Restaurant Stories from Hell

[candypants1100]

Inspired by the retail hell thread- I thought I'd start a thread about stories you have about your experience as a server/bartender. I was a server/bartender throughout college and have so many horrifying stories.....I'll start:


There was this one booth in the corner of the restaurant that I would refuse to sit in....One night I was working the other side of the floor, and the other waitress I was working with was taking a drink order from her side of the floor. It was about 10:00pm so the other wait staff had been cut (let go early) and it was just myself, her, the manager and the cooks. As she walked from the table to the break station, I saw this guy in the back booth follow her with his eyes. He had a newspaper spread open and he just had water. I had asked the other waitress what this guy's deal was (he told her he needed some time to decide, but had put the menu aside and still hadn't "made up his mind"). I also noticed that his newspaper was moving steadily back and forth. omg. i realized he was, um, pleasuring himself. A;KJASD;KLJFA;SDKJHF;AHJSDF! i freaked out. i ran to my manager and told him, and he was like, 'omg, are you sure?' he went over behind the booth with the creep show and stood on the seat of the booth next to him and pretended to change a light bulb so he could peer over the edge of the booth and see if in fact that guy, um, had his hands full. HE DID! so the manager went up behind him and whispered in his ear "if you don't get the f#*k out of my restaurant, i'm going ot call the police for indecent exposure." that guy high-tailed it out of there. to make it worse, he was like an old guy who looked like he could be someone's nice little grandpa..... UGHHHHHHH

[caitlin1214]

An open letter to all Starbucks customers:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/wdc/54550251.html

[caitlin1214]

I worked in Starbucks for about a year.


While working there, I learned that we kept the honey in packets behind the counter available upon request because there was this guy that used to come in and take the honey from the condiments bar and rub it all over himself.

[caitlin1214]

On Friday nights the particular store I worked at hosted a chess night. That's where elementary/middle/high school kids could come to the store, order drinks and play chess.

One night a woman came in with her daughter. The woman placed her order and her daughter placed hers.

Now, it's great that the girl's parents taught her to stand up for herself and to say exactly what she wanted, but um . . . dude, there's a limit.

It does not mean firing off a complicated drink and food order in rapid succession giving me no time to process what she wanted.

I tried to politely break in and read her order back to her and she was like, "I'm not finished yet."

After that she would say, "I'm not done yet. I also want . . . "


She was about 8 or 10 at the time!

[Junkenpo]

I have one from my DH.

He was a F&B manager at a local hotel & their hotel had a couple differnt restaurants.... some lady had reservation at their steak place & started reaming into a server about wanting an outside seat at their poolside bar.

Hubby came up to "handle" the problem.... apparently the lady had reservations in the restaurant but also wanted an outside seat. Did not want to sit outside & have her dinner brought outside... did not want to sit inside & have the bar food brought in. WANTED TO KEEP HER RESERVATIONS & EAT IN THE RESTAURANT & SIMULTANEOUSLY HAVE AN OUTSIDE SEAT.

Was she expecting to be able to walk back and forth between the tables? No. (Hubby said at this point the people she came in with began to look very sorry for him).

She wanted to eat in the restaurant AND outside... wtf?? Seriously?....how is the possible? bend the laws of space/time continuum, construct a tesseract, fold space & make it possible for her to be in 2 places at once??

[olialm1]

I work at California Pizza Kitchen part time, and on Fridays and Saturdays we usually get super packed and don't seat incomplete parties on a wait. I was helping out the hosts and let this woman know that she couldn't have a seat until the 3 other people she was waiting for got there and explained the policy. However, she decided to scream "I HAVE CANCER!!!!!!! I NEED TO SIT DOWN"
I was absolutely mortified. Of course I felt bad, but it was so awkard! I didn't need to know details, IMO she could have just said "I'm not feeling well" and I would have let her sit. But instead she screeched so loud it seemed like everyone in the damn place heard her.

[yeliab]

Yikes!! I can imagine the stories we're going to hear on this thread!! LOL!!

For those who worked in restaurants - is it TRUE?? That if you don't like a customer - "hack a Lugi (sp?)" will be in the food? or at least Spit?

[Compass Rose]

Good God! I can't believe some people out there! I used to have a friend....and I say "used to" loud and clear who just couldn't make up her mind when ordering anything at any restaurant. It took her forever to basically pick the entire menu apart and ask the poor server all sorts of stupid questions about how everything was cooked, and in what type of pan and what was in the sauces and what the spices were, etc, etc. And finally the last time we went out to dinner with her was when she couldn't make up her mind one time after the server came back to the table at least twice because she wasn't ready. She told the waitress...." Oh, just bring me anything."! Good God!

[blah956]

Originally Posted by yeliab

Yikes!! I can imagine the stories we're going to hear on this thread!! LOL!! For those who worked in restaurants - is it TRUE?? That if you don't like a customer - "hack a Lugi (sp?)" will be in the food? or at least Spit?

the server could. they aren't supposed to but they can. seriously, don't be rude to your waiter.

what i hated as a waitress were families who'd bring in their children but wouldn't watch them. The restaurant would be full and they'd allow their children to run around bothering other tables. Sometimes the children would also scream out loud or be obnoxious.

I seriously don't know if the parents didn't know and were oblivious (how?!) or just didn't care as long as they were not bothered. Only if the managers said something would they give a damn.

Once got a group of HS (i was in HS too) who were very immature. Especially this one girl who was with her boyfriend. She was being obnoxious treating me like an idiot just because I didn't know how many egg rolls were in an order. It was my first day and she knew it and she wanted to be rude. She called me names (in front of her horrified bf) So yeah, I dug my fingers in her chicken lomein and let her eat up. And no, no one else ate from her plate. Everyone had their own orders of food.

[annemerrick]

Originally Posted by blah956

the server could. they aren't supposed to but they can. seriously, don't be rude to your waiter. what i hated as a waitress were families who'd bring in their children but wouldn't watch them. The restaurant would be full and they'd allow their children to run around bothering other tables. Sometimes the children would also scream out loud or be obnoxious. I seriously don't know if the parents didn't know and were oblivious (how?!) or just didn't care as long as they were not bothered. Only if the managers said something would they give a damn. Once got a group of HS (i was in HS too) who were very immature. Especially this one girl who was with her boyfriend. She was being obnoxious treating me like an idiot just because I didn't know how many egg rolls were in an order. It was my first day and she knew it and she wanted to be rude. She called me names (in front of her horrified bf) So yeah, I dug my fingers in her chicken lomein and let her eat up. And no, no one else ate from her plate. Everyone had their own orders of food.

Funny story....I waited tables for a number of years at a neighborhood restaurant which had lots of regulars. it was the lunch rush, and I was super busy, and we had a fairly well-to-do looking family sitting in my section with their 2 kids. those kids were EVERYWHERE in the restaurant. Other peoples tables, underneath tables, etc....The owner of the restaurant got super pissed off, and right as I was deleivering their food, he walked up to me, told me to pack it to go, and told them, "You need to get your kids, and get the F^&K out of my restaurant". He then walked off, so I cheerily said, "Let me get your to-go boxes"!!! It was very awkward!!!

And Yeliab....I would NEVER have done anything to a customers food, but a waitress that got fired shortly thereafter the incident, took a pancake out of the stack she was about to deliver...stepped on it a few times, placed it back on the bottom of the pile....and took the food to the table! YUCK!!!!

[Blondee178]

^^ Yikes! Stories like these are the reason why I dont make it a habit of returning food. If its something i really cant eat, I return it and wont get anything else. I also try to tip at places I'm a regular. Stay on their good side.

[yeliab]

Blah956, LOL! Hope she enjoyed that lomein!

Anne, Holy smokes she stepped on the pancake? Yikes!

I once went to this Japanese restaurant - before they bring the main entree they serve "miso" soup as a Pre dinner appetizer...

when the guy brought my soup - there were Pubic hairs in the soup and on the side of the bowl. OH MAN... I LOST my appetitie! NEVER went back to that restaurant!! Bleh!

[annemerrick]

^^^Now that is disgusting!!!! Makes me shudder to think of it!

[candypants1100]

i had a table of 8 people. a family. like a mom, dad, and their six (yes, six) kids. they were very demanding- they asked for mustard on the burger and i brought them mustard in the bottle because really, its just easier to let people put their own condiments on. they flipped out at me, saying they wanted it to come ON their burger. then they freaked out because the ketchup ran out (it was over half full when they sat, but each kid got fries, and used way too much ketchup on their fries and hence, ran out). i quickly brought them their new bottle and they snatched it out of my hand without a thank you. literally, it was just one thing after another. when the bill came, they took it without a thank you or anything, and i went to a new table that had just sat to take their drink order, and the family got up and left. i walked over to their table to start cleaning it and collect the bill, and what do you know...they WALKED OUT WITHOUT PAYING THEIR $120.00 BILL!!!!!!!!!! are you asl;dkfjals;kdfja;lksdfja kidding me?! so, of course, that had to come out of my tips, and i was written up for it (three write ups and you're fired). wow, people. if you can't afford to go out to eat, DON'T.

[Jeneen]

My sister waited for years and one of her biggest complaints were people who came in and used coupons or got the specials but then didn't consider the actual price of the bill when tipping... and she was a goooood waitress, plus she's cute!

another complaint of hers - many of her managers were pervy dudes who were on lots o' drugs. Bad combo.