People who have working experience in the foodservice industry know how ridiculous and bizarre things people like on their plate. Seems like these people forget that menus exist because they have some weird food combination ready on their mind for the chef to prepare.
Someone asked waiters of Reddit: “what’s the most ridiculous order someone’s placed and how did you deal with it?” These 19 heroic servers share their customers’ most absurd and off-the-menu orders:
1.) From Aeorik:
I worked at a national pizza chain for a while as a manager. We used to get this guy who would order all the time. He was lactose intolerant so couldn’t have cheese, and had severe heart burn when he ate red sauce. He would order an XL Supreme with no sauce and no cheese. I told the guy if i did that, the toppings would just fly all over the box but he didnt care. We ended up just baking the dough separate from the toppings and put the toppings in a small wing box on the side for him. Guy said no other pizza place would do that for him and he turned out to be a great repeat customer who always tipped well.
2.) From stylinghead:
Not a waiter but a cook. Had a lady order her tofu scramble burnt. So I cooked it hard. She sent it back because it wasn’t burnt enough. So I cooked it harder. She sent it back again and the waiter said she really wants it burnt. So I got a wok super hot, put too much oil in and proceeded to burn the crap out of it. My chef came by and lost his shit. I explained it to him and he watched me burn just ruin the thing. It was black and smelled like a tire fire. She ate all of it and said we were the only place to get it right. She came back every weekend for it and we had to train new cooks how to burn the living fuck out of her food for her. I still can’t comprehend why she would eat that.
3.) From dudervoog:
I once had a guy place his order, and then say “And give me one of those spaghetti appetizers.”
I had been working there for a couple months, and we had no pasta dishes whatsoever on the menu. I politely tried to clarify this, but he wasn’t having it. He just kept getting more irate. He insisted that he eats here all the time, and he always gets the spaghetti appetizer.
Eventually, he gets up from his table, storms over to another one, and points at what he wants on another diner’s table. He was pointing at their cole slaw. And yes, as far as he was concerned, I was still the asshole for not knowing what he was talking about.
4.) From Notsocreativeeither:
The strangest request! When I worked for Starbucks, I helped open the first drive thru store in the area so it was a learning process for some customers.
A lady orders in the drive thru lane an iced venti vanilla latte with 22 sweet n lows.
Me: 22 sweet n lows, like two two??
Customer: sigh yes 22 sweet n lows.
Me: OK, please pull up.
Now at the drive thru we put the extra milk and sugar in the drinks for the customers, when in a cafe they would add it on their own. So, the person working the bar looks at me like for real this lady wants 22 packs of sweet n low in her latte? That’s what she said so that’s what we made her.
They lady pulls up and pays for her drink. I hand it over and tell her to have a nice day. She stops and says “oh, can I get those sweet n lows now?” I just looked at her and said that they were already in her drink, boy was she pissed!!
She wanted us to hand her 22 packs of sweet n low in the drive thru so that she could take them home.
5.) From crigsdigs:
I worked at a pizza parlor, and the most ridiculous request was one that could have been so simple.
A lady calls and orders a “small pepperoni pizza with no pepperoni” I clarify and ask her “So just a small cheese?” To which the woman, clearly annoyed by my lack of understanding , says “NO. A small pepperoni with no pepperoni.” I again clarify and ask “You want a pizza with sauce and cheese only?” “Yes.” “Ok so a cheese pizza.” “NO I WANT A SMALL PEPPERONI WITH NO PEPPERONI.”
We made her a cheese pizza. She didn’t call and complain. Still not sure what the fuck she thought she was ordering.
6.) From MonkeyInATopHat:
I had a woman call me back to the table because I didnt place her nachos close enough to her. She asked me to push them closer to her.
7.) From llkylej15:
Customer asked for a spaghetti with a side of more noodles and extra sauce because they were going to share. So, I said “you’d like one spaghetti and then an additional order of spaghetti?” They told me I wasn’t getting it and they just wanted extra noodles and some sauce on the side. I told them we would have to charge for extra noodles, and they ended up not wanting it. They somehow thought free spaghetti was a reasonable request.
8.) From Poopy_shoe:
Had a lady order our filet mignon, when it was brought out to her she said with disgust that she had ordered the filet, not a steak. She proceeded to argue that a filet mignon was a type of baked potato rather than a steak.
9.) From Ice_Burn:
When I worked at McDonalds some one asked for a Quarter Pounder medium rare, light ketchup with and extra toasted bun. It was a very slow time and we were all amused by it so I made one for him. He came back to compliment my cooking. ETA: This happened in 1980. We used real grills and spatulas to cook the burgers then. We didn’t know about e coli in ground beef. I made it by cooking it a little less than normal so it was still safe in any case.
10.) From ezekielragardos:
I worked at as a server at a ritzy country club on cape cod and this women once brought in a paint chip and told me she wanted her cosmopolitan to be the exact same color as her pink paint chip
11.) From scatterbastard:
Oh how I miss my old regular.
We are not a fine dining establishment, it’s a small family style Italian restaurant.
This lovely gray haired gentleman would call ahead so that we could put a salad bowl in the freezer for him. After that I would go to his spot at the bar (or the closest one open to it) and set a large dinner napkin down (that he placed his salad/meal on). I would then place an empty wine glass with a napkin over it (per his request), just in case the dinner napkin didn’t specify that the seat was taken.
Once he got there I would go to the back and make his specific salad: Very little lettuce, extra mushroom, extra tomato, extra onion, no shredded cabbage, and no cucumber.
That would be after I get him two ice cold beer glasses for his 70/30 sweet/unsweet tea mixture with an extra glass of ice.
He would then attempt to engage in a 5-10 minute conversation about our specials for the evening, and how he could alter them.
The guy came in between 3-6 nights a week and always tipped fairly. He was the kind of nice old guy that would get you and your wife birthday cards because that stuff was important to him.
He then moved 45 minutes away and we never see him anymore. Miss the hell out of that old man though.
12.) From I_Dont_Live_Here:
One couple in particular made the chef rage so hard she just walked out. Wife orders some meal and makes a ton of changes to it. She gets the plate takes one bite and sends it back because she doesn’t like it. Husband orders $60 lobster plate. The lobster tail comes with pepper sprinkled on top. The husband sends it back and wants a whole new one with no pepper on top. Apparently his wife wanted to try one piece but doesn’t like pepper.
13.) From Shanelol:
As a waiter at a coastal restaurant, we occasionally had dolphins come in the harbor right to where people would eat. These two old ladies came in and before they placed their orders, demanded I release the dolphins for their amusement. It took a good 10 seconds of silence before I realized they were serious. I passed this request onto my manager and then continued to eat free jumbo shrimp.
14.) From finishrampant:
It wasn’t so much the order that was disturbing, but the post order request. He asked me to chew up the food and put it back onto his plate. No medical reason. No missing teeth. Not old. Just creepy as fuck. He got very upset when I declined.
15.) From Rock_Hound:
I had a 4 top once that one of the gentlemen was ordering and asked for extra onion, and he made extreme emphasis on EXTRA ONION. So I go to put the order in and I have to talk to the chef to make sure he understands EXTRA ONION. So when the order comes out, I get a side plate of a cut WHOLE ONION. I giggle and take the order to the table. I put the orders of food in front of all the other guests and leave onion man for last. I set his plate of food and extra onion down, he looks up at me and starts laughing. The whole table is now laughing. Im like dafuck? Apparently wherever they go, no matter what he always has to ask for MORE onion, and this time my snarky chef nailed it.
16.) From Rock_Hound:
I had a 4 top once that one of the gentlemen was ordering and asked for extra onion, and he made extreme emphasis on EXTRA ONION. So I go to put the order in and I have to talk to the chef to make sure he understands EXTRA ONION. So when the order comes out, I get a side plate of a cut WHOLE ONION. I giggle and take the order to the table. I put the orders of food in front of all the other guests and leave onion man for last. I set his plate of food and extra onion down, he looks up at me and starts laughing. The whole table is now laughing. Im like dafuck? Apparently wherever they go, no matter what he always has to ask for MORE onion, and this time my snarky chef nailed it.
17.) From he_shootin:
I used to work at Whole Foods as a juicer and this one guy would come in everyday and order 12 ounces of garlic juice to go (which is like 20 dollars btw). After a couple weeks of seeing him order the same thing I asked him to drink it in front of me because I didn’t believe it was humanly possible to ingest that much garlic. He downed it all in front of me and said this “along with much garlic comes much loneliness” i laughed and he said “no seriously I work from home”.
18.) From [deleted]:
I worked in fine dining for a while.
I had one lady order creme brulee french toast with a fruit loops crust and a bottle of champagne with 2 carafes of orange juice.
We made it. Actually we made a whole batch and the workers ate it. It was actually really good.
19.) From quokka_808:
“I’ll have a cold grilled cheese please” -so, uncooked? “no, cook it, just serve it cold”
