Idiotic orders...

I once got an order for an omelette, hold the eggs.

a lady also once ordered a filet mignon, medium. She then sent it back and ordered a steak black and blue. ??!?!?!?!!


how about a hollandaise without butter???

also, mashed potatoes w/o butter or salt. Puh, who's got 30 minutes to make that a la minute???


Btw, I think of this thread as pure entertainment, not complaining! :lol:

Psychotic customers provide the most fun. :crazy: But why is it that they are always somehow seated together? and why do they always come back???

This just in.

This happened a few days ago. We make a lot of different soups every day, and usually have at least 4 that are vegetarian some of those being strict vegan. We had a customer last week order a bowl of the vegetable beef with out the beef in it. They didn't want to hear about the other soups. So we did it and they ate it, (no thought of the beef stock) and enjoyed it. Before they left the server asked them how they liked everything. They replied that the food was good but they had to "edit the soup" to get it to be vegetarian. The server spoke up and mentioned about the 4 vegetarian soups on the menu and the customer replied "that they did'nt SOUND vegetarian enough to order"...:lol:

The one that leaps to mind is the Caesar Salad, no anchovies. How does one remove anchovies that are mashed into the dressing?

oh it never ends

How about the orders from cheap people? I once got an appetizer order of mixed green salad split 4 ways. Or people who ask for their food with all the garnishes and sauces on seperate plates? We once had some kosher folks who refused to use the silverware, they actually demanded brand new silverware. They ended up using plastic spoons and forks for an $85 prix-fixe menu with white tablecloths on the tables.... Why do these people not eat at home?

Uh oh, now I'm complaining, I'll stop now. Cheers!!!:)

We once had a guy order a beef tenderlion well done:confused: . Sent it out to him fairly well done. Then the waitress brings it back and says it's not cooked enough. We put it back on the grill. Char the **** out of it! send it back out. Flipping thing comes back again same thing! This time we put it the deep fryer and leave in there for a couple of minutes! Send it back out and the guy LOVES it!!! At the end of his meal his only complait was that his steak "seemed a little on the small side." Yeah, go figure dude????

True story...

"Can I get my chicken medium, please?"


Ummm... Okay! Sure! Whatever you want!! By the way.... the bathroom is over in the corner!

All this makes you wonder if people really think about what they are saying before they say it? Jim the one about the chicken is a riot! Hope you included map instructions to the nearest emergency room with it. Unreal.

Rgds Rook

Chocolate shake, hold the ice cream...I'm on a diet!

Hahahaha The french onion, no onion! I have had that as well. In miami I was doing a special function, the rest. had been rented out. We had foie gras tart and 4 out of 30 were ordered with no crust...no biggie, just pulled it off. Next thing we know 3 more, no egg.....1 they want the foie ON THE SIDE!!!! The kicker is that these people were in the FRA (florida restaurant association)!!! Not chefs I presume but they ALL want to feel special. "Your way, right away" not the right restaurant, that one is down the street a**hole!! :lol:

We also had a women, her name was Radar!! ha Now, I' m a pretty open-minded guy. I've seen a lot of weird stuff, some of which I was involved. This woman (around 40) would bring in her beanie baby reindeer and set it on the table to her side (with a place setting). She would talk to it and feed it!! OUT LOUD!! This wasn't a blue plate diner, people were dropping about $3-400 per head without alcohol. She ate there about 2-3 times a week. She also had her head shaved clean with just a tuft of hair up front. She provided tons of entertainment for us.

As weird as it sounds I miss that type of stuff! :crazy:

Good luck to everyone during the holidays!

I'm sure there had to be more but the only one that comes to mind is the person who ordered a steak "Pittsburgh style" but they wanted it medium well :confused: :mad: I told the waitress that if they didn't know what they were ordering, I didn't know how to make it!:crazy: Boob!

This doesn't have anything to do with idiotic orders but happened to me a couple of nights ago.
We were taken to an Ethiopian Restaurant the other night. I've eaten this cuisine before so I kind of knew the routine.Well we had a few cocktails and it came to having the dishes explained and so forth. This is the point where I'm sure our server went home that night and classified me as the idiot of the night.
I was so intent on the explainations that I dipped my hands in to the water to wash my hands and I heard an :eek: from our server. It was a little dark so instead of using the cloth drapped from her waist I proceeded to grab her skirt and dry my hands thouroughly.

Pan did they throw you out?

Rgds Rook

One place where I worked we used to have a woman come in on a regular basis and order fried chicken, pick out all the blood veins.(!?) We never did (couldn't) and she never complained that I know of, but she'd always order it that way. My biggest pet peeve is people who complain their steak isn't done right, but they ordered it wrong because they don't really know the difference between medium rare and medium. I'd love to work in one of those places where the customers pick out their steak and cook it themselves. One of the first places like that was in Santa Barbara. My sister liverd there and couldn't wait to call me and tell me when it opened. I thought that was the best idea I'd ever heard.

When I first moved to Alaska there was a restaurant like that. It was closed due to fire!:eek: :D No kidding!

Oh Pan :lol: . Good going, dude!

I have one myself. David and I went to a new, newborhood Italian restaurant some years ago during a period when I was placed on a very low sodium diet. We like to order specials, since we figure that's usually what's fresh and getting the most attention in the kitchen that night. So there was some sort of pasta served with bottarga. It didn't even occur to me to ask what it was. I just smiled at the waiter and asked that the pasta with bottarga be kept as low sodium as possible. He just kind of stared at me and said "bottarga?" I smiled my most charmingly and said, "yes, please." He shrugged. When he brought my plate I was blown, I mean BLOWN away by the amount of salt. Couldn't eat it even if I weren't on a special diet. For those, like me, who are clueless, bottarga is roe from tuna, grey mullet or swordfish, cured in, yep, MORE SALT. Yeah, I bet the chef thought I was a real prize. :crazy:

I've been requested to butterfly a hamburger... of course since theres no way to maintain the integrity of the burger, I had to deny the request.

A woman ordered a rack of lamb, not just well done, but EXTRA WELL. After thoroughly ruining a good lamb rack *i cried*, I continued to cook it beyond well to what my idea of what extra well would be. The woman sent back the dish, insisting it was overcooked.

Bread pudding with no bananas or raisins. (Premade at beginning of day)

New York Strip, no mashed potatoes, extra steak... no dice with me on this one.

10 People order 5 burgers split for 2

1 Chicken quesadilla to be divided for 10 people... each piece was very small and falling apart

*Back in my fast food days...* "What is the difference between the medium milkshake and the small one? Why does it cost more???"

How could I have forgotten the chopped salad orders??!?!?!? Biggest nightmare to prep to begin with, it sells better than crack, and people LOVE to mess around with that plate.

The worst orders are "chopped salad, extra chopped." Everything is already less than 1/2 inch in diameters, the romaine is julienned, so the end product is always a pile of mush. But they love it. Go figure, some people I think just like to see if they can get what they want. My friend once put the salad in the robocoup b.c she was so fed up with it. It was pretty hilarious...until the sous-chef told her to start over.

These are the best laugh of the day. :D

Years ago when I was doing antipastos, we had a couple come in several times, pretty good customers overall. The woman was a model, so yup, please rinse all the oil off of EVERYTHING. Of course I did it, but . . . :rolleyes:

Until his death, my father would often tell the story of the rather insistent woman (rhymes with "witch") who sent back three consecutive hot fudge sundaes because the fudge was melting her ice cream.

As my teenaged son says, "stupid should be painful."

head like a football!!??

Try this one for size, i once had a man who new he was dangerously allergic to seafood but was a huge fan of it so once in a while he would order it just to make sure he was still allergic!! He came in and ordered a huge grilled seafood platter with the works and proceeded to scoff it down while my waiter watched, sure enough within a minute his head had swollen up like a football :eek: and he was giving himself a dose of adrenalin he had in his pocket!! He knew it was going to be a close call but he just couldn't resist!!
I forgot to mention my restaruant is in Outback Australia and the closest hospital would have been a 2 hour drive away!
But the customer is always right i guess!!:lol:

Jeez, and I thought that *I* was difficult...
Thanks for the yuks, gang!! :lol:

My two cents?

I think most cooks tend to forget where the customer stands. And, more so, that it is JUST that customer that is paying our wages. We often forget that we know much...and they know simply what they want.
Do you ever recall tackling that first onion soup, and having a strand of hot onion flop off the spoon only to burn your lip? But the soup tasted so good, right?
So no onions please!

Sure, the requests may seem idiotic, but that is only because we have seen so many orders pass by. (And they'll keep coming, rest assured) Never turn it around to make the customer at fault, simply because you know better. After all it is his buck. Whether it be burgers or Wellington...make it what they want. Dispite your opinion. Otherwise....move on.

Al

Al Dente,
I don't think anyone here is disputing the fact that the customers don't pay for the food or wages. I think we are just letting off a little steam in a healthy manner. I read these posts with a sense of humor, there's no anger involved.

The fact of the matter is, the customer is not always right. If it is within my power to give the customer whatever they want, then I am perfectly happy to do it. Even if it means leaving the restaurant, getting into a cab, and driving multiple blocks to another property to get certain ingredients. I have done this. This is the hospitality industry afterall.

But there ARE customers who completely abuse the fact that they are being served. They abuse waitstaff and cooks indirectly alike. We are not cattle, we are human beings and deserve to be treated so. I know for a fact that some customers make trouble on purpose just to test the waters based on experience. Some people just complain to get compensation, like that free glass of wine, or that extra course. The worst sort of customer is the one who doesn't tip, especially after all of their requests are fulfilled.

I don't know anyone in any job position, in any industry, that doesn't have one single complaint about what they do. If you know someone who is 100% happy with their job, then I'll happily shake their hand. But if it disturbs you to read this thread, then it is your freedom of choice not to do so.

Best Wishes,
Entropy

i love it when a waitress comes into the kitchen with a huge smile on her face and says, " can you cook the tuna well done in the sushi?" . ummm let me think about that one, NO.

Exactly... just keeping it light. No harm, no foul (no fowl)!

I've worked for chefs who refused to make any substitutions on dishes. Flat out refused, actually would go out to the table and tell the customers that the dish is designed a certain way, and he's not changing it. And I even did a stage in an Italian restaurant, where the chef (also the owner) sent out a round of free drinks to a table, then went out, talked to them, and told them to never set foot in his restaurant again (easy to do though when the restaurant is packed night after night, year after year).

A business owner has the right to refuse service for any reason they choose. And a chef certainly has the right to refuse to change their food. Now, there are consequences to this (customer not coming back, losing money, etc...), but it's well within our rights to refuse to cater to every dumb request that comes along.

A good story. Customer comes in, requests a substitution on his dish. Says he doesn't like the side dish. So we substitute something for him, but send the side dish out for him anyway, request that he try it. He tries it, ends up loving it, and cleans his plate. Another converted customer :)

I once workedinanall you can eat BBQ joint.Onemother's day I saw a woman eat 9 chickens, 18 halves. I swear she was waiving chicken bones at me!I am a stickler formanners...I don't care what you do at home but waiving chicken bones and yelling at me while chicken grissle flys out of your mouth is where I draw the line. Gross.

I always notice the waitresses try to sweet up to me whenever they have an unusually peculiar order.

One of my favorite requests was a butterflied Porterhouse steak. Uhh, yeah. I'll get RIGHT ON IT!

Another was to remove the garlic from the pasta sauce. Sure... uhuh. That'll happen.

Ciao,

Likewise with the garlic... I've actually been asked about removing the tomatoes from pasta sauce.....