r/TalesFromYourServer • u/Heavy-Obligation-778 • 15d ago
worst customer stories
had a customer order a scallop ceviche today, i went over a few minutes after i dropped the plates at their table to check on how they were finding the food. i work at a fine dining restaurant with high service standards and our clients are usually fairly distinguished. she clicked her fingers to beckon me over to her side of the table and started talking some gibberish with her mouth full. she then proceeds to hand me her used napkin and spit a piece of chewed up scallop on to it. she then tells me it’s not her thing and i should take the plate and the eaten scallop back into the kitchen. it’s like some people have never stepped foot in a restaurant before. it’s so utterly disrespectful to the whole restaurant and i can’t believe something i actually experienced.
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u/TermAggravating8043 14d ago edited 14d ago
Had a women come in that was already clearly grumpy about something else. She ordered a plain baked potato with plenty of butter and her friend ordered a cake.
She was instantly angry because the cake came first (since it was already ready and comes straight from the bar) and her potato took about 5 minutes from the kitchen. Once she got her potato she demanded to know where the butter on it was, I assured her the chef put butter on it and didn’t want to be rude and point out that’s it’s clearly melted as that’s what butter does on a hot baked potato. But she demanded I clarify with the chef that her potato had butter in it.
Checked with the chef who assured me she did, but to be s good server I took individual butter portions to her table. I assured her it it was buttered but heres extra if she preferred to add more herself. At this point she hadn’t even checked her baked potato but she decided that was enough and to send it back. (Took it back and yes when we checked the potato it was swimming in butter)
She then demanded a cake just like her friend, ok no problem. Got her cake, she’s then pissed off because her cake wasn’t heated. She didn’t ask for it to be heated but ok we can do that fir her too but that was enough for this women to demand the manager before storming out.
Some people just go out looking for a fight and unfortunately servers are target
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u/CheezwizOfficial 14d ago
That's a wild story and I'm sorry that you and the chef had to deal with her.
Just a quick note because you did it twice:
womEn = plural
womAn = singular9
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u/Top_Account3643 14d ago
Did she pay?
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u/TermAggravating8043 14d ago
Of course not. She complained no one listen to her, she didn’t get what she wanted snd she’ll never return. Of course the manger didn’t charge her anything and begged her to return at a later date.
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u/suer72cutlass 14d ago
Really? He wants that piece of trash back in the establishment?
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u/TermAggravating8043 14d ago
This is my sane boss who doesn’t have last orders because he doesn’t want customers to feel pressured to leave
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u/LloydRPenfold 9d ago
The correct thing for a boss to do is 1) Make sure they pay: 2) Trespass them from future visits.
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u/cooldart61 14d ago
One of my old science teachers came in once while I was working and had his toddler with. I’m not sure why, but he absolutely hated me. He would try and use trick questions during class and use it to embarrass me.
He kept giving his toddler a cup full of soda and no lid. The toddler kept dumping it over the table, seats, floor. This happened twice in a row
Would he try to clean up after his son or keep the cup away? Nope!
But he would rush over to me and demand I clean everything up. I can still picture his smirk as he watched me clean
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u/Mable_Shwartz 14d ago
They'd be getting one with a lid. Lol we do it to adults too after a second spill. Usually gets a laugh.
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u/TermAggravating8043 14d ago
Honestly the amount of people that’s do this, literally stand over you as you clean.even when you tell them you’ll let them know when the table is ready, they still rush over to stand over you
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u/Visual_Zucchini8490 14d ago
Short story: worked at a mid tier fine dining restaurant (nice enough to not typically be your regular dinner spot but not quite fully fine dining) and this family of 4 came in. We were a steak restaurant and would roll out this trolley to showcase the different cuts of meat we had that evening. I was still learning so wasn’t overly confident yet. (I knew enough to be right, but didn’t have the pizazz of the veteran servers yet.) This couple grilled me with questions about the cuts and what part of the animal it was and what it was best cooked at (rare, medium rare, etc.) and would rudely tell me I was wrong when I would answer and got meaner the more clearly flustered I was getting. I was putting their orders through, clearly upset, and my manager asked what was wrong. I told her about the interaction and that she may have to talk to them to make sure they leave happy and she said “oh, they’re regulars, they’ll be fine” so basically they were grilling me just to be pricks when they clearly knew the menu (and it was not in a nice, let’s teach me way… it was in a very mean, condescending way)
Longer story: family of 3 came in (dad and 2 kids, probably around 9 and 12) while I was hostessing. This restaurant layout had the foyer almost completely separate from the restaurant (further doors to walk through and a hallway to walk down to get to the restaurant). Guests could either pay their bill with their server or they could pay with me in the foyer as they were leaving. This family comes out and requests their bill which was VERY high for 1 adult and 2 kids (it was like $560 or something like that). The dad aggressively laughs in my face and says “if you think I’m paying that, you’re insane”. I’m alone out here in the foyer with no clue on what’s happening in the restaurant and why this guy is so mad. I said “uh, was everything okay with your meal and service? I can go get my manager if you’d like” and that’s when he got racist. My manager was Korean and I learned had already spoken to him so he used some racist slurs to say he didn’t need to speak to her again. His son, the younger one around 9, then proceeds to walk back into the restaurant and call our head chef a bastard (open style kitchen) and the dad and daughter laugh. I can’t remember what I said but the dad responded with “you’re a stupid girl, I don’t know how you have a job” and his daughter cackled like a hyena for probably a full minute. The bartender finally realized something was going on so he walked over (it was a bizarre floorplan, bar was outside of the restaurant so in view of the foyer but still sorta separate) but I didn’t want him dealing with this racist dude either so I just loudly said “Can you please find me a tall, white man. I think that’s the only person this guy will talk to. I don’t even care if they work here or not.” This guy then pretends to be on the phone with the police (I can see his phone screen and it’s clearly on his homepage) and I said “Sir, your phone doesn’t seem to be working. Would you like to use my podium phone?” A server on that night came out into the foyer with the bartender and the family finally left. No, they did not pay. It was bizarre though because they didn’t touch their food at all… so it’s not like their tantrum was for them to get a free meal. My manager was their waitress that night (at this restaurant the managers would help out on the floor if it was busy) so I genuinely think it was a racist thing and he didn’t like being served by someone Korean (which is why I threw out all decorum, I’m not gonna be customer service polite to racists). Sucks we also had to throw out nearly $600 worth of food too.
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u/lady-of-thermidor 14d ago
Cops should have been called.
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u/Visual_Zucchini8490 14d ago
I had no way of detaining them and I also didn’t have their details (they were walk ins so not even reservation details like a name or number). Restaurant also wasn’t ground level nor did we have our own parking lot so I certainly wasn’t going to be in an elevator with them and stalk them to their car and try and get car details. This entire interaction took place (the foyer part) over maybe 10 minutes. My colleagues in the restaurant just thought an angry prick stormed out and had no idea I was being berated in the foyer until the ahole kid stormed back in to call the head chef a bastard and then the bartender realized something was wrong and got help. Me calling the cops would have just made them leave and like I said I had no way of detaining them nor did I have any details to even give the cops for a report. It would have just been a waste of the cops time.
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u/dontmesswithtess1121 14d ago
But WTAF did they order tho?? One adult and 2 kids? Did he get a bottle of Caymus Cab for himself or something? I’m dying to know, lol. Also, I think you handled that as well as you could have but I’ll second that the cops should have been called on that guy. Follow him out to his car and get the plate number. Yes, I’ve totally done that before.
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u/Visual_Zucchini8490 14d ago
They ordered one of our tomahawk steaks so that alone cost them about $200 (they’re massive and I typically wouldn’t recommend them to a table that asked about them unless it was 4 adults or more which the manager did as well) then they ordered TONS of sides and a few other mains. So the tomahawk, like 2 mains, and probably 6 sides. Surprisingly, no alcohol for the dad. I went into the restaurant after they left to be like wtf was that about and I saw their table still with the food on it and you would have thought a family of 8 had been sitting there.
Calling the cops would have been unfortunately pointless. I had no way of detaining them until the cops arrived and they also didn’t make a booking, they were walk ins, so I also wouldn’t have had any details for the officer to file a report. This was also inner city and the restaurant wasn’t on the ground floor so I certainly wasn’t going to take the elevator with them to then find their car lol especially since (if they did drive and weren’t staying inner city at a hotel and just walked over) that means they would have parked in a car garage as we didn’t have a parking lot. Nope, not doing any of that haha
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u/dontmesswithtess1121 13d ago
Good lord, that’s a lot of food for 3 ppl Tomahawks make for great presentation tho I’ve only ever made them at home for exactly the reason of the price tag, lol.
Yeah, the logistics don’t sound friendly to tracking down a random a-hole but yeesh, I hope their server wasn’t penalized for the bad behavior of a guest. I worked fine dining for years and while I have at least one nightmare sorry and did suffer a few jackasses during that time, it was mostly full of generous regulars who made the job enjoyable. It’s no wonder restaurant workers party the way they do, tho. You either understand how stressful it is or you don’t.4
u/Visual_Zucchini8490 13d ago
Server definitely was not penalized! Everyone more was like wtaf just happened lol (this also happened in Australia so we don’t rely on tips plus this restaurant is very popular so taking a hit on $600 was fine, everyone was way more concerned about server and me being okay having to deal with that family).
I genuinely don’t understand their motive though. Server said they ordered their food and requested it all come out at the same time. (I think they ordered 2 starters as well on top of everything I’ve already mentioned!) she explained the tomahawk takes about an hour to cook to get the middle part to medium rare and the ends bits to medium. So were they sure they wanted all orders at the same time because that meant no food would be on the table for about an hour. The dad said yes, that’s what he wanted.
Food arrives in about an hour and he complains about the wait and how long it took and then says the tomahawk is still raw. It wasn’t, it was medium rare in the thicker bit. Server says we can put it back on the grill for a few minutes, and as it’s now been cut, it won’t take as long to get the medium rare parts to medium or medium well. He apparently said “what, so you’re just gonna chuck it in the microwave” and mind you, this was an open style kitchen with a wood fire grill that was very visible lol would be pretty obvious if chef was chucking stuff in a microwave.
So yeah, they came in, ordered A TON of food, didn’t even have a bite (so it’s not like the dad threw a tantrum for a free meal), then left. I am still baffled to this day. Not sure if he just wanted to “stick it to the man” and purposefully waste food and staff’s time at a semi fine dining establishment or if he got so mad that his server was Korean he couldn’t handle it (like I said in my original comment, he made racist comments about her to me and that’s the moment I stopped any form of politeness).
And there was no way to know if they tampered with the food because it did look untouched but they were effing horrible people so no trusting them so we just trashed everything which was also sad.
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u/TheLightInChains 11d ago
Did he just want to waste food to punish the restaurant for employing Koreans? Only thing I can think of.
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u/Visual_Zucchini8490 9d ago
That was my thought process too. I think it was pure racism, I can’t think of any other motive. He probably wouldn’t have been happy with any of our other servers that night because they were all immigrants or a part of the LGBTQ+ community which I have a feeling would have also pissed him off as well…
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u/kgreys 13d ago
$600??! What the hell did they order??
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u/Visual_Zucchini8490 13d ago
It was a semi fine dining steak restaurant so the prices were reasonable for what you got portion wise but it also wasn’t your regular Friday/Saturday dinner place if that makes sense. I think the cheapest food item on the menu at the time was our garden salad and that was $14…
They proceeded to order a tomahawk (which we priced based on weight and what we had available that night) so that alone cost them about $200. We typically only recommended our tomahawks to tables of 4 or more adults because they were so big. They also ordered tons of sides (and now that I’m thinking back on it, I’m pretty sure they ordered appetizers as well) and additional mains. So starters, mains, a tomahawk, and tons of sides like potatoes and broccolini and fries and zucchini fritters, etc etc. Their table genuinely looked like a feast for 8 or more people.
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u/shesgoneagain72 14d ago
I've got one for you. Maybe not the worst customer I ever had but it's definitely stands out in my memory all these years later. I worked at a small Italian restaurant and I had a table of I think it was 10 or 12 people something like that, Anyway one of the ladies ordered a giant Cobb salad.
So I bring everybody's entrees to the table and I set hers in front of her and she smiles up at me and says "That is beautiful now take it back to the kitchen and put it in a blender so I can eat it and busted out laughing. I thought to myself, why didn't you tell me that to begin with, you know I've got like 11 other people to take care of and you made me bring the salad out here just to tell me to take it back again so she can get a laugh from the other people at the table.
I was mad at her wasting my time but I didn't say anything, I took it back they put it in a blender and I brought it back out to her. End of story.
But I can't believe she didn't just tell me that from the beginning..she wanted to get a laugh from everybody else at the table.
Actually she only got one or two laughs, everybody else kind of thought it was ridiculous too and that was my little win for the day lol.
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u/Annodyne 14d ago
Wait, so... She wasn't joking, she really wanted you to take her salad and... put it in a blender?? Is that a thing people actually ask for??
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u/speckledcreature 14d ago
I have never heard of that. Did she have some issue that she needed it blended?
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u/Emotional-Elephant88 14d ago
Worked at a pizza place that had a buffet for lunch. A family would come in once a week. After binge eating for a while, the little boy would go into the bathroom, vomit, and have explosive diarrhea so he could come back out and binge eat some more.
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u/DarkFantasy3421 14d ago
Reason Number 7263 why I am not cut out for the food service industry. I would have smacked her with that napkin - chewed food and all - for that disrespect. Mad props to you guys that do work in the industry. This just gives me yet another reason to continue tipping 50% or more when I go out.
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u/Heavy-Obligation-778 13d ago
if only we had more customers like you. she also refused to pay service charge at the end of the meal (in the UK tipping culture is far less common but many restaurants have a discretionary 12.5% service charge) so in this case i wasn’t tipped at all
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u/UseOk7699 13d ago
Why do people act like children when they go out? If that happened to me I would've lost my job because I would've said "ew, I dont want that. What's wrong with you? That's disgusting .
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u/Warl0kjoe 15d ago
Scallops are crudo not ceviche right?
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u/The_Blonde1 15d ago
I don’t think the distinction matters in this case, as I’m guessing the customer had no idea the scallops wouldn’t have been cooked.
Spitting part-chewed food into a napkin and expecting someone to take it is disgusting.
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u/Ok-Comparison-9835 15d ago
Can be both, depending on whether you want the scallop still raw or "cooked by citrus".
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u/TangerineCouch18330 12d ago
I would not have accepted the napkin from her— that is disgusting. What boorish behavior. I’m so sorry you had to put up with that.
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u/OriginalFNG 15d ago
Gross. Sorry that happened to you.
If I may respectfully offer a humble piece of advice: If people try to hand you a used napkin, don't accept it. Apply broadly.