Master Bartender
“I was working at a vegan restaurant and had a customer send his food back because it ‘tasted too good’ and must have had something non-vegan in it.”
Recently u/bleepbloopblurph asked the people of r/KitchenConfidential to share the wildest reasons they’ve seen customers send food back, and their answers really made me wonder what in the heck people were thinking. Here are some of the top comments:
1.
“I’ll go first: A lady sent her burger back because it had sesame seeds on the bun, which she insisted are ‘made from pork’ and she didn’t eat pork. We all started doubting our own sanity after a few minutes of back and forth, but rest assured folks, there is indeed no pork in sesame seeds.”
Lauripatterson / Getty Images
2.
“A lady sent food back to the kitchen so we could cool it down since it was too hot. The server just left it in the window for a few minutes and then took it back. I’ll never be able to figure that one out.”
—u/theneighborist
3.
“I had someone send back a New York strip steak for being ‘too meaty.’ Still can’t wrap my head around that one.”
—u/cyborg_huey
4.
“I once watched a woman get in a screaming match with every single person on staff from her server all the way through back of house to the general manager who finally kicked her out, all over a ‘hair’ in her food. No matter how many times it was explained, she did not understand what corn silk was. Even after the meal was comped she demanded they admit it was hair and apologize for gaslighting her.”
Songtian Kon / Getty Images/EyeEm
“Her date got up and left her in the middle of her argument with the head chef. This was an extremely upscale restaurant on a spa resort. How this woman had never seen whole corn before in her life is beyond me.”
—u/ladyzephri
5.
“Someone sent back their Eggs Benedict because the hollandaise sauce was ‘too flavorful’.”
—u/germanmicrowave
6.
“I worked at seafood restaurant that had a grilled salmon Reuben on the lunch menu. A lady at the bar sent it back immediately because she didn’t know it had fish in it.”
—u/soupmate1980
7.
“When I was a bartender I had an argument with a lady who ordered two glasses of wine, one with ice. Our pour was 120 ml and I was damn exact. Of course, if both glasses have 120ml but one has ice, it’s going to appear like one has more. This lady wasn’t having anything about all that liquid displacement nonsense and demanded more wine in hers. Instead I dropped two ice cubes in hers and she was happy to see she now had more wine. I kinda felt like Jesus, using ice to create more wine. Sort of.”
Richlegg / Getty Images/iStockphoto
8.
“They sent back a vanilla iced coffee because it was brown and vanilla is white.”
—u/grannybubbles
9.
“I once cooked a rare tuna steak with a cajun crust and had it sent back because it wasn’t rare enough. I thought this was odd because I’d done it properly and it only had a slight seared crust. I repeated the process with a chef present only to have it returned again. After the second time, the waitress was sent to make perfectly clear why the customer was unhappy because the dish was PERFECT. She then informed me that the man misunderstood the term rare. He thought he was ordering was a ‘hard to find’ tuna. I’m not fucking kidding, this actually happened to me.”
—u/infamous-habit-4860
10.
“I had someone send Fettuccine Alfredo back because it was ‘too spicy’, lol.”
Seva_blsv / Getty Images/iStockphoto
11.
“I had a lady send back nachos that she had ordered and received a week prior in a to-go order. She came in for dinner with her son, and she brought back the nachos, saying there wasn’t enough cheese on them and she didn’t like it much. Again, this order was from the previous week!”
—u/aser2323
12.
“The clam chowder that they got was cold. We didn’t sell clam chowder — they got it from some other restaurant.”
—u/arai34
13.
“They said the heirloom tomato salad had ‘too much tomato’.”
Visualcommunications / Getty Images/iStockphoto
14.
“A guy got mad that he was served ‘too much food’ since his portion of brunch potatoes was bigger than the table next to him. He asked to speak to the manager (me) to complain about it and made me take his plate back and bring it back with fewer potatoes.”
—u/stracharys
15.
“Someone asked for a full refund when I worked at Taco Bell because I was too chipper at 2 a.m. and they, ‘didn’t like my face’.”
—u/pratetrain
16.
“A woman sent back her pancakes because she found a long black hair. My hair is short, blonde, and curly. The guy who made the pancakes had a shaved head. No one else handled her food, but guess who had long black hair? Her. The manager just shrugged and said to make her new ones.”
17.
“My friend had someone send back a Caesar salad because it wasn’t warm. They nuked it in the microwave, and the customer was very happy.”
—u/escargeaux
18.
“A customer that wouldn’t touch the purple carrots in their multi-colored carrot side because they thought they were burnt. The chef went out to assure them that’s just their color but they wouldn’t believe it.”
Elena_abduramanova / Getty Images/iStockphoto
19.
“We used to sell freshly baked bread as a sharing loaf. A customer complained that it tasted like it had been in an oven…”
—u/elurei
20.
“A woman came in to my sushi/hibachi restaurant and ordered steak tartar, and then sent it back because, ‘Why would you give me a plate of raw meat?! I wanted it well done! I’m calling the health inspector about this. You can’t serve paying customers raw meat like this!'”
—u/jenipherocious
21.
“The fries were too sharp.”
Todd Taulman / Getty Images/500px Prime
22.
“I was working at a vegan restaurant and had a customer send his food back because it ‘tasted too good’ and must have had something non-vegan in it. Apparently, the customer just sat at the table pouting while everyone else enjoyed their meal.”
—u/–lowbattery–
23.
“I worked in banquets at a hotel. The server requested a vegetarian plate for a guest who didn’t eat meat. I made her a vegetarian meal, and the guest sent it back because she wanted fish. She didn’t ask for fish — she just thought if she said she didn’t eat meat we would give her fish instead. Fish wasn’t being served at that event.”
—u/littleorangecat
24.
“They messed up cutting their burger in half and now they can’t post it on Instagram.”
25.
“I had a dude order ‘One cheeseburger, plain and dry.’ Then he sent it back complaining it wasn’t plain and dry because it had cheese on it. The giant menu board lists cheese and hamburgers separately, but even if it didn’t, what the fuck? I thought the chef was going to punch him when he realized what the guy was saying.”
—u/feliks343
26.
“A customer sent back the finger bowl that went out with the mussels saying the lemon soup was bland.”
—u/markhollings
27.
“I used to work at a pizza place. We had a buffalo chicken pizza. Buffalo sauce, chicken, gorgonzola, mozzarella. Nothing special. A woman orders it and calls the waiter over. She’s LIVID that there is MOLD on her pizza! The waiter tries to explain what gorgonzola cheese is but she isn’t having it. We made the pizza again with feta and the customer was satisfied.”
Barmalini / Getty Images/iStockphoto
28.
Finally, and worst of all, “Someone sent a meal back because it ‘didn’t taste like anything,’ and it turned out they had Covid.”
—u/magicpants710
Have you seen someone send food back for a very weird reason? Tell us all about it in the comments!
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