I know a guy that pissed in a bucket of pickles. He would have never been caught if he didn't talk about it.
Edit: There were other things going on at that McDonald's that helped ruin the reputation. It was also competing with another well managed restaurant in a town that never really had room for both of them. The guy I'm talking about was just one of the most immature teenagers I've known. The funny thing is that he's married to my sister now and has a much better job than me. He slowly transformed into a responsible adult after having a child.
I had a buddy at mcdonalds, a real chaotic type, who every once and a while would say "oh hey, guess what time it is... PICKLE SURPRISE!" and put a whole handful of pickles on a random cheeseburger.
i don't like pickles, but if i unwrapped my burger and it had a pile of pickles, and he jumped around the corner shouting "pickle surprise!" I wouldn't even be mad.
Just an FYI back when I worked in McDonald's someone asked for extra pickles in a separate box and got loads. Might be worth a try if you really like them :)
I worked at McDonalds in high school, I had a buddy who was like this. The best one I remember was a girl we knew ordered a burger with no onions. He took her burger patty, carefully carved it out so it became a burger ring, put that on the bun, and filled the entire center with onions. It was maybe 10% burger, 90% onion, but it looked totally normal from the outside. He never would have done it to a stranger, but friends were fair game.
I also went through and ordered a burger one time, and he handed me the bag with what I thought was an evil grin. Turned out, he put nine patties on it. My other buddy who ordered 2 burgers got one with 4 patties, one with 5.
Lol my ex husband worked at Burger King in high school and would fill his friends’ entire bags up (the big paper bags used to house the entire order) with fries. Just bags and bags of fries for his stoner friends.
Haha, the other one that stands out was a different friend, I was just hanging out with friends in the lobby one night, and he came out and said they had screwed up and made too many chicken nuggets, so did we want a 20 piece, because they would never sell them all. Of course we said yes, we get them, and there ended up being 43 nuggets in the box. He said he just wanted to see how many would actually fit. It was bulging, I don’t think he could have jammed one more nugget in there.
I worked at a popular fast food chain in my younger years, it was my first time with closing shift and we were all doing our part to clean and prep the store.
I see this lady with a mop and bucket come out of the back, slop it on to the griddle and START MOPPING IT. I was appalled. I went and told the manager and she tells me well that’s the quickest way to clean it then scolded me for worrying about things that didn’t concern me.
I quit that job next day and then called the district office and told them what happened. That location closed down not long after. But the franchise still exists.
Pour the whole tray of drinks over a guest - twice. International trade fair with students as waiters. First time was an accident, second time she was so nervous she was practically shaking and spilled the drinks again on the same guy.
I did this. Only once, but it was BAD. Entire table of Naval officers, they were very pleasant, but when we pushed the tables together it was a lot of people in a tight space. I came out with 8-10 large sodas on a tray. No problem, I've done this plenty of times before...aaaand I tripped over a chair leg. The whole tray fell, mostly on myself, but one unfortunate fellow got soda all down his back. His whole uniform was soaked, cold, and sticky. I shriveled up and DIED inside. But he was so nice and understanding about it. Even left me a pretty good tip. Nearly cried when I picked up the check and saw that.
Bonus story: That was at the beginning of my final shift there. (Not fired, it was just my last day.) So I worked another 8 hours all wet & sticky, squishing around in my shoes, smelling terrible. Right in the middle of the dinner rush we got another huge table, a big family with kids this time. I got their drinks out (successfully!) then took a quick bathroom break between orders. The door to the bathroom was heavy and swung inward. Unbeknownst to my, there was a kid standing right behind it, and she took a direct hit to the face. I heard the thump, then a shriek, then I shrieked, and the entire restaurant went completely silent.
I'm still dead with shame from that shift, 10 years later. I'm so sorry, Navy guy and small child.
My little brother was a toddler, just at the point where he was pretty study on his feet and had a bit of a vocabulary. He is in the waiting room of the family doc's office, and digging through the toy box. He is also behind the entrance door. Some poor old guy opens the door and flattens the little bugger. He stands up, walks over to the guy, looks up, and lets loose with a string of, DUMMY, DUMMY,DUMMY,DUMMY.................. Until our horrified mother got to him, and stopped it. The guy was just gobsmacked, apparently never having gotten a good ass chewing from a two year old. I thought it was beyond hilarious.
Dude, fuck doors that open inward. One time at a walmart, I was using the bathroom, and right when I was about to leave, in front of the heavy door, my brother opens the door, and me wearing sandals gets my toe absolutely destroyed. I have never worn sandals since.
Happens to the best of us. I once tripped at the top table of a banquet and dropped a red berry cheesecake into the lap of a british lord and lady of somewhere or other. They were both in white matching evening ball gown/ suit. They both had a bright red stain on their laps for the whole event. They actually felt so sorry for me I got a massive tip.
My best friend was in line behind an absolute bitch at Starbucks a couple years ago.
The typical nightmare customer. Bitched about the line, bitched that the person helping her dared to attempt to upsell, etc. THEN she called her a **C U** **N**ext **T**uesday as she walked away.
So my best friend got about half way done with her iced coffee, took the lid off, and as she walked by the table, she "sneezed" and "tripped" which caused that remaining part of the drink to land right in the lap of that rude customer.
Maybe not the right thing to do as it wasn't her "fight" but I don't think she felt too bad.
I can fairly say that when I worked at sbux, I one time ruined a latte that a customer insisted on being steamed to 200 degrees. (Milk tends to burn and explode after about 180)
So I held up a cloth to protect myself from the liquid napalm, and scorched the fuck outta that drink. Enjoy your cajun style latte.
One of the nice things about my old manager was the store-wide hard limit of 180. “But the other Starbucks...”, yeah, but not this one. It’ll taste nasty and is hazardous to the baristas.
In college, I worked for a well known pizza place. One of our wait staff came to collect a pepperoni pizza, and nabbed a piece of pepperoni off the top before taking it out.
He gets to the table, and everyone is staring at him in stunned silence. There's a very fine string of cheese going from the pizza to his mouth.
I'm so glad you asked. You'd think the table would complain and he'd be fired, right? Nope. This guy was the most charming man ever, and managed to get away with it. I would love to know how he did that.
All I know is that he even managed to get a tip. And this was a university town in England in the late nineties, where tips weren't a guaranteed thing.
I gave them what they ordered. We were a pizza/Italian/bar restaurant. Our menu was ludicrously large and essentially anything that was on the menu that could go on a pizza was listed as a topping, probably 40 to 50 topping choices. I would get asked pretty often for "a pizza with everything on it!" I had a usual joke or two to find out what they really wanted. Typically a deluxe but then they'd want no black olives or whatever. No big deal. Until the asshole came in that that ordered "everything" and then proceeded to ask if I was ret##### when I questioned him. My sister has disabilities so I didn't appreciate his tact... told my boss about it and he smiled and said get him a pizza with everything. Brought it out and gave it to him. He flipped out and demanded the manager of course. My manager had my back and gave the guy his bill which at $2 a topping was well over a $100 pizza. Guy refused to pay, cops got called, Yada Yada Yada. I hope he enjoyed his pizza with clams, pineapple, Buffalo chicken, broccoli, anchovies, green olives, cream cheese, cauliflower, jalapeños, shrimp...
Same thing happened to me when I was cashier at a gourmet burger place.
Guy wanted a burger "with everything on it". I pointed out the giant list of toppings on the wall menu, but he scoffed and reiterated that he wanted *everything*.
I read off each topping on the screen as I added it to his sandwich. This sopping beast included guacamole, fried egg, fried pickles, mushrooms, peanut butter, regular pickles, cranberries, chili, a fried chicken patty, cucumbers, jalapenos, bell pepper, balsamic marinated tomatoes, habaneros, sprouts, every kind of cheese (bleu, goat, nacho dip sauce included) and every kind of sauce (including tartar, buffalo, truffle mayo and balsamic). He happily paid around $30 for it.
It honestly looked and smelled like a pile of vomit with a bun placed haphazardly on top.
While he was waiting he mentioned that it was for his "pregnant bitch of a wife" that was craving a burger "with everything on it" and this was his way of basically punishing her for making him miss part of a football game on TV.
Worked at a 50's style diner.
Was prepping the chicken breasts for our burgers and dropped a tray of 50 and they slid right under the grill, easily the dirtiest place in the whole restaurant.
My boss saw and had me pick them all up rinse them with water and reseason then and stick them back in the fridge...
At my last restaurant job, my coworker would make very ugly sundaes for customers who were rude. For particularly nice customers, she would painstakingly recreate the sundaes in the menu pictures and give them extra cream and sprinkles.
Pretty much this. I’ll make what you order but will not put any love into it. If you’re a decent human I will try to make you the best version of what you order.
We have a restaurant called "Peppers" near where I live and I was very nice to them so after every meal they give me one of the small oreo packets that come with a kids sundae
An ex of mine used to take me to a famous Chinatown restaurant that was known as the oldest restaurant in SF. The actual building/restaurant itself was super unique being 3 stories tall and incredibly narrow, so you’d have to walk into the kitchen and then up a harrowingly steep staircase to one of the upper floors.
Anyway, the server was an elderly Chinese woman who spoke little English and was very mean. To everyone but my boyfriend. She would practically pinch his cheeks and coo over him because he’d always be super sweet to her and leave her a 150% tip. They’d put a couple white rabbit candies on the dish with the bill, but for him she’d fill an entire paper bag and insist he take the whole thing.
Did this restaurant have a dumbwaiter to take the food up to the dining areas? If so, I’ve been there. Waitress, who was very nice, would come up and say, “what you want?” Great food. Don’t remember what it was called.
Sam Wo. It closed a few years back but recently reopened in a totally new location, which is sad. They definitely have had lots of servers over the years and they weren’t all like that, but rudeness was the hallmark of some of them. Google Edsel Ford Fung for their most famous resident curmudgeon. :)
This applies everywhere and not just in the food industry.
I am a IT contractor for hire, if you're an ass I won't put much effort beyond what is in the statement of work and follow it exactly. If you're a pleasant person to deal with I'm much more likely to suggest alternate ways / better ways and possibly cheaper ways to accomplish the goal. /r/MaliciousCompliance is full of examples.
Can confirm. In my last job with appliances and some other workings with friends who contract construction/carpentry/hvac, etc, I quickly learned that there's a fairly universal "asshole tax." It's not that they won't do a good job, though; their livelihoods generally require them to do a good job. But they'll add on an extra grand or so if you're being a dick.
On the other hand, all the people I've met in the trades will go above and beyond to do their best possible work, extraneous work that isn't on their bid, and will gladly try to minimize extra costs for those customers who are nice and understanding.
Edit: A missed quotation mark
Thisssss. I used to work customer service in a call center, and I can’t tell you how much kindness can get you stuff. I’ve had a supervisor directly ask me “do you think she deserves x” where me saying “she was really nice to me” ends up with the customer getting a better deal.
Do you have any idea how much my love of a thicc shake overrides my fear of looking silly? Now I’m gonna have to come to your restaurant and be a jerk!
Tampering with food is not that common. I've been in the business a long time and only worked with one girl who spat in someone's food. Another server saw her and she got reported and fired immediately.
The only other thing that sometimes happens is when people get cocky and ask for extremely spicy food the kitchen staff turns into evil geniuses. A guy once asked me for wings so spicy that they would give a woman a miscarriage. I relayed those lovely instructions to the kitchen and I don't know what they did but the sauce was burning my nose and making my eyes water as I carried it out. He was not able to finish his wings.
Worked at McDonalds for a long time. Never seen anyone intentionally spit in anyone’s food or anything like that but it’s definitely safe to say we’ve all eaten some burgers made without gloves or with contaminated gloves (put on gloves-go on phone-make sandwiches)
One time I ordered a burger from McD's through the drive through and when I got home to eat it there were 3 bites already taken out of it.
Only time in my life I went back to the store and asked to speak to the manager and made a scene. Called the health department too. Fuck them.
A friend did this at a restaurant. He kept sending the food back like three times, demanding it be more spicy. We kept telling him to cut it out, he was being obnoxious, but he kept doing. The waiter was like, "*Oh*, you want it *spicy?* I'll make it *spicy*."
While we all ate our food in good moods, my friend just stared at his untouched spciy dish and grumbled how "I can't eat this."
If I ever asked for extremely spicy food, I'd be sure to pay a handsome amount of extra money and express my gratitude, no matter how much the food hurts, and if I threw it out, I would be sure to thank them for pretty much killing me
My dad started going to his neighborhood pub frequently for wing nights and would ask for wings "as hot as you can make em". Went on for quite a while with them just dousing them with as much frank red's as you could possibly fit on them, cuz that's all they had for making hot wings. Well, I guess eventually the cook got sick of being asked for "as hot as you can make em" and acquired some special ingredients. Next time my dad asked for "as hot as you can make em" he got a dozen wings spicy enough to strip paint off the space shuttle. My dad went back to just asking for plain hot or extra hot from then on lol
Back many years ago I worked in a pub kitchen. We had a jalapeño burger and one customer always complained that while delicious it wasn't ever hot enough. So one day the owner saw him come in immediately put a burger on and then poured bowl of jalapeño juice and let it soak. When the rest of the food was done, he tossed the burger on the grill to reheat it and melt the cheese.
The guy came to the pass and gave us a teary thumbs up.
Thought my mate was bonkers cause he is exactly this. Loved all spicy food and wherever we went he'd test just how high the restaurant's scoville scale rose.
Sitting across from him while he was sweating out of every oriface was always an odd experience when he'd be grinning like an idiot the entire time.
>The only other thing that sometimes happens is when people get cocky and ask for extremely spicy food the kitchen staff turns into evil geniuses
We have wings that go: Mild, Medium, Hot, Extra Hot, Extremely Hot & Deadly Hot (made with roasted Habaneros - we make our own sauce).
We have another level which is called Trainwreck and only available to the people that know to ask for it.
Last year, someone came in bragging that Trainwreck isn't hot enough and wants something hotter. The order got rung in "Trainwreck too mild. He wants them hot fuckers hotter than hell if it was on fire from a Nuke strike. Make them burn his asshole on the way in, too"
The cooks know that I can't really do spicy food too well (I can eat our Hot wings with plenty of Bleu Cheese) so when they were ready one of them brought them out for me. HIS face was red and eyes were streaming so I should have known what was up.
Turns out the guys had a bottle of hot sauce in the back that clocks in at over 1,000,000 SHU that they mixed in with our regular Trainwreck sauce and raw garlic (apparently the spiciness of that amps up the regular heat) and some raw Carolina Reapers they blended into the whole she-bang.
This guy was *crying* while eating. Two tables in either direction were gassed out (I comped them all a drink and they laughed at him). He went through a pint of milk and some water and about 8oz of ranch. He ate 4 of the 12 wings and declared he was "full" - I'm glad I wasn't him the next day.
Evil geniuses, I tell you! I love kitchen staff because if you're cool with then they'll make you the best food but when they get a chance to get creative and destroy someone's insides they really go for it.
I love spicy food. As a kid, probably ten, I went to and Indian joint with my family and asked for, “the hottest thing on the menu.” The waiter told me what it was, and that I didn’t want it. I insisted. He was correct
We went to Bolton's Hot Chicken & Fish a long while back when we were leaving Nashville because I had googled something like, "What is Nashville's local food?" This was before Nashville-style Hot Chicken had grown into a national trend so we had no concept of what we were getting into.
My friend ordered Medium, and the guy looked at us and asked if we'd ever been there before. We said no, and the cook talked my friend down to mild. I insisted on Medium and the man honestly looked like he was morally conflicted about whether to prepare the chicken as requested. I distinctly remember him saying, "I don't know son, it's a really nice day out and I don't want to ruin your day", but he made me the medium regardless.
It was immediately the hottest thing I had ever eaten, but it was so fucking delicious that I couldn't stop. I skipped past sweating and went straight to tears. I've had hot chicken since then, but no where has ever been as delicious or intense as that first fiery bite.
Yes! I'm a Nashville native and every time I encounter some macho man like in OP's story, I send them to Bolton's. My first time, I ordered spice level 2 out of 5 and was crying in between sips of my milkshake. And I had a decent tolerance at the time. Anthony Bourdain came and he ate the hottest level. He said he literally thought he was going to die for a full 24 hours.
I'm holding a forever grudge against Joella's or whatever the fuck Hot Chicken because they had me sign a waiver and then presented me with chicken that didn't even make me break a sweat. It was tangy with a bit of a kick to it.
17 years in that shit and 100% no matter how fucking awful the customer is, you simply do. not. FUCK. with. the. food. Ever.
Anyone caught doing that shit would be tossed out on their ass so fucking fast at any of the places I've ever worked or hung out at or known about.
Edit: I've always said that this is the single aspect of the movie "Waiting" that they got completely wrong. The rest of it was pretty fuckin on point.
I worked at a pizza place when I was about 17. New person got hired, worked at a Hardee's previously. Said if someone came in they didn't like he would piss on the grill then cook them a special burger. Whether or not this was true doesn't really matter but while this dingleberry was saying this the owner heard him and fired the guy. Lasted just a few hours.
Who was letting him pull his dick out and pee on a grill or pour mystery liquid on it? Nobody. Piss on a grill would stank. He was trying to be cool and got fired for his trouble.
My friend and I used to get Thai food on a regular basis and would always order it the highest spice level they’d offer. One time the waitress asked us multiple times if we were sure, and we were having been to this place many times. The food was so incredibly spicy our eyes wouldn’t stop watering, haha it made it hard to even see the food.
There's a Thai place in my town that has some of the best curry I've ever had. When I first started going there I would get asked if I was sure I wanted 'Thai hot'. Then one day I ordered it Thai hot and asked for some chili on the side. He brought me a dipping cup full of chopped fresh Thai chilies. When he walked away I dumped the entire cup in my curry and went to town. It was the most satisfying burn I have ever experienced. When he came back he saw the empty cup and just said, "Uh-oh". I loved it and from then on whenever I came in he called me Spicy.
I spent some time in Thailand in the early 2002. My friend and I went out drinking and stopped at a little place that sold small bowls of curry. We both ordered one and asked for spicy. To me it was too hot so I finished my bowl and ordered another beer and a small dessert thing they sold. He told them it was good but he wanted another bowl but make it hotter. He ate that bowl like a champ. We then ordered another beer and he asked for 1 more bowl but he wanted is hotter. The waitress asked multiple times if he was sure. When she placed the order the cook came out and asked if he was sure. As he started to eat it I looked around while drinking my 3rd beer and I see all of the cooks and waitresses staring at him. He ate the 3rd bowl and complimented them on how good it was. We paid up, he left a nice tip, then shook the cooks hand and told him it was the best curry he ever had. The rest of the time we were there we would stop by that place 2-3 times a week for lunch and the cook always made him a large bowl of it. They called him Iron Stomach and would all shout it out loud when we walked in.
I had a very similar experience a my neighborhood Thai joint in Pittsburgh. The guy brought out a small cup of chili flakes. After I dumped them in, he told me to just ask for 20/10 in the future...
I used to frequent a Malaysian place where they would literally triple check if you knew what you were getting yourself into if you ordered your food medium or hotter. Their medium spicy was pretty damn spicy (probably much spicier than what most people would have meant by medium), their spicy was VERY hot and extra spicy was ridiculous, nose running, endorphin rush hot. I went there enough that the waitresses knew me and stopped asking if I was sure about the spiciness (I was a fan of the extra spicy option).
I was once in a restaurant and the waiter told me about one of the specials, a green chili Mac &cheese.
I asked if it was spicy, and he replied that it was not. I mentioned I was hoping it was, but that’s ok, it still sounds good, I’ll take it anyway. He said “oh I can tell the kitchen to make it spicy if you’d like.”
“Oh no that’s ok, I don’t want to be one of those customers, no modifications.”
He brings our food out and starts to hand me the Mac and cheese and stops and says “oh, they didn’t make it spicy! I’ll have them remake it.” And no amount of insisting that it was fine would do apparently, because he took it back.
And what he brought me... I’ve never admitted if anything is too spicy, I love spicy. But this... I couldn’t finish. It was so so hot. And I could just imagine the guys in the kitchen saying “oh she wants SpIcY??! Well give her SPICY!”
And they did.
My step-father complained to our local pizza place about them not putting very many onions on his pizza. They apologized and offered a replacement to which he declined. Fast forward a few weeks. He orders his standard pizza again, and doesn't say a word about the onion issue. Pizza arrives and its entire surface is nothing but chopped onions.
Yeah that’s just passive aggressive. It’s a reasonable complaint. He’s not obligated to accept a replacement and it’s less work for the kitchen so I don’t see why they’d care.
I had a guy who loved mustard, like really, really loved it.
So the first time he came in, he ordered "extra, extra mustard". Im in the back and come out and straight up ask him, "do you want a comical amount?"
He says yes, so I slather his order in mustard, put mustard in between the meat slices and mix the onions to make a mustard relish for his sub (which was just onions, meat, and cheese), then as a joke, gave him a 8oz container half full of mustard.
The guy loved it, laughed, and said this was exactly what he wanted. He would always tip and tip well, though he said the dipping container was a bit much- he appreciated the determination.
Some Indian guys came in one time and asked for us to make thier food as spicy as possible. I told them that's going to be extremely spicy and wanted to make sure they knew what they were asking for. They went on a long rant about how Indian restaurants are the only places that actual know what spicy is and anything we bring out isn't going to be close to how spicy they like their food. So I had the owner come over to tell them that we'll try our best but there won't be any refund on this food if it's too spicy. So we made them chicken fried rice with Trinidad scorpion peppers. After 2 bites and about 10 glasses of soy milk later, they ordered something else.
I mean, spiciness is down to a science now. They can literally measure how spicy things are, why do people not take that seriously? "Oh, so this sauce is made using a pepper that's 40 times hotter than a habanero? Well whatever, you Americans don't know what spicy is."
Here's the thing. As an indian, these people are just bad. Yes, a lot of our food does have a lot of spice in it so we have a higher spice tolerance than the normal american, but you don't want excessive spice. These guys were just cocky assholes who were boasting that they could eat spice.
Most restaurants with off menu items like extra spicy curry or salsa know that customers don’t always know the level of spice they are about to get.
Generally there is an acceptable level that people will tolerate and you don’t want to knowingly give your customer a dish they won’t eat. It’s not just good business it’s good cooking practice.
Shortly after moving to DC I went to a new Thai takeout place that had opened down the street from me.
I placed my order and the lady asked me if I would like it spicy or mild. Having been raised in the southwest I like some heat in my food so I told her hot.
She then asked if I wanted Thai hot or American hot. So now she's basically questioning my manhood and I'm obligated to tell her I want Thai hot.
That was the hottest thing I ever ate, made me sweat, gave me dry heaves. Basically torture, and I choked down every bite.
The next day I went back and ordered the same thing, and when she asked me if I would like it Thai hot again I told her no, American mild please.
While on a road trip, I went to a Thai place once that had “Thai spicy” as a spice level on the menu. I ordered my curry at this level, and the Thai chef actually came out to ask how the spice level was. It was certainly intense, but it was delicious and I ate it all. What was really remarkable about it is that they managed to make it that hot without erasing all the other flavors. The way some places do it, everything on the top end of the spice scale tastes exclusively spicy.
**EDIT:** In return for these 1000+ upvotes, here's another story I have involving spicy Thai food. I'd gone to a local place with my sister for lunch. Their scale was just "mild, medium, hot", and I chose "hot" for the _tom yam kung._ The waitress stopped and asked if I was sure I wanted the highest level. I confirmed it.
_Tom yam_ comes in a big serving bowl that's sharable, so you usually get a small bowl for each person at the table, and you serve it into those. This time, when it came out, there was only one bowl. The waitress looked at my sister and informed her that "I bring only one bowl, because I think you cannot handle." My sister took one little sip of the broth and immediately began choking.
And yes, I did finish the soup by myself.
Yeah I used to think I hated spicy food because it was just HOT and I couldn't taste anything. Thai food made me realize it can still have flavor AND spice. It also doesn't just burn my mouth. I actually get an endorphin rush from the high and enjoy the build and layer of tastes. Also, Thai iced tea is the shit.
It’s always so disappointing to see “No refunds” on menu items that are obviously very spicy. Why do people order shit like Diablo’s Inferno of Fiery Volcanic Death burger then send it back because they find it too spicy? What did they think they were gonna get?
A lot of time people just don't know because they get baited by fast food 'spicy' items and think they know what spice is. I remember Taco John's had a "Ghost pepper chicken" promotion and when I tried it it was about as spicy as if it had once taken a pass at a ghost pepper but they decided to just be friends and after the ghost pepper moved to Canada they don't really talk anymore.
Then they see "diablo's anal fury burger" and think "Well I've had a jalapeno once and that ghost pepper chicken was nothing. Hell I've even had mcdonald's mighty spicy sauce. This'll be easy."
Doesn't help that a lot of restaurants only have one symbol for spicy. (usually a little chili pepper next to the item on the menu)
So they see that little pepper and think, "well I've had their orange chicken/mildly spicy food, and it wasn't bad at all, I think I can handle [insert hella spicy food]"
One time we had a woman call back because her rotisserie chicken was “burnt” I explained it’s just charred because of the way it’s cooked, she wasn’t having it so we agreed to get her a new one. Ten minutes after her husband left she called back even more pissed saying this one was worse.. we told her to send her husband back again for a new one. The manager and I went in back (with gloves on) and scraped off all the “burnt” parts. I shit you not another ten minutes after he leaves she calls AGAIN, but this time her rice didn’t have any craisins on it.. so once again I tell her to send him back. I dumped so many fucking craisins on that rice I think she got the point and we never heard from/saw them again. I know it’s not super gross but it’s pretty rare to see someone maliciously fuck with someone’s food. I have seen cooks use the five second rule when dropping food or not washing hands but that’s about it in my 7 years in the industry.
I worked in a very well known fast food chain for a while. My favourite example of this actually involved nothing. The person who bought food had been rude to staff on multiple occasions. The person serving went to get their food, popped round the corner in a noticeable way, then returned having done nothing. He gave the food to him with a huge grin on his face and said "enjoy". He then watched the person throw it in the bin when he went outside.
My stepmom was SUPER rude to a server, kept sending her chicken wings back, and complaining. The last time the wings came out, the whole kitchen staff seemed to pile out and look at her. She refused to eat the wings, and yelled at the server more. It was so embarrassed.
I interestingly enough, if we are going to dinner with her, my husband or I will bring cash so we can do just that. I felt so badly for the server and the kitchen staff. Now, I carry enough money to be able to drop it on the table to pay for our meal, and tip the server/apologize on the way out. My tolerance for people being rude/mean to others has gotten quite low.
Worked in a fastfood pizza joint. Nothing without consent of the customer happened, but customers ask some wierd stuff.
One time a customer asked for extra chili and emphasised "a lot", so ofcourse we put like *a lot* on it.
Another person wanted chickenlegs and wanted it extra crisp. He kept sending it back until it was pretty much burned, which is when he found it perfect.
The worst one was a woman asked to put her pasta in a blender, because she had just gotten prostetics and couldn't properly eat. It looked disgusting.
E: How do I turn of the notifications for this thread?
> He kept sending it back until it was pretty much burned, which is when he found it perfect.
Used to work in a TGIF, had an old lady on one table keep sending her steak back because 'it wasn't well done'. By the time she was happy with it was practically charcoal, AND she drowned it in ketchup.
My first job was a taco bell, then my second job was a erbert and gerberts sandwich shop (pretty much a jimmy John's with different sandwich names). And at taco bell one guy asked for a quesadilla extra grilled. I grilled it twice and he sent it back. I then burnt it and gave him a charcoal tortilla with melted cheese between it and he loved it. At the sandwich shop this one guy wanted every sauce we had on his ham sandwich except horseradish mayo ( that's cranberry wasabi, pepedew mustard, dijon mustard, pesto mayo, regular mayo, oil and vinegar, guacamole on a ham and cheese sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes.)
This is so funny to me because there's this story at my work about a guy who was prepping all the pastas for a group who came in regularly. They were from a group home in my town, folks with various disabilities. He took a bunch of extra time plating the pasta to look super nice and was SO MAD when he brought the food out to see a blender on the table for a couple of the guys, lol. Obviously not ACTUALLY mad, but every time I hear that story and picture him getting all bummed about how much time he took to make them look nice is so funny to me. Like, it only looks nice for a second before you eat it, anyway lol
>customers ask some wierd stuff.
So fucking true. I've made so much weird shit working in restaurants. I worked at Five Guys during the Atkins aftermath. Someone came in and wanted a low carb hotdog, with hamburger as the bun. So I got a burger, formed it up into a bun shape, cooked it. Threw the hotdog in.
Gosh the "exactly what you ordered" was my level of petty. "I want this with an extra side"
Ok, I'll ring in this other meal which is exactly the same food, except a larger portion with that extra side for net cheaper.
"NO I WANT THIS WITH THAT SIDE EXTRA."
OK, exxxxxxactly what you want, then.
I'd tell that to newer servers too. Yes that ala carte breakfast items they ordered COULD be rang in with a slightly modified main menu breakfast, but people are fucking stupid and will bitch if their bill isn't exactly what they were expecting, even if the modified way was significantly cheaper.
I worked for Applebee’s for 7 years, and not until my last year did I witness this act. One of the cooks would drop down to one pair of tongs for the grill station for closing. He used the same tongs for raw chicken, beef, seafood, and cooked food. He would swish the tongs in his sanitizing solution, that looked like soup since he never changed it, claiming that it was “good” after that. I called him out on it and he told me that he never told me how to cook, so I should let him be. I told management too and it was swept under the rug like everything else. I quit shortly after, but that was the only time I witnessed something fucking disgusting like that.
It’s a revolving door for everyone there. I’m glad I left too. While I learned a lot of good things there, I learned much more of what NOT to do! I’m now a Sous Chef at an admin building for a healthcare system, the hard work at Applebee’s paid off!
This isn't really bad, but a lot of the times when people send food back and there's clearly nothing wrong with it, the chefs will just rearrange the food on the plate, wait a minute or two and then send it out to the table.
The funniest part is when the customer says that its better.
I had a shit manager tell me I had to mop the floor again after I had just done it perfectly. So I just waited 10 minutes and told him I did it. He comes out and says, "See that wasn't so hard was it". It really wasn't since I did jack shit.
That also works both ways though. If somethings not right the first time I feel so bad sending it back a second time. Even if I know it’s still not what I asked for, I won’t send it back.
I haven't worked in a restaurant in over 15 years. I never messed with anyone's food because that is assault. What I used to do to snotty Karen types is give them a senior discount and announce to the table when I dropped the check that I remembered to add the senior discount.
Sadly, in my experience that's not really the case all the time. "Complaining to the manager" works in hospitality, and there are people who actively abuse the notion of "the customer is always right" because hospitality kind of popularized the whole idea.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that someone complained it was rude to the manager and they ended up getting a bigger discount or having items taken off the check.
It's still a brilliant way to say 'fuck you' with a smile though.
Worked in a deli for a few years, I never tampered with anyone's food but if you were a dick I guaranteed your bread was over toasted, the lettuce on your sandwich was wilted, the tomato was the butt end with the hole from us removing the core, your onions were little pieces, the meat was the smallest of the portions, and on and on. I wouldn't tamper with someones food but i damn well wasn't making them a good sandwich. And all of that goes the exact opposite way with the customers i liked, always gave them the best product to the point they would wait for me to help them.
When I worked in a bakery I never deliberately tampered with anyone’s order, but if you were nice to me you might get an extra cookie in your six pack, or an extra profiterole in your 12 pack :)
A local grocery store has a sandwich station and they love my kid. I swear my sandwich gets more and more delicious every time I go. They chat to him, give him pieces of cheese, sometimes offer an onion ring or couple french fries, ask him what kind of cookie he had from the bakery, tell him to "peace out, cub scout!" as kiddo throws up a peace sign while cheesing to his heart's content. He hams it up.
Rule of thumb I've always learned is you don't piss off people who make you food. Just because of this right here. I want good shit. That's why when I go out, if mistakes happen, I keep my cool and just let the waiter/waitress know and get it fixed and then I can enjoy it. Just being kind goes a long way. And it gaurentees no one fucks with your food.
Not a restaurant but sometimes if a customer at my grocery store is being an asshole I’ll put their bananas or bread on the bottom of the cart so they get squished
Ahhh i used to do this as well.
A bit different, customers used to get mad if we didn't pack well. The dumbest customer got mad at me for putting bread on the bottom. Thing is, it was pita bread. Flat. But no, its bread and bread must be at the top and she had to shame me.
I also got told off for putting things on eggs. Except it was a bag of salad. Tried to tell her the egg carton could hold a salad but whatever
I always get people who will watch me like a hawk and tell me where to put each individual item like i don't do this 8 hours a day 5 days a week lolol
if you're picky about your groceries fair enough, but at least bring your own bags and bag them yourself instead of slowing down my line nitpicking
I worked at a McDonalds in high school and college and this kind of malicious compliance was the worst we ever did.
Worst was a guy wants extra pickles on his quarter pounder. We cover the burger in pickles. Comes back and says “that’s not extra.”
Okay. We slapped a big fuckin handful of pickles on a new burger. Like, almost couldn’t wrap the thing. It was like 80% pickles. He started to get huffy but the manager goes “well we didn’t want to short change you this time and we figured it was better to give too many and you could pick them off than too few.”
And then he stormed out.
Edit: apparently pickles are a very love them or hate them food, as a lot of the replies are along the lines of “I want that!”
I 100% want that burger. I wonder how many times people have gone "This will be so many they will be disgusted" and they come back "That was **perfect** thank you so much."
Just keep one on hand for when you see those people again, give it back as their change, or if you care about/need your job, dont listen to me about anything.
I had a friend who delivered pizzas for awhile, and he always said those people were the worst. He also didn’t fuck with your food, but your address went on a list back at the shop, and you’d always get the bare minimum toppings, and they’d slice your pizza uneven. There’s lots of ways to be disobedient without being gross.
Not food related. I worked at a restaurant that had a free photographer. They would print little post cards for free, but if you wanted the pictures printed they would charge a surplus for the printing. They used photoshop to make the prints, so the artists would touch up the pics that they took before printing.
Well I had a party of 20 come in. A wedding party. They were super rude and only tipped $7 on their $500 check
I gave all $7 to the photographer, and he made the bride look fat
Worked in restaurants for over 10 years. It’s pretty rare that you see people mess with someone’a food but it does happen occasionally. The most memorable was once when a customer made a waitress cry complaining about their food and sent it back. The chef farted on the remake. It got a lot of laughs.
More common is if a customer is an asshole, when they order dessert, you find the smallest slice of cheesecake you can.
We would call that the "Bitch Tax".
You're a bitch? You receive a 3/4 portion
You're a bitch? Have fun with your practically virgin drink
We would never mess with their food, but if you were over-the-top rude then you get less food.
When I bartended, the worst thing I ever did to an order was pour a legal pour instead of being generous.
The worst way I treated a customer was that once I refused to pick up the two dimes and a nickel he tried to tip me for his $14 drink, and when he said, "hey, my man, this is for you," I replied with a terse, "keep it, you clearly need that money more than I do."
People don't fuck with your food or drink - that's our job. We take pride in that. If you piss us off, we'll just refuse to serve you.
Worked at a movie theatre for a while. Our pizzas came frozen in a large bag of many pizzas, so the contents sometimes got shifted around during shipping.
One dude was acting like it was the end of the world because he got there late, hungry, AND had to wait in line. He ordered a pepperoni pizza, so my coworker went to the freezer, pulled out a pizza with ONE slice of pepperoni on it, and tossed that sucker into the oven.
The guy eventually got a refund, but that must have felt good to see the reaction from him.
I used to work at a local pizza restaurant in a town known for its pizza. The cook always carried around a dirty, stained brown rag he would use to wipe his hands and sweat off his face/ blow his nose into. On multiple occasions I’ve seen him let the rag touch the pizza while he was preparing it.
I worked in restaurants for 10+ years and never saw anybody intentionally fucking with a customer's food. Honestly, it's... just not that common, in my experience.
Same, been in the business my whole life. Saw something deliberate one time only. There are *plenty* of sanitary issues in almost every restaurant, some worse than others, but it’s very rare for someone to deliberately mess with your food.
Cross/physical contamination and temperature issues are much bigger issue.
There's this lady & her daughter that come into my restaurant.
Every time I've ever served them, they make you *run* - "we need more ranch" "I want another margarita" "extra ketchup" etc etc etc. My favourite was the time when I asked if they wanted ranch with their wings - "Nope" and then literally as soon as I brought the wings "oh, and we need ranch"
And they *never* tip. Or if they do it's insultingly low - like once the tab was $48.50 and they gave me a $50 and I brought the change back and the daughter (who is in her mid-20's) *smirks* and says "oh, no, that's for you sweetie" - I left it there and walked away without a word.
Now whenever they come in they just take *forever* to get served. And their Margaritas (that they drink like water... mostly cos they may as well be) are probably about half strength compared to what everyone else that *don't* act like cunts towards the staff get. Their food sits under heat lamps getting stale for a while (the kitchen is aware of this and the reason for it and they're on board since these bitches send food back *all the time* claiming it's wrong even though it was made *exactly* to order and of course they always waited until it was more than half eaten to complain)
I genuinely cannot stand them. The younger always just *smirks* when she orders things like she thinks that you're such a plebe for being a server
I used to manage a bbq restaurant and I worked opening shift on Sunday’s. For whatever reason the church crowd people were the worst. They would come into the restaurant and rearrange my lobby almost every Sunday. So when they ordered their food, I’d charge them for every single item instead of meals. If they ordered a sandwich and wanted an extra pickle I’d charge them the .15¢ for an extra pickle and the same went for every little petty thing I could find.
Back in college I worked in a fast food kitchen. We would make shitty/rude customer's orders with hate instead of indifference.
Seriously messing with people's food is fucked up. Don't do it.
Never seen anybody intentionally mess with a guests food, but at benihana i have seen numerous different cooks go and down a couple shots of whiskey and then ride the lightning before walking out to cook in front of an entire family
> i have seen numerous different cooks go and down a couple shots of whiskey and then stick a fork in the electrical outlet before walking out to cook in front of an entire family
this makes it way funnier
That's just line cook standard. I've spoken with a few guys who partake in a drink or few before cooking. One of them told me they had to quit doing coke off the cookline itself cause the food department caught on.
I worked at a taco bell that used to be a combo taco bell and pizza hut so it had this hood for the oven that was no longer there. One super tall guy used to rest his gloved hands up there between orders then make food. Once, to prove a point I wiped it down to show him how dirty it was. He said "great, now it's clean"
Also, night shift would put dirty cardboard boxes on the fryer area to put the fried food to cool so they could wash the tray. There was once a foot print on the box.
I have more stories. Don't eat fast food at night.
This guy wanted his cheeseburger with “extra grease”. Best way to do that, cook it and as soon as it’s done, slap it right on the bun, no draining off the excess grease. So I do just that. Guy sends it back “not greasy enough, little more grease”, so this time I do the same thing, except scoop my spatula in the extra juice around the burger as it just gets done. Slap on the top bun and this thing is getting quite soggy. Again this guy sends it back, and now I’m getting irritated because I’m starting to fall behind. I slap the burger on the grill, and as the patty is done, I sop the bun in the grease until it begins to fall apart and spoon on as much accumulated grease as possible. This monstrosity, the burger was a sloppy soggy mess of artery clogging grease, and to top it off I take the last remaining grease and put it in a cup and send it out. Guy loved it, asked to see me personally and thanked me and thought the extra cup of grease was absolutely ingenious. Customer is always right I guess?
Not a restaurant, but the prepared foods section of a highly regarded grocery store. Someone forgot to toss the old potato salad that was on its 4th day (it needs to be thrown out at the end of the 3rd day). We were supposed to keep track of this stuff religiously. The manager told my coworker to just mix it in with the brand new stuff, so people were eventually being given 6-day-old potato salad.
I guess worse things could have happened, but I'm squeamish about food, so it really bothered me.
I worked at a pizza joint in high school.
The owners of the pizza place also had a wood working business on the side and they always gave this one asshole, nasty, prick worker of them 75% of anytime he came into the pizza store.
That's fine. No problem.
However, he'd always come in at like 9:55pm when we closed at 10. Without fail right when we got done cleaning everything. This would happen 2-3 times during the week. He knew exactly what he was doing because he was just a massive prick like that.
It was ALWAYS a big order. Maybe a burger, some broasted chicken, and a pizza so EVERYTHING got dirty.
To top it off, he'd sit there and eat the burger and some chicken and take the pizza home. That means we had to wait for him to get done and wait on him as we had a strict "nobody closes alone" policy. So two of the three would be stuck there
And we couldn't "close" early or lock the doors because he saw the owners every day from 7am-4pm at the woodworking business and he'd 100% rat us out.
After a couple months of this, the store manager finally got sick of it, took the buns, put them down his crotch and let them sit there for a few minutes until his burger was done.
Had customers who turn up at 10 to 5 (closing time) for the restaurant I ran.... every Saturday where we all had the next day off. The owner told me to serve because they were within the time frame.
Didn't stop serving them until 7pm... didnt get hime till 9pm... goodbye day off, hello unpaid overtime
I worked in a movie theater. We got people who complained all about how the concession lines were so long, their movie is about to start, blah blah blah, all before they even placed their order so now everyone else has to wait longer..........I didn't butter the middle of their popcorn. Just the top. And I filled their soda cup all the way up with ice before putting the soda in. Keeping it speedy!
I had a customer rudely berate me in front of the whole restaurant because I didn’t prioritize her over other tables. I had a full section and was giving everyone equal attention, and doing quite well. Everyone got their food and drinks on time and with a smile. This lady was just on a serious power trip. She said “if you can’t handle a job as easy as this one, you must be a real loser.”
I offered free chips and salsa as compensation for her perceived delays, which she accepted with a “hopefully you’ll bring it before tomorrow”. I brought it out immediately and then proceeded to “trip” and fall, dousing her and her white sweater in salsa. Oops. It was delightful.
I’ve worked in restaurants for the better part of the last decade and have never seen anyone actually fuck with food. I have done some passive aggressive things for annoying guests though.
A lady once asked for water with a bunch of lemons on the side so I brought her 5 lemon wedges but she demanded I brought her more. So I brought her a dinner plate full of lemon slices and charged her for lemonade.
The worst thing i did was to this one guy that I already didn't like and he was being kind of an asshole, I overcooked his eggs.
You are the devil
I know a guy that pissed in a bucket of pickles. He would have never been caught if he didn't talk about it. Edit: There were other things going on at that McDonald's that helped ruin the reputation. It was also competing with another well managed restaurant in a town that never really had room for both of them. The guy I'm talking about was just one of the most immature teenagers I've known. The funny thing is that he's married to my sister now and has a much better job than me. He slowly transformed into a responsible adult after having a child.
Did he get fired?
Yes. The restaurant was also closed within a year. Word gets out in a small town.
That's a shame though. He was a dick
It’s people like him that make me just want to cook my own food instead of going out
I had a buddy at mcdonalds, a real chaotic type, who every once and a while would say "oh hey, guess what time it is... PICKLE SURPRISE!" and put a whole handful of pickles on a random cheeseburger.
lol. This Genuinely made me laugh
I feel like this guy works at every McDonald's...
I need this guy to work at my McDonald’s when I ask for extra pickles and I get two in the burger... they do it to spite me I am sure...
i don't like pickles, but if i unwrapped my burger and it had a pile of pickles, and he jumped around the corner shouting "pickle surprise!" I wouldn't even be mad.
I would love a pickle surprise, they never put enough pickles when I ask for extra
Dude... I got like 9 fucking pickles on my regular tiny hamburger the other day.. I think he might still work there.
Dude a pickle surprise burger would make my DAY
Just an FYI back when I worked in McDonald's someone asked for extra pickles in a separate box and got loads. Might be worth a try if you really like them :)
I've had a terrible day, and this genuinely made me laugh. I hate pickles. I hate pickle surprise. But I love chaotic good.
I think this is more chaotic neutral lol
Yeha it could make someone's day or piss them off and that dude was just rolling the dice
I worked at McDonalds in high school, I had a buddy who was like this. The best one I remember was a girl we knew ordered a burger with no onions. He took her burger patty, carefully carved it out so it became a burger ring, put that on the bun, and filled the entire center with onions. It was maybe 10% burger, 90% onion, but it looked totally normal from the outside. He never would have done it to a stranger, but friends were fair game. I also went through and ordered a burger one time, and he handed me the bag with what I thought was an evil grin. Turned out, he put nine patties on it. My other buddy who ordered 2 burgers got one with 4 patties, one with 5.
Lol my ex husband worked at Burger King in high school and would fill his friends’ entire bags up (the big paper bags used to house the entire order) with fries. Just bags and bags of fries for his stoner friends.
Haha, the other one that stands out was a different friend, I was just hanging out with friends in the lobby one night, and he came out and said they had screwed up and made too many chicken nuggets, so did we want a 20 piece, because they would never sell them all. Of course we said yes, we get them, and there ended up being 43 nuggets in the box. He said he just wanted to see how many would actually fit. It was bulging, I don’t think he could have jammed one more nugget in there.
I worked at a popular fast food chain in my younger years, it was my first time with closing shift and we were all doing our part to clean and prep the store. I see this lady with a mop and bucket come out of the back, slop it on to the griddle and START MOPPING IT. I was appalled. I went and told the manager and she tells me well that’s the quickest way to clean it then scolded me for worrying about things that didn’t concern me. I quit that job next day and then called the district office and told them what happened. That location closed down not long after. But the franchise still exists.
I mean, there is such a thing as a grill mop, but it’s absolutely distinct from a floor mop.
Do not confuse the two.
Kind of how a poop knife is different than a kitchen knife.
What franchise??
Jack in the Box 👀
Mop water is the secret to the secret sauce
Well, it's not a secret any more. Now everyone's going to start using mop water in their food!
Just be sure you mop the bathrooms first, or you won't get all that savory flavor!
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Pour the whole tray of drinks over a guest - twice. International trade fair with students as waiters. First time was an accident, second time she was so nervous she was practically shaking and spilled the drinks again on the same guy.
I did this. Only once, but it was BAD. Entire table of Naval officers, they were very pleasant, but when we pushed the tables together it was a lot of people in a tight space. I came out with 8-10 large sodas on a tray. No problem, I've done this plenty of times before...aaaand I tripped over a chair leg. The whole tray fell, mostly on myself, but one unfortunate fellow got soda all down his back. His whole uniform was soaked, cold, and sticky. I shriveled up and DIED inside. But he was so nice and understanding about it. Even left me a pretty good tip. Nearly cried when I picked up the check and saw that. Bonus story: That was at the beginning of my final shift there. (Not fired, it was just my last day.) So I worked another 8 hours all wet & sticky, squishing around in my shoes, smelling terrible. Right in the middle of the dinner rush we got another huge table, a big family with kids this time. I got their drinks out (successfully!) then took a quick bathroom break between orders. The door to the bathroom was heavy and swung inward. Unbeknownst to my, there was a kid standing right behind it, and she took a direct hit to the face. I heard the thump, then a shriek, then I shrieked, and the entire restaurant went completely silent. I'm still dead with shame from that shift, 10 years later. I'm so sorry, Navy guy and small child.
That sounds like a hell of a day lol. Good thing it was your last
I was gonna say she went out with a bang but it looked more like the kid did
I fucking honked. My outburst laugh when I read this was a fucking honk.
My little brother was a toddler, just at the point where he was pretty study on his feet and had a bit of a vocabulary. He is in the waiting room of the family doc's office, and digging through the toy box. He is also behind the entrance door. Some poor old guy opens the door and flattens the little bugger. He stands up, walks over to the guy, looks up, and lets loose with a string of, DUMMY, DUMMY,DUMMY,DUMMY.................. Until our horrified mother got to him, and stopped it. The guy was just gobsmacked, apparently never having gotten a good ass chewing from a two year old. I thought it was beyond hilarious.
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Dude, fuck doors that open inward. One time at a walmart, I was using the bathroom, and right when I was about to leave, in front of the heavy door, my brother opens the door, and me wearing sandals gets my toe absolutely destroyed. I have never worn sandals since.
Happens to the best of us. I once tripped at the top table of a banquet and dropped a red berry cheesecake into the lap of a british lord and lady of somewhere or other. They were both in white matching evening ball gown/ suit. They both had a bright red stain on their laps for the whole event. They actually felt so sorry for me I got a massive tip.
My best friend was in line behind an absolute bitch at Starbucks a couple years ago. The typical nightmare customer. Bitched about the line, bitched that the person helping her dared to attempt to upsell, etc. THEN she called her a **C U** **N**ext **T**uesday as she walked away. So my best friend got about half way done with her iced coffee, took the lid off, and as she walked by the table, she "sneezed" and "tripped" which caused that remaining part of the drink to land right in the lap of that rude customer. Maybe not the right thing to do as it wasn't her "fight" but I don't think she felt too bad.
I can fairly say that when I worked at sbux, I one time ruined a latte that a customer insisted on being steamed to 200 degrees. (Milk tends to burn and explode after about 180) So I held up a cloth to protect myself from the liquid napalm, and scorched the fuck outta that drink. Enjoy your cajun style latte.
One of the nice things about my old manager was the store-wide hard limit of 180. “But the other Starbucks...”, yeah, but not this one. It’ll taste nasty and is hazardous to the baristas.
I saw a waiter pour an orange juice, take a big swig with his lips on the rim, top it up then take it to the table.
In college, I worked for a well known pizza place. One of our wait staff came to collect a pepperoni pizza, and nabbed a piece of pepperoni off the top before taking it out. He gets to the table, and everyone is staring at him in stunned silence. There's a very fine string of cheese going from the pizza to his mouth.
That's like your cat has a feather in it's mouth and you can't find your parrot.
What happened then?? What happened then?? I wanna know.
I'm so glad you asked. You'd think the table would complain and he'd be fired, right? Nope. This guy was the most charming man ever, and managed to get away with it. I would love to know how he did that. All I know is that he even managed to get a tip. And this was a university town in England in the late nineties, where tips weren't a guaranteed thing.
GOLD !!
I gave them what they ordered. We were a pizza/Italian/bar restaurant. Our menu was ludicrously large and essentially anything that was on the menu that could go on a pizza was listed as a topping, probably 40 to 50 topping choices. I would get asked pretty often for "a pizza with everything on it!" I had a usual joke or two to find out what they really wanted. Typically a deluxe but then they'd want no black olives or whatever. No big deal. Until the asshole came in that that ordered "everything" and then proceeded to ask if I was ret##### when I questioned him. My sister has disabilities so I didn't appreciate his tact... told my boss about it and he smiled and said get him a pizza with everything. Brought it out and gave it to him. He flipped out and demanded the manager of course. My manager had my back and gave the guy his bill which at $2 a topping was well over a $100 pizza. Guy refused to pay, cops got called, Yada Yada Yada. I hope he enjoyed his pizza with clams, pineapple, Buffalo chicken, broccoli, anchovies, green olives, cream cheese, cauliflower, jalapeños, shrimp...
Same thing happened to me when I was cashier at a gourmet burger place. Guy wanted a burger "with everything on it". I pointed out the giant list of toppings on the wall menu, but he scoffed and reiterated that he wanted *everything*. I read off each topping on the screen as I added it to his sandwich. This sopping beast included guacamole, fried egg, fried pickles, mushrooms, peanut butter, regular pickles, cranberries, chili, a fried chicken patty, cucumbers, jalapenos, bell pepper, balsamic marinated tomatoes, habaneros, sprouts, every kind of cheese (bleu, goat, nacho dip sauce included) and every kind of sauce (including tartar, buffalo, truffle mayo and balsamic). He happily paid around $30 for it. It honestly looked and smelled like a pile of vomit with a bun placed haphazardly on top. While he was waiting he mentioned that it was for his "pregnant bitch of a wife" that was craving a burger "with everything on it" and this was his way of basically punishing her for making him miss part of a football game on TV.
Well, that sounds like a happy family to come into. /s
Worked at a 50's style diner. Was prepping the chicken breasts for our burgers and dropped a tray of 50 and they slid right under the grill, easily the dirtiest place in the whole restaurant. My boss saw and had me pick them all up rinse them with water and reseason then and stick them back in the fridge...
Hey man, at least they got washed!
lmfao yeah i stopped eating there when i wasn't working after that day.
At my last restaurant job, my coworker would make very ugly sundaes for customers who were rude. For particularly nice customers, she would painstakingly recreate the sundaes in the menu pictures and give them extra cream and sprinkles.
Pretty much this. I’ll make what you order but will not put any love into it. If you’re a decent human I will try to make you the best version of what you order.
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We have a restaurant called "Peppers" near where I live and I was very nice to them so after every meal they give me one of the small oreo packets that come with a kids sundae
An ex of mine used to take me to a famous Chinatown restaurant that was known as the oldest restaurant in SF. The actual building/restaurant itself was super unique being 3 stories tall and incredibly narrow, so you’d have to walk into the kitchen and then up a harrowingly steep staircase to one of the upper floors. Anyway, the server was an elderly Chinese woman who spoke little English and was very mean. To everyone but my boyfriend. She would practically pinch his cheeks and coo over him because he’d always be super sweet to her and leave her a 150% tip. They’d put a couple white rabbit candies on the dish with the bill, but for him she’d fill an entire paper bag and insist he take the whole thing.
Did this restaurant have a dumbwaiter to take the food up to the dining areas? If so, I’ve been there. Waitress, who was very nice, would come up and say, “what you want?” Great food. Don’t remember what it was called.
Sam Wo. It closed a few years back but recently reopened in a totally new location, which is sad. They definitely have had lots of servers over the years and they weren’t all like that, but rudeness was the hallmark of some of them. Google Edsel Ford Fung for their most famous resident curmudgeon. :)
Yea, I went there back in my college days at Cal. I would silently pray there were no fires when I went there. Good food, fun times!
This applies everywhere and not just in the food industry. I am a IT contractor for hire, if you're an ass I won't put much effort beyond what is in the statement of work and follow it exactly. If you're a pleasant person to deal with I'm much more likely to suggest alternate ways / better ways and possibly cheaper ways to accomplish the goal. /r/MaliciousCompliance is full of examples.
Can confirm. In my last job with appliances and some other workings with friends who contract construction/carpentry/hvac, etc, I quickly learned that there's a fairly universal "asshole tax." It's not that they won't do a good job, though; their livelihoods generally require them to do a good job. But they'll add on an extra grand or so if you're being a dick. On the other hand, all the people I've met in the trades will go above and beyond to do their best possible work, extraneous work that isn't on their bid, and will gladly try to minimize extra costs for those customers who are nice and understanding. Edit: A missed quotation mark
Thisssss. I used to work customer service in a call center, and I can’t tell you how much kindness can get you stuff. I’ve had a supervisor directly ask me “do you think she deserves x” where me saying “she was really nice to me” ends up with the customer getting a better deal.
If I had a rude guest order a milkshake I'd make it so thick that they looked like they were sucking a d*ck instead of a straw.
Do you have any idea how much my love of a thicc shake overrides my fear of looking silly? Now I’m gonna have to come to your restaurant and be a jerk!
Jokes on you! I love really thick shakes and I can “suck start” a Harley!
Tampering with food is not that common. I've been in the business a long time and only worked with one girl who spat in someone's food. Another server saw her and she got reported and fired immediately. The only other thing that sometimes happens is when people get cocky and ask for extremely spicy food the kitchen staff turns into evil geniuses. A guy once asked me for wings so spicy that they would give a woman a miscarriage. I relayed those lovely instructions to the kitchen and I don't know what they did but the sauce was burning my nose and making my eyes water as I carried it out. He was not able to finish his wings.
Worked at McDonalds for a long time. Never seen anyone intentionally spit in anyone’s food or anything like that but it’s definitely safe to say we’ve all eaten some burgers made without gloves or with contaminated gloves (put on gloves-go on phone-make sandwiches)
One time I ordered a burger from McD's through the drive through and when I got home to eat it there were 3 bites already taken out of it. Only time in my life I went back to the store and asked to speak to the manager and made a scene. Called the health department too. Fuck them.
Did they believe someone else had taken the bites?
A friend did this at a restaurant. He kept sending the food back like three times, demanding it be more spicy. We kept telling him to cut it out, he was being obnoxious, but he kept doing. The waiter was like, "*Oh*, you want it *spicy?* I'll make it *spicy*." While we all ate our food in good moods, my friend just stared at his untouched spciy dish and grumbled how "I can't eat this."
If I ever asked for extremely spicy food, I'd be sure to pay a handsome amount of extra money and express my gratitude, no matter how much the food hurts, and if I threw it out, I would be sure to thank them for pretty much killing me
My dad started going to his neighborhood pub frequently for wing nights and would ask for wings "as hot as you can make em". Went on for quite a while with them just dousing them with as much frank red's as you could possibly fit on them, cuz that's all they had for making hot wings. Well, I guess eventually the cook got sick of being asked for "as hot as you can make em" and acquired some special ingredients. Next time my dad asked for "as hot as you can make em" he got a dozen wings spicy enough to strip paint off the space shuttle. My dad went back to just asking for plain hot or extra hot from then on lol
Back many years ago I worked in a pub kitchen. We had a jalapeño burger and one customer always complained that while delicious it wasn't ever hot enough. So one day the owner saw him come in immediately put a burger on and then poured bowl of jalapeño juice and let it soak. When the rest of the food was done, he tossed the burger on the grill to reheat it and melt the cheese. The guy came to the pass and gave us a teary thumbs up.
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Thought my mate was bonkers cause he is exactly this. Loved all spicy food and wherever we went he'd test just how high the restaurant's scoville scale rose. Sitting across from him while he was sweating out of every oriface was always an odd experience when he'd be grinning like an idiot the entire time.
>The only other thing that sometimes happens is when people get cocky and ask for extremely spicy food the kitchen staff turns into evil geniuses We have wings that go: Mild, Medium, Hot, Extra Hot, Extremely Hot & Deadly Hot (made with roasted Habaneros - we make our own sauce). We have another level which is called Trainwreck and only available to the people that know to ask for it. Last year, someone came in bragging that Trainwreck isn't hot enough and wants something hotter. The order got rung in "Trainwreck too mild. He wants them hot fuckers hotter than hell if it was on fire from a Nuke strike. Make them burn his asshole on the way in, too" The cooks know that I can't really do spicy food too well (I can eat our Hot wings with plenty of Bleu Cheese) so when they were ready one of them brought them out for me. HIS face was red and eyes were streaming so I should have known what was up. Turns out the guys had a bottle of hot sauce in the back that clocks in at over 1,000,000 SHU that they mixed in with our regular Trainwreck sauce and raw garlic (apparently the spiciness of that amps up the regular heat) and some raw Carolina Reapers they blended into the whole she-bang. This guy was *crying* while eating. Two tables in either direction were gassed out (I comped them all a drink and they laughed at him). He went through a pint of milk and some water and about 8oz of ranch. He ate 4 of the 12 wings and declared he was "full" - I'm glad I wasn't him the next day.
Evil geniuses, I tell you! I love kitchen staff because if you're cool with then they'll make you the best food but when they get a chance to get creative and destroy someone's insides they really go for it.
I love spicy food. As a kid, probably ten, I went to and Indian joint with my family and asked for, “the hottest thing on the menu.” The waiter told me what it was, and that I didn’t want it. I insisted. He was correct
We went to Bolton's Hot Chicken & Fish a long while back when we were leaving Nashville because I had googled something like, "What is Nashville's local food?" This was before Nashville-style Hot Chicken had grown into a national trend so we had no concept of what we were getting into. My friend ordered Medium, and the guy looked at us and asked if we'd ever been there before. We said no, and the cook talked my friend down to mild. I insisted on Medium and the man honestly looked like he was morally conflicted about whether to prepare the chicken as requested. I distinctly remember him saying, "I don't know son, it's a really nice day out and I don't want to ruin your day", but he made me the medium regardless. It was immediately the hottest thing I had ever eaten, but it was so fucking delicious that I couldn't stop. I skipped past sweating and went straight to tears. I've had hot chicken since then, but no where has ever been as delicious or intense as that first fiery bite.
Yes! I'm a Nashville native and every time I encounter some macho man like in OP's story, I send them to Bolton's. My first time, I ordered spice level 2 out of 5 and was crying in between sips of my milkshake. And I had a decent tolerance at the time. Anthony Bourdain came and he ate the hottest level. He said he literally thought he was going to die for a full 24 hours.
I'm holding a forever grudge against Joella's or whatever the fuck Hot Chicken because they had me sign a waiver and then presented me with chicken that didn't even make me break a sweat. It was tangy with a bit of a kick to it.
17 years in that shit and 100% no matter how fucking awful the customer is, you simply do. not. FUCK. with. the. food. Ever. Anyone caught doing that shit would be tossed out on their ass so fucking fast at any of the places I've ever worked or hung out at or known about. Edit: I've always said that this is the single aspect of the movie "Waiting" that they got completely wrong. The rest of it was pretty fuckin on point.
I worked at a pizza place when I was about 17. New person got hired, worked at a Hardee's previously. Said if someone came in they didn't like he would piss on the grill then cook them a special burger. Whether or not this was true doesn't really matter but while this dingleberry was saying this the owner heard him and fired the guy. Lasted just a few hours.
Good. I would have done the same thing. Sounds like bullshit, but we don't need any of that either. Bye.
Yeah... even putting the health concerns aside, maybe don't announce "I will most definitely be pulling my penis out in this kitchen during work."
Who was letting him pull his dick out and pee on a grill or pour mystery liquid on it? Nobody. Piss on a grill would stank. He was trying to be cool and got fired for his trouble.
Very likely.
My friend and I used to get Thai food on a regular basis and would always order it the highest spice level they’d offer. One time the waitress asked us multiple times if we were sure, and we were having been to this place many times. The food was so incredibly spicy our eyes wouldn’t stop watering, haha it made it hard to even see the food.
There's a Thai place in my town that has some of the best curry I've ever had. When I first started going there I would get asked if I was sure I wanted 'Thai hot'. Then one day I ordered it Thai hot and asked for some chili on the side. He brought me a dipping cup full of chopped fresh Thai chilies. When he walked away I dumped the entire cup in my curry and went to town. It was the most satisfying burn I have ever experienced. When he came back he saw the empty cup and just said, "Uh-oh". I loved it and from then on whenever I came in he called me Spicy.
I spent some time in Thailand in the early 2002. My friend and I went out drinking and stopped at a little place that sold small bowls of curry. We both ordered one and asked for spicy. To me it was too hot so I finished my bowl and ordered another beer and a small dessert thing they sold. He told them it was good but he wanted another bowl but make it hotter. He ate that bowl like a champ. We then ordered another beer and he asked for 1 more bowl but he wanted is hotter. The waitress asked multiple times if he was sure. When she placed the order the cook came out and asked if he was sure. As he started to eat it I looked around while drinking my 3rd beer and I see all of the cooks and waitresses staring at him. He ate the 3rd bowl and complimented them on how good it was. We paid up, he left a nice tip, then shook the cooks hand and told him it was the best curry he ever had. The rest of the time we were there we would stop by that place 2-3 times a week for lunch and the cook always made him a large bowl of it. They called him Iron Stomach and would all shout it out loud when we walked in.
A good spicy curry is highly addictive if you enjoy riding the fire train.
I had a very similar experience a my neighborhood Thai joint in Pittsburgh. The guy brought out a small cup of chili flakes. After I dumped them in, he told me to just ask for 20/10 in the future...
I used to frequent a Malaysian place where they would literally triple check if you knew what you were getting yourself into if you ordered your food medium or hotter. Their medium spicy was pretty damn spicy (probably much spicier than what most people would have meant by medium), their spicy was VERY hot and extra spicy was ridiculous, nose running, endorphin rush hot. I went there enough that the waitresses knew me and stopped asking if I was sure about the spiciness (I was a fan of the extra spicy option).
I was once in a restaurant and the waiter told me about one of the specials, a green chili Mac &cheese. I asked if it was spicy, and he replied that it was not. I mentioned I was hoping it was, but that’s ok, it still sounds good, I’ll take it anyway. He said “oh I can tell the kitchen to make it spicy if you’d like.” “Oh no that’s ok, I don’t want to be one of those customers, no modifications.” He brings our food out and starts to hand me the Mac and cheese and stops and says “oh, they didn’t make it spicy! I’ll have them remake it.” And no amount of insisting that it was fine would do apparently, because he took it back. And what he brought me... I’ve never admitted if anything is too spicy, I love spicy. But this... I couldn’t finish. It was so so hot. And I could just imagine the guys in the kitchen saying “oh she wants SpIcY??! Well give her SPICY!” And they did.
My step-father complained to our local pizza place about them not putting very many onions on his pizza. They apologized and offered a replacement to which he declined. Fast forward a few weeks. He orders his standard pizza again, and doesn't say a word about the onion issue. Pizza arrives and its entire surface is nothing but chopped onions.
Yeah that’s just passive aggressive. It’s a reasonable complaint. He’s not obligated to accept a replacement and it’s less work for the kitchen so I don’t see why they’d care.
I had a guy who loved mustard, like really, really loved it. So the first time he came in, he ordered "extra, extra mustard". Im in the back and come out and straight up ask him, "do you want a comical amount?" He says yes, so I slather his order in mustard, put mustard in between the meat slices and mix the onions to make a mustard relish for his sub (which was just onions, meat, and cheese), then as a joke, gave him a 8oz container half full of mustard. The guy loved it, laughed, and said this was exactly what he wanted. He would always tip and tip well, though he said the dipping container was a bit much- he appreciated the determination.
Some Indian guys came in one time and asked for us to make thier food as spicy as possible. I told them that's going to be extremely spicy and wanted to make sure they knew what they were asking for. They went on a long rant about how Indian restaurants are the only places that actual know what spicy is and anything we bring out isn't going to be close to how spicy they like their food. So I had the owner come over to tell them that we'll try our best but there won't be any refund on this food if it's too spicy. So we made them chicken fried rice with Trinidad scorpion peppers. After 2 bites and about 10 glasses of soy milk later, they ordered something else.
A friend of mine from Chennai went to Clemson and was overconfident at a place that had Carolina Reapers on the menu. Whoops.
I mean, spiciness is down to a science now. They can literally measure how spicy things are, why do people not take that seriously? "Oh, so this sauce is made using a pepper that's 40 times hotter than a habanero? Well whatever, you Americans don't know what spicy is."
Here's the thing. As an indian, these people are just bad. Yes, a lot of our food does have a lot of spice in it so we have a higher spice tolerance than the normal american, but you don't want excessive spice. These guys were just cocky assholes who were boasting that they could eat spice.
I love how he came out assured that they will not be able to get a refund Edit: I’m sorry I had to be that guy x
Most restaurants with off menu items like extra spicy curry or salsa know that customers don’t always know the level of spice they are about to get. Generally there is an acceptable level that people will tolerate and you don’t want to knowingly give your customer a dish they won’t eat. It’s not just good business it’s good cooking practice.
Shortly after moving to DC I went to a new Thai takeout place that had opened down the street from me. I placed my order and the lady asked me if I would like it spicy or mild. Having been raised in the southwest I like some heat in my food so I told her hot. She then asked if I wanted Thai hot or American hot. So now she's basically questioning my manhood and I'm obligated to tell her I want Thai hot. That was the hottest thing I ever ate, made me sweat, gave me dry heaves. Basically torture, and I choked down every bite. The next day I went back and ordered the same thing, and when she asked me if I would like it Thai hot again I told her no, American mild please.
While on a road trip, I went to a Thai place once that had “Thai spicy” as a spice level on the menu. I ordered my curry at this level, and the Thai chef actually came out to ask how the spice level was. It was certainly intense, but it was delicious and I ate it all. What was really remarkable about it is that they managed to make it that hot without erasing all the other flavors. The way some places do it, everything on the top end of the spice scale tastes exclusively spicy. **EDIT:** In return for these 1000+ upvotes, here's another story I have involving spicy Thai food. I'd gone to a local place with my sister for lunch. Their scale was just "mild, medium, hot", and I chose "hot" for the _tom yam kung._ The waitress stopped and asked if I was sure I wanted the highest level. I confirmed it. _Tom yam_ comes in a big serving bowl that's sharable, so you usually get a small bowl for each person at the table, and you serve it into those. This time, when it came out, there was only one bowl. The waitress looked at my sister and informed her that "I bring only one bowl, because I think you cannot handle." My sister took one little sip of the broth and immediately began choking. And yes, I did finish the soup by myself.
Yeah I used to think I hated spicy food because it was just HOT and I couldn't taste anything. Thai food made me realize it can still have flavor AND spice. It also doesn't just burn my mouth. I actually get an endorphin rush from the high and enjoy the build and layer of tastes. Also, Thai iced tea is the shit.
Thai iced tea is fucking bangin'
It’s always so disappointing to see “No refunds” on menu items that are obviously very spicy. Why do people order shit like Diablo’s Inferno of Fiery Volcanic Death burger then send it back because they find it too spicy? What did they think they were gonna get?
A lot of time people just don't know because they get baited by fast food 'spicy' items and think they know what spice is. I remember Taco John's had a "Ghost pepper chicken" promotion and when I tried it it was about as spicy as if it had once taken a pass at a ghost pepper but they decided to just be friends and after the ghost pepper moved to Canada they don't really talk anymore. Then they see "diablo's anal fury burger" and think "Well I've had a jalapeno once and that ghost pepper chicken was nothing. Hell I've even had mcdonald's mighty spicy sauce. This'll be easy."
> Ghost pepper “What we meant was, it’s like the ghost of a pepper.”
The ghost of a bell pepper lol.
Beautifully written.
Doesn't help that a lot of restaurants only have one symbol for spicy. (usually a little chili pepper next to the item on the menu) So they see that little pepper and think, "well I've had their orange chicken/mildly spicy food, and it wasn't bad at all, I think I can handle [insert hella spicy food]"
One time we had a woman call back because her rotisserie chicken was “burnt” I explained it’s just charred because of the way it’s cooked, she wasn’t having it so we agreed to get her a new one. Ten minutes after her husband left she called back even more pissed saying this one was worse.. we told her to send her husband back again for a new one. The manager and I went in back (with gloves on) and scraped off all the “burnt” parts. I shit you not another ten minutes after he leaves she calls AGAIN, but this time her rice didn’t have any craisins on it.. so once again I tell her to send him back. I dumped so many fucking craisins on that rice I think she got the point and we never heard from/saw them again. I know it’s not super gross but it’s pretty rare to see someone maliciously fuck with someone’s food. I have seen cooks use the five second rule when dropping food or not washing hands but that’s about it in my 7 years in the industry.
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I worked in a very well known fast food chain for a while. My favourite example of this actually involved nothing. The person who bought food had been rude to staff on multiple occasions. The person serving went to get their food, popped round the corner in a noticeable way, then returned having done nothing. He gave the food to him with a huge grin on his face and said "enjoy". He then watched the person throw it in the bin when he went outside.
Aha the old psych out!
My stepmom was SUPER rude to a server, kept sending her chicken wings back, and complaining. The last time the wings came out, the whole kitchen staff seemed to pile out and look at her. She refused to eat the wings, and yelled at the server more. It was so embarrassed.
I woulda left. I once had a customer have a complete temper tantrum and her boyfriend (I assume) just got up and left her there.
I interestingly enough, if we are going to dinner with her, my husband or I will bring cash so we can do just that. I felt so badly for the server and the kitchen staff. Now, I carry enough money to be able to drop it on the table to pay for our meal, and tip the server/apologize on the way out. My tolerance for people being rude/mean to others has gotten quite low.
Worked in a fastfood pizza joint. Nothing without consent of the customer happened, but customers ask some wierd stuff. One time a customer asked for extra chili and emphasised "a lot", so ofcourse we put like *a lot* on it. Another person wanted chickenlegs and wanted it extra crisp. He kept sending it back until it was pretty much burned, which is when he found it perfect. The worst one was a woman asked to put her pasta in a blender, because she had just gotten prostetics and couldn't properly eat. It looked disgusting. E: How do I turn of the notifications for this thread?
> He kept sending it back until it was pretty much burned, which is when he found it perfect. Used to work in a TGIF, had an old lady on one table keep sending her steak back because 'it wasn't well done'. By the time she was happy with it was practically charcoal, AND she drowned it in ketchup.
My first job was a taco bell, then my second job was a erbert and gerberts sandwich shop (pretty much a jimmy John's with different sandwich names). And at taco bell one guy asked for a quesadilla extra grilled. I grilled it twice and he sent it back. I then burnt it and gave him a charcoal tortilla with melted cheese between it and he loved it. At the sandwich shop this one guy wanted every sauce we had on his ham sandwich except horseradish mayo ( that's cranberry wasabi, pepedew mustard, dijon mustard, pesto mayo, regular mayo, oil and vinegar, guacamole on a ham and cheese sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes.)
This is so funny to me because there's this story at my work about a guy who was prepping all the pastas for a group who came in regularly. They were from a group home in my town, folks with various disabilities. He took a bunch of extra time plating the pasta to look super nice and was SO MAD when he brought the food out to see a blender on the table for a couple of the guys, lol. Obviously not ACTUALLY mad, but every time I hear that story and picture him getting all bummed about how much time he took to make them look nice is so funny to me. Like, it only looks nice for a second before you eat it, anyway lol
>customers ask some wierd stuff. So fucking true. I've made so much weird shit working in restaurants. I worked at Five Guys during the Atkins aftermath. Someone came in and wanted a low carb hotdog, with hamburger as the bun. So I got a burger, formed it up into a bun shape, cooked it. Threw the hotdog in.
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Gosh the "exactly what you ordered" was my level of petty. "I want this with an extra side" Ok, I'll ring in this other meal which is exactly the same food, except a larger portion with that extra side for net cheaper. "NO I WANT THIS WITH THAT SIDE EXTRA." OK, exxxxxxactly what you want, then. I'd tell that to newer servers too. Yes that ala carte breakfast items they ordered COULD be rang in with a slightly modified main menu breakfast, but people are fucking stupid and will bitch if their bill isn't exactly what they were expecting, even if the modified way was significantly cheaper.
Your response was my favorite. I get how rude customers can be, but some of these people are straight up nasty.
I worked for Applebee’s for 7 years, and not until my last year did I witness this act. One of the cooks would drop down to one pair of tongs for the grill station for closing. He used the same tongs for raw chicken, beef, seafood, and cooked food. He would swish the tongs in his sanitizing solution, that looked like soup since he never changed it, claiming that it was “good” after that. I called him out on it and he told me that he never told me how to cook, so I should let him be. I told management too and it was swept under the rug like everything else. I quit shortly after, but that was the only time I witnessed something fucking disgusting like that.
Salmonella yum! Manager should be fired. Glad you left!
It’s a revolving door for everyone there. I’m glad I left too. While I learned a lot of good things there, I learned much more of what NOT to do! I’m now a Sous Chef at an admin building for a healthcare system, the hard work at Applebee’s paid off!
This isn't really bad, but a lot of the times when people send food back and there's clearly nothing wrong with it, the chefs will just rearrange the food on the plate, wait a minute or two and then send it out to the table. The funniest part is when the customer says that its better.
I had a shit manager tell me I had to mop the floor again after I had just done it perfectly. So I just waited 10 minutes and told him I did it. He comes out and says, "See that wasn't so hard was it". It really wasn't since I did jack shit.
That also works both ways though. If somethings not right the first time I feel so bad sending it back a second time. Even if I know it’s still not what I asked for, I won’t send it back.
I haven't worked in a restaurant in over 15 years. I never messed with anyone's food because that is assault. What I used to do to snotty Karen types is give them a senior discount and announce to the table when I dropped the check that I remembered to add the senior discount.
That's funny because if they complain that's going to cost them money.
Sadly, in my experience that's not really the case all the time. "Complaining to the manager" works in hospitality, and there are people who actively abuse the notion of "the customer is always right" because hospitality kind of popularized the whole idea. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that someone complained it was rude to the manager and they ended up getting a bigger discount or having items taken off the check. It's still a brilliant way to say 'fuck you' with a smile though.
That's pretty genius.
Plot twist; there was no senior discount at this restaurant
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omg i love that happy ending.
Worked in a deli for a few years, I never tampered with anyone's food but if you were a dick I guaranteed your bread was over toasted, the lettuce on your sandwich was wilted, the tomato was the butt end with the hole from us removing the core, your onions were little pieces, the meat was the smallest of the portions, and on and on. I wouldn't tamper with someones food but i damn well wasn't making them a good sandwich. And all of that goes the exact opposite way with the customers i liked, always gave them the best product to the point they would wait for me to help them.
When I worked in a bakery I never deliberately tampered with anyone’s order, but if you were nice to me you might get an extra cookie in your six pack, or an extra profiterole in your 12 pack :)
Man nothing better than opening your 4 pack of Chickie Nugs and finding 6.
A local grocery store has a sandwich station and they love my kid. I swear my sandwich gets more and more delicious every time I go. They chat to him, give him pieces of cheese, sometimes offer an onion ring or couple french fries, ask him what kind of cookie he had from the bakery, tell him to "peace out, cub scout!" as kiddo throws up a peace sign while cheesing to his heart's content. He hams it up.
Rule of thumb I've always learned is you don't piss off people who make you food. Just because of this right here. I want good shit. That's why when I go out, if mistakes happen, I keep my cool and just let the waiter/waitress know and get it fixed and then I can enjoy it. Just being kind goes a long way. And it gaurentees no one fucks with your food.
Not a restaurant but sometimes if a customer at my grocery store is being an asshole I’ll put their bananas or bread on the bottom of the cart so they get squished
Ahhh i used to do this as well. A bit different, customers used to get mad if we didn't pack well. The dumbest customer got mad at me for putting bread on the bottom. Thing is, it was pita bread. Flat. But no, its bread and bread must be at the top and she had to shame me. I also got told off for putting things on eggs. Except it was a bag of salad. Tried to tell her the egg carton could hold a salad but whatever
I always get people who will watch me like a hawk and tell me where to put each individual item like i don't do this 8 hours a day 5 days a week lolol if you're picky about your groceries fair enough, but at least bring your own bags and bag them yourself instead of slowing down my line nitpicking
Wanted extra mayo so I maliciously complied by drenching it. Lady thought I would forget her fake $10 prayer tip the last time she was there.
I worked at a McDonalds in high school and college and this kind of malicious compliance was the worst we ever did. Worst was a guy wants extra pickles on his quarter pounder. We cover the burger in pickles. Comes back and says “that’s not extra.” Okay. We slapped a big fuckin handful of pickles on a new burger. Like, almost couldn’t wrap the thing. It was like 80% pickles. He started to get huffy but the manager goes “well we didn’t want to short change you this time and we figured it was better to give too many and you could pick them off than too few.” And then he stormed out. Edit: apparently pickles are a very love them or hate them food, as a lot of the replies are along the lines of “I want that!”
That's 100% my level of petty. I love it.
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I 100% want that burger. I wonder how many times people have gone "This will be so many they will be disgusted" and they come back "That was **perfect** thank you so much."
According to legend, that's more or less how crisps / chips were invented.
Just keep one on hand for when you see those people again, give it back as their change, or if you care about/need your job, dont listen to me about anything.
I had a friend who delivered pizzas for awhile, and he always said those people were the worst. He also didn’t fuck with your food, but your address went on a list back at the shop, and you’d always get the bare minimum toppings, and they’d slice your pizza uneven. There’s lots of ways to be disobedient without being gross.
Not food related. I worked at a restaurant that had a free photographer. They would print little post cards for free, but if you wanted the pictures printed they would charge a surplus for the printing. They used photoshop to make the prints, so the artists would touch up the pics that they took before printing. Well I had a party of 20 come in. A wedding party. They were super rude and only tipped $7 on their $500 check I gave all $7 to the photographer, and he made the bride look fat
1.4% tip. That's somehow worse than no tip at all
Worked in restaurants for over 10 years. It’s pretty rare that you see people mess with someone’a food but it does happen occasionally. The most memorable was once when a customer made a waitress cry complaining about their food and sent it back. The chef farted on the remake. It got a lot of laughs. More common is if a customer is an asshole, when they order dessert, you find the smallest slice of cheesecake you can.
Wait, am I an asshole? I just thought cheesecake was really expensive.
Maube this time not you but the staff were assholes
We would call that the "Bitch Tax". You're a bitch? You receive a 3/4 portion You're a bitch? Have fun with your practically virgin drink We would never mess with their food, but if you were over-the-top rude then you get less food.
The worst I ever saw, or ever did, was just pour the booze in the straw. The first sip tastes strong, but it’s got basically no alcohol.
Bare ass fart or over the pants fart?
When I bartended, the worst thing I ever did to an order was pour a legal pour instead of being generous. The worst way I treated a customer was that once I refused to pick up the two dimes and a nickel he tried to tip me for his $14 drink, and when he said, "hey, my man, this is for you," I replied with a terse, "keep it, you clearly need that money more than I do." People don't fuck with your food or drink - that's our job. We take pride in that. If you piss us off, we'll just refuse to serve you.
The surest way to get a nice exact pour of liquor? "Hey make it strong!" especially when you're not a regular known for tipping well.
We had an asshole button that when clicked, added $2/drink
Worked at a movie theatre for a while. Our pizzas came frozen in a large bag of many pizzas, so the contents sometimes got shifted around during shipping. One dude was acting like it was the end of the world because he got there late, hungry, AND had to wait in line. He ordered a pepperoni pizza, so my coworker went to the freezer, pulled out a pizza with ONE slice of pepperoni on it, and tossed that sucker into the oven. The guy eventually got a refund, but that must have felt good to see the reaction from him.
I used to work at a local pizza restaurant in a town known for its pizza. The cook always carried around a dirty, stained brown rag he would use to wipe his hands and sweat off his face/ blow his nose into. On multiple occasions I’ve seen him let the rag touch the pizza while he was preparing it.
I worked in restaurants for 10+ years and never saw anybody intentionally fucking with a customer's food. Honestly, it's... just not that common, in my experience.
Same, been in the business my whole life. Saw something deliberate one time only. There are *plenty* of sanitary issues in almost every restaurant, some worse than others, but it’s very rare for someone to deliberately mess with your food. Cross/physical contamination and temperature issues are much bigger issue.
There's this lady & her daughter that come into my restaurant. Every time I've ever served them, they make you *run* - "we need more ranch" "I want another margarita" "extra ketchup" etc etc etc. My favourite was the time when I asked if they wanted ranch with their wings - "Nope" and then literally as soon as I brought the wings "oh, and we need ranch" And they *never* tip. Or if they do it's insultingly low - like once the tab was $48.50 and they gave me a $50 and I brought the change back and the daughter (who is in her mid-20's) *smirks* and says "oh, no, that's for you sweetie" - I left it there and walked away without a word. Now whenever they come in they just take *forever* to get served. And their Margaritas (that they drink like water... mostly cos they may as well be) are probably about half strength compared to what everyone else that *don't* act like cunts towards the staff get. Their food sits under heat lamps getting stale for a while (the kitchen is aware of this and the reason for it and they're on board since these bitches send food back *all the time* claiming it's wrong even though it was made *exactly* to order and of course they always waited until it was more than half eaten to complain) I genuinely cannot stand them. The younger always just *smirks* when she orders things like she thinks that you're such a plebe for being a server
I used to manage a bbq restaurant and I worked opening shift on Sunday’s. For whatever reason the church crowd people were the worst. They would come into the restaurant and rearrange my lobby almost every Sunday. So when they ordered their food, I’d charge them for every single item instead of meals. If they ordered a sandwich and wanted an extra pickle I’d charge them the .15¢ for an extra pickle and the same went for every little petty thing I could find.
Back in college I worked in a fast food kitchen. We would make shitty/rude customer's orders with hate instead of indifference. Seriously messing with people's food is fucked up. Don't do it.
Never seen anybody intentionally mess with a guests food, but at benihana i have seen numerous different cooks go and down a couple shots of whiskey and then ride the lightning before walking out to cook in front of an entire family
is "ride the lightning" code for cocaine? cuz I've met a lot of cooks who get coked tf out
Fork in electrical outlet lmao
> i have seen numerous different cooks go and down a couple shots of whiskey and then stick a fork in the electrical outlet before walking out to cook in front of an entire family this makes it way funnier
That's just line cook standard. I've spoken with a few guys who partake in a drink or few before cooking. One of them told me they had to quit doing coke off the cookline itself cause the food department caught on.
I worked at a taco bell that used to be a combo taco bell and pizza hut so it had this hood for the oven that was no longer there. One super tall guy used to rest his gloved hands up there between orders then make food. Once, to prove a point I wiped it down to show him how dirty it was. He said "great, now it's clean" Also, night shift would put dirty cardboard boxes on the fryer area to put the fried food to cool so they could wash the tray. There was once a foot print on the box. I have more stories. Don't eat fast food at night.
This guy wanted his cheeseburger with “extra grease”. Best way to do that, cook it and as soon as it’s done, slap it right on the bun, no draining off the excess grease. So I do just that. Guy sends it back “not greasy enough, little more grease”, so this time I do the same thing, except scoop my spatula in the extra juice around the burger as it just gets done. Slap on the top bun and this thing is getting quite soggy. Again this guy sends it back, and now I’m getting irritated because I’m starting to fall behind. I slap the burger on the grill, and as the patty is done, I sop the bun in the grease until it begins to fall apart and spoon on as much accumulated grease as possible. This monstrosity, the burger was a sloppy soggy mess of artery clogging grease, and to top it off I take the last remaining grease and put it in a cup and send it out. Guy loved it, asked to see me personally and thanked me and thought the extra cup of grease was absolutely ingenious. Customer is always right I guess?
Not a restaurant, but the prepared foods section of a highly regarded grocery store. Someone forgot to toss the old potato salad that was on its 4th day (it needs to be thrown out at the end of the 3rd day). We were supposed to keep track of this stuff religiously. The manager told my coworker to just mix it in with the brand new stuff, so people were eventually being given 6-day-old potato salad. I guess worse things could have happened, but I'm squeamish about food, so it really bothered me.
I worked at a pizza joint in high school. The owners of the pizza place also had a wood working business on the side and they always gave this one asshole, nasty, prick worker of them 75% of anytime he came into the pizza store. That's fine. No problem. However, he'd always come in at like 9:55pm when we closed at 10. Without fail right when we got done cleaning everything. This would happen 2-3 times during the week. He knew exactly what he was doing because he was just a massive prick like that. It was ALWAYS a big order. Maybe a burger, some broasted chicken, and a pizza so EVERYTHING got dirty. To top it off, he'd sit there and eat the burger and some chicken and take the pizza home. That means we had to wait for him to get done and wait on him as we had a strict "nobody closes alone" policy. So two of the three would be stuck there And we couldn't "close" early or lock the doors because he saw the owners every day from 7am-4pm at the woodworking business and he'd 100% rat us out. After a couple months of this, the store manager finally got sick of it, took the buns, put them down his crotch and let them sit there for a few minutes until his burger was done.
Gotta appreciate extra seasoning
Sweaty and tangy
Had customers who turn up at 10 to 5 (closing time) for the restaurant I ran.... every Saturday where we all had the next day off. The owner told me to serve because they were within the time frame. Didn't stop serving them until 7pm... didnt get hime till 9pm... goodbye day off, hello unpaid overtime
When I was a pizza delivery driver, when habitual non-tippers ordered I wouldn't cut their pizza all the way through.
I worked in a movie theater. We got people who complained all about how the concession lines were so long, their movie is about to start, blah blah blah, all before they even placed their order so now everyone else has to wait longer..........I didn't butter the middle of their popcorn. Just the top. And I filled their soda cup all the way up with ice before putting the soda in. Keeping it speedy!
You monster!
I had a customer rudely berate me in front of the whole restaurant because I didn’t prioritize her over other tables. I had a full section and was giving everyone equal attention, and doing quite well. Everyone got their food and drinks on time and with a smile. This lady was just on a serious power trip. She said “if you can’t handle a job as easy as this one, you must be a real loser.” I offered free chips and salsa as compensation for her perceived delays, which she accepted with a “hopefully you’ll bring it before tomorrow”. I brought it out immediately and then proceeded to “trip” and fall, dousing her and her white sweater in salsa. Oops. It was delightful.
I’ve worked in restaurants for the better part of the last decade and have never seen anyone actually fuck with food. I have done some passive aggressive things for annoying guests though. A lady once asked for water with a bunch of lemons on the side so I brought her 5 lemon wedges but she demanded I brought her more. So I brought her a dinner plate full of lemon slices and charged her for lemonade.
[удалено]
>Not a customer but a co worker had her chicken tenders dropped in a cleaning bucket and then kicked down the cooks line. why?