35 Restaurant Workers Share Their Most Memorable And Weird Customer Requests

we were opening a new bar in a popular area of a large east coast city. i was on staff for a soft open for food bloggers, columnists, and prominent yelp review writers. if anyone has worked one of these events before, you know how entitled and pushy the guests are going to be. everyone thinks that they are the most important person in the room and it is your job to just kiss ass and deliver the food and drinks (side note, these events are usually free as they are invitation only). tipping really sucks at these usually and they put the best staff on because we know the situation but will do a good job in spite of the lack of money to be made. our manager always made sure that there was plenty of food and drinks for staff after these parties because of the small amount of money we earned. the lady who coordinated the event was a food blogger who also had a style and travel blog. she was wearing red bottoms. at one point she stepped in a canape and sat down in a bar stool (higher than the rest of the seats in the restaurant) and shoved her foot in my face insisting that it was my job to clean off her shoe. it took all my strength to get a napkin and tell her "you have two hands, do it yourself." i immediately ran back to my manager, she was going to complain, and told him what happened. he told me that i should have told her to "f**k off." damn i miss that dude!

It wasn't so much the order that was disturbing, but the post order request. He asked me to chew up the food and put it back onto his plate. No medical reason. No missing teeth. Not old. Just creepy. He got very upset when I declined.

A Mom and young son (maybe 8?) came in to the restaurant I waited tables at for lunch. The Mom asked her son what he wanted to eat, and he replied with “ranch.”

I politely asked if he meant, like, a salad with ranch? Or French fries with a side of ranch?

The Mom looked at me, rolled her eyes in embarrassment, and clarified—he wanted a soup bowl full of ranch dressing...

I walked into the kitchen and discussed with my manager, because I had no idea how to enter that into our POS system. My manager and I came to the conclusion that we should charge her for an entire bottle of ranch, so she paid $10.99 for a soup bowl full of ranch dressing.

(Yuck)

> Oysters!

I explained we are a burger joint, no oysters. He takes off his coat, talks to his date, then stares at me for a second.

> Oysters!

I explain again, no oysters.

> Two dozen! Oysters!

After a third and fourth time where he barks an order at me, then acts all busy so he 'can't hear' my response, I stop and stare at him. He asks again, I just stare, he asks again, I just stare. He finally makes eye contact with me. "Sir, we are a burger joint, no oysters." He is finally forced to acknowledge me.

> So go get some!

We were in a casino, we were the only restaurant open at 2AM, he knew this but expected me to run around to some closed restaurant and grab raw shellfish them just happen to be hosting during closed hours.

Vegan Chicken tacos

Virgin martini

Wanting to buy the docket spike off the bar

"The shots are free because we live across the street!"

A new server because "We don't want to be served by a guy."

Non Mexican Tequila

"Stir the drink with your d**k."

Asking to use money from the tip jar to pay their bill that they don't have enough for

Not looking at the menu and ordering something that the restaurant doesn't have

Making up their own specials I.E. Choose day Tuesday, 'choose 2 things on the check that are free'

"This 50 is counterfeit can I trade you for a real one?"

Their friend used to work here 2 years ago so they want the staff discount

The list goes on and on.

I used to work in a sub shop that had delivery. A woman called asking if the driver could pick her up a pack of cigarettes and baby forumla when he was bringing her her food... this woman kept claiming she knew the owner (who was not present at the restaurant) and that he told her beforehand that it could be done. It was busy and I didn't have time to fight with her so I asked the delivery driver if he could do that for her and he did. Not really a big deal I guess, just a little ridiculous to ask a delivery driver.

Also - asked the owner if he knew the woman... he does not know her personally but just knows her from being a crazy customer who orders frequently.

I used to wait tables at a vegan-friendly restaurant for a couple years. The staff were all very accustomed to dealing with particular dietary needs and habits, not just vegans, but lactose-free, gluten-free, and all manner of allergies. This meant we'd get all kinds of substitutions or questions about ingredients. That was part of the charm of the place (and frankly, maybe just about the only charm of the place) and had a small but loyal customer base. When it comes to particular food orders, there was one guy who was on another level. "Luke"

"Luke" was probably in his late 60s, single, polite, patient, very quiet, and overall just a little bit strange. He'd order an absurd amount of food every time he came in. A normal bill for a single entree, fresh juice, and either a small appetizer or dessert would probably run $25-30. Luke would run up bills between $80-$110. He rarely tipped more than 4 or 5 dollars, but that's not what made him a chore to deal with. It was his otherworldly appetite.

We had a veggie juicer, and most people would order something like "carrot, ginger, orange", or "beet, cucumber, apple". Luke would order things like a "6oz ginger", or "8oz beet, garlic" and order two or three juices per meal. You could order a side of mixed veggies cooked however you wanted. Luke once ordered a plate of sautéed garlic. He'd order a cup of every soup we had available that day. The variety of house salads were some of the main sellers, and Luke would pick and choose and mix and match ingredients into bizarre custom creations (which was maybe one of his least strange habits, though it was tedious). He'd order an entire vegan, gluten-free cheesecake (though he had no dietary restrictions as far as I know). The cheesecake alone was maybe 14 or 16 inches in diameter and even with a discount cost him about $90. Luke would order the veggie pizza with no sauce. He'd order the coconut-chocolate malt, but ask for us to add spirulina to it (we had it on-hand as a garnish for the strawberry smoothie, but not as a main ingredient). He'd order a side of peanut butter for his eggplant parmesan. He'd order the curry nachos with slices of toast instead of tortilla chips. The man was deranged.

He'd order in waves. Start off with a couple soups and a juice or two. Later on he'd order maybe a salad and an entree (or just more soup). He'd get a fruit smoothie and an appetizer or a la carte side. Then he'd ask about what desserts were available, maybe get some more soup and one last juice. You'd never know how much longer he was planning on staying. It was impossible to predict what he would want next. Then, as soon as he decided he had enough, he'd wave you down (no matter what you were doing) and ask for his bill.

I had a lady buy one of our lamps, she was from London and loved our old style, I'm pretty sure the lamp just kinda came with the building

My boss didn't care and let me deal with it, I sold it for 16 pound and the next day got its twin out of storage to replace it

I really don't care about what weird food things people order, but if you're buying the furniture I'll pay attention

I bartended all through college at this bayside bar in Ocean City, MD.

Every Tuesday, we had “Senior Deck Party,” where we’d set up a free buffet with all the mushy foods you can think of. The seniors would come through, grab a couple happy hour drinks, gorge on potato salad, and head out.

There was this one lady named Rose that would come, take up 2 seats at the bar (one for her and one for her purse) and sit there all day, demanding the following:

A ginger ale in a highball glass with 2 orange slices, one lime slice, a lemon slice, 3 cherries, and 2 straws.

She never touched the fruit, it was only a status thing, and I was supposed to fill up her ginger ale every time it got to half a glass to restore carbonation.

Any bartender will tell you, fruit is a precious commodity. This routine caused me extreme mental anguish.

I should also add, SHE NEVER TIPPED.

I was trying to really set a scene and write this story out but it just doesn't make any sense so a brief summary will do. A girl ordered tacos that had onions on them. After a short misunderstanding about the components of pico de gallo the girl stated that she simply didn't want onions on her tacos. I offered to get her a new order, to which she responded "just take it to the back and take them off". Easy enough, I walked to the back and removed the onions. When I brought them back she thanked me and tipped me $5.

Now why she couldn't do this herself? or what benefit there was to losing $5 I will never know, but she was polite about it so there's that.

Worked at McDonalds, customer asked for weed

I play piano at a bar, so I've never had to make or serve customer's drinks. But some guy once left a two star review. Not because the food and drinks were bad (I can vouch for the fact that the food is amazing), but because he thought the servers weren't pretty enough.

Someone I know had an older man offer her $50 to "pop her cherry".

I had a customer ask what region the lobster was from in our lobster bisque, because he was allergic to shellfish but only from a certain ocean. All I could think as we had to call the head chef at home to ask about lobster source regions was that maybe the guy could...not eat the bisque.

When I worked for a steakhouse, I had a customer ask me to shout “Yeehaw!” every time I delivered something to his table.

I haven't waited tables in about 10 years now but I'll never forget the guy who asked for his steak "dry." When I pressed him for what he wanted explicitly he explained that he wanted "no juice" to come out when he was eating it. I told him it would take about 30 minutes to cook his steak that done, he said that was fine and off I went. Our steaks were pretty miserable portions in the first place, and the cut he ordered was the smallest one on the menu, so when I returned with his tiny little 6 oz flat iron that had been absolutely desiccated on the grill he looked understandably disappointed. He took a few bites of it and decided "it wasn't very good," which was underselling how bad it looked and almost certainly how bad it tasted.