[bughut]

Not a personal one, but i overheard my best friend in the ladies toilet telling someone how she was enjoying my hen night dinner ( I'd taken all my girlfreinds to a steakhouse in my home town.)

She was applauding the starter, but complaining bitterly that her peppered steak was "Far too peppery"

Just as well i was sitting down or id have pee'd myself laughing

That was 18 years ago... I've since discovered that one can ruin a peppered steak if the incendury powder is not separated from the ground pepper first.

If ur readin this Jan, sorry I took the p(*&*

[rat]

We had a lady recently return a salad because there was lettuce in it and a customer who was allergic to chocolate ice cream request chocolate sauce on her vanilla ice cream.

[oldschool1982]

Oh I remember a couple more......well maybe ridiculous requests more than complaints.......

Had a guest order a baked French onion soup.....no onions please.

I cooked an omelet for Gene Simmons once...back in 1993. I was at a place at Colony Square in Atlanta. He wanted all egg whites with a ton of veggies but absolutely no oil. Not even food release. Same with the hash browns. Took me 6 tries to get the dang thing out of the pan in a condition that even closely resembled an omelet. Finally I walked the omelet out to the table and explained to him what it took. He said he was ****ing with me and just wanted to see if there was a Chef that could get it done. He said I was the first and invited me to sit with him for a while. Made the effort entirely worth it!

[shroomgirl]

for what it's worth, 1979 in Memphis fine dining.....we had a butter bucket, that's were clarified butter came from.

And waiters would eat reminants off guest's plates.....unless the customer was a kid or aged, something about spitting on the food.

I've seen local STL resturants refire an underdone steak......this is even in the new millenium.

[Sultan]

This really wasn't a complaint, but I have to mention it because it was an absolute riot. One sunday night, I was forced to work the line because everyone called in sick. I work at a Sushi bar, and basically all the line cooks in the kitchen do is fry up tempura and make simple apps. When we do shrimp tempura, we use shelled Tiger shrimp, but with the head on. (we feel its more authentic that way.) Anyway an elderly couple about in their late 60's ordered the shrimp tempura. I prepared it and sent it out. Next thing I know the server comes back into the kitchen and tells me that a customer would like to see me. So i went into the dining room and asked the gentleman if he had a problem with anything. He said to me, "Sonny, this dish looks beautiful, but I cant eat anything that's looking back at me." His wife then replied, "that isn't what you said in the bedroom last night".

I hit the floor.

[eloki]

Customer writing on the comment card, that the 300g rare black angus Scotch Fillet he requested was the fattiest, and therefore worst quality steak he ever had....

[LBGChris]

When I was working for Chili's: a... large... guest pulled me aside and began to tell me there wasn't enough "brown sauce" at the bottom of her bowl (she was eating an awesome blossom, a deep fried large onion that is cut to resemble a flower). I looked at what she was pointing at and I said "Ma'am... that's grease." She gives me a blank stare and says "I don't care I want more to dip the onion in!" ....So, I went back to the kitchen and spooned some in a ramekin from the fryer, put it in the freezer for a second and brought it out to her and when I walked by again it was gone.

[Just Jim]

Originally Posted by LBGChris

When I was working for Chili's: a... large... guest pulled me aside and began to tell me there wasn't enough "brown sauce" at the bottom of her bowl (she was eating an awesome blossom, a deep fried large onion that is cut to resemble a flower). I looked at what she was pointing at and I said "Ma'am... that's grease." She gives me a blank stare and says "I don't care I want more to dip the onion in!" ....So, I went back to the kitchen and spooned some in a ramekin from the fryer, put it in the freezer for a second and brought it out to her and when I walked by again it was gone.

Reminds of the times when we would use the ends of bread loaves under our bacon and sausage for a breakfast buffet.
Occasionally this bread would disappear.
MMMM, grease soaked heels, yum yum.

Once, I had a waitress tell me that a customer wanted to speak with me.
When I got to the table this obviously overly intoxicated man told me that he ordered a porterhouse steak.
I looked at his plate, and there was a porterhouse on it, so I said "yes, it looks like you received what you ordered".
He angrily said that it wasn't a porterhouse.
His wife put her hand on his wrist, obviously trying to calm him (poor women, she looked like this happens often).
He said that he was a butcher for 30 years, and he knows what a porterhouse looks like, and this wasn't one, a porterhouse doesn't have a bone.
So, in my nicest manner, I said "well, I don't claim to know everything, but isn't a porterhouse from the same cut as the t-bone, with the strip loin on one side, and the tenderloin on the other, and as the tenderloin gets larger that's what determines if it's a proterhouse or a t-bone?"
He said yes.
So I said "well, excuse me, but if that's what it is, and it has no bone, what keeps the two cuts of meat together?"
He just stared at me.
I asked if there was anything else I could do for them, then promptly went back to the kitchen.

[RAS1187]

Shrimp Cocktail returned because it was cold

NY Strip, no mashed potatoes, sub extra steak (double slap on the forehead for the server that actually put the order through)

Various requests for "well done but no char"

Various situations that involved a guest not liking or being allergic to something that was clearly described and detailed on the menu.

I served a well done steak to a guest, and she saod "I don't want to hurt your feelings, but can I get some A-1 sauce?" I was thinking to myself "Too late, you already did when you asked for it well"

Request for a full rack of lamb to be cut into individual chops and grilled well done. Sent back because she wanted it charred. Sent the chops out charred and black all over. She loved them.

Request for a rack of lamb to be "extra well" done. Dish sent back because it was "overcooked".

I'll post more when I think of them.

[chrose]

Originally Posted by RAS1187

NY Strip, no mashed potatoes, sub extra steak (double slap on the forehead for the server that actually put the order through)

That's great! I'll have to remember that. Can you sub the fries for Lobster tails?

[amorthermador]

It is like people forget to read when they are out...and then they think it is okay to act like dummies!!

[Gunnar]

Originally Posted by chrose

That's great! I'll have to remember that. Can you sub the fries for Lobster tails?

did have a lady ask for our seafood louie (shrimp, dungeness crab and smoked salmon with the usual mixings) no lettuce or veges, sub seafood.

She did say she didn't care what it cost, so i did some quick math (menu price x2) and cheerfully served it. She paid, left a $10 tip and ate there for luch once a week and ordered the same thing untill the menu changed. Almost the one and only time where doing something off menu and charging appropiatley for it paid off.

[RAS1187]

Don't get me started on the people that split an entree, want each half of the protein at a different doneness, each wanting a different 1/2 order of veggies, starch, and sauce.

[Sultan]

Originally Posted by RAS1187

Don't get me started on the people that split an entree, want each half of the protein at a different doneness, each wanting a different 1/2 order of veggies, starch, and sauce.

This is why most restaurants charge a fee for splitting an entree because of cheapskate dumbasses like this. "Yes, we'd like to split a New York Sirloin; I'd like mine almost medium rare and my wife would like hers well done, but not too well done, but not too charred, but also not too burned. I'd like mine with a half order of steamed asparagus, and mashed potatoes, but I want the potatoes to be made with sour cream instead of butter, and my wife wants the mashed potatoes to be made with butter, but no sour cream and she wants her asparagus grilled with a little olive oil and lemon juice."

Yes, this really happens.

[Phaedrus]

One of the more annoying customer complaints I had came on a Chateaubriand. The customer wanted it well-done but not charred, for starters. The Chateaus we served were cut from a very large section of a pretty good sized tenderloin, so of course I groaned at the 1/2 hour it would take to cook it. I did cook it to his specified temp (and verified with my Thermopen) only to have him send it back as too well done. I advised the server I'd make him a new one but it would take another 1/2 hour. This time I sent it out MW and he loved it.

At the same place I had a server ring in an order for a med-rare 12 oz sirloin. She warned me that the lady told her she often sends the steak back a couple times because she's picky about her MR. I procede to cook it to the specified temp and send it out; predictably it's returned as not done enough. I cook it (yeah, the same steak) a bit more, same result. After about 4 times it's MW, verging on Well, and the customer is delighted. This demonstrates that the customer isn't always right, is sometimes an idiot, and also that she'd have better luck if she had even the faintest idea what temperatures mean before she just pulled one out of her ***.