Perhaps everyone should have made their resolutions this year to be kinder to their servers and bartenders. If you're not part of the problem but you are witnessing a Karen customer throwing a tantrum for no good reason, perhaps you should consider stepping in and defending the people who have been on their feet for multiple hours and are just trying to get you your food and drinks the way you ordered them. No one is trying to mess up, and so much of what goes on in a bar or restaurant is outsi…

These people had a few irritating moments , and they took to the internet to share their misfortunes. From botched milkshakes to busted suitcases, people had a variety of issues to start of the new year . This milkshake of nightmares (#2 below) nearly choked the OP. That's because whoever made the beverage added in all the ingredients, and then blended it together with another cup and a straw still inside! The result is a shredded straw coated with shards of plastic. There's just no reason a cu…

A manager acting clueless? What a surprise. When restaurants have busy days , they prepare for them in advance. Fast-food restaurants are well aware that certain holidays and the days around those holidays are going to be jam-packed. For example, it's not just Christmas Day that's busy. People are out doing their last-minute shopping for a few days beforehand, and they might decide on a quick meal on their way home. In order to be prepared for that influx of people, restaurants need to have ext…

These chefs and waiters have the patience of saints. They've encountered some truly bizarre customer requests, and they're sharing the strangest of them with the r/AskReddit community. When you go out to eat and pay for a nice meal, you want it to be perfect the first time. You shouldn't have to ask the server to send back the dish to the kitchen, but it happens. I once got a green egg at a diner during breakfast, which I sent back to the kitchen with haste (politely!). But I'd never dream of s…

Working in a kitchen is an eye-opening experience that will forever change how one eats at a restaurant. Not only does one gain further appreciation for what servers and restaurant workers have to put up with, but also one has a greater sense of the pandemonium that occurs behind the scenes. Yes, television shows like The Bear provide some insight into this visceral world, but hearing from actual restaurant workers directly is the best window into that experience. These restaurant secrets, whic…

There's always at least one person in every workplace who can't help but make everyone laugh. This is the kind of person that people say “lights up every room they walk into.” They just immediately begin cracking jokes and lightening the mood. This kind of person is especially appreciated in high-stress environments---like the back of house at a busy restaurant. Back-of-house, sometimes abbreviated as BOH, refers to all of the workers behind the scenes, like chefs, meal preppers, and dish washe…

Some people want to be food critics with their reviews, but this person took it further by writing a very long message directly to a restaurant. When I worked retail, I always found it so delightful when customers would vow to never return to our restaurant. It was often that they'd come in during a rush, and then were shocked, stunned, and horrified, that they'd have to wait a whole 15 minutes for their meal. Bigger problems are going on in the world. But not to these people. Sometimes they'd…

When you don't want fast food but also don't want to pay $35 for an entree, it might be time to head to a chain restaurant. The prices of everything these days have gone up to utterly comical levels. While looking to find a nice dinner at a spot in Manhattan, I found one place that looked stunning. Then, I took a peek at their menu to find that the cheapest item was an $18 appetizer of potato chips. Just let that sink in: nearly $20 for potato chips, as the cheapest menu item . I weep for the f…

It's time to dive into the tipping debate . Should you tip every time you eat at a restaurant? Many people, myself included, would say yes. It's not that we enjoy tipping, especially during these times of high inflation and being asked to tip for tons of services these days. But tipping is a necessity for waiters and waitresses, and it's a good feeling to reward someone who has done a good job taking your order and bringing you your food and drinks. But what if the waiters do a bad job ? What i…

College kids learn life lessons the hard way. They learn that the metro stops running at a certain point of the night and that keeping up with your laundry is a full time job, but the hardest lessons college kids are forced to learn are in the kitchen.

A restaurant manager decided he wanted to cut costs on quesadillas, starting by using crepes instead of tortillas. That's probably because he had basically no real-world experience running a restaurant. Instead, he'd just taken a cooking course, then decided to cut costs at the restaurant in the quickest and easiest way he knew how: by making the food taste worst. Whether you're at a five star restaurant or a hole in the wall food shack, the quality of the food matters above all else. If your h…

When you go out to eat at the same place over and over again, it's often because you love everything about the restaurant. Maybe it's a pizza parlor with red booths and perfectly crispy pizza. Or perhaps you enjoy a quiet fancy restaurant where the appetizers are delectable and the conversations last for hours. However, some people enjoy going to the same restaurant on repeat for another reason—they've “taught” the staff members exactly how they like their food to be prepared . Whether these cu…

Who said complying with the rules can't be a little fun? One employee told their story of their coworker's malicious compliance when their bosses started demanding they label every little thing. Food service workers have a lot to juggle. This person, u/Dra5iel, shared that they and their coworker both worked at a restaurant chain. Along with prepping food, cooking it, plating it for customers, and cleaning up, back of house staffers have enough on their plates already (pun intended!). When the…

You can't expect everyone around you to do things your way! Look, there are many compromises people need to make as roommates. All parties need to agree to certain rules, like tidying up in shared spaces, doing your dishes, etc. These are all necessary conversations roommates need to have in order to coexist peacefully. Of course, roommates also need to acknowledge and recognize that people have different ways of doing things, and not everyone is going to align on everything all the time. You w…

This boss had no idea what he was doing, and the hordes of hungry customers don't care about poor management, they just want food. There are lots of industries where people are low-paid and treated poorly. Food service is perhaps the hardest of these. Unlike retail, your customers are guaranteed to be hungry. That means they're going to be less patient and eager to tell you about any mistakes you're making. They really don't care about the employees or anything else, because all they want is th…

I never knew that checking the bathrooms before you eat at a restaurant was a “thing” until today. That's because these chefs, waiters, diners, and one health inspector, all gave their opinions on the sketchiest things to look out for while eating at restaurants.