The customer is always right!!!!

[DanMan]

Hi everyone, I am new here, so I don't know if anybody has done a similar thread or not but here goes. I had a customer come up to me and ask if my moroccan spiced Calimari salad was totally VEGAN as he was very strict about his eating habits. Vegan..........Calimari............you've got to be kidding me, are there people out there that really are this stupid. PS. He actually ordered the dish and left the calimari on the side of the plate. W**KER. Stupid Customers or other Kitchen staff Let me know!!!!

[castironchef]

Gotta love the food fadists. I mean, someone's got to. Right?

[Botanique]

ROTFLMAO -- I hope that translates

You have to look at it this way -- our job is a service, not only to provide sustinance but to educate. As a cook, I aim to please. As a customer, if I do not understand something, I want the "person in charge" of the meal (or runners in between) to help me with my stupidity.

But (still laughing) that's a pretty good one.

[liv4fud]

i began a vegetarian
didn't know if calamari (or even pepperoni) was non veg / veg.

[foodpump]

Of course, true vegetarians don't really pay much attention to other foods. What really cracks me up is the guest who comes up to the Baron of Beef carving station and requests--with a straight face-- for "A slice crispy on the outside, but rare in the the inside"...

[chefdude]

Free range calamari Was doing a pan seared steak with peppercorns and brandy cream. Customer ordered it with sauce on the side. OK no prob. He sent it back because he didn't like pepper grrrr. While I was cooking his replacement meal of venison the waiter informed me that the customer had kept the side of brandy cream, which also had peppercorns in it, and was eating it with his bread and raving about the great flavor to the rest of the table. The customer is #1 even when they're a doofus.

[MarkV]

The stupidity of man never ceases to amaze me.

I was doing a cooking demo in a supermarket. I'm wearing my chef jacket, there's an array of foods laid out on this long table, there's stuff on my stove simmering, I'm in the middle of a frigging supermarket, and I'm slicing vegetables when a woman walks up and asks:

What are you making.......................food?

No lady I'm rebuilding a DC-10 engine.

The customer is usually wrong but is treated like they're always right.

Mark

[BigDog]

I can be both a cook/server's favorite customer or worst enemy. From the favorite customer side, I'm on a seefood diet. I see food, I eat it! TNT, bottom line!

As for being a worst enemy, if something served is completely FUBAR, I get a little disgruntled, which will escalate from there. Now, I don't mean to imply I'm a bully looking for a fight, but I'm spending my hard earned money on something, and I want it to be good.

I remember a time when I ordered a NY Strip (not from a steakhouse, first mistake) and asked for medium to medium well. I got the plate and the steak looked great, until I cut into it. It started mooing at me! I graciously ate the rest of the plate as it was a busy night, and when the server came by to check up, I showed her the steak. She offered to get the manager for me, which she did. The next thing she did cracked me up. She asked if I wanted it redone, and I said no. She took the plate back into the kitchen and yelled "who the **** cooked this steak?" I was impressed.

Not so much with the manager though. I ate the rice pilaf and veggies, and all the manager would do is take a lousy buck off the bill. Thanks for nothing, for crying out loud! However, my extroverted server was the one ringing the bill for payment, and when I told her the manager only gave a buck off, she was appalled (sp?) and gave me another 5 bucks off. That really impressed me. On a ticket that would have been about $20, the server walked away with more then what I actually paid for the ticket!

[LWP]

Originally Posted by BigDog

I remember a time when I ordered a NY Strip (not from a steakhouse, first mistake)...

Originally Posted by BigDog

...and asked for medium to medium well.

That was your second mistake!

(Just kidding...sorta )

Regarding the topic being discussed, my policy is that the customer is always right with the disclaimer that their money is buying them food and service... not a license to behave like an arse.

[chefATL]

I had 2 customers come in for lunch one day and they were complaining from the minute they walked in. They didn't like their table, didn't like the silver or china, didn't like the tea or coffee and it kept going. They had their soups and were still complaining. By this point being fed up, I walked out and pulled the soups from them. I said " it is obvious that we will never be able to satisfy you. Please leave. Maybe Dairy Queen down the road will be able to meet your expectations." They left and were back 2 days later and became regular customers.
I will bend over backwards for my customers and staff, but I don't have to put up that.

[Someday]

Originally Posted by BigDog

I can be both a cook/server's favorite customer or worst enemy. From the favorite customer side, I'm on a seefood diet. I see food, I eat it! TNT, bottom line!

As for being a worst enemy, if something served is completely FUBAR, I get a little disgruntled, which will escalate from there. Now, I don't mean to imply I'm a bully looking for a fight, but I'm spending my hard earned money on something, and I want it to be good.

I remember a time when I ordered a NY Strip (not from a steakhouse, first mistake) and asked for medium to medium well. I got the plate and the steak looked great, until I cut into it. It started mooing at me! I graciously ate the rest of the plate as it was a busy night, and when the server came by to check up, I showed her the steak. She offered to get the manager for me, which she did. The next thing she did cracked me up. She asked if I wanted it redone, and I said no. She took the plate back into the kitchen and yelled "who the **** cooked this steak?" I was impressed.

Not so much with the manager though. I ate the rice pilaf and veggies, and all the manager would do is take a lousy buck off the bill. Thanks for nothing, for crying out loud! However, my extroverted server was the one ringing the bill for payment, and when I told her the manager only gave a buck off, she was appalled (sp?) and gave me another 5 bucks off. That really impressed me. On a ticket that would have been about $20, the server walked away with more then what I actually paid for the ticket!

I'm a server at a nice restaurant currently, and I will tell you that it's danm infuriating when someone orders something medium well to medium. Or even medium rare to medium. What does that even mean? First of all, there is no standard for the whole temperature thing anyways throughout the industry--why try to confuse the cooks and servers even more my ordering it like that?

My advice--order it by how you want it to look in the middle. Say "I want my steak to be warm and pink with a thin strip of red in the middle." Fine, at my place thats Medium. 9/10 times, someone goes "I want my steak M to MW." I go "How do you want it to look?"

"Pink in the middle"

"Sir, thats how our MW looks"

"OK thats fine..."

Or whatever, something like that. Also, I always ask the guest to cut into the steak in front of me right when they get the food so they can see what it looks like and if it's wrong we can fix it. Also, if there is every ANY question, always under-order it, cause it's a lot less time consuming to fix. Better to be undercooked than over and have to start with a new steak.

But I would say 9/10 times it can be prevented. But when someone comes to me and says M to MW I think a) This person is an idiot who doesn't know what they are doing or b) This person eats at a lot of bad restaurants and doesn't know what they are doing.

Hope that helps.