She Put A Children’s Menu in Front Of Me With A Smirk And A “Here You Go, Dear”
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I looked down and she had put a children’s menu in front of me with a smirk and a ‘here you go, Dear.’
She continued to treat me like a child throughout the entire meal.
When it came time to pay, I left her a ten cent tip and a note, ‘Little kids don’t tip well. Next time, treat me like an adult.”
Grieving Waitress Tells It All
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“We took my wife’s father out for her birthday dinner one night. He chose the Olive Garden, so my parents and the in-laws met us there and we were seated at a big round table in the back of the restaurant. Our waitress came bouncing up and introduced herself, asked a few questions, and figured out that it was Bill’s birthday. His 60th birthday. I noticed that she seemed to pause when she heard this, but she took drink orders and off she went.
Dinner progressed, but at some point, she came back and dropped the bomb: her own father had just died two weeks prior at age 60. We were all a little flabbergasted, but we offered our condolences and she turned it around a bit by reminding us all how precious we should be to each other, blah blah.
Not 5 minutes later she came back and proceeded to fill us in on HOW he died: battling aggressive cancer for a year, he died a long, slow, painful death. Very sad. Again, birthday dinner and all, we managed to console her a little and ordered desserts.
Desserts come out, and she brings an extra-happy surprise: a printout of an email that her father sent her. You see, during his time in hospice, he sent her multiple emails daily telling her that he loved her, writing poetry and inspirational quotes. She saved them, leaving them all unread to go through after he passed. She proceeded to read this poem to us, which was very sweet I’m sure, but I could barely hear it over the blood pounding in my ears out of sheer embarrassment. I was staring at my plate by this point; I can honestly say it was the most embarrassed I have been since middle school.
As she had brought out the desserts, a bus/run guy had come through to clear a booth from the now empty section of the restaurant. About two lines into the poem, he stood up, looks over at her and said, ‘You’re kidding.’ I glanced over at him and he gave me the most sincere ‘Oh I am SO sorry’ look.
She finished the poem, we paid up, left a decent enough tip (probably around 20% because the service–grief aside–was good), and went home.
The next day, my wife gets a call from a manager. He asks if we had had any issues with our waitress the night before, and my wife very kindly explained that the woman was obviously still grieving. He explained that it was her first shift back since taking time off to grieve and that we were her first table of the night.
The manager refunded the meal to us and sent us a $50 gift card.”
“She Ignored Us And Gave Our Pizza To Some Guys She Was Flirting With”
“My girlfriend and I went to a restaurant we used to frequent and were told it was a 30-minute wait because we hadn’t made a reservation. Not a big deal at all, it’s in an area with tons of foot traffic so this was to be expected.
I ordered a pizza, and my girlfriend ordered pasta. Hers came out first, with the promise that mine would be out shortly. Apparently, they had burned it the first time around, so they were going to remake it. Again, not a huge deal.
About 10 minutes later, I see what looks to be my pizza coming out, only to have the runner walk right by my table and bring it to another group that had been seated about 30 minutes after us. I was just hoping that this meant that their order had been put in before mine was sent to be remade, and that mine would be next.
Another 15 or 20 minutes pass, and we’re starting to get worried. I’ve tried to get our server’s attention multiple times, both for my pizza and my glass of water that has been empty for 30 minutes, but she keeps blowing right by us. We were right near the kitchen, so she had to pass us to flirt with the guys a few tables down who had received what appeared to be my re-made pizza.
Finally, a manager comes by to ask how our meal is going. I explain the situation, and he immediately calls her over. She argues with me and claims that the pizza was sent out 30 minutes ago, and I point to the table where she’s been flirting for the last 20 minutes to point out that she sent it over there. She gets rude and defensive, and the manager sides with us, has her make a new one ASAP and also has her leave a pitcher of water at our table since he sees she cannot be trusted to serve us.
He apologized profusely and has her send us a free dessert once our meal is finally finished. At the end of the meal, the manager had our server come over to us and give us her name and a comments form in order to give her boss a list of everything she messed up, as well as to personally tell us that we were not to tip her a dime. Half our meal was comped, and we also received a voucher for a future visit. We still haven’t been back since.”
A Clean Fork And A Dirty Attitude
“My wife and I once went out to eat at a restaurant near where we lived. We were both seated fairly quickly and opened our silverware while waiting for our server to arrive. I noticed my fork was slightly dirty like the dishwasher hadn’t completely cleaned off all the old food. Now, I didn’t for a moment think that I was intentionally given dirty silverware. When the server came to take our drink order, I politely said, ‘Excuse me… but this fork is dirty. Could I please have another?’ She smiled, said, ‘Sure!’ and left. She came back a minute or two later and placed another set of cutlery on the table. ‘Here you go,’ she said. She then put a glass full of hot soapy water on the table, and said, ‘That’s if this set isn’t clean enough for you.’ My wife and I looked at each other, got up without saying a word, and walked out.”
The Proof Is In The Breadsticks
“When we turned 16, my friends and I loved celebrating our freedom. We heard of a little french type bistro an hour away and made the trip. Turned out there were only a dozen and a half tables, and although we had no reservation we got seated as only three or four other tables were occupied. Our waitress came out and got the drink orders. Returned with the drinks, and took our meal order. We got our breadsticks, then another batch 15 minutes later.
Then the waitress comes out to pick up all the baskets and cleaned up the little plates, then returned with the bill. We laughed a bit, said a mistake was made. We haven’t even eaten yet. She argued that we did, that she even just cleaned up our plates and silverware. We argued about it, she went and got the manager who came out to confront us about trying to get out of paying our bill. Nobody was sitting near us, and when asked they said they really weren’t paying attention to us, but we started getting ugly looks like we did eat and refuse to pay.
He gave us the ultimatum to pay up now or the police would be involved. We said we’re not paying for food we haven’t received. A police officer arrives and hears both sides of the story. The manager and waitress were going off how we were lying when suddenly my friend then stood up and said he’s got this handled.
He asked the waitress what he ordered. She picks up the bill, flips it, and told him. It was a baked pasta dish with sausage. He confirmed that’s what he ordered. He asked the manager if the chef wants to come out and confirm he cooked it – turns out the manager was also the cook and said he cooked it. He asked her if she really did bring it out and serve it, she said yes. He asked if she threw away food away from the plates she picked up. She said ‘No they were all cleaned up’, as in we ate all the food. He asked the officer if he would please step outside for a minute and he’ll prove they are lying. He agrees.
Craig and the officer stepped outside, only to return less than five minutes later saying we were free to leave, and told the manager/waitress they made a mistake. To be honest, I’m not sure if we were more impressed or repulsed at the reason why.