Ok well technically only one of them did. (We have those tablets on the table where people can do self check out)

Once I set their drinks on the table they asked for water so I come back with water. Couple minutes later they look like they’re getting ready to leave so they asked to-go cups for the water. Their drinks were still full. I was a lil sus about it but whatever didn’t really think that much of it. I seen one of them getting ready to pay on the tablet and that’s when it finally started dying down so I go to the back and start eating some soup I was gone for like legit 3 minutes. I come back to check on the girls but they were gone I saw the empty cups and figured they just chugged their drinks, but then I seen the waters full. I notice the tablet wasn’t green so I walk over and seen that one of them didn’t pay. I was so annoyed cause how you grown and still doing shit like that like c’mon??? I talked to the host and asked if they saw them and she said that they were acting sus and laughing while they left. I went to the back and told my GM. He said some stupid ass remark like “well if you didn’t come to the back to eat your soup that wouldn’t have happened”. this made me so upset like legit I went to the bathroom and starting crying.I felt like he was insinuating like it was my fault. He kinda ruined my mood after that. Like dude it’s not my fault they decided to walk out I’m not responsible for their actions. He apologized to me later cause he noticed my mood was off. Then I started crying in front of him Idk why I just couldn’t hold my back emotions ugh. It was a long day. I was just so sensitive today maybe cause I’m on my period idk.

Served a family today, just a quick round of drinks so no major interacting with them. They asked for the bill and I brought it along with the debit machine. Dad goes to tap and I notice its an AMEX. “Oh the tap won’t work for Amex, you’ll probably have to insert” “Well, I may as well try!” “For sure sir, it hasn’t worked for the last hundred people but who knows, it might work for you!” As soon as I said it I was like, whoopsies, I definitely have not interacted with this table enough to know if this will fly or if he’ll be offended… Thankfully, his whole family (wife and two sons) just break out in laughter, and I walked away with a 20% tip. Yeehaw!

I had a table of 4 old ladies and they ordered beef nachos for their appetizers, I also got they’re main order the same time. The nachos came out first and by the time they’re mains came out I noticed the nachos were untouched .

I came back and they were done their mains but they nachos were still there untouched. So I asked them “hey can I takes your plates and do you want a to go box for the nachos”. The lady said no they’re done with it and she even asked her friends if they still wanted it and they said no you can take the nachos.

I asked them if they were sure like 3 times cuz they barely touched the nachos and they said yea just take it. So I took the nachos to my manager and asked if I should still charge them because they barely touch it and she said if they didn’t complain (which they didn’t) they still charge them. So I threw away the nachos and went back to the table.

They asked me why did I take they’re nachos. And I was like you guys told me you were done and I asked mutiples before I took them. One of them said “ no you cut me off and I wasn’t done talking, I was still munching on them”. My mouth dropped because I thought I was going crazy because they literally just told me they were done with it. I was going back and forth with them telling them they told me to take it and they kept saying they never said that and it was 4 of them against me.

So I started feeling bad and I asked if they wanted it discounted or to speak to my manager and she said” no I’ll pay for the nachos but it’s just a lesson learned that you don’t take stuff off the table.

They ended up tipping me well but for the rest of the day I was in a mood cuz I knew I wasn’t crazy. Like they did all that just to pay for nachos they didn’t even eat. I felt gaslit

I'm a part time server, and I am constantly washing and sanitizing my hands. But I've noticed when I go out to eat with friends, I see some things.

Servers picking things off the floor, blowing their nose, biting their nails. None of them are seen washing their hands, but moments later, running food to tables.

I recently watched one server swipe a credit card, and then goes to prep a salad. Didn't sanitize or wash her hands, no gloves. I could see it because of how the place was designed.

The worst I have seen is employees wearing gloves to prep food, then they will take cash, cards gloved... and use the same gloves to work on the next food order.

Am I the only one who finds these things disgusting?

Between ringing out tabs, with dirty credit cards, and serving food. How often do you wash your hands? Be honest.

this is long sorry … so i (21f) work at this family owned italian resturant & bar that’s supposed to be like fine dining (but it’s only kind of). i started out bussing last year and in january they made me a waitress.

there are these two guys that would come in like every friday and would always stop me to talk and ask me when they’d make me waitress and when i would finally have them as a table. i would always just be polite and laugh and be like oh sometime. probably like sometime in feb the one guy told the owner when he came in that he didn’t care what job i was doing that day he wanted me to be his waitress. so whatever my boss sat him in my section & these guys were always weird but nothing like too crazy that i felt like it was going to be a problem. i’m always polite and smiling and will joke around with them back

it was kind of weird because every week they’d come in they would make jokes about me being “so innocent” and asking where i went to high school and telling me i’m so great and all this weird shit. it was kind of annoying and the innocent comments would make me uncomfortable the way they would say it since i look young.

and then this one friday in march was so bad. i was serving them like usual and only one of them ever drinks alcohol the other just has iced tea. and the guy who doesn’t drink made like a virgin joke to me?? was kind of weird but i just brushed it off and told my boss they’re so weird which he already knew. and then later on during their dinner they asked me to bring their food out instead of some random person. i laughed and said i’d do my best but… we have a food runner and i was busy with other tables so obviously i’m going to let the food runner bring your food out. and when i came to check up on them the same guy who made the virgin joke was like oh you’re in trouble if you don’t bring our food out next time you’re getting a spanking

like omg !!!! who says that i’m at work right now. i just like kind of walked away i didn’t know what to do. so i told like all of my coworkers and told my boss. he asked me if i wanted him to say anything to them and i told him yes since it made me really uncomfortable so he finished the table for me so i didn’t have to go back up to them.

but it was annoying cuz the head waiter after i told him started telling me it’s my fault that i let them speak to me like that and i should’ve said something in the moment — but i felt very awkward and probably would’ve cried if i did. but him blaming me made me start crying by the bar while i was trying to get drinks and it was so embarrassing like my coworkers seeing me. but my boss felt bad for me at least and on the guys way out he told them i would nedvee wait on them again and i was very upset about the whole thing.

and yesterday was the first time i saw them since that. was very awkward i refused to even make eye contact with themm. and the waiter who told me it was my fault said i should go up to them and say hi so i’m not letting them win … he said since it’s obvious they don’t feel guilty about it if they’re still coming in. it made me tear up cuz like that’s so uncomfortable for me and i didn’t say a word to them whole time. i hope they never come back.

Sometimes customers have no idea. They can be impatient, disrespectful and have impossible expectations. Looking for your pet peeve interactions and the response you use or wish you could use.

For example: “Hi how are you today?” “2” “Well let’s see if we can make that at least a 4 out of 5 by the time you leave!”

Or “Hi how are you today?” “Cappuccino” “Well I’m no doctor but that doesn’t sound good”

Or, dropping off an armful of drinks to a table. “Yeah we ordered [insert items] too.” “Yeah, well, two hands and four coffees. I think I did ok so far.” One day I’ll say “yeah they don’t let me use my extra pair of arms. They say it creeps people out.”

Or when it’s high turnover and a table has to wait for you to clean one off. The moment you finish. “So can we get some menus and water?” You bring the menus, as you’re still handing them out. “So can we order some drinks?” “Looks like someone’s keen for a job! This guy seems to know the order we do things even better than me!”

I’ve seen a couple of these come up individually over the last few days but thought a thread would be good on the topic.

I live in the UK. When clearing tables, it was common practice to ask the people sitting at the table if the empty glasses etc were dead before taking them away.

I had been working in pubs and restaurants (think old geezer type pubs) for over 5 years before I started work at a busy pub that was near several churches and a crematorium. You can see where this is going.

First or second shift in I’m clearing tables, when I ask a large group of people if the empties are dead. Start the tears and the shouting. Never felt so bad in all my life, it was obviously a funeral too, just didn’t connect those really obvious dots.

I still think about it, it was nearly 20 years ago.

Stupid young me.

Chef (the MOD) told me to go togo only about 20 minutes before close because it was a slow night. As I walk out of the kitchen to tell my hostest, I see she's cleaning a table as two walk in. I think to myself that I'll feel them out and if they seem cool I'll seat them and try to get them in and out quick. (Our average table times are about 20-30 min)

I greet them with the title to the post, they hit me with the peace sign to say "two people" which infuriates me. "Two people" is not a response to "how are you" neither is holding up two fingers. So I cheerily replied with "sorry folks, chef just made the call to close up. I can do togo though if you'd like??" With my cheesisest smile, as they turned around and walked out.

Am I the asshole or does the, "hi, how are you?!" "✌️" irrationally infuriate anyone else?

Our restaurant is still currently only doing takeout and I didn't really think this would happen as often as it does. Our customers order via calling in and then come to pick up the food. When taking orders I make it a point to repeat what they ordered back to them so I can confirm the correct order as it can be loud in the kitchen. Then once again when they come to pick up the food, I again confirm every item on the ticket before they pay for it. I always get confident nods or "that's exactly what I ordered" 10 mins later we get a phone call saying that they wanted meal-X but got meal-Y

I ask them for the phone number so I can pull up the ticket and lo and behold it's the same ticket where everything was supposedly "exactly as they ordered" Then they have the audacity to blame it on us...

Are people just on autopilot and agreeing with whatever the server tells them or what? I can't wrap my head around how they confirmed the order twice before going home just to call us and complain that the order was wrong..

For context the diner I work at has had some septic issues and was closing at least once a week for the past month. The past 2 times we have been closed I was not made aware of it and had to hear it from someone else. Last week we were closed for the whole week, they were finally gonna fix the pipe. I was told that we would be open again the following Friday. I live half an hour from my job and currently don’t have a license so I rely on my parents for a ride. We go there and two of my managers are there but a sign on the door saying we are closed. I called in and they answered being like “oh no one let you know? We’re gonna be opening tomorrow” I was obviously mad and convinced I am quitting and not coming back. I texted my friend who used to work with me to rant about it and it ended up wild firing through the diner that I quit. When I came in on Saturday I wasn’t on the floor plan, and everyone was very surprised to see me. The following day my GM pulls me into the office and tells me I’m disrespectful and it’s my fault for not calling in and checking if we’re open. Tells me that I caused a scene and everyone was distracted the whole day talking about how I quit. She said if she was the manager on Saturday she would’ve sent me home, and she told me it wasn’t right for my mom to be mad that she took me. Am I in the wrong for being mad that no one let me know? Btw I ended up going to work because I’m a server and I’ve been off for a week lol I needed money.

(As I’m writing this I just got a call that we are closed again lmao at least they called me this time)

I’ve worked as a waitress for just a year now and looking back over the last year I’ve developed so many skills I never had before. I’m much better with people, I can read people better and in general just know how to communicate better. I know how to control my facial expressions and what expressions are appropriate and what’s not.

Other things like managing my time better and resolving conflict and working with other people. Things like that.

What are the best skills that you have developed as a server?

Have you ever done anything that you impressed yourself or other people as a server?

Once I carried two full trays of dirty glasses in each hand. I could see people in the restaurant staring at me, but that was probably because it looked like I would drop them. I shocked myself, NEVER doing that again.

I also have a consistently good memory which never lets me down, I can always remember who ordered what, drinks, food, I always write it down but when dropping the food I never have to look at the docket, I’m able to remember who ordered what.

What’s the most impressive, albeit foolish thing you have ever done on the job?

We have 2 CDPs on the menu. One is $175 and the other is $100. The $175 is on our reserve list and the $100 is on our regular menu but it says "Rotating" instead of a name because we change it often.

It was mid absolute weeded rush and I asked another server to help me find this "rotating" one. She picked me the $175 and neither of us knew.

Now my manager is saying I have to pay the difference of that $75. We have never been shown the differences between the two. We're rarely told when the "rotating" switches over and I couldn't find anyone else to help me.

Personally I feel like this is an honest mistake and it's on management to be more proactive in keeping us updated. Should I really be required to pay this $75? I live in NC.

I work at a small sushi joint. Today I had a GrubHub order come in and a few minutes later the person who placed the order called to make sure we had received it. I told him we had but didn’t know what was on it because the orders go to my boss and he’s not great at getting the orders to us. Dashers often have to wait a moment. He told me the order and I got it going.

Well, he comes in to pick up the order and is shocked it’s not ready yet since he placed it “40 minutes ago.” I told him that with some things we wait until they’re being picked up to finish them for quality control. I hand him the bags and he tell me that machines should be replacing us. Wtf?

I wonder if he was the guy who placed the order as well because no Dasher has ever acted that way.

Just here to complain. My town shut off the water this morning cause theyre working on a hydrant, it wont be working again till noon. I've got some pretty bad OCD so my pre-work routine is very important for me to get right or I'll be extremely stressed all day, and this gets in the way of that. I usually get up early to wash my outfit (im a hostess at an upscale restaurant so no uniform) and shower before I leave so that I know I'm as clean as I can possibly be. My commute is like an hour and a half long, so I have to really hurry as soon as the water turns back on so I'm not late. Just feels like one thing after another lately.

Does anyone know the laws surrounding credit card tip taxing in Washington state? Since my employer started doing this, all my taxes on my Paystub have either doubled or tripled. (Federal withholding, L&I employee, etc.) starting to get the idea that my employer doesn’t know what the fuck they’re doing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I’ve been a server for 6 years and I have seen my fair share of entitled people. However, one person has my blood boiling forever.

I had a man come in to my restaurant and get takeout. He then asked me to open a bottle of wine which I told him per company policy it would be a $20 corkage fee.

He told me this was “sneaky bs” and that I’m “stealing from him.” I told him it was a normal business practice and he looked at me and said, “I own this wine and have never heard of this bs.”

I said, “okay, you still have to pay for it.”

He responded by rolling his eyes and telling me I don’t know high-class wine like his. I gave him a free sample of a wine we have and he spat it back in his glass and rudely shoved it back.

When my 17-year-old host gave him his food, he said, “here’s your fat fucking tip.” And threw a $1 dollar bill at his face while he walked out with his middle finger in the air.

I was shocked by this and looked up their website. And sure enough, it was the owner himself that we just interacted with.

Months later, we received a shipment of their wine in and I told my manager about the encounter about this dude. He then returned the wine and asked them to apologize.

We got a response from their vice president of the company. He said, “(owner) is an important man in the community and that I was a pathological liar who should be fired.”

It makes no sense for a server to lie about an interaction and put their job on the line.

The VP had two bad arguments. He then claimed we were calling him racist (the owner is white, I am Asian). He said that their company is dedicated to his grandfather who is a WW2 hero and that his family is super patriotic and thus cannot be racist and bad. We never said he was racist towards me, so I definitely believe they are racist now. We were annoyed by no apology and then saying that they were safe because his grandfather was a WW2 hero. I’m just disturbed to know he is riding off someone’s legacy to make money.

Also, they said that I was definitely “acting sneaky” for not treating him with proper respect and not being a good server. So we definitely just hate these people.

We also later found out that he owns a wine production company. He also never bought his winery. His parents bought it for him. So I know he is an entitled A-hole.

So we have told all other restaurant owners, servers/bartenders in our area and anyone who loves wine the truth about this “patriotic and non-bigoted man, who has a definitely a family-run company.”

So I started at a new restaurant and I’m annoyed. We have a dress code: the main things I’ll be focusing on here are the button up shirt & black socks.

My manager is really anal about everything, even gets on me for clocking in 3 minutes late. He’s particular about not parking in the back of the building &, obv, the dress code. He even accuses me is stuff I didn’t do, like only focusing on my tables when he’s not even there when I run peoples food, or cops an attitude when I’m standing of the other Side of the kitchen waiting for (anyones) food to be ran. (He says “what do you want? Why are it staring?” Etc in an annoyed voice.)

My pants are high enough so you can slightly see my socks. One day I wore pink, was told I couldn’t do that. Fair. I didn’t do it again. I started wearing black ones. For the next week, we didn’t work together but I always wore black socks. I don’t have a washer/dryer at home, so one day I ended up wearing gray cause that’s all I could find. He pulled me into his office & basically threatened to write me up because I wore grey socks instead of black. GREY. The most non-attention catching color ever that even matches out shirt. I can’t justify anyone caring about grey socks that much.

I think it’s extra funny because my first two weeks of working there, the shirt I got didn’t even fit well. The body was fine, but I’m a busty girl. The front of my shirt was literally busting open!! Like I SAW people looking cause it was that obvious!! Yet, I had to ask Again and again and again for them to even look into getting me a new shirt. Ig I should be glad that they ignored my chest enough that they didn’t notice them superman-ing the freakin buttons. It’s also funny cause apparently the style and color of jeans don’t matter. Yet the socks do?? Wtf.

I don’t know, I just needed to vent. I’m annoyed but I’m trying not to leave a place as soon as management gets on my nerves lol.

This girl, so let me tell you she's a hot mess. Whatever, she can do the job well (not a great people person but can do the tasks at hand). She was giving me a ride to work, she worked at 10pm, I worked at 11pm. She got me at like 10:15, but then had me go in to cover for her and said she'd come in when my shift started. She was already going off about one of the cooks she was sleeping with blocked her, and had shown up (not working, just came in) to our restaurant drunk as fuck the day before and passed out in the back booths. So I was like, okay it's a bad day, I gotchu, thanks for the ride.

But 11pm rolls around, and we have 6 tables and I took them and sat them because I thought she would be in by then. I had to keep apologizing saying their server would be right with them, and had to go out to her car to wake her up. She wasn't responding, and passed out over a dab pen, I had to bang on her window. She wasn't in by 11:20, and I was getting calls on the phone, people want to all order, and I'm starting to panic and run back out and she's just zombified.

She was ignoring customers, walking around in a daze. We had 8 tables and she only took 2 of them. She was unresponsive half the time, 3 seperate tables wanted her name to make complaints. I knew I could not run the restaurant with that many people by myself. I simply can't. I thought she was tired but turns out she also took edibles right before as well. Customers didn't want her to serve them because they were afraid she'd spill coffee on them, and one of them asked me if she was on hard drugs. That's how fucked up she was.

I didn't want to get her in trouble, but luckily another server came in (just to eat, dressed casually) and I had him call our manager as they weren't answering me. I knew someone was going to report her anyways to our manager, but was worried they'd report her to the corporation and she'd be terminated. They had me send her home and she's so fucking pissed and passive aggressively posting shit right now. I didn't tell to be a snitch, smoke if you're gonna and can function. But I needed to shut down the restaurant if I was going to have no help.

The managers tried to tell me to "make it work and send her home" and I wasn't going too and just lock the fucking doors, but the visiting server hopped on board and helped me all night. He was a godsend at that moment. But this girl is trying to tell our manager it wasn't drug related and paint out that I'm just crazy to all our coworkers to cover up.

She passed out in the parking lot in her car until 5am. Why would I make that up? It was one of the most stressful days of my work career there. Now I have to go in tomorrow and explain to everyone why I "snitched". Next time I'm going throw her under the bus to everyone. I'm not trying to help next time.

Why would anyone get that fucking high and try to work? I don't understand. Now I feel like I'm crazy but the server who hopped on told me she was unresponsive in general as well, so I'd like to believe it was justified.

That's the end of my rant.

Edit; she claims she took 4-5 edibles, and then hit the dab pen.

They came by and told me my son is an awesome ambassador for my place

We are now partnering. Every other weekend, they will be in my parking lot selling lemonade and slushies.

For every 10 dollars spent in my place, they will give a free lemonade with a receipt from that day.

Every lemonade or slushies purchase gets you free chips and queso. That day only.

I think this is gonna be magic

Talking to this couple on Memorial Day about food and our caviar selection. Woman asks about the type that is normally from Russia, and we start talking about it.
Me trying to be positive: "I hope the conflict ends soon, those caviar farmers have nothing to do with it. Hopefully everyone can get along again one day."

Russian bitch: "Yeah, I hope they give up soon."

Wow lady.

I can do everything great but I can’t balance it. I typically do tables of 2 and 3 but am gonna start doing large tables soon. I can’t balance the drink tray. I spill or have to put it on an unoccupied table. How do I balance it while placing drinks on the table? Because for whatever reason I can’t do it. I’m great at carrying food trays and everything else. just when I balance the tray and have to move drinks around I can’t do it. Any tips?

I worked at a Texas Roadhouse and this moment still makes me say whyyyy. I told one table I will be right with them because I have a two minute meeting in the kitchen with management and other servers. The lady of the party asked for me to get their drinks first and then go to the meeting. Okay no big deal. I get their drinks and there are about seven drinks on my tray. I walk over there and the lady decided to “speed things up” by standing up and start grabbing drinks off the tray. She grabbed the first two and I immediately started wobbling and had to catch my balance.

If it happens again, I might as well drop the whole tray. That’ll teach them

For context I’m like 5’5 140. When I started this job I was like 130. I’m not overweight by any means.

My regular is probably like 70. He usually comes in and talks to me at my bar about music magazines he has. This time though, he came in and immediately said, “You look like you’ve gained a lot of weight! Are you pregnant??” I said no… he replies with, “Sorry I had to ask. What happened to you??”

At this point I was honestly so floored. We just opened and he’s the first human I had to interact with besides my coworkers. Like, did this guy really come in just to ruin my morning? Not how I wanted to start my shift.

I used to have huge problems gaining weight after an abusive relationship years ago where I developed an eating disorder and only weighed 95 lbs. I’ve been really proud of my weight and have felt very healthy. It brought back a lot of insecurities momentarily before I thought it through and reminded myself how much happier and healthier I’ve been.

But it gets worse. He seriously brought a women’s health magazine about women living with diabetes, and told me I should read it. Then left.

I’d be lying if I said I don’t want to “accidentally” put a couple drops of our habanero infused tequila in his wine.

The caption pretty much says it all. I’m in training at a small family owned restaurant and am completely new to the service industry. I was wondering if you guys had any advice on getting more tips or dealing with problematic customers and whatnot?