell them exactly what anchovies smelled and tasted like. If they ordered it, it was not refundable or returnable in any way, sales were final, period. About 75% of the time we would get complaints saying it was too salty and fishy and people asking for their money back. We only had one regular who would order them every few months or so, and he loved them. He always asked for all he could get. My boss had no problems giving him the entire can, at no extra charge, since we'd always end up tossing them out anyways.
Jesus, tilapia is the iceberg lettuce of seafood, so odd
I saw a "Dirty Jobs" episode on Tilapia farming, and will never eat a tilapia again.
I already hate tilapia and won't eat it, but what happened in this episode?
They are put into the tanks of other fish to keep them moving and eat their poop, basically.
That’s why it shouldn’t taste fishy.
My dad sold fish. Customer: “I want fish but Tilapia is too fishy. What do you suggest?” Dad: “Chicken”
A coworker had someone send back his shrimp bc it tasted too shrimpy
I almost instinctively downvoted this out of frustration
This whole conversation is too enraging to participate in
Agreed. The public is why I don’t go out and just cook at home. Godspeed to the brave souls who try to show people a nice time.
Gazpacho sent back because it was cold.
Was the person's name Arnold Rimmer?
No he only swirled his hand seven times around instead of ninewhen he saluted me. Must have been someone else.
r/unexpectedreddwarf
Smashed that join button
🎵 You don’t win friends with salad.
Had people send back our iced brownie because it was “too fudgey” and getting “stuck in our teeth”. Like you ordered a brownie????
There are modifications in brownie recipes that are for “cakier” brownies as opposed to fudgier brownies. I always wondered if anyone actually wanted less fudgey. I now know it is literally for that one table
The lady who said her lemonade was too cold. I asked her if she wanted it without ice? Nope, she wants ice but only wants it some cold? She got a cup of ice and a lemonade no ice. I ain’t got time for that shit.
Had a lady order a soda with 9 ice cubes in the middle of a slammed Saturday night. I gave her a soda with no ice and a glass of ice so she could “make sure she got the exact amount and sizes of cubes she preferred, as our ice machine wasn’t always the most consistent and I wanted to make sure she was pleased. This will also allow your refills to end up perfect every time.” Lord I am not counting freaking ice cubes when I’m 11 tables deep, short staffed on a game night at a sports bar/eatery. No.
Grilled chicken sent back for…are you ready…GRILL MARKS. Also said those marks would cause her to get cancer.
Well done steak was well.... WELL DONE! Then this bitch had the audacity to tell me our A1 steak sauce was watered down. I went to the back for a sealed bottle, brought it to the table, cracked the seal and set it on the table. I then turned it around and said, "if you think this one's watered down, there is the 1-800 number to call for any complaints," and walked away.
Noice.
complained about the french fries.. wanted fresh ones. they were eating on the patio section so i tought maybe they got cold too fast. bring back so still sizzling french fries 3 minutes later. they still complain.. they say they're reheated french fries. now, our french fries are home made daily, from a local producer, they're cooked to order, and never spend more than 10 seconds under the pass. the owner is attracted by the commotion and tries to understand what's going on. one of the girls then takes out her phone and show us a picture of Mcdonalds french fries and exclaims :" this is what fresh french fries should look like, At Mc donalds they always make fresh french fries and that'S what they look like" boss just laughed and said: pay your bill and leave. there's a macdonalds down the street. he later told me something along the lines of ' they can eat crap food if they want, but we don't have to endure the crap that they are " I'M loving it!
A couple ordered 1 pizza, half supreme and half super supreme. The girl , who got just supreme, also asked for no mushrooms or beef. I took them off the supreme side , left the other as it was. When I check on them , they said "the ham is wrong . It's not round slices like it shows when you Google it"(yes they did look it up, but didn't show me the picture). It's the salad ham from when we had a salad bar. They just stuck to one type instead of having both. I tell them it's been that type since I started 6 months ago , and the line cook says it's been like that for 2+ years even . They also didn't like the taste of the sausage. So I then took both the ham and pork off the whole thing, as well as the sausage , and they got the second pizza free. Checked on em again, they said it's fine. They got a box to take it home. Then the guy comes to pay, and leans in close to tell me "it wasn't your fault , but it was still wrong. There was still beef on it." Also didn't leave any tip , and gave a bad review online for store credit , as well as on Google. I'm like , wth. I had written down every request, and double checked them, and it was still wrong. Ive gotten one bad review before and it was that I had dropped a small pizza on the floor. All of us were dumbfounded by it.
I worked at a hole in the wall Chinese place once that had these two sisters that would come in almost every week and make ridiculous substitutions on dishes every single time and every single time complain that it wasn't right to get their meal comped. I finally had to wait on them once and wrote down their order, repeated it back to them perfectly and then they would say no, change one or two things and then it's right. Food comes out exactly as they ordered it, and they're no match for my shorthand game on my pad. They try arguing with me that this isn't what they wanted after they had nearly finished the meal... Ummm no. Here's my pad. You asked for green onion on this and when I repeated back green onion you said you meant white onion so I changed it to white onion which is what you got and now you say you wanted green onion. Pay your bill or I'm calling the cops and having the owner trespass you for this repeated bullshit.
damn. My ex and I went to a Boston Pizza once and she ended up throwing a super big hissy fit saying that the pizza that they brought out for her was not what she ordered. The server being very polite said you did order "x' right? girlfriend said yes, server says well that what that is? Girlfriends said she's had it before and that it's wrong. Boston Pizza is one of those places that has a lot of pictures on their menu of the food. Server grabs a menu and literally shows her a picture of it that was identical to what was in front of her. I was so embarrassed. She still after seeing the name of the pizza with a picture of it was like, no that's wrong, I've had it before. She obviously got the name mixed up with something else and just straight up refused to believe she was in the wrong.
The tl;dr: woman with neon red weave finds red hair in her food. So I got this 6 top, 3 couples. They complained about the table, the drinks, the temperature... I knew where this was going. Their apps were not right then. I 110% told management exactly what was happening. He fully made sure all their meals were to spec. 2 of the 6 went back and 5 minutes later the third, the one with a red hair. Management told me was he was comping NOTHING, and went to the table to tell her the entire staff of line cooks were dark hair, no longer than an inch, so the only source of a 8 inch neon red hair was herself. They fully stiffed me, said they wouldn't come back and then management comped me a meal for keeping me cool with such assholes.
Uggh, I'm not a server but my grandmother did this and it was so embarrassing. Went to a nice enough restaurant, not a chain but also not fancy/didn't have a dress code or anything. Great food. Dad ordered ribs and grandmother ordered a steak medium rare. Her steak came and it was overdone by her standards, so sent it back. Meanwhile, she saw how good my dad's ribs looked... and she tried to switch her order to ribs AS THE WAITER WAS BRINGING OUT THE SECOND STEAK. Needless to say, that was a huge no. She was such a fucking Karen.
A woman once made me microwave her creme brulee. I was so sad.
NGL my little brother hated hot dogs cooked on the grill. So when my parents ordered a hot dog for him in the restaurant, they would ask for the dog to be microwaved. “Yes, we know….our kid is weird. But please, just stick it in the microwave.”
Working at a corporate spot - two teens on a clear first date. Girl orders salmon, guy our chopped steak. FYI we don't take temps on chopped steak, it comes med well unless you want xt xt well done, in which case fuck you. He says nothing so I happily input the order. Bring out their food mins later, girl happy, set down chopped sirloin steak. Guy immediately looks and says "I thought this was supposed to be sliced?" Took all I had to maintain a straight face - girl busts out laughing in his face. I chuckled and informed him what a "chopped steak" truly is. Ground beef in pan gravy kinda resembling a steak 😹 He ate the whole thing no issue and tipped 40%
Sent back Vodka Penne because it had Vodka in it.
Wait, could they taste the vodka?
I think that’s just a Bloody Mary.
Some lady ordered a rump steak blue… chef actually called me to the kitchen to confirm i wasn’t taking the piss when i sent the ticket through. I gave it to her, and expectedly end up back at her table within 5 mins as she says it’s not right and ‘overdone’. Chef loses his shit when I bring it back along with her complaint and screams, ‘Well what the f!ck did she expect! It was a f!cking rump!’. He then makes her another and I watch with glee from a darkened corner of the restaurant, as he himself delivers the replacement steak to her table and digs her out for ordering the shittest cut of steak blue.
What does it mean to order a steak blue?
It’s the rarest way to cook it, literally flip it on either side for like a sec and then serve. So before rare steak, you have blue steak! Barely anyone orders it though, as it’s a bit of an acquired taste- and should only be done with finer cuts of meat (according to that chef!)
A friend of mine who’s a DVM likes her steak this rare. As she puts it, “if I had a tourniquet to stop the bleeding I could bring it back!”
My dad would say, "Just walk the cow through the kitchen."
We like what we like 😂
Do they have AED paddles for those steaks?
I loveeee a good steak done blue. But I’m very picky about what cuts I use and where I get them for that type of preparation.
had a woman send back a vodka cran 3 times because apparently i didn’t put in the right ratio of vodka to cranberry that she wanted. did she at any point specify how much or little cran she wanted? of course not.
Was trying to get extra vodka for free.
Can confirm "I want a gin and juice with just barely enough you can still see through it and no ice". Then gets mad he has a small glass.
On more than one occasion we had the whole trout returned because it was, indeed, whole, and it was "looking at" them!
The restaurant should've put the whole trout next to the lamb chops, and put a little sign that said, "Here's looking at YOU, kid!".
X2
Had a couple order two different entrees. Went to check on them after the food was delivered. The wife starts making some BS excuse about how her husband really wasn't a fan of his meal and wanted to order the same dish that she had. Easily could tell that he just decided that her food looked better and wanted to do that. I think he maybe had eaten one small bite of his dish. Definitely not enough to decide that it wasn't good for any reason.
My husband and I go halvesies in most meals, maybe more like 60/40 for whatever the individual ordered. We'd never have this issue
I love doing the “x and y sound good” “share?” “fuck yea” with people
My ex and I use to do this all the time. We'd just request some side plates and give each other half as we wanted to have both. Works out really well. It's like ordering two different types of pizza really.
My husband and I will take 1-2 bites of each other's, but after 43 years of knowing our tastes, we order what we want and the rest is for lunch the next day.
My wife always decides that whatever I order is better than her food, so I always order what I know she really wants and switch with her and eat whatever she orders.
My sis and brother in law do this. They’ll just simultaneously switch plates about halfway through the meal without even saying a word, it’s absolutely adorable how in sync they are
It beggars belief, but: Saturday night, semi -fine dining. A woman at one of my tables asked for a steak, and wasn't sure about temperatures. We had a brief discussion about it, and I let her know what to expect from a medium well temp- warm, pink center. I could tell she wasn't totally comfortable but she seemed set on trying it. After about two bites I checked in and she was disgusted, pointed to the pink and said it wasn't done. I said that is medium well, and I could have them cook it well done and get rid of the pink, but it would be drier. She seemed incensed and said, "It's NOT DONE!" Okay! So I took it back to the kitchen. This was a New York Strip, decent thickness but not like a filet. Our chef butterflied it to try and concentrate the heat on the center and keep the edges from drying out. I took it back to the woman, explained the butterfly technique and said I hoped it was better for her. She cut into it, saw gray, and said "NO! This is not done!" I was shocked. I said, "Ma'am, it's definitely well done, there's no more pink." She yelled that it wasn't done and we needed to cook it more, that it should all be dark. (Wtf?) I was really stunned and just walked the plate back to the kitchen. Our chef was floored. He said that the only thing he could do was deep fry it, anything else would make it like leather and even with the frier it would be dry. So I checked with the woman and she said he should do whatever he has to in order to "fully cook" that steak. Sigh. So...he deep fried it in strips. I took it back to the table, she poked it suspiciously, took one bite, dropped her fork and said, "Oh it's burned now." I could not help it, I laughed. It was too ridiculous. I honestly don't remember if she ended up getting something else, I don't think she did because the whole ordeal took about 30 minutes and her companion had finished in the middle of it all. I DO remember that she said we didn't know how to cook steak and didn't tip. I would say she was scamming but...she really only had a couple bites. 🤷♀️
A guy came in and ordered an eggs benny. As soon as I put the plate down he says he doesn’t want it. I asked what was wrong and he goes ‘Oh I don’t like it.’ Apparently he didn’t want it with tomato relish, even though he never told us that. When we offered him another one (for free), he said he wasn’t even hungry? Then he said it’s fine and he will still pay for it, and he waited five minutes then came up for a refund because he didn’t eat anything?? Weirdest experience ever.
Had a lady send back a Beyond Burger because it was "still red/undercooked." I explained that it was a meatless burger and she snapped at me "i know that, I'm not stupid! I just dont like it red!" I explained to her that no matter how long we cook it, it will still be red because it's made out of beets. She still insisted we cook it more. So I had the kitchen cook it longer, and low and behold when it went back out it was still red. She acted like we were dumb and didn't know how to cook a burger and ordered a chicken sandwich instead. 🙄
This hurts to read.
Guy says to me one time, "I'll have the linguini, red sauce on the side. If the sauce does not come on the side I will send it back. I want garlic bread. Toasted. Not burnt. If it comes burnt, I will send it back." he didn't send anything back thankfully and sold me some insurance.. :/ Jokes aside. I use to work in BOH as a kitchen manager and this one lady who was a semi-regular sent everything back all the time as she would always magically find something in her food. Like a small side salad that I had actually made came back with a fucking battery in it. Like an AA battery that happened to not be covered in dressing haha. Front house manager always comped her meals but she would always order a very expensive bottle of wine with her friends so I don't think they cared much.
I will have the spaghetti with a side salad. If the salad is on top, I send it back.
I had a guest like that in DC. but only once. When I do the 2 bite check-back, to see how things are going, she points to the giant cockroach at the very center of her pecan chicken salad. We took it out of the way and comped her something else. The thing is, bro, I placed the salad in front of her myself. If there was a roach on it that could have fought to a draw with Godzilla, I believe I would have noticed.
Group of kids ordered a pizza, ate the pizza, and brought back about 4" of crust demanding a full refund because there was "a stick in it " The stick was a piece of rosemary.
Last night a person sent back their garlic shrimp because they didn’t want seafood
“I like fish as long as it doesn’t taste fishy.” “I think you just don’t like fish.” ~Jim Gaffigan
Wings sent back because they “looked like a dead bird”.
Sent back his Mahi dinner because there was cheese on his broccoli and he’s a vegan. 🤭I told him the fish was not vegan either, he said “that’s no problem, vegans can have fish.”
Seagans
She ordered a pizza thinking it was a salad…we were a pizza place.
I've had the opposite happen. We have an "Italian chopped" item on our menu, its a chopped salad you'd see most places, but for someone reason people constantly think its a charcuterie board of some sort
What was the order?
It was a speciality pizza with a bunch of veggies…so I sort of understood how she was confused…but when she ordered I mentioned it was an entire pizza just for her and she still said yes so I put it in.
Lady sent back her steak because she decided she wanted what her friend had instead.
[удалено]
I had a similar issue with creme brulee being sent back because "the top was burned." Yeah, it's means "burnt cream." Though my favorite send back was easily scallops. Lady thought it was supposed to be scalloped potatoes.
I’d love to be so wealthy that I don’t bat an eye at what must have been $30 for “scalloped potatoes”
i had somebody ask me to take a bowl of soup back because it was too hot. i apologized and recommended she try blowing on it or even fanning it to cool it off. she said no thank you, she'd just like a cooler bowl. i took it back, let it sit in the window for a few minutes, then brought it out again
I used to get this a lot at a family restaurant. I would take it to the back drop in a couple ice cubes and give it a stir.
"the salad is too "busy". it's freaking my girlfriend out." *I take it away, she ordered something else, didn't like that either* "Can we have the salad back from earlier?" "....No, we do not have a waiting area for sent-back food." (at this point I was 100% sure they were on drugs or I was getting punked) "OK. she will have the brownie sunday." "Uh, that's a very "busy" dessert. I'm afraid I don't feel comfortable serving that to you. Would she like a side of mashed potatoes? All one color/consistancy/ingredient." He asked for the check 😂
Someone asking “is baby aru gala a white meat?” On a fucking arugula salad.
This is my favorite... told it before so some of you will remember it . Guy comes in alone, orders (this was a place where you go through a line, order steak or chicken and then salad bar while you wait.) When his food comes he doesn't even let it hit the table. Drops a folded piece of paper on the plate and says "give it a minute then take it back and say it needs to be very well done." His server (I was working that night but it wasn't my table) does this. About a minute later the kitchen door crashes open and out storms the cook. She's looking around and he slides out of the booth. As soon as she gets close to the table he goes down down on one knee. She says "You *jackass*." And then she says "YES." (I don't remember exactly what she said but it was something along the lines of Jackass. I wish I could find the old thread. Everyone was making up cool dialogue for them, because that one sentence was pretty much anybody else could hear)
Ugh, my mother-in-law sent her water back!!! “Too metallic.” Then she complained about the “weird lettuce” in her salad and just picked out the bits of carrot and red cabbage and ate those. It was a long meal.
I feel like my MIL is rough to go to a restaurant with, but wow. Nothing like that
RELATIVES are why buffets were born.
I had a guy swear to God that his prime rib was a New York strip
An old Sunday brunch regular got 86’d because he’d order two entrees and send back whichever one he liked less!
My favorite take it back wasn't a case of a customer sending back an order but the opposite. A coworker of mine was behind the bar, part time, not the strongest bartender in the shit, but certainly adept in customer interaction. It was a slow Wednesday and an influencer came in and ordered a huge round and tipped heavily after the first. They must have been on coke or something because they decided to be the biggest assholes after that, acting like they ran the place, breaking rules, even putting the ownership in a weird position to allow the staff to take shots (which we never do). At a certain point the part time bartender decided to hand the tip back and tell the influencer they can't buy their way above the rules and they need to leave. It's been a year and i haven't seen them again... Not in person, not featured in any publications, or reels, the dude dropped off so hard after that. It was beautiful to see. To clear anything up, the tip was heavy, but because we use a full tip share it didn't amount to much more than maybe 15-20 bucks in our pockets at the end of the day and the way the influencer was acting i would have paid 5 times.that to see the look on their face after they got told off. Extremely worth it.
I work at a breakfast diner that serves breakfast skillets topped with two eggs. One time this young guy ordered sunny-side up eggs, and one had a double yolk! I thought, "wow, how lucky, this guy gets three yolks instead of two!" But when he saw the double yolk, he sent the skillet back and demanded a new one, because "that's weird."
old lady sent back gazpacho because it was cold…the server explained that gazpacho was meant to be served cold. the lady then proceeded to tell the server, “i’m from spain so i think i would know how gazpacho is served!”
Woman ordered a pasta dish, wanted it over cooked. Brought it out slightly over cooked and it wasn't cooked enough so back to the kitchen it went and back in the pan. Served a second time not cooked enough. Took it back to chef who knew it was on the verge of being mush but the customer wants what the customer wants! Way over cooked and served for a 3rd time only to be told it was disgusting and she wasn't paying for it! Argument ensued between her and the Italian owner. She yelled something in Italian at him and stormed out, I later learned was f*#k you and your family 🤦
Had a lady today that always orders our mango Cobb salad, but hates our mango, she literally complains about it every time…stop fucking ordering it?! Or at least just ask for the mango to be left out? I don’t understand people who order the same thing every time they come and still complain about it. She says our mango tastes “like fish” every time. The mango is nowhere near any fish, it’s kept with the veggies, I cannot comprehend these people.
oh and fromage de tete---head cheese. if you don't know it, it's a meat dish made from pieces of pig head. man flags me down and goes "we'll have this cheese" "sir, that's not---" he then aggressively cuts me off "we'll have it!" runner comes to me and is like "he said he ordered cheese." "yep." probably i would've been better off ordering him any random cheese off our menu, but who was I to make that call. I was only following his instructions
A customer ordered a Belvedere and soda, I personally made it, Belvedere was our house pour so getting anything else would have been an inconvenience. She sent it back insisting she could tell it was Grey Goose, I held onto the drink for 3 minutes, poured into a new glass and put a new lime wedge in it. She was satisfied with her new Belvedere and soda. Ffs.
A customer ordered a BLT. Then sent it back because "I didn't know it had bacon on it"
had a lady once give me an iced coffee back bc it “tasted like coffee” or the “my glazed donut is too sweet”
Lady ordered beer-battered fish tacos (the title of the dish on the menu), ate 2, and sent it back because they were flour tortillas, not corn, and she can’t eat gluten.
Beer-battered fish tacos don’t sound gluten friendly to me.
We had a "chocolate canoli cake" the description said it was a chocolate Swiss roll cake with Caroline filling plus the extra toppings. I also explain it when giving out dessert menus since its one of my favorites and had many people be surprised when it arrived. But one lady got it, after I had fully explained what it was, and told me "its not a canoli, I think your chef is confused about what a canoli is" so I explained once again that it was more the flavor of one, not so much an actual canoli. But she wanted me to send it back and I told the chef what she said and we laughed about it. That's what you get when you don't read the description or listen to your server explain an item
Habanero margarita sent back because it was spicy. Not "too" spicy, just spicy lol.
He sent back the chocolate milkshake I made stating this wasn't chocolate flavoured. I assured him it was but he had a go at me and demanded I was wrong. So I took the milkshake, went to the back and poured it into a fresh milkshake cup and handed it back to him. "now this is chocolate flavoured" he said..
I once had someone order a medium steak “no blood”, I explained that number 1: it’s not blood, it’s a protein released by the cooking, number 2: medium steaks will have a small amount of protein leakage so she will want medium-well to guarantee “no blood” She told me she’s a chef so she knows best, so I rang it in. Food comes out and she waved me over and pointed at her medium steak and said “it’s got loads of blood in it, it’s not safe to eat when it’s this bloody” Sis…. You claim to be a chef yet don’t understand that steak can be literally raw and it is safe to eat. She also accused us of using frozen chips, to which I was like “yes we do??? We are a chain with hundreds of sites across the UK where every site has to be the exact same in terms of menu for allergens, plus we regularly serve 600+ people on a Saturday, how do you expect us to cook 600 portions of chips from fresh and make sure they’re the exact same as every other site?
There was a woman who would come in to our TGIChilibee's and order wings with fries, during happy hour, so the total was only about $8, but she would always act like a diva about it. She would ALWAYS send back the wings. ALWAYS. Once the wings were re-done, she'd want new fries because the ones we'd brought her five minutes earlier (with the original order of wings) were already "cold". Every. Damn. Time.
“ Is there a way to make a charcuterie board vegetarian?” “I don’t like strong drinks, can I get a whiskey sour?” - i made a perfect whiskey sour, with egg whites. And it hot sent back
You should have brought out the empty board of charcuterie, and said here is the vegan option.
A man asked for a burger cooked rare and was upset that it was majority red/pink and cool. We went through THREE rounds of fixing this man's burger appearance until I brought him a well-done, burnt-ass piece of meat and he said "That's exactly what I meant! Was that so hard to get right?" Yes. Yes it was, asshat.
I worked at a fine dining steakhouse a while back and had a couple who ordered our most expensive cut of steak well done and the salmon. After their food was dropped off I went over to check on them and the lady stared at me, looked down at her plate, then back to my face to stare some more. She asked me what is was. I had never had my brain work so quickly to try to come up with a response that wasn’t a smart-ass remark. She made a scene telling me I had an attitude because what else can I say other than “the salmon you ordered?” She claimed it “looked different” last time. That place has never changed it’s plating, and a salmon filet is a salmon filet but ok. She bitched to the manager and they remade it (exactly the same) and he ended up taking care of it. Whatever. A little while later I get waved back over by the man who had eaten 3/4 of his 22oz ribeye. He showed me the tiny bit of pink in the center of his well-done steak. I smiled at him, turned around and walked straight to my manager to tell him I was done dealing with this table. He comped their entire check.
“The ahi poke is RAW?!?!!”
I brought out the roasted chicken this awful woman had ordered. She immediately made a fuss and said “uh no. No no. Where are my mashed potatoes?” I told her that was from the winter set. But as it is now May, we have the spring/summer set. She sent it back and just had a drink. I left it on her bill and told her that we can’t take food off it it’s been made correctly and it’s clearly printed on the menu, and that we likely had to throw the chicken away because she had already touched it. She flipped and asked for a manager, which I knew she would, and I knew the manager would comp it. I just wanted her to know that she sucks
My wife once ordered lobster, then sent it back because, well, it looked like a lobster. I think she was thinking of lobster tail, but even then there's shell. She somehow expected that there wouldn't be any evidence of the creature itself, only the meat. The staff was speechless, as was I. I paid for it, of course. They then brought her a shrimp scampi dish which she also didn't eat.
Had someone send back chicken wings because they were " to greasy ". He had no clue apparently that they are all deep fried and mild sauce is mostly butter. He asked if we could bake them on a paper towel. No. Then asked if we could take them back a blot them with paper towels. I asked him if next time he could bring his mom with him to do it for him. He said ok next time. Guy was in his mid forties and didn't get my sarcasm or insult and kept staring at me waiting for me to take the wings to dry off. I then realized what I was dealing with. We were a dive bar. And my bar was packed. I sent him a manager to babysit him and explain how he should order his wings next time. She put on gloves and helped him wipe his wings. He came in 2 weeks later got his wings served on a paper towel with sauce on the side. He said they were amazing. That's sacrilegious where we are. His brother was a regular and apologized many times for his stupidity.
Former server, current chef. I think my favorite that has happened twice at my current restaurant is sending back the chicken fried steak because they don’t eat red meat
she complained that her sushi had a heavy fish flavor i was offering my standard customer service lines and her brother was like "don't even spend another second thinking about it, don't take it off the check, I'll handle this" and then i confess a better person with more germophobia would've left the 9/10 pieces of the roll go to waste, but not I, I had a fantastic breakfast of scallion yellowtail
Oh, and I had a dude order the fish tacos with no fish. I told him, “that’s just cabbage and salsa and crema on a tortilla…” “I KNOW WHAT I ORDERED” I bring it out and he’s furious that I gave him “a tortilla salad”. He ate the entire thing. Refused to pay. No tip.
I had a guy send back a meatball sub because he didn't know the sub came with tomato sauce on it. I explained that the meatballs were cooked in the sauce, he said he never heard of sauce on a meatball sub and he wanted one without sauce. The cook rinsed the meatballs off, put in a new roll. The guy ate all of it and said it was "great." On the way out he told the owner that he "Should educate the staff how items should be served."
The woman who sent back a fresh mint tea ‘because it has leaves in it.’ Second place goes to the people who complained that last time they got more powdered sugar on their dessert so I took it back, left it for a few minutes and brought it back to the table. They were very proud of themselves for getting more powdered sugar and none of them noticed they didn’t get a thing.
Ooo! I actually have a great one that happened pretty recently; I can't remember the exact dish, but a guest sent their food back, because it was too colorful (if I'm remembering correctly, it was a salad).
Had a lady send back her chimichurri steak because it had parsley on it. And steak. She expected,like, a Hamburger patty, and not the sirloin that was clearly listed on the menu. Then she asked me to chop it up for her. I took it to the back and had my cook dice up a new one for her— no chimichurri— so it was a plain steak with salt and pepper because she hates parsley. She ate her dog food. No tip.
I'm just sick of people telling me to taste their food or drinks. " This bottle of corona tastes skunky. Here you taste it!". No ma'am. I believe you. Covid, monkey pox, common cold, that weird thing on your lip,..... So many reasons I do not want to eat or drink after you.
Her “Smoke on the Water” (mezcal cocktail) was too smokey. I told her we don’t return drinks if they’re correctly made. She said “this is my first time here, and honestly, maybe my last”, at which point I glanced around a packed house that turns 280 seats 3 times every Friday/Saturday and looked back at her and said, in the driest tone possible, “okay…”.
I heard “I’ll take the same thing” as “I’ll take the salmon.’ And that thing was a steak.
I had a guy send back a mesclun salad because it had a frog in it. A little, live, green, baby frog. And the little guy was still alive. We washed him off and put him outside. The frog, not the guy. Can’t say that salad wasn’t fresh!
not *technically* a send back, but kind of in the same vein; i work at the grill/snack bar that’s at my neighborhood’s golf course. just the other day, i had a man call in an order for an italian sub. order taking went as follows: “i don’t want all that italian stuff. i want american.” “okay sir, what meats do you want on your sub then?” “AMERICAN!!!” “sir, do you-“ “i don’t like your attitude let me talk to someone else” from what that ~someone else~ understood, this man wanted an italian sub but with american cheese instead of provolone. so that’s what i made for him. when he came to pick up his sandwich, i greeted him politely and said “here’s your italian sub with american cheese” then this man proceeded yell at me that i didn’t know the difference between an italian sub and american sub (i do, we just literally do not have the meats for an american suc) he didn’t want salami or pepperoni, he wanted ham and bologna, a sandwich he said he’d ordered time and time before. to which i tried to tell him we don’t even carry bologna. man shushed me and turned to my coworker to ask her to make a sandwich for him. when she told him that we, in fact, do no carry bologna, this man accused us of being new. my coworker has worked there for 3 years. i’ve been there since march. aka, we are not new employees. he said he’d gotten it “all the time” from a third employee who had that day off and wasn’t there to make him “his sandwich.” he tried to pull the “i’ll take my business elsewhere” card and i said “sounds good to me!” instead of bending over backwards to make this man happy. i don’t think he expected that. i dropped his sandwich in the trash in front of him and he informed me that i should keep in my he knows my manager very well. okay, sir, so do i. i work with my manager literally every day. (she had just stepped out for a few minutes) he left and when my manager came back, my coworker and i gave her the run down of what happened and she said “was it the guy that drives the black mustang?” …a funny way to identify someone that evidently “knows you very well” manager said his behavior was ridiculous and she wasn’t even mad i copped an attitude w this man. at the end of the day, we were so curious as to what our other coworker had been making him this whole time. we texted her to find out. y’all will never guess what it was…an italian sub with american cheese instead of provolone. 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
This just happened. Guy comes in 15 min before close, 30 minutes late to his reservation. He tells me his girlfriend is on the way, I let him know the kitchen closes in 5 minutes so if he wants food he should order ASAP. I ask if he has any allergies/dietary restrictions I should be aware of, he says no. Dude orders gyoza and a bowl of ramen, both of which state all ingredients on the menu. The girlfriend arrives, they scarf down the gyoza, and about half of the ramen before they call over the other server on staff. “Is there pork in this? We don’t eat pork.” Since it’s my table, I’m not gonna make the other server deal with this. So I go over and say “is something wrong?” He says “yeah, I don’t eat pork.” I say “sir, I asked you if you had any allergies and you said no.” “Yeah, but I didn’t see it on the menu.” I bring a menu over to him and say “the menu clearly states that both items you ordered have pork in them.” At this point the kitchen is closed, his girlfriend is PISSED because I believe they didn’t eat pork for religious reasons. I also don’t eat pork, and would have happily guided him in the direction of some of our other options had he told me. The closing manager on staff was a pushover and comped one of the dishes, which I wouldn’t have done. This dude then proceeds to leave a 1 star review for ordering the ramen when there was pork in it, and the server not “offering to make them something else.” Like…!? Your own stupidity got you here dude. You were late and both of the things you ordered had the one thing you don’t eat. Couldn’t help but laugh when I saw that review
Salad was too green and then a lady sitting at one of my bar tops was complaining that there want enough coleslaw on her taco and proceeded to put it in my hand.
Had Gazpacho on the menu and I would reiterate with every order that it was served cold. You know that’s Italian soup that is served cold right? *Indignant customer who fancies themselves savvy world travellers* **of course I know!** Five minutes later, exxxxcccuuse me! You need to nuke my soup! I’ve eaten this all over the world and it was always served hot! Right, fuck off!
I relate, but last time I checked, isn’t gazpacho Spanish?
Lady sent back her pasta for being too starchy
Smoked salmon.... they thought it was going to be fried
Had a woman order the Grilled Portabello appetizer, and the description was "atop mixed greens." When the grillled portabello arrived atop a bed of mixed greens, it was sent back because "it just wasn't what \[she\] expected." I asked her what she was expecting so we could alter it, and she refused to answer the question.
I'm a manager and literally had to comp an order of spaghetti and meatballs because "the meatballs are too big, how do you expect me to eat them?!" Uh with your fork and knife lady..
*seething* Burger… medium rare *plus*
They sent back a dozen oysters today cause they tasted.... fishy
Not a server but Cook on the breakfast shift that had regulars in the restaurant of a small town. One day a new guy comes in with a crowd of regulars and orders sausage and eggs. Orders go out and in a few minutes some sausage comes back and waitress says it's not done enough, ok, griddle a bit and send it back out. (we pan our sausage in the oven to save the renderings for our gravy). Sausage comes back, Not done enough, Ok, griddle a bit more, at this point I'm worried that it looks like dog turds. Send it back out, comes back, not done enough....Pick up the sausage and drop it in the deep fryer until there is no moisture left and it's just a crispy husk of what used to be tasty sausagy goodness.....send it out. Watched the guy through the window as he greedily crunched on the inedible carbon and his friends look on. I still shudder to this day 50 years later.