Some people need to learn how to respect those who wait on them.
Don’t Treat A Pregnant Woman Like That!
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“We had a pregnant waitress who was big. While pouring a refill of water, she accidentally bumped off one of the drinks onto the guest. The guy stood up, called her a dumb jezebel, and dumped his plate of steak onto the floor on her feet and walked out.
She just stood there and cried, and the rest of the table just ignored her until fellow waiters came and led her away.
This was in a fancy restaurant in Washington, D.C.”
Paramedics Showed Up
“I worked at a 4-star restaurant during college as a receptionist. An old guy came in and started cracking jokes with me while they were waiting for their table. I said something along the lines of: ‘I see you’re in a great mood, is there an occasion?’
He laughs and says that he’s treating the wife to a nice lunch to celebrate the fact he’s still alive. The wife just rolls her eyes. Since he seemed like a great guest, I made sure to take them to the table of a waiter who was always sweet.
The old guy just starts cracking jokes with everyone – other guests, the busboys, etc. Halfway through his meal, he just slouched over. Heart attack.
The waiter tried to revive him. Paramedics came and took him and his sobbing wife away. She came back a week later to pay the bill. We didn’t accept the money.”
He Sued Them Over A Pot Of Coffee?
“My mom is a server.
A guy came in with his wife and asked for some coffee, and specifically insisted he pour his own coffee. It’s customary for the server to pour your coffee into your first cup. My mom went to check on another table and as she glanced back at the man and his wife, she saw him unscrewing the lid of the coffee pot. She goes to ask if everything is ok; she assumed something was wrong with the coffee since she saw him unscrew the pot. He said everything was fine, then began to pour his coffee into the mug that he loosened himself, and dumped boiling coffee all over himself. She apologized profusely, and offered to help him clean up while he told her to ‘get off’ and he’ll clean it himself. Not only did he file a complaint about her, but he sued the restaurant for a few thousand dollars and won. Turns out, he does that for a living.”
He Made The Waitress Cry!
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“I was in a BBQ restaurant once with my girlfriend and some friends. The hostess lead us to our seats and we sat down. First time there.
We were happy, talking away, reading the menu, having a good time. The place was packed, there was good background music, and it had a homey vibe.
There was a fat redneck in a camouflage hat sitting at the table next to ours. He had a guest with him. The waitress brought over their food. I don’t know why, but the dude yelled at her: ‘This is NONSENSE!’ or something and then threw all his food and drinks on the floor in obnoxious anger. The restaurant went quiet and you could hear a gasp or two. She stood there paralyzed with shock; he stood up and stormed out with his guest. The waitress started crying. I wanted to stand up and chase the dude down, but by the time I got the motivation, I heard the tires screeching on his F-150 and he was out of there.
The waitress was crying, in a crowded busy restaurant. She was doing her best to hold back tears and not feel ashamed. The busboy quickly ran over, said it was okay and started cleaning up. Some customers tried to help too.
The ambient noise of people and business crept slowly back in and the scene normalized.
Afterwards, she took our order. We were like: ‘Miss, don’t worry about that guy, he’s a jerk,’ trying to cheer her up as she took our order holding back tears, trying to smile. She was like: ‘I’m sorry about that, I am so embarrassed!’ We were like: ‘Don’t worry, seriously! You should take a few minutes break. You deserve it!’
The food ended up being good and the service was fine. We tipped well.”
American Tipping In German Restaurant?
“It was me. I did it. Not my proudest moment.
I was at The Hofbrau in Munich. They don’t bring a check and leave: the waiter comes over with a purse and takes your money and gives you change then and there.
When the waiter came over, I gave him enough to cover the tab but just barely. The friend I was drinking with said: ‘Aren’t you going to tip him?’
I honestly didn’t know the custom in Germany at the time, but I did know that it was important to find out since tipping is expected in some cultures and is crass and insulting in others. So I asked my friend (quietly): ‘Is it customary?’
Before my friend even answered, the waiter, who had been quite properly waiting, said (loudly): ‘You’ll get every bit back!’ And started slapping my change down cent by cent.
I was thoroughly embarrassed, primarily by my own ignorance, yes, but also because the waiter escalated things by being loud. I took it out on him by making it worse. When he was done, I stood up knocked all the change off the table and said (very loudly): ‘You’ll pick your tip off the floor, witch!’
I was an ugly American.”
The Buffet At The Casino
“We were at a buffet in a casino and my dad didn’t have a fork. He called over the waitress and asked for a fork. The waitress said they changed their policy and customers were required to get their own fork at the buffet table. This ticked off my father and he said, ‘I don’t care about your policy, bring me a fork.’ The waitress was visibly upset and said, ‘Sir, I cannot bring you a fork, you have to get it yourself.’ My father flipped and said, ‘I don’t care, bring me a fork now!’ The lady started stepping away and said, ‘Sir, I am going to call security if you don’t calm down.’ My father said, ‘I don’t care, call security, then give me my freaking fork.’ At this point, the casino host came over and diffused the situation, handed my dad a fork and a gaming voucher.
Every time we go to that buffet, the wait staff does not hesitate to seat my father immediately and accommodate him in any way.”
Lying About His Dog?
“While in college, I worked fine dining and saw my fair share of horrible things. Waitresses I worked with were groped, propositioned, and one was bitten on the arm as she tried to clear some plates.
I had a semi-regular customer that would show up about 15 minutes before closing with his German Shepherd wearing a ‘service dog’ vest. It was obvious that it wasn’t a service dog – he would just let it wander the place. At one point, it walked up to a different table sniffing at the plates.
Our assistant manager said something to him and the jerk jumped up, got in her face and began yelling about how he is a lawyer and is going to sue us for violating the Americans With Disabilities Act.
After dinner, he took his dog out, took off the leash and vest and threw a ball for him in the lot.
He came back repeatedly with the dog.”
Sparkling Mineral Water?
“A woman in a nice restaurant asked for sparkling mineral water. The waiter said he was sorry that they didn’t have sparkling water.
Later in the meal, he came back with a bottle of sparkling mineral water. He walked down the street to a market to buy it.
She looked at the bottle, called the waiter back and yelled at him: ‘I can’t drink this, it’s the wrong brand. It has too much sodium!'”
His Tea Specifications
“This was during my hotel training days when a guest who had a reputation for being harsh turned up and ordered tea. Now, what was peculiar with this guy was if he orders tea, you don’t serve him sugar on the side, you mix a teaspoon before bringing it up to him and then serve him. He hated it if you did otherwise.
A fellow waiter, naive and unaware, did exactly what he was not supposed to.
So, when he served it with sugar on the side and not mixed, the guest asked him to tear the sugar packs, mix it in the tea, once the waiter did that, this guy grabbed the waiters finger, dipped it in his cup of boiling tea, and mixed the sugar with it. And then drank it. Apparently, he was making sure this guy or anybody around would never forget how he likes his tea.”
The Denny’s In California
“About 10 years ago, my then-fiance and I stopped at the Denny’s in San Clemente on our way down the coast of California. There was a sweet, younger waitress there (the very early twenties), and seeing as we were seated close to the back, we could hear her on her phone while she fielded calls from her babysitter when she wasn’t on the floor.
It was about 10 p.m., she was early into her late night shift, and her kid was apparently in bed and the babysitter was telling her that he/she was leaving. The waitress was distressed and begging the babysitter to stay until she could find someone else; that even though the kid was asleep in bed it wasn’t safe to leave her alone and she couldn’t leave work. She was almost in tears. But by the time she came back out to our table, she had drummed up a smile, and her service was fantastic.
The table next to us, though, had a teenage kid and his apparent grandmother, and the grandmother was complaining the whole time about this waitress. I can’t imagine why she was fine. At one point, the lady ordered a piece of the pie, and the waitress brought it out. Grandmother snapped: ‘This pie’s cold!’ The waitress politely told her that she’d warm it up for her, no problem. When she brought out the now-warm pie, the grandmother barked at her about how there was no ice cream. And then about the extra charge when the waitress explained would apply to asking for your pie a la mode. After the waitress had taken the pie back yet again to serve the ice cream with it, the grandmother muttered to her grandson that she wasn’t getting a tip. The grandson protested weakly, but sure enough, a few minutes later they were gone without a cent on the table.
So. My fiance and I looked at one another and then started to scrounge for some extra money. When we paid our bill up front as usual, we put ‘cash’ in the tip line and then went back and left two separate piles of bills on our table — one with our receipt, and the other with a note that said: ‘This is to make up for the table next to us.’
I’m sure much worse things have happened to waitstaff, but it just felt so wrong and horrible at the time, because surely the table next to us had to know what was going on as well and would have been able to hear every word like we had.
I still think of that every time I drive to Los Angeles and pass that Denny’s. I wonder where she is, and if she ever found someone else to watch her kid that night.”
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Drama Over Deep Dish Pizza
“I was at a pizza joint in a tourist area when a teenage waitress takes the order of the table next to me.
It’s a 50-year-old guy and his wife.
He wants deep dish, but the waitress kindly tells him they only have regular. He sternly says he doesn’t care what they have, make him a deep dish. She says they can’t, sorry. He launched into a personal attack on this young girl, calling her undisciplined, inflexible, and dim. She runs away in tears. I look at him while talking to my wife and say loudly: ‘If he says one more thing to that girl, I’m going to take him out back.’ The manager came out and kicked the guy out before I had a chance to dole out some justice.”
The Worst Tipper In History!
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“I went to a nice Italian restaurant in for a fraternity formal.
Each guy brought a date and obviously paid for their dates’ dinners. The food took a smidge longer than usual because of our massive party size in addition to the rest of the restaurant being packed. But I wasn’t too upset about it.
Check comes. Mine comes to about $120 or so. My friend’s bill was in the same range. But the cheap jerk wrote: ‘Screw you’ on the tip line of his bill and gave her nothing. I just thought it was incredibly rude to not leave a tip on a bill that large.”
The Most Arrogant Man
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“I went out to dinner with a couple of lady mates. One of them was going out with her new guy. So we’re sitting at the table we are about to order. The guy acts all superior like he’s better than the waiter, totally disrespectful. I can see the arrogance flow like I’ve never seen before.
I just want to punch his face in, but I restrain myself. Once we receive the food, the guy proceeds by putting the waiter down. Telling him how bad the food looks. He puts those below him down and only shows respect and kindness to those above him.
By now, you can see that the waiter has had enough, his face is the face of someone who is depressed and dejected. Holding in his frustration in, like he’s having a really bad day and just wants to go home.
Saw this guy a couple more times at other events. The guy is a jerk.
If I saw him again, I would put him in his place.
The guy is South African. And surprisingly enough, he is still to this day with my lady friend.”
The Guys From The Bank
“Well, it wasn’t necessarily something they did to the waiter, but karma can bite sometimes you in the butt.
A group of bank employees comes in and leave the server a bunch of change on a fairly substantial bill. The server is a customer of the bank where this group works.
He enters the bank, tosses the change into the lobby dramatically and exits. Needless to say, he was upset and went for a jog afterward. The bank employees are now just as upset as the server was, and they call and complain to get him fired.
The general manager was waiting to have the server come in to fire him. Unfortunately, this server released anger and stress by running. And this particular event distressed him so much, he ran on the train tracks. Normally not a big deal, except he had just put a new playlist on, and didn’t hear the train roaring down the track.
He lived, though he was never the same afterward. He ended up keeping his job; the manager figured he’d been punished enough.”
Not Impressed By Their Immaturity
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“I was working at a place near the beach where the New Years celebrations were going on. It was supposed to be a dry zone but you know how that ends up.
Anyways, about 1 a.m., a bunch of guys come into our place, wasted and still drinking, and they just sat down and one of them started throwing silver coins at my co-worker saying he was ‘tipping her’ for working on New Years.
The dumbest part was that our place was right next to the police set-up for the night. We just sent a guy off to tip them off.”
Spiking The Dr. Pepper Soda?
“This was 20 years ago, on my 21st birthday. There were four of us — two buddies, me, and another friend, who was our designated driver. We started the day at my dad’s bar at about noon. We got pretty ripped there. By about 4 p.m., we figured it was time to hop around and get some food.
We ended up at this Polynesian place called the Bahooka. The hostess, apparently recognizing that we were already lit, seated us in a section away from the rest of the patrons. We ordered a ‘hurricane’ which is basically a giant tropical type drink served in a big bowl with long straws. We raced it to the bottom. Then, a while later, a waitress sat near us while on her meal break.
We talked a bit and she was being flirty at first, but because we were already pretty wasted and obnoxious, her attitude quickly changed to being a bit snarky. She finished eating and then walked out for a break, but she left her can of Dr. Pepper on the table.
My friend then took her can of Dr. Pepper under our table, unzipped and peed into her Dr. Pepper and then put it back. She returned, and she talked to us some more, standing at our table. Then she drank, and we exploded in laughter. I mean we were uncontrollably laughing our heads off. I think she knew something was wrong, but she never said anything and walked out.”
One Of The Regulars Of The Restaurant
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“I am a former server at a family restaurant. Fifteen minutes to close and a nearly empty restaurant. One of our regulars comes in alone. He’s known to get wasted and be obnoxious but nothing too severe. Until this night.
He wanders into the lounge, and as I greet him, I can tell he is stinking wasted. Right away, he asks for a drink, so I tell my manager I’m going to go back and offer him something else, as tactfully as I can. Fairly easily, I trick him into a glass of water, get him his sandwich and salad. I leave him be for a few minutes but when I check up on him he’s so out of it and tired that he’s slumped in his seat half asleep and only halfway through his meal. I keep prodding him along and he sort of half sleeps and eats.
I manage to get him to pay his bill, but of course, there’s no tip. This is where things go south. He tells me he is heading to the casino to drink and gamble. I believe he drove but I’m not sure. So I tell him I would like to call him a cab to get him home safe. He becomes belligerent saying he has good money to spend and he’s is GOING to the casino. Silly me, I try to reason with him. I’ve already had a cab called, so he attempts the walk from the lounge to the door. He can’t even walk two steps without stumbling and grabbing a chair to help him along. Then he starts telling me I’m pretty and asks if I have a boyfriend. I lie and say yes. He leans towards me and tells me he bets my ‘boyfriend’ doesn’t have what he has and proceeds to tell me how much I need to be with a real man.
This goes on for about 10 painstaking minutes while I wait for the cab. The idiot gets in the cab and tells the driver to take him to the casino. I give the driver $20, knowing our wasted friend lives only blocks away would mean the driver could pocket a nice tip and begged the idiot to give me his address which took way too long. I think he got home safe. Told management I refused to serve him again.”
