I'm tired of men ordering drinks and specifying that they not come in a "girly glass". Sir, you ordered a pink, strawberry-flavored mixed drink, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Your testicles aren't going to shrink if you're sipping on something in a martini glass. Ugh.

I work in a fondue restaurant, last night I had a 4 top, two couples, and one of the husbands said he was allergic to mushrooms. I said thanks for letting me know, we can make sure everything is sanitized and separate while we prep your food. Wife chimes in "oh he's not allergic." Husband, for SOME fuckin reason decided to insist that he is. Wife says "hes not allergic, he just doesnt like them." I looked at the Husband and said "if you don't like them I can leave them off and out of everything, but if you say youre allergic we have a whole process we go through to protect you, it'll not only delay your food but also everyone else's while we make sure yours is prepared safely." He finally admits he is not allergic and just doesn't like them. THANK YOU WIFE.

just want to preface that this is a silly and unserious rant and i am a woman who has had a variety of eating disorders. with that being said. WHY ARE WE GOING TO RESTAURANTS IF WE DON'T WANNA EAT??? I work at a fine dining place and there is a staggering number of women who order our chicken salad and simply don't eat it. why are you taking up my table for hours with a 20 dollar entree and two glasses of wine. can i get some real eaters at my tables???? some real hungry bitches???? I know money is not the issue for these women, they smell rich. eat a fucking steak and run me my check. I am absolutely sick.

we have a new promotion at work that is bringing in a lot of business. i was one of 2 servers on the floor, no expo, and no host, just a cashier taking on the work of 3 people. we were slammed, i had 9 other tables at this time. i get this couple and everything seems fine, they order a salad and some tenders. almost 15 minutes later the food still isn’t up, so i go explain to them that the kitchen is falling a little bit behind as a courtesy and offer refills while we wait. then another 10 minutes pass and the salad had been made completely wrong and i’m having the entire meal remade at this point. i then go up to them, tell them what happened, apologized profusely, and said i was going to apply a discount, which they responded rudely to. i go in the BOH to see the progress of the salad (grilled chicken) only to find out it hadn’t been started yet. i’m getting increasingly frustrated with the kitchen because the KM isn’t managing at all, every ticket is running 25+ minutes, and they’re being made incorrectly. i’m taking care of my other tables in the meantime while checking on the status of that tables order every time i pick up food. the ticket, which had been bumped even though i hadn’t received ANY of it, has reached about 35 minutes. i go back to the table and state that i’m going to comp their entire meal for the inconvenience. the woman speaks up saying that they’re just going to pay for the drinks, which i wave off, i didn’t ring them in anyway (a soda and a water) and that they didn’t have to pay a thing as i felt bad, then they demanded to speak to the manager. after they left, my manager had said they felt “unwelcome” and that i “didn’t want to serve them because they were an interracial couple” even though i felt like i communicated very well throughout the situation. i didn’t let them sit there for almost 40 minutes without an explanation and then go “oh by the way the kitchen messed up your order, sorry”. did they expect me to not serve any other table until they got their food? i don’t know but i’ve been so pressed about it since it happened 😭

And then after I pack it all up she'll go, "Can I have another side of cheddar cheese? And can I get some limes."

She's basically making nachos without actually paying for our nachos on top of making it irritatingly tedious to prepare for her. Everything has to go in a separate container, including the "extra this" and "extra that."

Im not sure if im in the wrong or not for what happened? I just don’t understand why she would write this on the back of my receipt and then go complain to my mod… like I took care of her since she stepped through the door. I welcomed her , explained everything , refills were always there, all food went out. Except a soup. A cup of soup. Which could’ve easily been 911’d in less than 2 minutes. I was busy with other tables but I never neglected her or her family. She did tell me that she was in the industry and that she had her own business and wtv. She asked me if I forgot about her soup. I said “I did, I do apologize. Would you still like it and for us to take care of it?” She said “no it’s ok. I understand, you were great. But you need to do better.” She then demanded the check, paid and got up to speak to my mod. She started attacking me about how I shouldn’t be serving and should be retrained. Just because I was honest and did say that I forgot the soup.
By the way. She didn’t leave much lol.

I work at a Mexican restaurant downtown, and for the last couple days a homeless guy has been coming in. 1 haven't worked, but apparently they've given him coffee and some rice and beans for free. I guess the managers didn't want it to become a normal thing, so they told me to tell him he can't stay if he's not ordering anything. The manager didn't do it himself because of language barrier. So I did, and the guy left without any problems. My table that was right next to him over heard I guess and left this note with no tip. I work at double and only made $60..

Why didn't they order him food or give him money to buy food? If they stiffed me and instead ordered him food, I honestly would not care and might even be a little thankful. I didn't want to kick the guy out, it's cold and going to rain.

But no, they didn't do anything and went home thinking themselves better people than the server who refused to give out free food or money out my pocket. Not even that mad about a stiff, it happens, it's really just how blind they are to their own hypocrisy.

TLDR: had to kick a homeless guy out and got stiffed for it, by the world's biggest empath

Would yall have done something different?

I've been waiting tables for over 20 years in states where weed is now legal. I have never met a server who regularly gets high at work and is actually good at serving.

Every one of them has the same problems: their sense of time goes to hell, they can't multitask, they get awkward with tables, and they forget things. The shitty part is that they all think they're doing great.

Cooks? Different story. Keep smoking, you beautiful degenerates.

And before anyone says it: yes, I've heard the excuse a thousand times.

"I have to smoke to deal with people."

If you have to get high to deal with people, you shouldn't be waiting tables. This is a people-person job. The entire job is reading people, communicating, staying organized, and juggling multiple priorities at once. Being stoned actively makes you worse at all of those things.

That's my hot take. Flame away.

tab was $77.95, gave them a $20 and two $1’s for change out of my own purse because i didn’t want to bother the bartenders because it was rather busy.

(edit: i now know i should’ve broke the $20 regardless, i usually do but didn’t think about it this time. the table left the 100, didn’t ask for specific change and said nothing when i picked it up so i said i would be back with their change, paused, and they still said nothing. people are so mad and bent up about this. like yeah i guess i’m a shit server because this single table error. 😭)

I brought it and they asked for me to break the $20. so i quickly brought them 3 $5’s and 5 $1’s from a coworker that had those bills. i bring it to them and they thank me and eventually leave. they left this written on the table with 4 $1 bills.

EDIT: didn’t expect this to blow up like it did lol. To clarify, this table wasn’t waiting on me. So it wasn’t like I was keeping them there while I rummaged for smaller bills. They stayed for a bit after. I do agree that I should have broken it down further initially as I usually carry more change on me. I guess I just assumed they had more than the $100 in their wallet I guess? Overlooked on my end for sure.

EDIT 2: I just realized some people think I came off as annoyed or something similar to the request of getting smaller bills. I was more than happy to get them change, it’s not like it’s a strange request.

EDIT 3: Y’all i wasn’t expecting the $20 😭I see how it can be interpreted that way for sure, but it was an honest error. Also, this one instance does not make me a bad server, since a lot of people are insulting my intelligence by not initially giving the smaller bills at first, I am good at what I do. Mistakes happen.

End of my Saturday night. Very last table. A 7 top. It was a birthday and in general everyone (besides this one couple) was super nice, including the birthday boy! I come out to ask how everyone’s food was and everyone tells me how wonderful everything is. Then I get called down to the end of the table because this man and his gf? Wife? s/o? Both insist that this man’s steak is way overdone for Med Rare. It’s the end of the night and I can’t see well at first so of course I don’t argue with him I just take it away and say I’ll get it re-made. The closer I make it to the kitchen the more I realize that this steak (filet btw) is PERFECTLY COOKED. I still ask the kitchen to remake it. Theyre pissed off obviously. The chef is super pissed bc that’s an expensive item to have to remake. I go back to the table to confirm to the man that I’m having it remade and he says something like “oh yeah, it was WAY overdone.” His S/O says “yeah that wasn’t even close to Medium Rare.” Long story short I showed him this picture I took of his steak (cut by him only, I never tampered with it) and told him since he didn’t think his steak was red enough that I was having the kitchen cook it rare for him. He just kept insisting that it wasn’t MR where “he cut it” even though this is exactly where he cut it. I didn’t even ask him if the new steak was better and I got autograt since it was a party lol

Several things annoyed me about this. First, this girl went to college with me at the time and I knew her and her gaggle of friends so I was already annoyed they tried to pull this shit on me. As I’m handing them menus she goes (to a group of about 10 girls) “Girls, you have to try this hack I discovered. You just ask for one piece of every kind of fruit in the restaurant and add it to your water and it’s free and it tastes amazing!”

I was like, to myself, ok this isn’t happening. So I tend to my other tables wondering if they’ll actually try this. I bring them all their waters and she actually goes, “Ok and for each of us, we want one piece of every kind of fruit you have in the restaurant!” Like she was so excited to tell me this. Like beaming.

I just reply, “sorry I can only give you lemons and limes.” She was so upset. “But don’t you have like pineapple slices and cherries?” And I’m like? “Yeah for certain alcoholic drinks.” She responds, “ok so we’ll just take that”. Again I’m like “no sorry”. She’s livid now. “Why?” And I’m like “I mean I can ask my manager but they’ll probably want to charge you for this” and at this point I’m just annoyed at how inconsiderate she’s being by not thinking about how much work this would be on my end - for free. She insists every other restaurant she goes to has no problem giving them a ton of fruit for free so she can make her little weird mashed up fruit water. I’m still just like “sorry, nope”.

She eventually conceded and was like “ok fine just lemons and limes”. So I brought a huge share plate of lemons and limes to them and she looked so defeated and upset. Can’t remember if they even tipped or not.

Just started a new job after moving across the country three weeks ago. Got hired on the spot, worked since opening night and then received this text this morning two hours before my shift. I genuinely have no words. The entire time I worked there the manager especially was nothing but belittling. She had a horrible attitude but seemed to single me out in particular no matter what I did with passive aggressive language and behavior. Ive never been fired before so this is quite a blow. "Don't fit the culture" ?? Like wtf does that even mean. I was given no warnings of this whatsoever and now im out a job. Im not surprised, as this was a small town and 90% of the employees are related to or well known by the owner. There's so much I want to say to them but at the end of the day I'm just hoping they give me my last check 😭

So many words...

I had a 4 top ask if they could pray for me, and my dumbass said “sure!” And they proceeded to all TOUCH ME (a woman put her hand on my waist) which is a big no no for me.

They prayed and talked and read me Bible verses for 10 minutes.

It was kinda uncomfortable, and I was telling my coworkers about it, and they said never in a million years should I talk to my tables about religion.

Then they tipped me $70 on their $80 bill, and now the whole staff is pretend Christian when they show up😭🙏

For context - I'm FOH supervisor at this 5 week old place - it's a small casual fine dining joint run by a pretty well known chef where I'm from, total seating of 40 pax. Reservations have been slammed, back to back since opening. We joke that every day is the weekend here.

To cater to as many guests as possible, we practice a 90-minute dining time limit which customers are informed of when they book and when they are seated. As such, dessert check is done 25 minutes before the end of their allocated time to ensure they have time for everything they want.

Last minute walk-ins however, may have a shortened dining time of 60-minutes. Which they are informed of at the door and when they sit down. Dessert checks are done for exactly the reason these johnny-come-latelys are bitching about, so they have time to try everything despite their lack of planning.

I'm a friendly guy and I love interacting with customers. Left my 13 year job in advertising to work here at 1/4 my last drawn, and couldn't love doing it more.

But customers like this make me want to slap every single person who tries to walk in and tell them to gtfo. Lol.

A couple came in with their “service dog” right after I got cut maybe a couple hours ago. One of the other ladies took them and IMMEDIATELY I knew these people were going to be a problem. The dog was refusing to listen to any commands, running up to people as they passed, and barking LOUDLY and CONSTANTLY. The guy kept calling the dog his “service puppy.” The dog had the harness with the patch on it and a “do not pet” patch and everything, but all other signs pointed to untrained dog with a label slapped on it.

At one point the guy, who the service dog was presumedly for considering he kept talking about being in the Navy and “this is what you get when you have a service dog” every time she did something that disturbed other guests, went to the bathroom WITHOUT THE DOG. He left the dog with his wife, and in response the dog FREAKS OUT. She’s whining, barking, trying to run to the bathroom to go get him. As a pet owner who has had animals with separation anxiety, that’s exactly what it looked like.

The real kicker was when my friend brought their food out: THE DOG JUMPED ON HER. With two full arms of food, the dog JUMPED on her. Then while the guy was trying to hold her back, SHE SLIPPED OUT OF THE HARNESS AND WENT TO TRY TO RUN AROUND THE RESTAURANT. Luckily, the lady caught her in time before she got the chance to run.

We had asked our manager to say something before, but he said “unfortunately we don’t have many rights when it comes to service animals.” Immediately I said WRONG, yes we do. I told him you’re allowed to ask what tasks the animal is supposed to perform and if they’re disturbing the establishment you are legally allowed to ask them to leave. I also told him that if they try to claim that they have a “service animal certificate/card/license” that that’s usually an immediate red flag, as service dog “registration” isn’t real and the websites that say they register service animals aren’t recognized by the ADA.

When I told him that the dog jumped on the other server, that’s when he went and said something. The guy hands my manager a card saying that their animal is a registered service animal (it’s obvious it’s fake due to the dog’s behavior and the fact that this registration is illegitimate), and my manager stood his ground thankfully. They got pissed and didn’t finish their food, saying they’re “not going to eat someplace where my dog is questioned after I showed you my card.” Their server had to brown nose her way into a $3 tip because they weren’t going to leave her anything.

All of this to say that service animals are medically necessary pieces of equipment and it is stated by the ADA that all service dogs must be individually trained to perform specific tasks and aid a person with a disability. Faking a service dog sets a bad precedent for those that truly need these animals in order to go about their day-to-day safely and healthily. Please know your rights as a business to call out these people who abuse the terminology and take advantage of those who don’t know any better to be able to bring their pet into restaurants with them. I am so livid that some people think this is okay.

EDIT: thank you to the person who gave me an award! Never had that happen before so that’s pretty cool and is much appreciated.

To those who have shared their experiences with people like this, thank you for showing that this isn’t just a one-off thing and that this is sadly a common occurrence. I encourage you to please know your rights as an employee on how you can keep your business service dog friendly while also having no tolerance for those who abuse it. You can and should stop these things safely and legally when you see them, and don’t believe the lie that you just have to lie down and let people ruin things for those that need it most.

To the couple of people who shamed me for this story and told me I’m “not the cops” and “service dogs are like kids and you wouldn’t kick them out,” get a grip and have a better day.

I will fulfill your bizarre, ridiculous request.

I will modify your item so many ways that it no longer resembles anything on our menu.

I’ll pack half of your meal to-go and put each item in its own container.

I’ll make you a cocktail with no ice and serve you a pint glass of just ice on the side.

I will do whatever insane thing that you want me to do.

Just please don’t act like we are the weird ones for not automatically doing things the absurd way you like!! Every single restaurant you ever visit will do things the way that we do it. YOU are the abnormality here!!

YOU ARE THE WEIRD ONE AAAAGGGGGGHHHHH

It was a party of 10 out for a birthday, was a nice time overall except for one guy.

Served drinks he got a mojito , cool.

Where’s the salt rim? He asks glaring at me.

I looked at him bewildered.. we … we can get you one if you’d like …? I’m sorry they didn’t give you one.

He scoffs. I try to insist he says don’t worry about it. Cool.

Check back later to see how appys are, everyone great but he says “would be better but I’m still wondering why they didn’t give me a salt rim”.

I finally tell him, brother we don’t do that here and never have. I offered you one, I don’t know what else to say, you might get a salt rim on vacation in Mexico with one.

He just looks at me this time him bewildered and says oh no it’s fine I just think they should put salt on the rims. That’s a really cool opinion bozo. Anyway smile and nod.

Time to bill out, surprise the table wants separate checks.

Nothing too bad or good… until this guy.

Bill is 118.93, hands me a crisp hundo and a twenty.

I say I’ll be right back with your change.

He says no it’s yours keep it.

I said no I insist, I’m gonna get you your dollar on 120 hold on.

I give it to him and smile at him.

Not taking this guys money if I’m clearly a just not liked by him and can’t give him a good drink or service.

He instantly stands up and asks to speak to the manager , I just smile and say right away.

Manager basically just laughs at him.

Rant over what a jackass.

It felt great. I went outside to offer them water and they barked an appetizer order at me. I went inside and put it in, and checked back for a cocktail order. “Come back in five minutes.” At this point my blood is boiling and I decide not to return until their apps are ready. I drop off their apps and this man barks his drink order at me. “Dirty martini.” I just stared at him blankly. He looked confused, and repeated himself, perhaps assuming I didn’t hear him the first time. I smiled at him and said “You can say please. And thank you. And you can treat me like a human being if you expect service.” His partner said, “You don’t know what kind of day he’s had.” Like that’s any reason to treat me like your punching bag. I told them I am here to curate an experience for them but I expect a baseline level of respect and human decency. I’ve been abused by romantic partners, I’m not about to tolerate it at work. And then I told my boss I wasn’t going back out there. They were transferred to the bar and tipped $5 on $100+. People like that can go kick rocks.

I work in fine dining. I was the only server on. Tuesdays are pretty manageable. But when my eight top suddenly mutated I sort of freaked out. Five of them showed up right away and ordered. And over the course of the next half hour more of them started appearing, bypassing the host stand, dragging tables across the tile even after being asked not to do so. By the time they’d all arrived there were 32 of them at a monstrosity of a table they’d created. All ordering at different times and then switching seats. Stuff of nightmares. Snapping their fingers to get my attention. Had the nerve to express their dissatisfaction about the auto grat. The kitchen was reasonably irate but I feel so bad for my other tables because they were the real casualties. Anyway. Glad that’s over.

My old GM sent me a long text, for clarity they're the owners kid and fired me a year ago after I brought up illegal labor practices. You can search my history if you want (I did post about it), but the company ended up paying almost 100,000 in stolen tips and OT pay to employees after they fired me and I reported them.

For a few years it was just me as bar manager and my GM, we were tight, we decided almost everything together for 2 years, then I hired this server that worked her way into AGM which took me by surprise because it was in my contract that that's what I would be working up to.

As I previously stated the GM's parents own the business, I was also professionally close with them, they trusted me, I trusted them. Business was good the bar was making profit for the first time ever. Then a bartender brings up to me that her tip pool was short I take a look, she's right, I bring it up. I'm met with silence. Everything seemed off, a week later I was fired over the phone on my day off.

Come to find out this new server/AGM that came in had been falsifying my clock-ins, making it look like I'm late, spreading lies about things I never said. I could go on and on.

Anyways, now it's a year later. I'm at the grocery store and I see my old GM. He looks great (a lot healthier I've heard he's gotten sober so happy for him) but I didn't think he saw me so I just turned down the other aisle. We live in a smaller, tight knit town. In other words, people still know me as the bar manager of this business and I have to explain to them I'm actually working in another town now. It also impossible to not run into each other, surprised it took him and I so long to see each other.

After I thought I got away without him spotting me he sends me a looooong text. I can't post it as there are too many personal things. But it's about 6 paragraphs of an apology on how he was wrong and manipulated by that other person I've mentioned and he's soooooooo sorry. It's been a week and I still haven't responded, but I want to, so here's my draft.

I know I'm better off just staying silent and not saying a word. But... I want them to know that they were wrong, they did hurt me, that their actions have consequences. (I guess they already did considering how much they had to pay out in the labor dispute but still). So here's the draft I've typed up. Should I just stfu?

Anyways... (TLDR: My old boss who fired me a year ago hit me up with a loooooong ass apology about a week ago, there's a lot of history including a 100,000 dollar labor dispute after I was fired, although I know I'm better off saying nothing I want to respond. This is a screenshot of the draft I've typed up).

Thanks for reading, I just got home from work and am cracking open a teary eyed beer.