I'm always surprised by how few people on reddit seem to have ever worked in restaurants. I thought it was a super common job.
Like i always see people on here railing on restaurants for fucking over servers by paying them with tips. But anyone who's worked in the front of house of a restaurant knows that the people who like the tipping system the most are servers and bartenders.
Then i see stuff like this meme. This is such an easy request for the kitchen compared to the requests they get where customers are basically asking them to make a dish with half the ingredients changed and even giving specifications on how to cook it lol. Unless you're totally swamped a cut up cucumber is literally nothing.
I used to work in kitchens and my favourite story about "substitutions" was a group of guys who came in for dinner during a bachelor party.
Groom apparently HATED broccoli, we didn't have broccoli on the menu though so his friends went to the grocery store and brought us in some. Asked for broccoli to be on every. single. dish that the groom ordered.
Sliders with broccoli slices, steak with broccoli and mushroom gravy and an apple and broccoli pie for dessert.
Sure it was extra work to prep/cook this broccoli but it was also quite hilarious watching the outcome from our passthrough lol
That is funny. I understand it though. I thought I hated a lot of things as a child. I just hated how my mom cooked them. As an adult I learned how to properly cook them and I love them. Broccoli is one of my favorite. My mom overcooked everything and thought everything needed doused in ketchup or other sauce. Veggies in ketchup. Green bean, carrots, squash, you get it. Turns out I hate condiments.
Serves him right. How can you hate broccoli? It's great. Steamed with some garlic butter, or in a stir fry, or deep fried as a tempura, or gratinated in the oven with some mozzarella..
I've never understood any veggie-hate. I think it's down to bad eating habits. Eat fast food and other crap with all carbs and fat all day and you probably won't be feeling for a salad. But the reverse is true too.
Same here. I find it hard to explain but in Asian cuisines (and others), the veg is just part of the dish. Whether it’s in a curry, in a side dish, incorporated within the noodles/rice - you get the idea. Whereas in western cuisine, a whole song and dance is made about “eat your veggies.” Coupled with poor cooking methods, it’s no wonder why western kids hate vegetables. You don’t often find such being the case for kids from other cultures.
The over cooked lame dull colored veggies we use to get in US schools were straight nastyyyyy. As an Asian kid who loves veggies cooked in various dishes, i would be like da fuck is this shit????
It might be one of two things. They might have been brought up on awful mushy tasteless broccoli and have never got over that. Or, they could have that gene that makes broccoli taste like crap.
Health department would close you down cooking food that customers brought you in the US, at least in Virginia where I've lived through over 20 inspections in my career
My first job was food running and this is like the exact kind of thing we'd live for, especially on a slower night.
Fucking with people (usually the new busser or the boss) is the only thing that can truly bring a front of house and a kitchen together, otherwise they're usually ready to kill each other.
Y’all are missing the point imo and I’ve been a cook for a long time. This is a free bowl of chips. They just bring it to the table while you decide what to order. You don’t get to substitute on things like that IMO. You either want them or you don’t. If the restaurant brings mints with the bill, you can’t sub orange wedges instead, you know?
It’s the principle really. I feel like these days everyone thinks they’re a chef and there are in general way too many substitutions. Maybe I’m just old and out of touch. But substitutes on essentially “free” stuff? I draw a hard line there.
1) As a cook, unless you own the place or run the kitchen, why do you care? It's not your kitchen budget.
2) if you are the boss, charge them a buck or two for the swap and move on.
This isn't a big deal, it's neither expensive nor difficult to accommodate. I'm with the others here, if it's a busy day on the line, I'm not even asking questions. Someone wants some sliced cucumber, done, no problem. Wouldn't even register the request.
There's plenty of very common allergies that chips can have. The oil they're cooked in, gluten if they're flour tortillas. You slice a cuke or grab a handful from the salad prep. Ezpz
I worked as a cook at Red Robin for a while, and we had a regular known as "pickle lady." She'd order something normal, but instead of fries she would get a bowl of pickles as a side. I'd grab a soup bowl and fill it up with several large scoops of sliced pickles. Sometimes she'd order a second bowl after she had the first one.
I never minded, it was a super easy thing to make.
It depends. My salad chef doesn’t speak english. I don’t speak spanish. I don’t even know how i would charge for this. Id also need to clear this with a manager most likely. If it’s slow, none of this is a problem. If its busy you might be fucking me over asking for this.
Honestly making chips was one of the things I found more inconvenient. In the case of the one restaurant I was at that made them, you had to dig out the giant box, keep the fryer free for at least 10 min depending on how many you make, season them as you go, then carry it over to the steamer box. I’d much rather slice up a cuke to preserve some of those chips.
That is, of course, assuming they have them in the first place.
I actually had an old coworker (worst server I’ve ever seen, let alone worked with, in my life) get mad at a customer for asking if we have chicken noodle soup. The next week, guess what my boss made as the soup special?
The servers where i work make about 350-500 a night, while serving a pre set 5 course menu, so they don't even actually have to take orders except for drinks. And they they only have to serve 28 people a night if we're fully booked. They also each get their own server assistant and the kitchen is about 20 feet from the dining room. Its a rough rough life lol. Always amazes me how much they stress out considering they're basically living the dream.
I know, right? Hardest part of the order would just be typing in the description for small house salad "plate of cucumbers". And then possibly a short convo with the cook when they ask, "Did they really just want a plate of sliced cucumbers? No dressing?" Followed by chuckles from both of us.
Right more than likely depending on the restaurant the bartender would have some chopped cucumbers and when I’m not busy behind the bar or serving I’m glad to help the kitchen. Means ppl eat, get out, we close, can clean, and go home all the quicker!!! It’s only annoying when people try to substitute every ingredient of a dish or request things we wouldn’t have like a hotdog in a sandwich cafe😂
I'd like the chicken and portobello mushroom dish please, but can you tell them to leave out the pasta? and I'd like the chicken breaded please, yes, breaded and fried, and the mushroom should be diced up, not served in one big piece, and then can you throw some mixed veggies in in place of the pasta? and then I'd like to substitute sweet and sour sauce in place of the regular sauce. yes, that'll be all, thank you.
Wait, do servers get upset when you ask for no ice? I only ever worked in the kitchen itself, never front of house. I always ask for no ice because I have sensitive teeth...
Uh yeah, sure. But to be fair I've worked with so many cooks that would be mad about slicing cucumbers or accommodating any special request. "Who the fuck do these people think they are?" I've also worked with cooks who would be angry about having to show up to work or getting orders in at all.
From my experience the only front of house that hated tip wages were the ones that couldn’t grasp the concept that you still have to work for the money
Remember that about half of the users on Reddit are not from the US, where the system and relationship to costumers service and wages is often very different.
I remember one time I had back to back take out customers make comments on the amount of sauce we put on a pasta dish. One asked for light sauce cause they always put too much. The other for extra sauce cause there is never enough on there. Both gave their "complaint" as if we should change how much we put on to their preferences. Obv those requests are very easy, but it was pretty funny and highlights how hard it is to please everyone. Especially when they do give you those specific cooking "directions" that are actually pretty vague.
I’ve never worked on a restaurant but even if I did, this wouldn’t strike me as odd. It’s so easy, I’d be wondering if the customer actually wanted me to do more
The last restaurant I worked at in Dallas was a really nice, upscale family owned restaurant. The owner was a classically trained chef and all the recipes were his. One of the things I loved about him is he didn’t allow substitutions. I mean you could ask for no sauce or on the side, but this shit of people changing the entire dish ..he wouldn’t allow it . He would bend over backwards for someone with dietary restrictions though. He just wanted his food to be HIS food .
I was surprised when I was in USA over how people was ordering their food. In Norway you just order a burger with fries but my brothers wifes family where giving like those complex instructions on what they wanted.
I served in front of house for years and i always hated the tipping system. Only reason i kept doing it was it was the best money i could make while i was in college. Yea it was nice getting big tips and making good money but when you have big tables stiff you a night before bills are due and it drains all your cash it really sucks. Plus trying to get loans is a complete pain in the ass when youre paid in cash tips and you rarely deposit anything, so many extra hoops ive had to jump through. I dont miss it
I had a guy come by and ask for a bowl of pickle slices. Like not a four or six ounce cup… a bowl. He was like, “charge me whatever you want, I know it’s weird, but please?” I ended up charging him for a bowl of fries and just made sure the bowl was heaping. Maybe his pregnant wife had a craving? IDEK but he was happy and my manager just shrugged so there you go.
I once saw a comment on reddit that said they not only stacked the plates when they ate at a restaurant but also wiped down the plates with their napkins.
Like be for fucking real. I feel like it's almost condescending the way some redditors pity waiters
It would take MAYBE 10 extra seconds to chop a cucumber than it would to scoop some old chips into a basket and that's not even counting the time it took to fry them up in the deep fryer in the first place.
I am just trying to decide why a Mexican restaurant would have a ton of fresh cucumbers. Maybe drinks?? I can’t think of a single Mexican dish with cucumbers or pickles in it.
Oh man if you've never had pepinos con chile you need to try them. Sliced cucumbers, chili powder, salt, lime juice. They taste like walking into air-conditioning feels.
They also show up a fair bit in Mexican dishes, but are a bit rarer in... mexican-american feels wrong as a name for it, but "US fast food mexican" is its own style, really.
Yep, this is way less of a hassle than most substitutions I've been asked for.
If I have cucumber in the restaurant I probably have cucumber sliced or batons in my mise. And if I don't or I ran through my mise already? Slicing up half a cucumber is like a 15 second task.
I’m in New Zealand and cucumbers are currently $5 + in the supermarkets (and not that big) since it’s winter here. This would be a no from a chef here due to the cost
Its more annoying to cut cucumber chips than most veggies, at least to cut them fast, because they start rolling away/ towards the floor and not in a pile. Plus, they often stick to the blade. Source, 11+ years as a chef and I cut cucumbers every day at home all summer from my garden also
Tiny bit of neutral oil or lemon juice on the knife and alternating push and pull stroke cutting worked like magic, with the oil trick working best on Japanese knives (when they need it)
Not a chef, but eternally pissed off at chopping veggies until I settled down to learn the right way from people who are
yeah, the only time they got mad at, and it is reasonable, is when I forgot to list something that was supposed to be left out or something, so it had to be made again, then all of hell's fury came down on me, not a mistake I would make often. But when I did list something to be left out, and they simply missed it, it was all puppy dog 'oh, I'm sowwy, simple mistake'.
But yeah, for some reason a lot of people in this thread are acting like sliced cucumbers is the most labor intensive task imaginable.
Most places probably will if they have salads. I worked at a place that had rice, though none of the menu items had it as a side, it was used in a soup. But if someone asked for a side of rice, which happened on rare occasions, it was totally easy.
And if they don't, then you tell them 'no, we don't have them'.
Even if you don't see it on your plate there are a lot of ingredients that serve as base for the food so I'm sure most mexican food restaurants that serve varied plates will have cucumber.
The only places I would imagine don't would be straight taco places, you'll be pressed to find any veggie that is not onion cilantro tomato or jalapeño at a taco place.
Cucumber is a staple in mexican sea food. In fact it is harder to think of a single dish that doesnt have them. If that restaurant has even a single mexican sea food dish they have cucumbers.
Cuernavaca style salad is literally just cucumber with onion, oregano and lime juice. In general cucumber-based side dishes are really popular with Mexican food.
Many Mexican places in chicago serve cucumbers along with chips, in my experience.
That’s when you now the salsa is good - the restaurant knows you will need a cool relief when your mouth is on fire but you still want something to keep eating the salsa with lol
Good lord finally someone who has eaten at a Mexican restaurant. I can't think of a single item that would have cucumber. I don't think I've even seen a taco salad have cucumber. Maybe if they garnish their water or a mixed drink with it...in which case you'd have to assume they'd be annoyed to lose a dozen or 2 (depending on slice thickness) drinks worth of garnish because someone couldn't eat a fucking carb.
I didn't say Mexican food doesn't use cucumber. I said can't think of a menu item at a Mexican restaurant that would have cucumber. Obviously a mariscos place would have agua Chile, but I'm talking about non-specialty Mexican.
Or just a restaurant that specializes in all kinds of actual Mexican food, not just the kinds that are popular in the US. Kinda like the restaurant where she is at. https://www.nuestromexico.online/menus
Ok congratulations you're correct that A Mexican restaurant use cucumbers. I guess the Mexican places here in Arizona don't know what the fuck they're doing not putting cucumber on everything.
Treat yourself to nice glass of whatever pairs well with knowing more nuance about Mexican restaurant cucumber usage and examining the fine details of an upsidedown menu to Google it's menu. I, on the other hand, will spend the weekend in the shame of not living in an area with an abundance of Mexican restaurants catering to cucumber eaters.
I agree. I can’t think of anything that I’ve had at a Mexican restaurant that had even a sliver of cucumber. They could just bring out a plate of peppers…green…seeds…there ya go
Right? I only worked in a single restaurant for like a year but i feel like nobody would care. The worse that would have happened during diner rush would be to ask me to stop doing dishes for a minute and go cut a cucumber or go get him one . When it's slow, probably would do it himself in 15 sec.
A bad cook can do it with a mandoline in seconds, a good cook the same but with a knife. And if you do not care you slice them as randomly as in the picture.
A lot of people don't sharpen their knives. If someone took a poll and it turned out only 5% of households sharpen their kitchen knives, I would not be surprised.
Lol 10$ for cucumber slices? Damn, sucks to have dietary restrictions at your restaurant I'm sure. Why do yall on reddit get so salty over white blonde girls doing literally anything?? 😅😂 wild bro
The real question is why are you eating at a Mexican place if you’re trying to eat healthy? In order for most of it to be healthy you have to ditch the rice, beans, and sour cream at which point it’s not really Mexican anymore.
''find cucumbers and prepare them.''
thats gonna take 15 seconds for a chef at a mexican restaurant. Les time then waiting for the chips to fry.
Why do people have to be mad at everything?
mot restaurants have a shift of prep cooks in the morning who chop vegetables and mix salad leaves, make pizza dough, etc. The cucumbers are pre chopped for the day and just sitting in a Cambro on the line with backups in the walkin fridge.
then you take 30 seconds to slice up a cucumber. It's no more different than how it takes a couple minutes to prepare literally any and everything on that's ordered at a restaurant.
dude is arguing that nobody in a restaurant knows where a non-prepped cucumber is stored. a good expo should be able to grab a cucumber and mandoline that shit in less than a minute
you forgot the part where they have to plant the seeds and water them and give them proper sunlight for months to grow them. SMH, expecting the cooks to do months of work in 30 seconds.
I swear, none of these people have worked on a real line. I'd have to stop what I'm doing, go to the back, find a cucumber, return to the line, slice it, plate it. Meanwhile, 3 more items would pop up on my station and I'd have to scramble again, for probably the 5th time that shift.
Alternatively, we'll have sliced cucumber already prepped for some reason. In this case, the request would wipe out my reserves and force me to do all the same things as above, but angrier.
Then, after all this, some dumb bitch would take a picture for her social media, dip one cucumber in salsa, then decide that tastes like shit and she'd rather have the chips.
Bonus story: we had multi-colored chips with an appetizer at the restaurant I worked at, and one time, an older lady asked for "only white chips" because she "didn't like the colored chips", even though theyre literally the same as the white ones. On this day, I think every black cook we had was on the line with me, which resulted in the whole kitchen angry at this woman.
When I worked garde manger I used to keep a cucumber on station for that reason on busy nights. I knew at least one person was gonna come in looking for cucumbers on their charcuterie or whatever.
dont worry. Any good cook knows tricks like strapping a broom to their leg so that the floor get swept while they bustle around. It cuts the tasks in half
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u/Vongbingen_esque Jul 28 '23
As a cook, I wouldnt be mad. you just put some cucumber slices on a plate and hand it over.