I’ve worked in many kitchens in my life, both front and back of house, all with bad customer stories. But I had a collection them in my time working at Whole Foods.
When I worked at the juice and smoothie section, we allowed customers to buy produce and bring it to us. One time this lady bought raw sweet potatoes and ask us just to do sweet potato and almond milk. I warned her that it wouldn’t be very good, but she was insistent. She took and was disgusted, and then was mad at me for making it. Unfortunately, the only thing I could do was warn her.
When I worked in the prepared food section, I saw someone ladle out a sample of the soup in a container, take a quick sip, then pour the remaining portion of the sample back into the soup.
Again in the prepared food section, we had a nasty freeze that took down the electricity. We had a skeleton crew working our asses off to put all of the frozen and dairy products into refrigerated trucks until the power came back on. There was a decision by the store manager to close down the prepared food section, even if the electricity came back on. However, the electricity came back on much faster than anticipated so we went on business as usual and started making food. A customer came in not 5 minutes after the electricity came back on. He was really pissed off that we didn’t have food ready. I watched him scream at our store manager for like 10 minutes after she warned him we didn’t have anything ready to go just yet.
Again and prepared foods, I worked at the taco stand. We were meticulous about vegetarian and vegan orders. We would label them with extra care and kept all the food isolated from all the meat products. This guy ordered a vegan breakfast scramble and grabbed the wrong container and ate one that was full of pulled pork. He was furious with us, screaming at all of us how he had been vegan for 20 years and how now we’ve ruined that for him. We thought that we had missed labeled it, but it turns out he grabbed the wrong container for another customer. Still after we pointed this out to him, he blamed us for not taking more care to label meat products as meat products.
Again at the taco stand, we had just tossed out our breakfast stuff for lunch/dinner stuff. This guy demanded fresh breakfast tacos. After the cashier explained that we couldn’t do that but we had some remaining premade breakfast tacos, the customer started pelting her with the premade tacos with full force (and was kicked out of the store). It was so absurd I couldn’t help but laugh.
by BohemianJack
48 Comments
“Could I order an Eggless Omelett?”
After introducing myself at the table and asking if anyone had any questions about the menu, a customer asked, “These baby back ribs… Are they fish ribs?”
Soup of the day was chicken noodle. Lots of dark meat in there. Customer was pissed because there was beef in the soup. Tried to explain dark and white meat to no avail
whats a quickie?
me turning around trying to hold back laughing, looking at the menu…. ohh you mean the quiche!
Guest ordered a southwest style salad. Whole chicken breast, beans, corn, cheese, the works! Told the manager it was not hearty enough! All ingredients listed on the menu under the salad section. Husband was so frustrated with his wife’s complaining he paid, took their two kids and left her sitting there.
“What flavor is the vanilla cupcake?”
Not a question, but sometimes people will tell me they have a gluten allergy so they can’t have noodles (we specifically sell noodles at my restaurant) but proceed to order a protein absolutely smothered in gluten, and their answer is always the same:
“Yeah I eat it all the time, it’s never made me sick but other gluten does.”
Idk who told you that you have an allergy but that’s not how that works.
Best olives eva
You import them?
I know my olives, I’m from Italy
(Sysco budget olives)
*I know meat and THAT ain’t cooked* … points to pink smoke ring on sliced brisket…
had a guy order sunny side down and was very adamant about it
I was working at an American Italian joint for a spell, and we had a customer order the “rackatooni” pasta.
Rigatoni? Right. Wtf, lol
“Farmed fish don’t have any bones”- guest…. with a straight face
I really hate when they come in, sit down and then try and order something. Like what the fuck, dude?
How many scallops are on the veal scallopini?
“…How dare you serve me cold gazpacho?!”
“What’s cheddar” was the question I was asked as a server that drove me out of the industry
I own a bakery
-“So what’s the difference between the apple pie slice and the flourless chocolate cake?”
-watched a kid pump simple syrup into his hand thinking it was hand sanitizer.
– “Ah I see you are sold out of the chicken salad and the BLT. Can I please just get the chicken salad on a croissant instead?” Ma’am we are sold out of those sandwiches regardless of the bread.
I wish I could remember more. I’m starting to block these from my memory
Later that same summer…”What kind of fancy restaurant serves cold potato soup? In the summer!? I want to talk to the Chef.”
“Got any fresh chicken?”
Asked as I’m pulling fresh chicken out of the customer facing fryers and the scent fills the entire block.
“Nope”
Customer: My seared tuna is cold!
Me: yes, you ordered it rare.
Him: I wanted it hot.
Me: I can’t do hot & rare.
Him: you obviously don’t know how to cook fish.
Me: you obviously don’t understand physics. 🤷♂️
Pizza joint, customer walks in and remarks “it smells like Italian food in here.” Ya no shit
Served a Tofu Bahn Mi at my last place with a vegan peanut sauce. One of the customers sent a server back to ask if there was any dairy in the peanut sauce because they were vegan. Proceeded to order the sandwich subbed with pulled pork…
Don’t know if this counts, but we were redoing the floor. Signs an all doors that we are closed, online hours all correctly showing closed. The floor was ripped up, glue down and only half tiled. Lady comes to the front door, it’s locked. She walks to the back door in the alley way, which was open for the tile workers. She walks into the empty dining room, walking 20 feet on wet glue, into an empty dining room with all chairs and tables gone. She walks back out, and calls, and I answer. “Hey are you guys open?”….
“Do the fish & Chips come with fries?”
Worked at a popular burrito chain. Had a customer call extremely mad that there was “a leaf. From outside” in their burrito bowl. They had never seen a bay leaf
Someone ordered a cold brew coffee and didn’t think it would be served cold. I guess she thought it was only brewed cold but we heated it up after or something.
God so many.
I actually get asked this all the time where I work, but on our menu one appetizer option say “Toast or Biscuit, served with jam and ricotta” and people ALWAYS ASK TOTALLY DUMBFOUNDED “so…..do we choose between toast or biscuit?”
YES. TOAST ORRRRRR OR OR BISCUIT. Toast. OR. Biscuit.
I can’t 😭😭😭😭😭
This was way back when I served at a French restaurant. A couple came in on a date, cute folks. Being a hoity toity French spot, we had specials and that always included a foie gras appetizer. After doing the whole spiel about the menu, etc. this guy asks his date if she wanted to try the foie. She answered, a little hushed, “it sounds good… but I just can’t get over how they treat those baby cows.”
Open kitchen cafe. Customer asks barista/cashier “So what do you *think* is in the breakfast burrito?”
We also have Foccacia sandwiches, hearing folk attempt that is fun. Fachacha. Facaccio. Focatta.
Also, about 15 years ago I myself asked a server “What’s kwinn-o-uh?” (Quinoa) I still think about it and shudder.
I blame the Midwest and its lack of interesting ingredients. I ask what the heck things are all the time and I’m 38.
Customer: What’s a care-rot?
Me: Excuse me?
Customer: This right here..what’s this care-rot stuff?
Me: It’s pronounced carrot sir. It’s just carrots.
This has absolutely nothing to do with this subreddit, but I have to share. I used to work in furniture sales. This elderly gentleman comes in and is a little upset that most recliners are power operated now instead of manual. After a brief conversation of why and the times that we live in, he looks at me and, as serious as can be, asks, “Do you have any gas-powered recliners?”
I was working at BJ’s for a bit and they have this cherry-chipotle salmon dish. A woman asked me if we could make the cherry sauce without chipotle. I informed her we could not because it’s a premade sauce. Then she asked if we have any sauces that “don’t come from a fucking bag.” All I could say was, mam you’re at BJ’s. We use uncle Ben’s rice. You think we’re making the sauce? Her granddaughter got a good chuckle out of that
I sold a girl a chicory coffee once. She asked “how do I drink it”
I was having a bad day and it almost broke me
She laughed and said “ sorry I mean do people take cream? I’ve never had one”
I giggled and said do whatever you want to it you bought it
We both got a good chuckle out of it
A woman entered our Mexican restaurant and proclaimed that she was deathly allergic to traces of legumes in the air, but wanted some quesadillas. She was deathly allergic to airborne bean particles, in a Mexican restaurant.
Worked at a restaurant that cooked everything on charcoal grills. Part of the intro spiel was to tell them and brag on that fact. It was literally the entire point and theme of the restaurant.
“Do you have any pasta dishes?” Was entirely too common. I always answered by saying “No, we find that it always seems to fall through the grates on the grills”.
Was managing, dropped off the food order at the table. I set this ladies New York Strip down in front of her but could tell by the look on her face that she looked confused. I asked her if there was something wrong. She replied “I ordered the New York Shrimp”…
Someone once, sent back a salad because she was “deathly allergic” to cucumbers, “could not have food contact with” cucumbers (was the story)
…then, asked for multiple sides of pickles to eat with her burger
Well, I used to work for an All you can eat Buffet, one night a server tells me there is a guest complaining the soup is cold; I go to the soup container and lift the lid and the steam almost burn my hand and half of my face. I tell the server there is no way that the soup is cold and ask him to show me the table where the guest is at. Once i reach the table I greet everyone and ask if there was a problem with the food, one of them tells me the Soup was extremely cold; at the same time i’m scaning the table for the soup but i can’t find it, I ask the guest if he throw it away; and this guy replies !! Is right there !!, pointing at the “ITALIAN DRESSING”…
This one guy wanted “Vegan Halibut”. Chef sent the server back out to ask again, figuring the server messed up a request by a pescatarian vegetarian , ( and to be fair he was the stoner fuck up server), with some gentle worded questions about how the customer felt about the butter, used with both the veges and the beurre blanc.
Shortly after the server headed back out into the dining room we hear yelling…” I know what FUCKING VEGAN means.” We sent out a non-adjusted Halibut. Apparently the guy did say to the server, “see wasn’t so hard was it?” on getting his “vegan” dish, which he then complimented as the best “vegan” dish he’d had in years…
Close second was being asked if the Tomato Basil soup contained WHOLE tomatoes, because customer was “very allergic” to WHOLE tomatoes, but not whole tomatoes were fine…I tried to ask if the customer knew what part of the whole tomato was a problem…got met with a blank stare…then the customer asked if the shrimp in the gumbo was cold or hot, because they were “extremely allergic” to cold shrimp…
Working a burger bar/buffet (action station cafe) where we had beef and turkey burgers, explained that. “Which one is the beef” fair. It’s this one. “Which one is the turkey” the fucking other one.
These were doctors, at a hospital!
Worked at a brewery that was well known for chicken + waffles. Guy comes up to me and points at the brewery tanks that can be seen through the windows
‘What are those tanks for?’
I told him we used the tanks to hold all the syrup, he nodded and went back to his table
When I worked at waffle house, people would be furious that we didn’t have pancakes. My response was always “there is a restaurant called the international house of pancakes across the street, this is waffle house”
August, 1973. A woman comes into our restaurant, is seated at a booth and presented a menu. She waves away the menu and orders tomato beef chow yuk. The waitress explained that she needed to get that next door, as we served Italian American cuisine. She insists we’re wrong and she wants her order right now.
The boss heard it, and sent me out the back to next door with a five to get her what she wants. I get the order to go and the boss hands it to her in the bag from the place next door, with the tag still attached and charges her double. She howls about the price and the boss told her the upcharge was because he had to send one of his staff to the Chinese take out next door that she was too stupid to note and too arrogant to acknowledge, then 86’d her.
In the US. A wimpy looking American white guy & his Thai wife came in at dinner time. Ordered cocktails, appetizers, salad, sandwiches with fries. They ordered extras of a lot of things, including 2 sides of avocado. When the bill came, Wimpy was “shocked” he’d been charged for all the extras, & demanded to speak to the manager (me).
Cue apx 30 minutes of him trying different arguments to get out of paying the bill. He said they’d been living in Thailand, where this would never happen, and didn’t we want our customers to be happy? He didn’t raise his voice but tried to wear me down. His wife was embarrassed & kept her eyes down the whole time.
I reasoned right back. Said we produced a quality product & felt our prices were a good value, etc etc. Other tables around us listened in, & one actually wrote to corporate praising my professionalism. Wimpy eventually paid, wincing as he did so. But, um, yeah. We are a business that sells food, sir.
‘My rare steak is cold in the middle’
‘This salmon tastes like it came out of the ocean
‘Crab should taste like crabs, not shellfish’
‘Whats the difference between duck and lamb?’
Just a few of the winners
Customer claimed she was allergic to bell pepper and even a tiny bit could kill her.
Made everything from scratch, cutting on clean boards with cleaned knives etc.
Then she ordered a dish which had some bell pepper, which we could’t quickly remake. She wanted it anyway, “a little bit is fine”.
I wanted to give her a high five. In the face, with a chair.
Once had a customer come back to complain about a piece of a towel in her food. It was in fact a bay leaf..
Her: Hi, can I take a look at the menu?
Me: I’m sorry, but unfortunately the kitchen is closed right now.
Her: Oh, okay. I’ll just go sit in the bar and order then.
Me: The menu isn’t available in the bar either, because the kitchen is closed.
Her: What?!? Well can I just look at the Grill menu then?
Me: No, as I mentioned, the KITCHEN is CLOSED, there is no menu service available right now.
Her: Fine. I’ll just order for takeout then.
Me: Ma’am, as I’ve mentioned, THE KITCHEN IS CLOSED. THERE IS NO FOOD AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW. BECAUSE. THE. KITCHEN. IS. CLOSED.
Her: So I can’t even order something to go?!??
Me: No. You cannot. The kitchen is closed.
Her: Whatever *storms out*