People can sometimes have very questionable tastes especially when it comes to the kind of food they prefer to eat. If you’ve ever had to manage a picky eater with very peculiar preferences, you’ll understand what this means.
Nobody knows about the frustrations of having to cater to these peculiar tastes like people who work in the food service industry. Here are some of the most alarming requests that food service workers have ever received from customers. Some of them are so bad, they’ll leave you grimacing.
1. Customization Master
I once had this old lady come into Olive Garden and order something and literally customize every ingredient.
We had one promo entree that contained risotto. She asked me what risotto was and when I explained it was a rice dish, she then asked me to switch it out for plain brown rice and squash. Neither of which we had.
We made all our sauces in-house, but they weren't made on the spot for each order. She even tried to customize the ingredients in the sauce. And the end of everything after I ran around trying to make her happy, she complained to management that I was incompetent for not being a magician and changing how a restaurant works.
SquidLoaf
2. Do We Have A Challenge?
I had a lady tell me it was impossible to make the dish too spicy. When I told the cooks they took it as a personal challenge.
I don't remember what they put in it, but I do know that someone ran to a grocery store for another ingredient. It was literally the spiciest thing I have ever smelled. Just being an arm’s length away from it for 30 seconds while I delivered it had me coughing and tears streaming down my face.
Guests at nearby tables complained about the smell; just so much capsaicin in the air that people 15 feet away were uncomfortable.
But..
She ate everything. She ate every single bite and then scraped up the remaining sauce and ate that too.
hipster_jesus_91
3. Too Meticulous
A guy sent one of our servers to the kitchen about 7 times, which is down the stairs far away from her section, to inquire about the weight of different hamburgers. All of them were the same yet he insisted she go down and check and would watch to make sure she did.
He sends her away to mull it over for a while and you can see him snickering with his equally douchey looking two sons. Finally, the guy decides he wants a 24 oz grilled "burger" with nothing else but the patty, no seasoning or anything.
Not like some hulking bro trying to get extra protein, just an old jerk who wanted to mess with the poor server.
Ate a bite, said he didn't like it, and ordered another burger. Tipped a very solid 0% after telling her "It'd all be worth it!"
This is why we're all mildly functioning alcoholics.
maplebaconchips
4. Let It Burn
I once had a lady order her tofu scramble burnt. So I cooked it hard. She sent it back because it wasn't burnt enough. So I cooked it harder. She sent it back again and the waiter said she really wants it burnt.
So I got a wok super hot, put too much oil in and proceeded to burn the crap out of it. My chef came by and lost his patience. I explained it to him and he watched me burn just to ruin the thing. It was black and smelled like a tire fire.
She ate all of it and said we were the only place to get it right. She came back every weekend for it and we had to train new cooks how to burn the living fudge out of her food for her.
I still can't comprehend why she would eat that.
stylinghead
5. Nailed It
I had a 4 top once when one of the gentlemen was ordering and asked for extra onion, and he made extreme emphasis on EXTRA ONION. So I go to put the order in and I have to talk to the chef to make sure he understands EXTRA ONION.
So when the order comes out, I get a side plate of a cut WHOLE ONION. I giggle and take the order to the table.
I put the orders of food in front of all the other guests and left the onion man for last. I set his plate of food and extra onion down, he looks up at me and starts laughing. The whole table is now laughing.
I kept staring at them in confusion because I didn’t understand what was happening.
Apparently wherever they go, no matter what he always has to ask for MORE onion, and this time my snarky chef nailed it.
Rock_Hound
6. It’s a Doughnut Explosion
At the Italian restaurant I worked at as a server/bartender/manager for 5 years, we had a lot of regular customers come in and had some strange requests. Most were nothing too special, but one guy would come in 4-5 days a week, and he would never order anything on the menu unless it was a busy night and we wouldn't have time to "get crazy".
On the slower nights though, he would order things with sauces we didn't normally make, or special dessert concoctions (even though we prepared desserts daily, and did not make them to order).
The craziest thing he ever ordered though, was a Doughnut Explosion. To be clear, we did not know how to make doughnuts. However, there was a Dunkin Donuts next to our location, and he sent one of his favorite servers next door to pick up a dozen random doughnuts.
When he came back, the customer told me which ones he wanted on his dessert, and I proceeded to go back into the kitchen and whip up his dessert to his specification.
It consisted of 2 doughnuts, topped with vanilla ice cream, layered between the brownie cake that was our house specialty, and topped with Chambord and a port wine fig sauce that we put on pork chops.
This was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in a restaurant, but he let me try a bite and it was freaking amazing!
Needless to say, he ordered it a few more times before I left that restaurant.
j4_jjjj
7. An Alternative Diet
I worked for a while in a vegetarian/vegan-friendly buffet restaurant. Now, the great majority of people were actually really nice, not particularly haughty about their diet or anything, but I had two customers that were, let's say, different.
The first one came up to me with a plate already filled with various salads (that she, being a buffet, had personally selected). She showed me the plate and asked me: "Do your salads have any raw ingredients in it?"
And before I could answer: "Because I'm pregnant, see, so I can't eat anything raw." While still showing me her plate of definitely-raw, various-veggies-and-fruits salads.
I was so dumbstruck that all I could say was "Let me ask the kitchen to make sure". And I actually did, because "is salad raw" is one of these questions that make you question even the most basic things, such as what a salad is, or what hats are. I asked the chef if our salads had raw ingredients in them, he looked at me and said: "Is she familiar with the concept of salad?"
We ended up switching her plate for another one because yes, our salads had raw ingredients in them. However, all in all, she was really nice about it and didn't mind waiting a bit more for us to fix her plate.
The second one was, however, a bit more rude. She came up to me and told me that she could only eat raw, vegan stuff. I thus directed her to the salad buffet (because, hey, now I was pretty sure they were made of raw ingredients), and that's when she scowled at me and said: "Uh, yeah, but I'm getting a bit tired of salads, you know?"
You tremendous twat - you bestow upon other people the task of finding you food that fits your incredibly narrow criteria and then you complain that it's a tad unoriginal?
She later complained that we didn't didn't have any raw cake (the cake was already vegan, mind you, but yeah, we had baked it).
This is the only time I really thought "You are an insult to natural selection".
Calembreloque
8. Got What He Asked For
I haven't waited tables in about 10 years now but I'll never forget the guy who asked for his steak "dry." When I pressed him for what he wanted explicitly he explained that he wanted "no juice" to come out when he was eating it.
I told him it would take about 30 minutes to cook his steak. He said that was fine and off I went to make his very interesting order.
Our steaks were pretty miserable portions in the first place, and the cut he ordered was the smallest one on the menu. So when I returned with his tiny little 6 oz flat iron that had been absolutely desiccated on the grill he looked understandably disappointed.
He took a few bites of it and decided "it wasn't very good," which was underselling how bad it looked and almost certainly how bad it tasted.
panascope
9. Too Cheesy
I used to work at Olive Garden and there's a dish called the "Five Cheese Marinara". You know, essentially a plate loaded up with cheesy magic with a little bit of pasta thrown in. One day, a stupid man with his stupid wife comes in, and the man says "I want the Five Cheese Marinara, but I don't like cheese."
I look him dead in the eye and say "Then don't order that, you're not going to like it."
Instead of being a sane, rational person, the man says "Oh, can't you just have them take some of the cheese off?" Again, I repeat "You will not like this, it's almost all cheese." But he insists.
I just accept it, curse this stupid man, ring the dish in, and immediately run to the kitchen. I let the kitchen, and my manager, know that he's going to send it back. Of course, my manager is the nicest man in the entire world and refunds his entire meal and brings him a new one once he, unsurprisingly, sent it back because it was "too cheesy".
He left me four cents as a tip.
cold-coffee
10. A Glass of Mango Stuff
I’ve posted this before, but I used to work at a chain restaurant in college. Let’s call it Crapplebees.
Woman comes in and asks for a glass of “the mango stuff.” I clarify whether she wants a mango tea or mango lemonade and she says “No, just the mango stuff.” For reference, the mango stuff is syrup. Literally sugar syrup with fake mango flavor and food coloring. I explain that the mango stuff is not juice.
It is syrup. She insists she wants just the mango stuff. I bring her a glass of straight up mango syrup. She drinks the whole thing and takes one to go.
Not to mention…we had to charge her like $12 a glass because she drank a bottle and a half of mango syrup that would’ve made like 50 mango lemonade. She was cool with that.
Blackbird6
11. Do You Want Some Food To Go With That?
I worked at an upscale place that was across the street from the hotel of a golf resort. It was the only decent place in the area, so we'd often see the same people for three or four days in a row.
This one guy kept coming in for lunch, and ordered a hamburger while he sat at the bar. The only odd part of it was he wanted an extra large slice of onion. After the third or fourth day in a row of "It was good yesterday, but he wants it even bigger this time".
I thought I'd be a smarty pants and peeled a whole onion and chopped off the top and bottom so it wouldn't roll around.
I knew it was going to come back, so I cut another solid 1.5 inch slice to replace it... but it didn't. The guy ate the whole thing, told the bartender it was perfect, and gave us both a big tip.
Chambellan
12. New Soup Unlocked
A Mom and young son (maybe 8?) came into the restaurant I waited tables at for lunch. The Mom asked her son what he wanted to eat, and he replied with “ranch.”
I politely asked if he meant, like, a salad with ranch? Or French fries with a side of ranch? The Mom looked at me, rolled her eyes in embarrassment, and clarified—he wanted a soup bowl full of ranch dressing…
I walked into the kitchen and discussed it with my manager, because I had no idea how to enter that into our POS system. My manager and I came to the conclusion that we should charge her for an entire bottle of ranch dressing, so she paid $10.99 for a soup bowl full of ranch dressing.
Dpg2304
13. Half and Half
When I was a server in Aspen (fine dining restaurant in a very expensive hotel), there was this woman who used to stay at the hotel for the entire month of December each year. She ate in the restaurant 4 or 5 nights each week of her stay, and she always requested me as her server.
Every time she dined with us, without exception, she ordered 2 half bottles of the same burgundy and drank all of both of them. We definitely had full bottles of this wine, which I told her multiple times, but each time she insisted on the half bottles.
And each time I would suggest the full bottle, she would look at me like I was completely insane - like I’d suggested she light her hair on fire or something.
It was just so odd to me. This was almost 20 years ago, and I still think about it often. The half bottles were $175 each, and the full bottle was $300.
Memphi90
14. Blue Cheese Martini
I used to work at a private dining club and got the weirdest requests. One lady in particular that stands out: she wanted a martini with blue cheese stuffed olives. We didn’t have blue cheese stuffed olives. I had to personally stuff each olive with blue cheese for each martini she ordered.
She also wanted her salad tossed tableside - not a thing we normally offered. I had to get a bowl from behind the line, tongs, etc. just for this witch’s salad. And she wanted “real” butter for her bread, and insisted that the salted butter we had prepped and piped into ramekins for bread baskets wasn’t real butter.
It had to be sliced cold unsalted butter on a plate.
She never tipped unless it was a holiday.
I also had a regular that would insist you sat and ate with him. Management complied but I think mostly it was because he came in at odd hours, like lunch at 3 pm, when someone was usually wrapping up side work and about to be cut anyway.
He’d order for you both. He was a nice older queer man who loved to talk about the history of the town. I loved him! I often wonder what happened to him. He’d been coming in for years and years. You did have to dump the iced tea and make a new batch for him.
throwawayheyheyhey08
15. All Fruits In One
I bartended all through college at this bayside bar in Ocean City, MD. Every Tuesday, we had a “Senior Deck Party,” where we’d set up a free buffet with all the mushy foods you can think of. The seniors would come through, grab a couple happy hour drinks, gorge on potato salad, and head out.
There was this one lady named Rose that would come, take up 2 seats at the bar (one for her and one for her purse) and sit there all day, demanding the following: A ginger ale in a highball glass with 2 orange slices, one lime slice, a lemon slice, 3 cherries, and 2 straws.
She never touched the fruit, it was only a status thing, and I was supposed to fill up her ginger ale every time it got to half a glass to restore carbonation.
Any bartender will tell you, fruit is a precious commodity. This routine caused me extreme mental anguish.
frothyminx
16. Meet Luke, The Enigma
I used to wait tables at a vegan-friendly restaurant for a couple years. The staff were all very accustomed to dealing with particular dietary needs and habits, not just vegans, but lactose-free, gluten-free, and all manner of allergies. This meant we'd get all kinds of substitutions or questions about ingredients.
That was part of the charm of the place (and frankly, maybe just about the only charm of the place) and had a small but loyal customer base. When it comes to particular food orders, there was one guy who was on another level. "Luke"
"Luke" was probably in his late 60s, single, polite, patient, very quiet, and overall just a little bit strange. He'd order an absurd amount of food every time he came in. A normal bill for a single entree, fresh juice, and either a small appetizer or dessert would probably run $25-30.
Luke would run up bills between $80-$110. He rarely tipped more than 4 or 5 dollars, but that's not what made him a chore to deal with. It was his otherworldly appetite.
We had a veggie juicer, and most people would order something like "carrot, ginger, orange", or "beet, cucumber, apple". Luke would order things like a "6oz ginger", or "8oz beet, garlic" and order two or three juices per meal.
You could order a side of mixed veggies cooked however you wanted. Luke once ordered a plate of sautéed garlic. He'd order a cup of every soup we had available that day.
The variety of house salads were some of the main sellers, and Luke would pick and choose and mix and match ingredients into bizarre custom creations (which was maybe one of his least strange habits, though it was tedious).
He'd order an entire vegan, gluten-free cheesecake (though he had no dietary restrictions as far as I know). The cheesecake alone was maybe 14 or 16 inches in diameter and even with a discount cost him about $90. Luke would order the veggie pizza with no sauce.
He'd order the coconut-chocolate malt, but ask for us to add spirulina to it (we had it on-hand as a garnish for the strawberry smoothie, but not as a main ingredient). He'd order a side of peanut butter for his eggplant parmesan. He'd order the curry nachos with slices of toast instead of tortilla chips.
The man was deranged.
He'd order in waves. Start off with a couple soups and a juice or two. Later on he'd order maybe a salad and an entree (or just more soup). He'd get a fruit smoothie and an appetizer or a la carte side.
Then he'd ask about what desserts were available, maybe get some more soup and one last juice. You'd never know how much longer he was planning on staying. It was impossible to predict what he would want next.
Then, as soon as he decided he had enough, he'd wave you down (no matter what you were doing) and ask for his bill.
ODaly
17. Does Your Salad Come In Another Shade of Green?
I waitressed at a pizza place by myself during the day on the weekends. Usually on Sunday we would get busy and on this particular Sunday I had a few large tables and a couple small tables by myself.
It was to the point where I was running to place orders and every time I went back to the kitchen I had at least 4-5 things I had to do (place order for table A, table E, G, and B need refills, table H’s order just came out, etc.)
So I’m literally running to place an order and grab things when this table pulls me aside. It was two elderly couples and they had already made things complicated when their friends came in and joined them so I had to place another order and they had a lot of requests.
So they stopped me on my way to the kitchen and one woman asked me to place an order for a salad. Her friend got one so now she wanted one. Except she didn’t want the “dark green stuff.”
She literally asked for salad but without half the salad because of its color. I told her the salads came pre-packaged as a mix. She said “Well you can just pick it out for me then.” Sorry picking the bits out of your salad that you don’t want, isn’t my job.
Especially when I’m waitressing at 5 other tables.
We also had one lady come in who was very particular about her pizza. She had called in to order so that the pizza would be ready when they got there (this was very annoying because 9 times out of 10 the people showed up 45 minutes to an hour later and their pizza would be cold and they would complain) and this was the most ridiculous order I ever took.
She had a lot of toppings and was very specific about them like green peppers needed to be finely chopped and just a little bit of mushrooms and extra cheese but no too cheesy and just sprinkle on a few banana peppers and when it’s cooked she wanted the crust to be just golden brown crispy but not too crispy.
It was probably the longest ticket I ever had for one pizza. Like if you are that picky then make your own pizza at home.
paranormalvespa
18. It Wasn’t Cooked
In my previous career I was a chef and we had grilled Halibut on our menu. One night a guest a 4 top ordered it and it went out with the rest of the table's orders. A few minutes later the server was back saying the guest said it "wasn't cooked enough". Ok, whatever.
It was cooked perfectly but I'll give him the benefit and throw it back on the grill for a minute or two with a lid. A few minutes after it went out again it came back - not done enough. Ok. Griddle with some ice and a lid. A few minutes after it went out again it came back - not done enough. Screw it.
I threw the whole thing in the microwave! A few minutes after it went out again it came back - not done enough. I had to take things into my hands. I put that thoroughly desiccated piece of fish on a small plate and walked it out myself (with most of the serving and kitchen staff trying to watch).
"Sir, this fish is as cooked as I can possibly make it. It has been grilled, steamed, and microwaved. Can I make something else for you instead?"
He sheepishly took the fish, said that it would be fine, thanks, and that was the end of it. The server came back to the kitchen about 40 minutes later laughing and told me that one of the women at the table (his date/girlfriend) apologized to her for his issue with the food.
Apparently it was his first time meeting her parents and he was trying to impress them somehow.
TeddyDaBear
19. Odd Standards
I’m a former Subway sandwich artist. A guy wanted a footlong turkey sandwich and for me to put tomatoes on it, but to cut each tomato slice into quarters and for the round edges to face the hinge of the bread and the right angle points to face the outside of the bread.
The white American triangle cheese pieces needed to be split in half and those smaller triangles needed to be put between certain slices of turkey to supposedly fill in the triangle gaps of the quartered tomatoes when the sandwich when it closed.
I apparently didn't figure it out perfectly by his standards because he started screaming at me and knocked over some stuff.
I honestly couldn't care less whatever issue he had, screw that guy. I remember being surprised at that moment that I'm actually involved in an interaction this ridiculous.
andro_7
20. Pregnancy Cravings
I worked at a Subway for a couple months after high school. While working there I had a very polite customer, who was pregnant at the time, come in every other week or so and order the same footlong ham sandwich.
What made this sandwich so strange was that she would ask for a tonne of black olives. Like multiple, whole handfuls of black olives. So much that it was hard to close up and wrap the sandwich without some olives spilling out.
Some of my coworkers would only give her so much before they refused to add more. There were no rules, to my knowledge, stating a limit on the amount of black olives a customer could request, so I always obliged.
Knowing this, she would refuse help from my coworkers and wait for me to make her footlong black olive sandwich. She would always comment that it was something she started ordering after becoming pregnant and it was the baby that wanted the olives.
Some time had passed where I didn’t see her come in anymore. Until one day, I see her walk in with a stroller and her brand new baby daughter. She brought her in so I could meet the “olive baby”.
She thanked me for all the times I made her olive sandwich just the way she liked it and then proceeded to order a ham sandwich. Only this time, she asked for just a few olives.
I quit a short time after but I still think about that sandwich and the olive baby from time to time.
Drinkablefeast
21. An Oily Feast
I worked at a Subway next to the shadiest motel in town and hookers would come in all the time. For the most part they were fine, but one lady would come in and get the cold cut combo and ask for oil on it.
I always loved watching new employees make her food because of the look of amusement, turning to confusion, turning to horror as she demanded more oil. Empty the bottle on this sandwich and she’d get all huffy and rudely ask you to refill it and keep going.
By the time you were done the bread was so saturated with oil that it just mushed apart if you tried to touch it. You had to use the paper to try and topple the oily mess into a vaguely sub shaped blob and roll it up fast before it leaked everywhere.
I always wished she’d stay in the lobby to eat it just once, so I could be sure she really intended to use it as food, but she always shuffled back to the motel to have her oily feast.
CommercialMoment5987
22. The Best Pizza In The World
I was a pizza maker for years at a pretty nice restaurant. Think Carrabas but local owned and French trained head chef. Anyway, a bus full of special needs folks and their helpers came in one day kind of in between lunch and dinner like about 2:30-ish. They all ordered food and were having a great time.
Italian music blasting delicious homemade bread at the table, everyone’s having a great time. The order comes to me. Nothing too memorable except for this one specific pie.
“Small cheese pizza, no cheese, no sauce.” I checked again with the server. Yep, that's what he requested. No oil, no nothing. So I made it. One beautiful fresh made dough ball expertly tossed and shaped into a small pizza. I stay on top of it in the oven. Popping all the little bubbles that rise up and push them back down flat.
It finishes and I cut it into 6 slices.
She brings it to the table. The chef wants me to go out and make sure everyone is enjoying their meal. I go. The gentleman eating that unique pizza is ecstatic tells me and the whole restaurant that this is the best pizza he’s ever had.
And I truly believe he meant it. This was about 20 years ago and I think about that table often. I’ve cooked and sold thousands of pizzas and that was my most memorable for sure.
I hope that guy is doing well and I hope he is still trying all the pizzas this world has to offer.
motorbike-t
23. Chips With Chicken
When I was a server at a very casual bar/BBQ joint, a woman ordered chicken nachos. Then said “but without the pico, the nacho cheese, the sauces, the guacamole, the sour cream, the bean stuff, the salsa, the cilantro, and the jalapeños.”
I repeated her order twice to make sure I’d gotten it right, and she was clearly getting annoyed with me. I was finally like “It’s just going to be tortilla chips with chicken on top, are you sure that’s what you want?
If you have dietary restrictions or don’t like certain foods, there may be something else on the menu I could suggest that you may enjoy more...” but she cut me off and said yes, she just wanted chips with chicken on top and is there a problem with that.
I apologized to her and went to explain to the chef what she wanted (he asked me to go back and double check with her, but I said I already asked her like 3 times).
So I bring out this pile of tortilla chips with chicken on top and I’ve never seen someone so angry with me. She made a huge scene, yelling about what the heck I just bought her. I just kept apologizing and explained that I thought that’s what she asked for but I’d fix the problem, and asked what she actually wanted.
She said she did want just the chips and chicken, but what I brought her wasn’t even nachos. It was just chicken and chips! I spent way too long talking with her and trying to figure out what she wanted. Did she want anything else on there or with it? No. Did she want something else made for her? No. Oh, she’s just trying to make up a problem to get a free meal.
At this point it’s worth it because I’m wasting so much time and I have other tables that need me. I apologize again and tell her there’s no charge for her meal but she says no, that’s not what she wants.
Eventually I managed to pull myself away to get a manager, who went through the same long set of questions as I did, struggling to understand. Eventually the manager got frustrated and said “This is stupid, we’ll comp your meal or get you something else out quick if you change your mind and want something else. But I’m not arguing with you anymore about how the chicken and chips you ordered is chicken and chips.”
Then the woman gestures at me to yell at me about how rude my manager was to her, insisting she didn’t want any of my previous offers when I attempted to re-offer them, and stopping me whenever I tried to excuse myself to attend to other tables.
The whole time all of this was happening, the man she was there with just stared down at his plate.
That night I went home and drank a beer and just stared at the wall for a long time, trying to figure out what just happened.
ProfessorSalad
24. Too Extra
Worked at a small-town Subway for 5 years in High School and university. We had this guy come in that we called The Mountain. He was at least 300lbs and probably 6'5". He always came in wearing a full fleece camo outfit.
Anyway, his order would always be the same, which is why I remember it so well. The guy would get a footlong with the BBQ rib patty (the most disgusting thing on the menu) and the veggie patty (the second most disgusting thing on the menu).
He would also get quadruple extra bacon (the same amount as a footlong BLT with double meat). In addition to all the meat, he would get regular amounts of every cheese. Just to recap, at this point he has enough meat for 4 footlongs, and enough cheese for 4. On one freaking footlong.
Now, here's where it gets good. This dude wouldn't get any veggies. He would ask for just salt (not salt and pepper, just salt). And the cherry on top, he would say "Don't bother cutting it in half. Just gonna start at one end and stop at the other."
Berntonio-Sanderas
25. All Flavors in One
So after my 3 years at subway this is the wildest sandwich I’ve seen. So this guy got a meatball sub, which is disgusting in the first place if you’ve ever worked at the subway. Then he continued to ask for numerous veggies.
That’s not too strange, people do that sometimes. If only he had stopped there.
Then he asked for like 4 different sauces on it, and here’s the kicker: he asked for two chocolate chip cookies crumbled onto it. Chocolate chip cookies on a meatball sub with a load of veggies and a disgusting combination of sauces.
So this was my coworker who made it, and my regional manager was also in the store at the time.
The manager continued to use my coworker as an example in the regional group chat, as he didn’t question it at all and just kept putting the disgusting food combo together. Which is extremely impressive to me.
The_JFK_In_The_North
26. Mountain Dew Guy
I worked at Golden Corall for a piece and a heavy set EMT walked in on Christmas Eve, my bday, and the only thing he did was drink mountain dew. He seemed depressed, maybe the holidays, maybe he had been out on a hard call, maybe because he was alone, not sure.
I kept insisting he eat something since he had to pay for the buffet just to come in and sit down, but he only wanted mountain dew refills. I tried talking to him, he spoke some but not a lot. After he finished his 11th cup of mountain dew he left while I was in the back.
I came back to the table to find him gone and a note that read "thank you for your kindness, I hope this holiday season brings you some happiness" and he left me a $100 bill. I will never forget this guy, and he never came in again the 6 months I continued working there after. Hope he's ok.
GrassOk911
27. Mrs. Pickles
A lady came in with her toddler grandchild and ordered a kid’s sandwich for them. She explained that they only wanted pickles on their sandwich, no meat, no cheese, just pickles.
Now, according to Subway standards, I was supposed to put two slices of pickles on it, but even I knew that was gonna be a skimpy sandwich so I put like 5 or 6 on it. Mind you, we make the sandwich in front of the customer, and I always asked “how does it look” before closing it and wrapping it up.
She said it was fine, and I finished making her sandwich and rang her up and they went to sit down and eat.
As I’m helping another customer, the lady comes storming back up to the counter and interrupts me complaining about how there aren’t enough pickles on the sandwich. I told her I would gladly put more pickles on the sandwich but explained to her that I specifically asked her if it looked fine and she said yes before I finished wrapping it up.
Tru-Queer
28. All For Free
We had a very stoned guy come in and order a steak sub. He wanted every extra that he could get for free on it. I ask him if he’s sure.
He repeated it point blank. He. Wants. Everything. It ended up being steak with ketchup, mustard, mayo, bbq, ranch, honey mustard, Thai chili sauce, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, olives, jalapenos, banana peppers, melted butter, and a few other random things I don’t remember.
He made me go through all the screens on the register to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
This thing was an abomination. The bread was so mushy from all the sauce. He sat in the dining room and ate the whole thing.
anc6
29. Spicy Guy
This guy came in and ordered a shot of fireball, plus hot sauce in a double shot glass. I thought it would be way too much. A half oz of hot sauce just shot back?
So the guy ordered it many times, and eventually I asked him about it. He told me to try it, which I refused. Not a fan of spicy stuff. He repeatedly told me that it wasn't spicy! Of course I didn't believe him, the thing was like 1/3 hot sauce!
He was clearly trying to prank someone who didn't like spicy stuff.
Anyhow after a year of us going back and forth about it, I finally lamented when he told me he would tip me $20 to take the shot.
So I did.
Crazy how it's not hot at all. Like it's LESS spicy than normal fireball.
Key-round-tile
30. A Mukbang Feast To Put Others To Shame
I remember when I was waiting tables many years ago these two guys came in and ordered the entire breakfast menu, multiple orders of several things. They spent most of the morning (from about 8:30 am to about 12 noon) at the restaurant eating it all.
It was something like a large order of pancakes each (those things were huge too, about 3/4 very big pancakes) with eggs (several of them cooked several ways) and omelet and bacon and mushrooms and waffles (also huge) and sausages and french toast and regular toast and homefries and a few other things that I can't remember off the top of my head.
I remember thinking that they must have been ordering for a much larger party that just hadn't shown up yet, but no! Just these two guys, they also consumed several pots of coffee between them.
They weren't even huge guys, I'd say they were pretty big, stocky, maybe a bit chunky, but not obese. I have no idea how just the two of them ate that much food.
I kept an eye on their table too while I gave them their many refills, they weren't taking leftovers for later either, just eating all of it as if they had never seen food.
I seem to recall their bill was a fair bit more than my paycheck. I was just baffled by the whole thing and wondering how they were not totally sick from all of that grease.
Bambooteacup
31. Grease is Sauce
Not me but another server I was working with at the time. Two women ordered a bloomin 'onion. After it was delivered he went over to see how everything was.
The lady asked for a cup of the sauce at the bottom of the plate. Ma'am that is actually fryer grease not a sauce. She looked at him and said "I don't care what it is, just get me a cup of it".
He went to the back, ladled out a soup cup of fryer grease, and brought it out. The woman seasoned the grease with salt and pepper and went to town. That was probably the most disgusting thing I ever saw working as a server.
Fischera1982
32. Pizza Overload
I worked at a pizza place and this man calls us all angry saying that he wants a "Quadruple triple". Our restaurant was next to Tim Hortons so I thought he called the wrong place to order a 4 cream, 3 sugars coffee (even though you can't call Timmy's to order).
After clearing up what he meant, we found out that he wanted a medium pizza with the Works, but 4x the works including sauce and cheese (so 4x sauce, cheese, pepperoni, bacon, salami, ground beef, peppers, mushrooms and onions on one pizza) and he wanted it delivered.
We told him that it would be quite pricey as we would have to add-on the extra ingredients individually.
When I placed the order in the kitchen, they didn't believe me and called the guy again to make sure this is what he wanted. It was. We had to put it in the oven with only half of the ingredients first to make sure it cooked and then put the other half and cook it again.
He then called us super angrily after it was delivered because the pizza cost him like $50.
pm_your_doggo_pics
33. Pepperoni Please
I worked at a pizza parlor, and the most ridiculous request was one that could have been so simple.
A lady calls and orders a "small pepperoni pizza with no pepperoni" I clarify and ask her "So just a small cheese?"
To which the woman, clearly annoyed by my lack of understanding says, "No. A small pepperoni with no pepperoni."
I again clarify and ask "You want a pizza with sauce and cheese only?"
"Yes."
"Ok, so a cheese pizza."
"No, I want a small pepperoni with no pepperoni.”
We made her a cheese pizza. She didn't call and complain. Still not sure what the heck she thought she was ordering.
crigsdigs
34. Odd Combination
I worked at a country club in high school and with your meal you received a salad, I asked what dressing she’d like and proceeded to name 15 dressings we had. She told me they all sound delicious, she will have them all on the salad.
I initially thought she meant ramekins of each of the dressings, but she said no, she wanted them all on the physical salad.
I proceeded to bring a salad with 15 dollops of dressing on it, ranging from vinaigrettes, honey mustard, Chinese peanut dressing, raspberry dressing, ranch, blue cheese, and others.
I watched her from the server station then mix the salad with all the dressings and each bite of the salad then use the bread to clean the leftover dressing on the plate. By far the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen, there is no way that combination would taste good.
faugirl1
35. Iced Tea Guy
I used to work at a family restaurant and we had this regular we called the “iced tea guy”. He would come in and order a meal with iced tea and the iced tea was always refillable.
Long story short everyone knew after his meal was done he would camp (stay for a long time) and continue to ask for refills of the iced tea. Iced tea guy would then ask permission to get up and go to the restroom.. and if you said no he would give you $5 each time. In retrospect I think it was some sort kink dom crap.
It started getting weird, eventually he wasn’t allowed back because of a certain situation…
Iced tea guy was in my station one day for a couple hours and he had a new request for me. Iced tea guy wanted me to choose a piece of pie for him to eat with his hands… but he wanted to do it with shoes on his hands! He asked me to help him buckle the straps on a pair of Mary Janes he busted out of a backpack and put on each hand.
So then he ate a piece of Dutch apple pie a la mode with the shoes that were buckled on his hands. Anyways he wasn’t allowed back after that day and I never saw him again.
There 's my story of the strangest thing someone has ever asked me for when I was a server.
lioncorazon
36. Other Types of Women
I worked at Bob Evans 20 years ago and there were a few of those, mostly women.
First was parsley woman. She would order a glass of milk and a large soup bowl full of parsley and eat it. No salad dressing or anything just straight parsley.
Then there was apple pie woman. She would order a piece of apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it, but the pie was almost never hot enough. we finally figured out how to make her happy, instead of microwaving the piece of pie for 1.5 minutes you'd microwave it for SEVEN minutes.
Then there was the fan lady. Although not food related, the lady would come in every Sunday morning (our busiest time of the week) and demand that the speed of the fans for the whole restaurant be slowed down.
She claimed she had a medical condition and got away with it for two months. This stopped when one of the managers determined they also had a medical condition, but it required the fans to be left on at normal speed.
This made the fan lady very mad and never came back.
balljoint
37. The Specifics
I had this couple come in with their own tea set. The man asked me if I had a few minutes to "learn a few things"? They were at the second table so I humored him. He showed me a very specific way of steeping and pouring the tea over a sugar cube and had me try it a couple of times with water.
The whole thing was sort of neat. He then asked if I would mind serving them their tea this very particular way. They were super kind, even though the man had sort of an intense vibe to him.
I filled the pot with hot water, carried it out like he showed me and poured their cups of tea exactly how he showed me. He seemed extra pleased but never said a word or even looked at me. It was no problem and I felt super fancy doing it.
I refilled their tea one time while they were there, and he also asked that I keep his wife's water glass full at all times.
I knew it was going to be a good table when the first time I came by and refilled her water glass and inquired if they needed any more tea, the man handed me $20 and sort of dismissed me.
He did it twice more that afternoon. At the end, they paid with no tip (I thought) but $60 and a cool lesson was enough for me. My manager found me about an hour later and handed me an envelope and said they told him they only will come in when I am working from now on.
The envelope had $100, business card, and handwritten thank you note. Apparently they had put this request up for many fine dining places and I was the only to get it right and do it "graciously".
It was very odd, because after the first lesson they treated me as if I was almost invisible, backed up by the fact they didn't tip me in person. On every return trip it was the same. If you didn't know the deal they would seem like cold jerks, but they tipped really well and I treated them like VIPs everytime.
Sub_pup
38. New Vegetarian Option
I had a really difficult table where one of the party insisted they were vegetarian but didn't like the options on the menu. They then decided to have the chicken dish, upon asking if that was minus the chicken they got really angry and replied no with the chicken.
Utterly confused I said they had told me they were a vegetarian to which they responded that they "Don't eat anything with a face, like sheep or cows, but chicken is fine."
Take home message, chicken is fine for vegetarians to eat as it doesn't have a face.
[deleted]
39. She Wanted Each Ingredient On A Separate Plate
My first job as a server was at a Cracker Barrel. This lady orders a burger, "I want the lettuce, tomato, cheese, and pickles all on separate plates and if I see any pink...about any pink, it's going back." I tell her I can give her one big plate as there wouldn't be enough room for that but she insists.
So I brought her the burger as per request. As I am setting the plates down the lettuce leaf bumps into the bun. She instantly demands me to take everything back, even the things that didn't touch, and replace it all including the burger since it was apparently pink.
My manager sees me doing this and instead of following her ridiculous request he simply picks up the burger with his bare hands, nukes it for a few minutes in the microwave (it looked so warped), rubs the lettuce and tomato and pickles all over it and tells me to send everything back as before.
She seemed as satisfied as she was going to allow herself to be.
Sezniak
40. The Olive King
I worked at a sub shop where I didn't really care about "portions".
Guy comes in and asks for tuna, avocado and black olives. I put it together.
"Hey, can I get some more olives?" Sure, I sprinkle some more on there.
"Anyway you can hook it up with more?" Ok, I throw another portion on there.
"Possible to get a bit more?" I plunge my hands into the container and grab two fists of olives and slap them on the sub. I can't close the thing with the amount of olives I got on there. He grins and I watch this dude eat what turned into an olive sandwich with a hint of tuna.
Whenever he came back he'd request me to make his sandwich because, "That guy makes it right".
To make a short story long. People like some weird crap, he tipped pretty well.
MediocreHope
41. Quadruple Patty Cheeseburger
I worked at Five Guys last year before grad school. Someone came in and ordered a quadruple patty cheeseburger with as much cheese as I thought was appropriate.
We were really busy, so I took his order and was running the grill. I told him the challenge was on. I had probably 20-30 burgers on the grill but I made sure I cooked his to perfection. I put mayo, a leaf of lettuce, two tomatoes, four pickles, ketchup, mustard, grilled onions, mushrooms on it.
Each patty had a slice of cheese between it with two slices on top.
It took three people and two sheets of aluminum foil to put it all together. I watch the guy eat it from behind the glass. He was in ecstasy. I went back to the grill, and about 20 minutes later one of my coworkers told me someone was looking for me.
I went out and the guy said it was the best thing he'd ever eaten and he wanted to thank me. He gave me 15 bucks.
Manliest moment of my life.
TheDrownedKraken
42. He Knew What He Was Doing
In the early 2000's when I was working in an Italian restaurant, this one man insisted he needed lime juice for his meal. As we're an Italian restaurant, we don't have any on hand for our menu items, but the bar should have some.
Thinking out loud I mentioned that the kitchen doesn't have any, but the bar throws those into bottles of Corona, so I might be able to get some there.
Customer: Are you going to charge me for that?
Me: No, I think I can get a garnish for you.
So I come back with the lime and he looks confused.
Customer: Where's Corona?
Me: I'm sorry - you said you wanted the lime? Did you want to order a Corona as well?
Customer: Yeah I want one, you said you wouldn't charge me.
Leading into a back-and-forth wherein he's upset I didn't bring him a free Corona with his free lime, because he misunderstood me.
[deleted]
43. An Insufferable Jerk
Academy award nominated, Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, Father of Jamie Lee Curtis, actor Tony Curtis...the single most miserable jerk I ever had the honor of waiting on.
He was staying at the resort the restaurant I worked at was in, so I had the privilege of attending to him several times over the week.
He was insufferably smug and condescending, several times saying "this isn't what I ordered" even though his order had been read back to him and confirmed.
How many times can you order in a restaurant and get something you don't think you ordered, before you start to ask if maybe it's you?
The most ridiculous thing was that he ordered a hamburger, and wanted it cooked rare. So the chef cooked him his burger and when I brought it out to him he said "it's too overdone, redo it".
So I told the chef and he made a more rare burger, Curtis sent that one back too. Now the chef is mad, so he made a patty of raw hamburger and waves a torch over it so it's barely brown and ice cold in the middle.
The jerk loved it and said it was the best burger he ever had. He still complained about how long it took to get his meal
I still remember the chef saying "If that's what he wanted, he should have ordered a tartare aller-retour, is it too much to ask that people learn the name of the weird thing they like to eat?" (I have to look up that name every time I tell this story)
Tony Curtis is long dead now, and frankly I'm not missing him much.
McFeely_Smackup
44. Wicked Witch of The West
My friend is a sous chef in a fairly high end hotel restaurant, and just last month a woman came in claiming to be water intolerant. So she demanded that her pasta be cooked in something other than water so that she wouldn't be exposed.
The ridiculousness of the request was only compounded by her reasoning behind it.
But as much as he wanted to go yell that she needs water to live, just like pasta needs water to rehydrate, he did not.
I think they ended up just cooking it in the sauce or something similar, which apparently won't trigger her water allergy. Now whenever this lady comes by the hotel they call her the wicked witch of the west.
[deleted]
45. He Wolfed It Down
I work at a burger joint and this one time a really mean looking Russian guy comes in and asks for a quintuple cheeseburger even though it's not on the menu. It was a slow day so my colleague and I decided to do it.
We put the enormous thing on a plate and hand it to him, he pays no attention to us as we watch him in awe devour it in just a few minutes.
After he finishes he gently wipes his mouth with a napkin and stands up from the table. He is just about to leave when he suddenly turns around and looks me square in the eye and says with a thick Russian accent "next time.. I will have two". He hasn't come back... yet.
siggos
46. Custom Pizza
I worked at a national pizza chain for a while as a manager. We used to get this guy who would order all the time. He was lactose intolerant so couldn't have cheese, and he had severe heartburn when he ate red sauce. He would order an XL Supreme with no sauce and no cheese.
I told the guy if I did that, the toppings would just fly all over the box but he didn't care. We ended up just baking the dough separate from the toppings and put the toppings in a small wing box on the side for him. Guy said no other pizza place would do that for him and he turned out to be a great repeat customer who always tipped well.
Aeorik
47. Burnt Request
Not a waiter but a cook. We had a lady order her tofu scramble burnt. So I cooked it hard. She sent it back because it wasn't burnt enough. So I cooked it harder. She sent it back again and the waiter said she really wanted it burnt. So I got a wok super hot, put too much oil in, and proceeded to burn the crap out of it.
My chef came by and lost his cool. I explained it to him and he watched me burn just ruin the thing. It was black and smelled like a tire fire. She ate all of it and said we were the only place to get it right. She came back every weekend for it and we had to train new cooks how to burn the living heck out of her food for her. I still can't comprehend why she would eat that.
Stylinghead
48. Spaghetti Conundrum
I once had a guy place his order, and then say, "And give me one of those spaghetti appetizers."
I had been working there for a couple of months, and we had no pasta dishes whatsoever on the menu. I politely tried to clarify this, but he wasn't having it. He just kept getting more irate. He insisted that he eats here all the time, and he always gets the spaghetti appetizer.
Eventually, he gets up from his table, storms over to another one, and points at what he wants on another diner's table. He was pointing at their cole slaw. And yes, as far as he was concerned, I was still the douche for not knowing what he was talking about.
Our slaw was a southern-style slaw, where the cabbage is shredded. So, the cabbage is in strings, but you would still have to be some sort of weirdo to confuse it with noodles. And a few people have mentioned a Dane Cook bit. I'm not familiar with that joke, but after doing some research, it appears that is a joke about messing with staff at a restaurant. This happened in 1994, and the customer was an older, well-dressed guy out to dinner with his wife. I'm positive he wasn't messing with me, he was just an obnoxious douche who expected me to know what his confused mind was talking about.
Dudervoog
49. Breakfast At The Hibachi
I worked at a hibachi/sushi/Japanese place when this family came in with an adult son who had some kind of mental disability and only wanted to eat breakfast food. The mom asked if we had bread, but we didn't. She went to the gas station next door bought bread, and came back and asked me to toast it.
Now, there is no toaster in the restaurant, and I had to explain to the 100% Chinese barely English-speaking kitchen to cook three eggs rare on one side (sunny side up) and bread medium rare (toast). It worked out and everybody was happy. The chefs were super confused as to why anyone would want that.
Gypsypanda
50. Pepperoni-less Pepperoni Pizza
I worked at a pizza parlor, and the most ridiculous request was one that could have been so simple.
A lady calls and orders “a small pepperoni pizza with no pepperoni." I clarify and ask her, "So just a small cheese?" To which the woman, clearly annoyed by my lack of understanding, says "NO.
A small pepperoni with no pepperoni." I again clarify and ask "You want a pizza with sauce and cheese only?" She then replied "Yes." I responded, "Okay, so a cheese pizza." But then she emphasized again "NO I WANT A SMALL PEPPERONI WITH NO PEPPERONI."
We made her a cheese pizza. She didn't call and complain. Still not sure what the heck she thought she was ordering.
Crigsdigs
51. Medium Rare Madness
I worked as a waitress when my mom was a cook.
There was one lady who ordered a medium rare steak and the first time it came out she cut a very small piece off the edge. Of course, it was not rare enough so she sent it back.
My mom made another one and again the lady sent it back after cutting into the very edge. The third one that was sent back my mom grabbed off the plate with her bare hands, walked out to the lady, and ripped the steak in half screaming "This is what medium rare looks like in the middle!" And then basically said got the heck out.
My mom is pretty awesome but not someone you wanna piss off.
Notsocreativeeither
52. Onion Enthusiast
I had a 4 top once that one of the gentlemen was ordering and asked for extra onion, and he placed extreme emphasis on EXTRA ONION. So I go to put the order in and I have to talk to the chef to make sure he understands extra onion. So when the order comes out, I get a side plate of a cut WHOLE ONION.
I giggle and take the order to the table. I put the orders of food in front of all the other guests and left the onion man for last. I set his plate of food and extra onion down, he looks up at me and starts laughing. The whole table is now laughing. I'm like what the heck? Apparently wherever they go, no matter what he always has to ask for MORE onion, and this time my snarky chef nailed it.
Rock_Hound
53. Doughnut Explosion Delight
At the Italian restaurant where I worked as a server/bartender/manager for 5 years, we had a lot of regular customers come in and have some strange requests. Most were nothing too special, but one guy would come in 4-5 days a week, and he would never order anything on the menu unless it was a busy night and we wouldn't have time to "get crazy.” On the slower nights though, he would order things with sauces we didn't normally make, or special dessert concoctions (even though we prepared desserts daily, and did not make them to order).
The craziest thing he ever ordered though, was a Doughnut Explosion. To be clear, we did not know how to make doughnuts. However, there was a donut store next to our location, and he sent one of his favorite servers next door to pick up a dozen random doughnuts.
When he came back, the customer told me which ones he wanted on his dessert, and I proceeded to go back into the kitchen and whip up his dessert to his specifications. It consisted of 2 doughnuts, topped with vanilla ice cream, layered between the brownie cake that was our house specialty, and topped with Chambord and a port wine fig sauce that we put on pork chops.
This was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen in a restaurant, but he let me try a bite and it was amazing! Needless to say, he ordered it a few more times before I left that restaurant.
J4_jjjj
54. Caffeine Chronicles
I was a Barista. We had a Narcotics Anonymous convention in town once. I had someone order a 16oz cup with as much espresso as would fit. It was something like 18 shots, cost about 25 bucks, and he downed it at the counter and went "Woo!"
Another NA guy wanted a 16oz cup with half vanilla syrup and half espresso. A lady regularly asks for a cup of regular coffee with a large spoonful of butter stirred in. We do breakfast sandwiches on bagels and croissants, and a businessman with a group of his colleagues had ham/egg/cheese, but he wanted it on a chocolate croissant.
I think my favorite incident, though, was a lady who wanted a latte with half nonfat and half soy, a triple shot with one regular shot, one decaf shot, and one half-caff shot, heated to a specific temperature, double-cupped one Splenda and a one equal stirred into the shots. The works, basically.
The guy behind her thought it was as ridiculous as I did, and he loudly asked for a "mocha horrible drink" with one-third goat's milk, one-third cashew milk, and one-third giraffe milk, cooled with a chip of ice from a Norwegian glacier, and topped with nutmeg and gold flake. Then he said, "Wait, is your giraffe milk fair trade? Okay never mind then, I'll just have a cup of coffee." He still comes in. I love that guy.
M0untaingoat
55. Burger Mind Games
We had a guy send one of our servers to the kitchen about 7 times, which is down the stairs far away from her section, to inquire about the weight of different hamburgers. All of them were the same yet. He insisted she go down and check and would watch to make sure she did.
He sends her away to mull it over for a while and you can see him snickering with his equally douchey looking two sons. Finally, the guy decides he wants a 24oz grilled "burger" with nothing else but the patty, no seasoning or anything.
Not like some hulking bro trying to get extra protein, just an old douche who wanted to mess with the poor server. He ate a bite, said he didn't like it and ordered another burger. He tipped a very solid 0% after telling her "It'd all be worth it!"
This is why we're all mildly functioning alcoholics.
Maplebaconchips
56. Epic Burger Quest
A customer ordered a “triple grandpa burger.” This is a common mistake customers often make with us. A Grandpa burger is a triple patty burger, so they often say “triple grandpa burger” when they just mean the one 3-patty burger.
But after this one guy, I always clarified that was what they wanted because this guy wanted a 9-patty burger. I asked him twice to make sure I wasn't hearing wrong but no, that's exactly what he wanted. Not only that, he wanted cheese on every single patty.
So that's nine 5 oz beef patties and 9 slices of cheese. Plus some condiments and the like. This wasn't even a big guy. Looked fit as a fiddle, handsome, about 25 years old. He was alone so it couldn't have been a dare. I guess he was just really freaking hungry.
So I had the cook make it. We stood behind the counter and watched as he ate every single bite. I wasn't even sure how I was supposed to react when he was done, but he seemed quite pleased, thanked us, and left.
Never saw that guy again.
[deleted]
57. Impossible Customization Challenge
I don't even remember all the specifics, but I once had this old lady come into the restaurant I worked for and order something and literally customize every ingredient.
We had one promo entree that contained risotto. She asked me what risotto was, and then asked me to switch it out for plain brown rice and squash. Neither of which we had.
We made all our sauces in-house, but they weren't made on the spot for each order. She even tried to customize the ingredients in the sauce.
At the end of everything, after I ran around trying to make her happy, she complained to management that I was incompetent for not being a magician and changing how a restaurant works.
SquidLoaf
58. Chipotle Overdose
I am not a waiter, but I used to work in a sandwich store in high school. A guy came in and told me to put a lot of Chipotle sauce on his sandwich. He said, "Put it on until you think there's too much, and then double it." I thought he was actually kidding, but he was not.
His sandwich became a bread bowl filled with several cups of Chipotle sauce. It was almost like the sandwich was swimming in an awful lot of sauce. He paid for it, I gently handed it to him, and he walked away. In the deli paper and plastic bag, it felt like a warm, very full diaper.
SQUANDERER
59. Coffee In Crisis
When I was in high school my cousin died, and my family went down to Phoenix for the funeral. Needless to say, my uncle was distraught since his son had just died.
We met up at a coffee shop one day, and my uncle, not wanting to think too hard about his order and not being used to visiting coffee shops, just ordered one of what my dad was having.
Now my dad is a big espresso drinker. Every morning he makes himself six shots. So that's his normal coffee order at coffee shops, six shots in a cup. My uncle finished his six shots fairly quickly and noticed that the rest of us were still drinking our drinks, so he ordered another drink, the same as before.
We finished our drinks and my uncle finished his second round at about the same time, so we all got up to leave, and my uncle, having enjoyed his drinks, ordered one more for the road. He drank eighteen shots that day. I can't imagine what the barista thought.
My uncle was fine. He was jittery for about a day and a half though. He was and is still a 6'6” firefighter in the best shape that you can be at 54, though he was younger then. Interestingly enough he was diagnosed with a heart condition two years ago after a severe heart attack that put him on desk duty until this fall when he was reinstated to full, active
TickledPear
60. Unconventional Craving
There was a pregnant woman once who wanted a peanut butter and pickle blizzard, at an ice cream shop I worked at. She brought her pickles. It is against policy to blend things customers bring in into the blizzard, but they are welcome to stir their ingredients in. It's my personal policy to not argue with pregnant women. She got her blizzard.
It was OUR policy not to do that, I'm not sure if it was the actual ice cream parlor policy. That location is independently owned. To be fair, as a business, you likely don't want teenagers bringing in cookies with substances to be blended up and served to them, no matter how fantastic that may be.
rochford77
61. Exotic Island Vibes
I'm not a waiter but a bartender in a cocktail bar. We work mainly at night, and late afternoon is usually quite slow.
So one day, two girls come in, sit down at a table, and start looking at the menus. After three minutes, they come to the counter with their phones and show us some pictures, saying "Hey our boyfriends are on some exotic island and they got those cocktails, could we have something that looks cool too so we can send them pics ?"
Now, the bar I work in makes fantastic cocktails with amazing decorations. We made them with only fresh fruits and a load of them, arranged in such ways you wouldn't believe.
The primary reaction of customers when we put the glasses on their tables is "Woah let me take a picture of this!”
But we decided to take it up a notch. We carved a freaking watermelon so we could make the cocktail in it, sculpted the thing, and basically planted a jungle on top of it. I even had to run to the beach to get some sand, so we could place the watermelon in it so it wouldn't roll over.
They sent pics to their boyfriends, who replied "Okay you win.” The smile on the girl's faces. Yeah, it was a slow afternoon.
BNNJ
62. Unexpected Turn With A Live Lobster
I worked at a restaurant/fishmarket type of establishment, where we sold raw products but would also prepare the food on the spot. One day I was helping an old Asian lady out and she told me had never had a whole lobster and would love to try one. As she was shopping in the fish market portion, I assumed she wanted it live.
We went over to the lobster tank and she picked the happiest little lobster out there. I asked her if she wanted to pay $16.99 for it live or $22.99 for us to cook and serve it to her.
She decided to take it alive, so I took some time to weigh it out and wrap it up in a takeout box for her to take home.
I put it down on the table and walked away. A minute or two later I heard a commotion and came out to see this little Asian lady with a knife trying to cut off the claw of the lobster. Apparently, she thought that she was supposed to eat this thing live. I cooked it for her.
Hammerdong
63. Salad Quandaries And Raw Cravings
I worked for a while in a vegetarian/vegan-friendly buffet restaurant. Now, the great majority of people were nice, not particularly haughty about their diet or anything, but I had two customers that were, let's say, different.
The first one came up to me with a plate already filled with various salads (that she, being a buffet, had personally selected). She showed me the plate and asked me, "Do your salads have any raw ingredients in them?" And before I could answer she replied "Because I'm pregnant, see, so I can't eat anything raw." While still showing me her plate of definitely-raw, various veggies, and fruit salads.
I was so dumbstruck that all I could say was "Let me ask the kitchen to make sure.” And I did, because "Is salad raw?" is one of these questions that make you question even the most basic things, such as what a salad is, or what hats are. I asked the chef if our salads had raw ingredients in them, he looked at me and said, "Is she familiar with the concept of salad?"
We ended up switching her plate for another one because yes, our salads had raw ingredients in them. However, all in all, she was nice about it and didn't mind waiting a bit more for us to fix her plate.
The second one was, however, a bit more rude. She came up to me and told me that she could only eat raw, vegan stuff. I thus directed her to the salad buffet (because, hey, now I was pretty sure they were made of raw ingredients), and that's when she scowled at me and said, "Uh, yeah, but I'm getting a bit tired of salads, you know?"
You tremendous lady, you bestow upon other people the task of finding you food that fits your incredibly narrow criteria and then you whine that it's a tad unoriginal? She later complained that we didn't didn't have any raw cake. The cake was already vegan, mind you, but yeah, we had baked it.
This is the only time I thought "You are an insult to natural selection.”
Calembreloque
64. Unraveling The Mystery Of Boiling Water
Three years of serving here. I am currently working at a Thai bistro that offers a ton of options for vegans, vegetarians, diabetics, or anyone with food allergies. I could go on about strange or complicated orders.
However, this one will always make me chuckle. While working at a restaurant, a casual American-style restaurant, two very rude and very overweight women sat in my section. They order two ice waters with "a ton" of lemons.
I've seen or heard of other people who order this quite a bit who just make lemonade at the table so it wasn't too unusual but still deserved an odd look. But once they ordered their food they also ordered two cups of "boiling water.”
I'm a little confused but bring them two mugs of really hot water from the coffee brewer and drop them off. When their food comes out I notice these ladies made instant mashed potatoes in a coffee mug! Who does that?
Stilltoosalty
65. Tofu Bread Debacle
I worked at a Korean restaurant, two ladies came at lunchtime and repeatedly requested Korean bread as I was taking their order. Having been puzzled for like 10 minutes, I took a wild guess based on what they told me and guessed it right. They thought I was a complete fool for working at a Korean restaurant and didn't know what Korean bread was, and whined to my manager how awful of a waiter I was.
Korean bread was Tofu. To this day I don't even know how the two were in any way related. My manager heard my story and it's now a laughing joke in the kitchen and front of house to call tofu bread.
[deleted]
66. John Wayne Experience
I worked in a restaurant in Hawaii 25 years ago and we would get groups of Japanese businessmen that didn't speak much English. After struggling through a few tables that had trouble with our rather large menu, even when they had a host trying to interpret for them, and after being stiffed several times by these groups not leaving a tip (not because they were rude, just because it wasn't their custom), I asked my manager if I could try a different approach.
The next ten-top I received I approached with a pre-planned meal, "Who would like the John Wayne special?" I would ask. They nodded approvingly at his name, wanting to have a good ol' John Wayne, American experience. I told them it consisted of a large steak, baked potato, salad, dessert, and beers.
I also mentioned that I would be adding a 15% tip on the bill to cover the service they would receive. The host always seemed appreciative of my approach as it made their evening much easier. In addition, this made it simple for our kitchen, our bartender, and for me and the bussers. We always gave them a dinner to remember and I never had any complaints.
Aandthe
67. Humorous Drive-Thru Twist
Not a waiter, but I work at a bread shop.
A couple weeks ago a man came to our drive-thru to order a bread bowl of broccoli cheddar soup to go, not out of the ordinary. He then pulled up to the window and said "That's my dog's favorite soup."
Everyone near the window laughed because it was obviously a joke, but then he unwrapped the bread bowl and tossed it in the backseat, saying "Here, Maxie!" He put the cup of soup on the floor. Of the backseat, gave us a $3 tip (We don't normally get tips), and drove off.
ThinkingCapitalist
68. Dietary Dilemma
A very large couple walked into my burger joint. The gentleman went over to me at the grill and asked me if we used butter on the grill. I told him that no, I don't personally but the breakfast crew often does. He informed me that he and his wife were on a diet, and they could have no butter. I told him the best I could do was scrape the grill where I'd cook his burgers, which was satisfactory.
Their ticket came through a few moments later, and as I was playing their meal the gentleman also told me that his diet required that he does not even LOOK at a pickle. Fine, it's easy to leave something off.
So I took to this strictly dieting couple each a plate with two double cheeseburgers, chili cheese fries, hold pickles, scrape grill. Because, you know, diet.
Ozzmeister00
69. The Spicy Challenge
I had a lady tell me it was impossible to make the dish too spicy. When I told the cooks they took it as a personal challenge.
I don't remember what they put in it, but I do know that someone ran to a grocery store for another ingredient. It was the spiciest thing I have ever smelled. Just being an arm's length away from it for 30 seconds while I delivered it had me coughing and treats steaming down my face.
The guests at nearby tables complained about the smell; just so much capsaicin in the air that people 15 feet away were uncomfortable. But she ate everything. She ate every single bite and then scraped up the remaining sauce and ate that too.
Hipster_jesus_91
70. Soggy Saga
So I worked at this pizza place, very well known and respected in the city. Fantastic pizza. I was always the guy not bother to go the extra mile for special requests.
The guy orders a vegetarian pizza with tomatoes, pineapple, peppers, mushrooms, onion, and the works. He calls back about 20 minutes later and complains the pizza is too soggy. I think I gave him 50% off his next order or something like that.
He calls back next week and orders the same thing. This time, I made sure to soak up any extra liquid on the pizza and toasted up the crust a little more. He calls back 20 minutes later and complains. No worries, discount for next order.
He calls back the next week and orders. This time, I pre-cooked the vegetables, dried them out on a paper towel, and blasted them with some more heat before putting them on the pizza. He calls back 20 minutes later and complains that it’s too soggy. Same deal, discounted his pizza.
He calls back next week and orders. I'm done this time. When his pizza comes out of the oven I walk over to the tap and soak the pizza with water. To the point, the bottom of the box is dripping.
Never heard back from him.
aheckuvaguy
71. Tales From Notorious Chain Restaurant
I have two stories, one is funny, and the other one is not.
I worked at a "Yacht Club" which was essentially a mediocre restaurant attached to the community we lived in with docks out back for boats. Not a snobby I own a mansion and yacht club.
Anyway, we all liked to have fun in the kitchen. Getting to the point where we had a new menu item in the salad section without a name so my buddy who was into Counter-Strike Source pretty hard in the 2005 or 2006 era decided we call it the Noob Salad.
The Head Chef asked what that meant, didn't care, and used it. A week or two later a waitress we liked came back and told us she heard an old couple discussing what they were going to get that evening and the husband was looking at this particular item. He says to his wife, "I think I'm going to get the Noob Salad" to which his wife responded, "It's pronounced Nu-Bay." We lost our sanity.
That was kind of off-topic but I was hoping at least one person would like it.
The worst orders are always paired with the worst customers, such as the woman who faked an allergic reaction to hot sauce on wings one time.
She touched her daughter's wings with her finger and tapped her tongue with said finger to try them. Her husband said, and I quote, "You allergified my wife!" They tried to sue our horrible chain restaurant. It did not work. Another story from the same horrible restaurant was a couple of lovely people who wanted to split a burger, half well done, half medium rare. Nope, didn’t happen.
That's my input. These are the reasons why I am in college to make sure I don't have to work in awfully run restaurants anymore.
FAPMOSPHERE
72. Expecting The Impossible
I love this story. I used to work at a restaurant. There is a dish called the "Five Cheese Marinara.”You know, essentially a plate loaded up with cheesy magic with a little bit of pasta thrown in.
One day, a stupid man with his stupid wife comes in, and the man says "I want the Five Cheese Marinara, but I don't like cheese." I look him dead in the eye and say "Then don't order that, you're not going to like it."
Instead of being a sane, rational person, the man says "Oh, can't you just have them take some of the cheese off?" Again, I repeat "You will not like this, it's almost all cheese." But he insists. I just accept it, heck with this stupid man, ring the dish in and immediately run to the kitchen.
I let the kitchen and my manager know that he's going to send it back. Of course, my manager is the nicest man in the entire world and refunds his ENTIRE MEAL and brings him a new one once he unsurprisingly sent it back because it was "too cheesy.” He left me four cents as a tip. What a douche.
Cold-coffee
73. Charred Perfection
There was an order of 1 vegetarian pizza with no sauce, and cheese on the side in a zip-lock bag. This order is to go. The guy told me to keep it in the oven and when it was black like a hockey puck, he told me to cook it for 5 more minutes. The thing was straight black and hard as a rock.
The first time I cooked it, I thought to myself there was no freaking way he would enjoy it. It turns out he enjoyed it so much, that he called to get my name, and from that point on, he called ahead to make sure I was the one cooking it.
pandolfo20
74. A Not-So-Cheesy Misunderstanding
Not a waiter, but when I was a kid my little brother hated cheese but loved pizza. He was only 4 or 5 at the time and didn't fully grasp the concept of pizza yet so when we ordered a pizza my dad would always have to order a "plain" pizza.
One time we were at a pizza restaurant and my dad ordered a "plain pizza" and the waiter responded, "Okay, so a large cheese pizza." My brother immediately started crying so my dad started winking at the waiter going, "No, a large plain pizza.” There was a breakdown in communication between my dad and the waiter and we ended up getting a circle of dough covered in sauce.
My dad is catching a lot of flak, rest assured when we got home he put my brother in a burlap bag and beat him with reeds, which was standard protocol for situations such as this.
taco_whisperer
75. The Sweetener Surprise
The strangest request! When I worked for a coffee shop, I helped open the first drive-thru store in the area so it was a learning process for some customers.
A lady orders in the drive-thru lane an iced venti vanilla latte with 22 sweet-n-lows. So I responded, “22 sweet n lows, like two two?” The customer sighed and answered, “Yes 22 sweet-n-lows.” Then I told her to pull up.
Now at the drive-thru, we put the extra milk and sugar in the drinks for the customers, while in a cafe they would add it on their own. So, the person working the bar looked at me like and asked, “For real this lady wants 22 packs of sweet-n-low in her latte?” I said, “That's what she said so that's what we made her.”
The lady pulls up and pays for her drink. I hand it over and tell her to have a nice day. She stops and says "Oh, can I get those sweet-n-lows now?" I just looked at her and said that they were already in her drink, boy was she pissed!!
She wanted us to hand her 22 packs of the sweet-n-low in the drive-thru so that she could take them home.
Notsocreativeeither
76. Nacho Nudge
I had a woman call me back to the table because I didn't place her nachos close enough to her. I thought she was just joking, but she was not. I was surprised when she asked me to push them closer to her.
There was nothing wrong with her. She was just oversized, lazy, and ignorant. Here's some extra icing on the cake. She was in a group of 5 people and when the bill came, she said she would take care of it (to the cheers of her friends). She gave me a $5 tip on a $75 check.
MonkeyInATopHat
77. Infinite Pasta Refill
Once I was having a meal with a buddy at a crab shack. We both got the same thing, a jambalaya dish with pasta, and an awful load of mini shrimp. My buddy eats through all the pasta.
He then starts going through the rest when the waitress checks up on us. She asked me if I would like a drink refill, and I said yes. And then my buddy asks, “Can you refill this with pasta?” gesturing with his plate.
She obliged. The dude got a pasta refill on his meal. I thought it was hilarious.
Bud_hasselhoff
78. Duo Dining Demands
One couple, in particular, made the chef rage so hard that she just walked out. The wife orders some meal and makes a ton of changes to it. She gets the plate takes one bite and sends it back because she doesn't like it.
The husband orders a $60 lobster plate. The lobster tail comes with pepper sprinkled on top. The husband sends it back and wants a whole new one with no pepper on top. Apparently, his wife wanted to try one piece but doesn't like pepper.
I_Dont_Live_Here
79. Dolphin Dives
As a waiter at a coastal restaurant, we occasionally had dolphins come into the harbor right to where people would eat. These two old ladies came in before they placed their orders.
All of a sudden, they just demanded I release the dolphins for their amusement. At first, I thought they were not serious. It took a good 10 seconds of silence before I realized they were serious. I passed this request on to my manager and then continued to eat free jumbo shrimp.
Shanelol
80. Garlic Juice Connoisseur
I used to work at a retail store as a juicer and this one guy would come in every day and order 12 ounces of garlic juice to go which is like 20 dollars by the way.
After a couple weeks of seeing him order the same thing I asked him to drink it in front of me because I didn't believe it was humanly possible to ingest that much garlic. He downed it all in front of me and said, "Along with much garlic comes much loneliness" I laughed and he said, "No seriously I work from home.”
He_shootin