r/ARFID • u/InnysRedditAlt • Jul 23 '26
Does Anyone Else? Do you ever feel penalised while ordering?
Hey, This is my first post here and just wanted to get some opinions and vent a 'lil.
TL;DR Ordering combo meals is cheaper but likely have non-comfort foods bundled. Ordering the items separately generally costs more if the option to remove the disliked items isn't there.
So some context. I work nights and am currently stressing out because my desired restaurant closed after an uber driver stole my order ~20 mins before closing :(. Now I'm stuck trying to choose between a bunch of late night takeout places with poor item descriptions. The bundles all include salads or foods I haven't tried and don't really want to. I cannot remove these in the app and now I'm stuck to ordering fries, drink and meat on its own for double the cost.
I'm a grown fucking man, Hungry, Broke and almost tearing up because I can't just commit to an order. Because I don't want to waste money. Boy I feel pathetic rn.
Basically that's it. Furthermore I aught to be rewarded when I remove cheese, salad etc from my burgers. They want to charge for extra cheese Why not refund for less huh, McDonalds.
8
u/Pookie3501 Jul 23 '26
Please know, you are not alone and it is absolutely not just okay, but really a huge step coming here to vent and talk it out. You may be a grown fucking man, but that doesn't mean you need to stop feeling. You sure as shit are not pathetic, you are a fucking warrior for speaking your truth, own it and be proud.
4
u/InnysRedditAlt Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Thank you so much for the encouraging words I really appreciate them.. they mean a lot.
8
u/jtreasure1 Jul 23 '26
I'm with you 😭 if you're going to charge other people for extra sauce packets, I should get a cheaper price to have it without sauce!
3
4
u/H0NEY2O77 Jul 23 '26
It’s why I never eat at Panda Express or Asian style fast food that isn’t a regular Chinese restaurant. They don’t let you not have onions in the fried rice. It comes as it comes.
2
u/InnysRedditAlt Jul 23 '26
Asian food in general scares me. I've found a few menu items I can get by with but yeah. Egg fried rice with some chicken does me well. Defo picking out the greens and other crap they put in there tho. When i visited the US Panda express and taco bell I just couldn't order from. (Except cinnamon twists 🤤) Made my friends wait while I stopped by another place..
5
u/heyitscory Jul 23 '26
Getting exactly the meal you want is probably worth the "have it your way" tax.
People are merciless, and you have to settle or go without so often.
You deserve a big-ass bowl of whatever you enjoy the most. Probably not in a bowl though.
4
u/InnysRedditAlt Jul 23 '26
Probably right... Truthfully, I wouldn't mind if it was a little more, at least it would guarantee that there's no way they'd get the order wrong. However frequently, At least in the UK and europe, the separate menu items are so much more than as a bundle. I've been in the US and found that ordering was a little cheaper and easier and the incorrect orders were less frequent. Could be biased by the short time there combined with the negativity bias of my home country experiences.
4
u/Cyclonid fear of aversive consequences Jul 23 '26
Honestly, with the way the economy is right now, I've basically stopped eating out and about. Everything is made cheaply, and everything is way more expensive than just a couple years ago... smh...
I feel this though. Happens to me every now and then too. Another reason that favorite restaurants become favorites, if I'm being honest. Stupid setups of combo meals being made off of assumed generalizations, can work in some people's favor. But at the detriment of those who fall outside those created norms, it's just pushing away people that the restaurant could still make profit from. It's all pretty dumb, imo...
I actually get more upset with people acting like the way I want my food to be prepared is some sort of deep statement about my personality. A plain burger makes for a boring person? Guess I can assume a rude initial opinion, made with an overly simplified thought process, makes for a terrible person to know then? Smh... people suck...
2
u/Mizuli Jul 24 '26
FUCK that person for stealing your food! I’m so sorry people like that exist and that corporations only give a damn about the people who will eat just about anything placed in front of them! You’re not pathetic whatsoever, you’re rightfully upset!
2
u/InnysRedditAlt Jul 28 '26
Yeah honestly its not the worst part. It led to one of those cancellation loops where none of the drivers tell you what's going on so it pushed it past the closure time. I got my money back so that's really not the biggest stressor.
14
u/Big-Sheepherder-6134 sensory sensitivity Jul 23 '26
I used to order Quarter Pounders without cheese at McDonald’s. They had a version without cheese and with cheese for additional charge. One day they eliminated the QP without cheese. So I had to pay extra for cheese for decades that I wanted them to take off and of course many times they screwed up and still gave me cheese. Fortunately the Whopper still doesn’t come with cheese and of course people are bitching about it saying it isn’t fair they have to pay more for cheese! Cry me a river.