Restaurant Workers Share Their 'Worst Customer' Stories

We all are customers, and most of us went to a restaurant at least once. But surely, we all noticed that one mean or entitled customer who was treating everyone badly. 

This is about those people: Diving into 40+ stories about the meanest and most challenging customers. After reading these stories, we’ll definitely reflect on our behavior around any employee. 

1. Is My Disrespect Not Enough?

I worked at a fast-food place, I had a guy throw a handful of pennies at me while laughing, the 30-odd cents was my tip, he was mad when I turned around and walked away without picking any of them up. 

His exact words were, "Oh, my money is not good enough for you? Fine, I'll never order from you again!" I've never had a customer fire themselves like that before, it was great.

sixesand7s

I used to work in a bar that sold very old booze. A drunk man tried to impress his friends by chugging from a bottle of liquor from the early 60s. 

He had to pay for the whole thing since his lips touched it and it was useless. It cost him around $800.

Kaygarthedestroyer

Barista here. I had a guy that regularly came in and ordered a complicated drink. He always finished the order by asking for a “finger swirl” in the drink. 

If you gave him a confused look he would say “Well how else am I gonna taste you?”. He was the worst.

VulnerableKimchi

Worked in a popular restaurant for a while. We usually have quite a long wait (30-40min waits) during dinner service and people are told by the hosts about this. There was this lady that got fed up with the wait after 10mins. 

She stormed into the restaurant, stood next to a table of 4 people, and literally asked them "Are you guys done? We've been waiting for a long time now and would like to have the table if you guys are just chatting...". 

I was completely mindblown how people are able to not give a damn and pull something like this in public.

daofuu

Way back in the 80s, I worked in a restaurant that was a favorite of a celebrity chef of those days. Never seen a bigger idiot than that guy. Literally makes our servers cry. Nothing was ever right, he was beyond rude and condescending, yet he kept. coming. back.

He had a reputation for being a jerk off-camera. Eventually, he was disgraced by being outed as a pervert and was quickly forgotten by all.

TheSquirrelWithin

Our bar was having a private party. A drunk dude walks in and orders a drink. I knew he wasn't with the party based on his attire and that he came in every so often. I told him I couldn’t get him a drink. 

He lost his mind. He told me to get lost and then wanted to fight me. On his way out he yelled that we should put up signs, as he walked by the signs on the door saying we were closed for a private event. He came in the next day sober and apologized.

Rads324

I work in a place that is frequented by local families and youth sports teams. On Sundays, this one large group of people always comes in and they are the worst. 

  The parents drink and ignore their preteens who run around playing games in the entire restaurant, disrupting everyone else.   

They have tried to walk in a party of 45 during end-of-year sports party season when we are booked solid, and get mad that there isn't enough space for them.

And they modify everything like crazy and leave 0 in a tip. It's at least once a month the entire group comes in. And weekly for some of the individual families.

fore_tea_too

After a wedding reception ended at our facility, we were cleaning and I began the cleaning process on our espresso machine. The party was over almost a half hour already. 

The process takes 12 minutes. People were still there as the party slowly let out and the bride's father asked me for an espresso. I told him I could get it to him (as we have a strict policy of always trying to satisfy a guest's needs) but the machine was cleaning and it would be done in about 10 minutes.

He began ranting about how much he paid for the wedding and stormed to our banquet manager and told them I refused to make it for him. The manager is a dirtbag and starts ripping me in front of the guy. 

I showed both of them that the machine was just finishing the cleaning process and it was impossible to make it beforehand. I got suspended for 2 weeks.

whomper13

A customer ordered one of our daily specials and didn’t like it, so instead of complaining to me about the food and letting me offer something else, she complained to my manager about ME. 

This was May of last year. In August of last year, turns out she was one of my college professors for the semester, teaching A MANAGEMENT course. She recognized me the first day but I played it off like I didn’t know her.

ArcanumFish

I served a couple once and we got along really well with no complaints about anything. I ran the guy’s card and it declined. 

I told my manager and when he went to talk to them, they told him that I was a horrible server and treated them like crap. 

They left me a penny.

st_bart

  This one guy who basically hated his order so much that he waved me over and told me to put my hand out and proceeded to spit out entirely what was in his mouth into my hand,

then tell me to refund him and then make him something else.

Loves_me_tacos125

I waited tables for a few years in college and the worst table that I ever had was a Catholic priest and some guy he was trying to hit up for donations. The whole meal he was very condescending and demanding. After everything was done, I left the check on the table. 

He ended up walking out stiffing me not just on the tip but on the entire check. He even stole the leather check holder thing.   

I reported this to my manager. A couple of weeks later, this same guy comes in with about 20 members of his congregation. 

My manager told him he wasn't welcome in our restaurant after walking out on his previous tab in front of his whole party. They all ended up leaving to go elsewhere. The best manager I've ever had.

penguin7117

I bartended in a restaurant a few years ago. There was a private party and one of the guests asked me to plug in his phone to listen to a song. No big deal..I did it and he tipped me $20. 

He left his phone behind the bar and got wasted. When he was leaving I said, "Sir, don't forget about your phone!" He threw a beer on me and told me to leave him the heck alone and told me to get a real job. 

Guess who got to keep a nice new phone?

mox44ah

Any table that mentions the tip at all. "Don't worry, we tip well", "If you do x, we'll tip big" and "We'll take care of you".

Holding the tip over my head doesn't get you better service, you get the same as everyone else does. They were always pretentious and rude and never tipped well.

[deleted]

I worked at a fast food near a high school. The absolute worst were the moms. I had one who came in weekly and screamed about wrong orders or whatever complaint she could dream up so she could get free food for her entire family.

Then you get the loser douches who think disrespecting employees is funny. The absolute worst customer was the owner of the franchise. He’d walk in, “test” employees, and then fire someone for some issue so minor it was likely just made up.

[deleted]

I worked in a beach town in NJ for a while, and NY tourists were the worst. It was the act that they were doing everybody a favor by being there. 

This was a "rich beach town", not one that relied on tourism at all. In fact, these arrogant tourists probably brought the average income down and definitely brought the average tips down. And anybody who snapped their fingers. I preferred "Hey, you!" to finger snapping.

teke367

I worked at a bakery for 2 years, and I had to deal with honestly the most HEINOUS and rude customers ever. I've worked in the food service industry my whole life, AND lived in Toronto up until 3 years ago, and I have never dealt with such entitlement. 

Anyways, one day one of our staff members quit by text message 5 minutes before her shift, and 30 minutes before we were set to open at 8 am on a Saturday. 

We were hard-pressed to find someone to cover, so I was alone until a front-of-house person was able to come in, about an hour later. 

I had one of the kitchen staff helping me, and all they could do was grab things and bag them as they weren't trained on cash or coffee. 

So here I am running around trying to help customers, make coffees, ring people through, and clearly stressed. This douchebag man was clearly annoyed that he had to wait, huffing and puffing, and eventually loudly exclaimed “Screw this, I'm not waiting for this crap”.

And then proceeded to throw his bagged muffin at my head and storm out. I legit almost chased him down, I was livid. Customers are crap lol.

LilRed2112

My buddy was 16 and got his first job at a fast food in the food court at the mall. His third day of work was Black Friday and he was put on a cash register. 

There were 3 registers open, and a line well over 50 deep at each register stretched across the mall. Some idiot gets to the front and starts talking badly about the wait. 

My buddy closes the register, hops over the counter, and tells everyone in line to get lost. Karens in the middle of the line were proclaiming "You can't do that." People are mean.

Mail_Order_Lutefisk

I had some racist lady ask my Guatemalan co-worker a nonsensical question (think something along the lines of "Which steaks are vegan?") about the menu several times, and when given the answer, would repeat the question louder and louder until she screamed at me.

"EXCUSE ME, SIR, SIR, insert dumb question". She didn't like it when I gave her the same answer, because her question made no sense. 

She just assumed my co-worker couldn't understand because she had an accent. In reality, this co-worker, while she has an accent, speaks Spanish, English, and Arabic which to my estimation is 200% more languages than this idiot speaks.

coyote_grundy_666

I worked in a Japanese restaurant and it was a small restaurant, so I was usually working as a cashier, waiter, bus boy, and delivery driver. Basically, it was me handling everything and the owner would come out from the back and take over if there was a delivery. 

Anyway, one day we had a family come in. Mom and Dad got sushi rolls for themselves and then got chicken hibachis for the kids. The hibachi came with a side of rice and I watched as these kids started throwing rice at each other. 

Mom and Dad did absolutely nothing to stop them, not even a, "Cut that out." 

When they left the place, all around their table was an absolute mess, and to make things worse the floor was carpeted, so cleaning rice out of it was a huge pain normally, but this was on a whole different level. Didn't even get a "Sorry about the mess" from them.

-eDgAR-

One time a guy stared at my chest as I explained the specials, and then asked me about the specials.

His girlfriend didn't speak to me for the rest of their meal. He gave me a 10% tip.

PracticalHat6

1: Man orders a double cheeseburger with extra cheese and receives one with 4 slices instead of the usual 2. Two minutes later, he is absolutely red in the face and screaming at the poor cashier. 

He's demanding to talk to the "little idiot" who made his sandwich and asking if we think this is some kind of joke. Apparently, when he ordered extra cheese he wanted one extra slice, not two.

2: Some guy comes to the drive-thru and orders 4 fish sandwiches. We only had 2 pieces of fish cooked and they were really close to their hold expiration time. 

Since we had to cook more anyway, my manager said to waste those 2 since they were old and make all fresh ones for the customer. A guy comes up to the window and they ask him to pull forward because it'll be a couple of minutes. 

Meanwhile, we keep serving other cars. After a couple of orders go out, this dude is in the lobby and asking for a manager. He is irate that we made him wait for his food while serving other people. 

The manager apologizes and explains the situation. Most people would be thrilled we didn't serve them old food, but for some reason that just made this guy angrier. 

He starts yelling louder and then threatens my manager over it. She asks him to leave and threatens to call the police.

The dude storms out, slamming the door so hard he breaks the latch, and squeals his tires as he leaves the parking lot...without his order. He never came back for it, either.

3: We had this regular who came in every Sunday morning and ordered the same thing: a side salad, super-size fries, and a happy meal for her grandkid. 

One day, the person who bagged her order put the salad and the fries in the same bag as we were trained to do. If you've never seen a super-size fry container, they're tall...and the side salad is in one of those little rectangular plastic things, so as you can imagine the fries fell over. 

For a normal person this is no big deal...but not for this lady. She needed new fries and a new salad, in separate bags this time. 

Of course, the fries we had already made that came up 1 minute ago were not good enough, and she refused to leave or accept the new ones until we made a fresh basket.

Davran

I had a guest ask me if a particular entree was good or not. I replied that the dish was amazing and one of my favorites on the menu and “Honestly if you don’t like it I will pay for it.” 

  He happily agreed and later when I walked past his table I noticed his plate was completely empty I asked him how he liked the dish and he replied he hated it and demanded I uphold my promise from earlier. 

I laughed thinking he was joking but soon realized he was 100% serious. It was this day that I learned how naïve I’ve been living my life that, I expect others to treat me how they would like to be treated.

vandykejk

On my very first day working the register at a fast food, I accidentally charged an old man for a small coffee instead of a senior coffee (which reduces the price by like .40 or something). 

I kid you not, he unleashed the wrath of 1000 boomers on me and I cried like a baby right there.

SatisfactoryToe

Used to wait tables a while back, breakfast place. Mother’s Day was always the WORST to work in restaurants as I’m sure anyone else can agree with.

So this Mother’s Day is going particularly well, and then towards the end of the brunch rush, I get sat with a party of 8. Everyone’s in a good mood. Mom (it’s her day!!!!) orders our breakfast tacos with no onions- she says no onions like three times. Right, no onions.

Drinks are going fine, everyone is doing well. Food comes out, I ask how everything looks. Mom pushes her plate away and loudly and aggressively says “I said NO ONIONS”. I look down at the tacos to see that there are in fact, no onions.

Me: “Ma’am I put your order in with no onions. There are no onions.” 

She gets a crap-eating grin and goes “Oh YEAH? Well what are these!!?” and points to the green bell peppers on the tacos. 

Me: “Umm...those are green bell peppers”

She rolls her eyes and goes “SAME THING!”. The table is now silent as no one in her party knows what to do, clearly blinded by her stupidity.

My brain short circuits. I think to myself “No, no the hell they AREN’T the same thing, they’re not even the same fucking color, you can read, you’re a damned adult, just say how you want something and stop making a scene.”

Instead, I just put on my best customer service smile and said, “Right, sorry about that, we’ll get that fixed.” Took it back to the kitchen and told my chef and he just started laughing about it. $0 tip. Happy Mother’s Day!

masstillo

I have two from the same restaurant. The first one goes like this. I worked as a bus boy and it was getting near closing time. At this point, it was around 9:30 (we closed at 10), and this table which was probably 20-ish feet away from where I was started trying to say to me “That’s a free meal.” 

I stopped vacuuming because I just didn’t understand what they were asking me. Supposedly they were under the belief that if someone was vacuuming before closing then they got a free meal. 

So eventually the owner came up to me and asked me how far away I was vacuuming and I said the same thing. She just told me “Yeah they’re idiots” and told me to wait a little bit. They ended up leaving past 10:30 and I don’t think they left a tip. 

They didn’t get their free meal. Another shorter story was the time that two giant groups of about 16 people each came in a few weeks later at about 9:45. I think I got home at midnight that night.

RacismEnterprisesInc

Back in college, I was working my first job as a front-of-house staff for an on-campus locally owned burger place. My main job was to call the order numbers out to customers and pass their food off. Easy enough.

Well, one night we get absolutely slammed with to-go orders at the close. I’m the only person out at the front and there were two cooks behind me working on the food. A man ordered two burgers. Cool! 

Well, we’re so busy I’m obviously not aware of what number goes with what customer off the top of my head, and I call out a number.

A customer takes it and heads out.

Turns out the wrong customer grabbed that man’s order. He proceeded to YELL profanities at me, calling me a damn idiot, demanding his food be free AND that he gets free fries. 

All in front of other customers. I started crying. It held up everyone else’s food in the process. The manager has to tell him to get lost and remake his food. It was just one giant show.

[deleted]

I had a customer order the crab-crusted salmon. After about 30 minutes I brought out the food and the customer then decided to tell me that they couldn’t eat it as they were allergic to crab and that they didn’t read what the meal was. 

Both my manager and the chef were pretty pissed cause the customer then didn’t want to pay for the meal.

koledgeguy

So a few years ago I worked at a pizza place. This couple came in and they both looked terrible. They had horrible scars and terrible acne on their faces. 

They were older so I don't even know how they had acne but anyway. They came in and I got stuck with them. They stank. Like. They must have not showered in years. I almost gagged every time I had to go near that table. 

You could literally smell these people two feet from the table, it was just horrible. I can't even describe to you how bad this smell was, and I was forced to act like nothing was wrong. 

They were both very rude on top of it, always wanting something and just general jerks. They didn't leave a tip of course and even tried to demand discounts while paying for their food.

that_one_ginger_girl

The mayor of my small town had a private party in my bar/restaurant. A bunch of middle-aged people, most of the females were local TEACHERS, drunk, stumbling all over, spilling, breaking glasses, trying to hug me... but this one guy. Oh my God.

This sweaty middle-aged disgusting man went behind my bar and broke at least three glasses. Refused to pay. When I yeeted him out and refused to serve him because he was so drunk, he took out a bag of substances and snorted it off the bar. 

Then he looked at me all smug and victorious. I called my boss hoping he would come and solve it, but he was a mama's boy who was playing entrepreneur at his father's expense, and he was super excited that the mayor wanted to party in his place. 

He joined in on the madness. When they started trashing the furniture, he finally dismissed the party. He helped me clean. I noped the hell out the next day of course.

SoftDarkie

Once, I had a family of 4 come in. I work at a sushi restaurant, so of course there's the open sushi set. And logically each person gets charged for it. 

The dad started joking around, trying so hard to make me charge him with two sets instead of 4. I apologized and said I can't do anything about it.

He got mad and said bitterly "Some respectful staff this company has. I want to speak to the manager." I told him there was no manager at this branch. 

So he laughed like he didn't believe me then he said "Gonna ruin your life for his"

Two days later, HR called me and told me that a man came in and said that I yelled at him, and that I was very disrespectful towards him and his family, I wasn't helpful or welcoming and I refused to be nice to him.

I stood up for myself and told him what really happened. The HR said, "I really don't know who I should believe" and hung up. Two days later, I was fired.

SomoneYouReallyDK

Used to work in an Indian restaurant in Southern England. 

My father, who worked with me, had his front teeth knocked out by a drunken customer. I saw a woman punched unconscious outside because she got into "someone else's" taxi. 

bored_toronto

When I worked at a sandwich place, one night we were running out of spinach. A guy dressed like a cowboy came in and ordered a foot long. We get to the spinach and the cowboy says “I want a lot of spinach” (good luck with that). 

We’re only supposed to put pinches on anyway, but this guy is used to me giving people extra when my manager isn't around because I roll that way, but not today.

“You’re gonna give me more than that,” he says in a demanding tone. “We’re running out of spinach today,” I say, knowing a boomer tantrum brewing when I see one. “Give me more” I give him pinches, but he wants handfuls.

The cowboy demands: “I NEED MORE SPINACH THAN THAT BOY”. “Sir we’re running out of spinach” “DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I COME HERE AND THEY GIVE ME ALL THE SPINACH I WANT”. 

I only give people extra when they’re nice so get lost dude. “Yeah, other customers are gonna want spinach tonight though” “I’VE BEEN COMING HERE FOR YEARS EVEN THOUGH YOUR PRICES KEEP GOING UP”.

“WHY DO THE PRICES KEEP GOING UP”. In my head (because this isn’t a restaurant, it’s a sandwich factory, and companies in unchecked capitalism are free to maximize profit as opposed to worry about food quality, health, price, or what silly cowboys think).

What I said: “I’m a cashier dude, they don’t even let me touch the board” “YOU JUST TALKED YOURSELF OUT OF A SALE! WHAT’S YOUR MANAGER’S NUMBER?”. I gave him my number. Cowboy leaves and leaves me a voicemail. 

I text back one thing: YEEHAW. 

BigBlackClock6969

It's a takeout pizza place, but this is a fun one. It's the day before a huge event in my town. Draws in a lot of visitors from around the world. Obviously, a pizza delivery place is going to be busy.

Past 8 pm on said day this guy calls, ordering $160 worth of food for delivery. It's like ten large pizzas and a bunch of wings. Ok. The normal delivery time for anything is an hour. 

I knew it was a lot more than we could handle in an hour- I asked an older coworker and he told me it would be an hour and a half because the chicken was going to take so long and we could put max 4 large pizzas on the oven at once, and again, we have a lot of other orders. I tell the guy.

"I need it by nine."

“Sir, we can't deliver that much food within an hour, especially not tonight. We're backed up as it is."

"It's too long of a wait."

"Well if you pick it up we might be able to have it ready in 45 minutes, but it's a stretch even then-"

"Fine. I don't want it."

So yeah. Someone cancelled a $160 order because we were too busy to get it delivered in under an hour the day before a huge event in our town... Oh and did I mention this was our fire chief?

markhoppusbigipad

One dude would come into the cafe with his 2 stupid dogs that would hop on everything and bark at people. Even if there was a line, he’d just raise his hand and yell “Coffee!” and just walk past the line and wait for his coffee, where he’d pay cash at the pick-up area.

One day, after he skipped a particularly long line, I refused to make his coffee. He started shouting at me and saying he’d get me fired, but eventually, he went to the end of the line and he had to order his coffee from me.

Nobody clapped, but I felt like the people in line were clapping in their hearts.

Pwncak3z

There were plenty, but one of note was one of the guys from a show. He’d been coming into our spot a lot and seemed cool. He asked me for our specialty drink with basil in it. 

We didn’t have a drink with basil. We had a version of a mojito with mint in it and I assumed that’s what he meant but I wanted to make sure.

Me: Do you mean our blah-blah mojito with mint?

Picker: (slams hands down on the table and stares me dead in the eye) The one with damn basil. I got it last week. It’s on the special menu.

I go and ring in the mojito with mint and NO DAMN basil and bring it out. He takes a sip and says “Perfect”. 

jbboney21

Not a horrible customer but a time I worked at a pancake place led me to witness a man add Tobasco, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and Heinz 47 (?) sauce to his pancakes. 

That should be a crime.

CaptainDoItTomorrow

Once, an older man came up to me and asked if I would be his sugar baby. I was 17. 

He then went on to tell me about how the Aryan race was superior and we got into a heated argument. I’m Latina. I got a write-up and they made me hide from him in the kitchen.

waterfountainnn

I worked at a sit-down "artisan" pizza place in a nice neighborhood for a while. One time, I saw a customer scream at and belittle one of the waitresses so much she cried ("You're an idiot", "How hard could your pathetic job be" type stuff).

He was mad that there were not more pepperoni slices on his pizza. He also did this with his wife and two kids at the table for context.

__plankton__

I was a cook, so I didn't deal with the customer directly - but I felt the server's pain as she came back and reported to me. This woman came in with her young daughter and asked what the soup of the day was, she was told it was tomato garlic.

She then demanded we serve her a bowl without the garlic because she had a date later. Which honestly is far from the worst customer ever, but maybe one of the most unaware of how food preparation in a restaurant kitchen works.

WinnipegGoldeye

I worked at a sandwich place, and a couple came in and was rude as hell the whole time but what stood out was they got two 6-inch meatball marinara, double meat, and extra sauce.

Then, they wanted my manager's number to complain because it was messy. I’m just standing there thinking “I make sandwiches not miracles”

guywhol1kesp1e

I work in a fish and chip shop, there’s a regular who comes in every Thursday/Friday. One time he came, I accidentally charged him for slightly more than he bought - I eventually noticed, fixed it, and life went on.

Now, every time he comes in, whenever I ask him for payment he makes a point of counting how much his order comes up to, and how much change I gave him really loudly under his breath. 

And he doesn’t stop after one count, he just counts it over and over again while I’m trying to wrap up his chips, all the way up until he leaves. He doesn’t do this when he gets served by my coworker. I hate that guy.

[deleted]

It's probably not bad compared to other creepy customer experiences people have had, but I was 18 working at a golf club restaurant with a lot of snooty, elderly people. 

This one old guy came around the corner out of sight of the rest of his table and other customers. He took my hand in his, gave me a tip, complimented my looks, then kissed me on the cheek. I was very uncomfortable.

PrincessMonsterShark

I was having a substance addict throw hot coffee at me, or the time another substance addict threatened me, or the time a naked woman just randomly walked in (also on substances).   

The interesting ones always showed up when I was working.

[deleted]

I was working at the food court at a ski resort in New Hampshire. An old guy asked me how I got to the country and if I needed a husband to stay.  

  I ignored him so he kept pushing it telling me I would make a great wife and that he could help me.

The cashier was like our grandma and made sure customers didn't mess with us, she came and yelled at him until he left.

[deleted]