Was the waitress rude?

I have worked m in a very high end place in London when I was studying. It was ace. Great tips. I learned a lot about wine.

I’ve also worked in pubs, cafes and a chain restaurant while a student. It’s a bit relentless if it’s busy, brutal might be over egging it.

Not sure why you’re mentioning high end restaurants or ‘brutal’ hospitality though, this is a cafe in a gym. And I wouldn’t describe someone asking to swap chips for toast, and leave the cheese out, as ‘brutal’ for the (rude) staff member, nor the ‘chef’ in the kitchen.

Hospitality is not a hard job -what? Obviously you are definitely not talking from experience .

Sounds bizarre, unless her laughter was either out of nerves or a vague attempt at humour. She could be new/ill trained.
Asking for an omelette with cheese on the side and toast is hardly lobster thermidor with a side of sea urchin!? You could complain, but if it's quite a small place and the staff are usually nice, maybe see if next time they are alright then if not mention it.

I am agog at these comments attacking OP for causing trouble by requesting a substitution of toast for chips, and cheese on the side. She is paying for the meal—thats all they care about. The difference in labor costs between frying chips and toasting toast is minimal and in any event not a huge burden. Some carbohydrate is going to be put on the plate and it really makes no difference to the kitchen which it is. As for the cheese on the side:again its a mix snd match omelette. The OP is just changing the plating. The chef doesn’t care so long as they get paid for the ingredients and the labor.

I think the toast was on the actual menu and that’s how OP was able to order it 🤨
If it wasn’t on the menu the waitress would have said “sorry we don’t make toast.”
Hmmm?

Thankfully, the lady that asked her last replied to the 2why don't you move tables" - the lady replied, "The one on you head" and her whole table lol.

Is anyone else confused at this part?

I was once at an August wedding in a heat wave in a conservatory and the air con was broken! 150 sweaty guests, a cake with melted icing, and everyone was very very pissed due to necking whatever liquid was in sight to cool down. Apparently they couldn’t move us to the large conference room (which would have been a squash but better than us all nearly dying) because there was a business meeting in there. When someone walked passed only 6 people were in the meeting!. So it could be worse 🥵

Surely the point if a cheese based omelette is for it to be melted in the middle

This!!

Also how did Homebase know she hadn’t already clicked and collected the scales and was trying to nab off with a second set?

I’m what sexist wankers would call a ‘Karen’ as in I don’t tolerate bad service, but also shit happens and surely this is not a big deal or emergency so you just wait or come back another time? Madness to walk out of a shop like that!!

Hospitality is brutal actually, I assume you’ve never worked in a high end restaurant? It’s not ‘tedious’. You sound exactly like the customers restaurants despise.

Hopefully they’re more polite to your face though 😂

I once went to a gym whose cafe only did things like panini and chips, toasties and chips and sausage rolls. I asked if they did salads and the answer was no. Bonkers!

She was immensely rude and unfiltered. Hospitality is not a hard job. It’s tedious, but not hard. Making toast instead of chips (revolting option for breakfast) is not hard. Putting cheese on the side instead of in, is not hard. I can only assume they pre-make the omelettes and so the ‘chef’ would have had to make one actually fresh and that would piss them off.

Rude unprofessional quite clearly in the wrong role.
I'd be sending her home with her p45.

That I agree with. In these days and times when its expensive to eat out, if customer care is not great, customers go to another place. Thank you.

I think rude staff need to be reported as often they may be working for a small, family business/francishe etc and once managers/owners are made aware, I'm sure they would act.

No it’s not all great but I’m right in saying that’s isn’t what hospitality is all about ….we can do without the rude immature unprofessional individuals

Your request was pretty simple, op and the waitress needs more training.

Sadly, you are wrong. I've seen from a distance how some behave and guess what, we don't go back there

The other day, well last year. It was one of the hottest days and we were at a wedding. The waiter's manager a lady, initially I asked her to turn down the air con/climate control - she said she would went off but no difference, then another person asked her, she went off - then when another person asked her on the table to my side, she barked "why don't you move tables.

The point is she said she was looking into it but was not nor did she feedback. Thankfully, the lady that asked her last replied to the 2why don't you move tables" - the lady replied, "The one on you head" and her whole table lol. This is because the place was packed and this useless clown was the head waiter, floor manager as far as I could tell. Thnakfullt we moved around seats and someone complained to the host and it was turned down. So "hospitality" is not all great

I am not outraged, but as I posted in my first response to you, I don’t think you were in the right, wanting to be treated differently from any other customer re the order process. Secondly, that comment about being “just glad I'm not working a shit job at minimum wage and mgmt probably don't care anyway”, was not necessary. So many people do work at a minimum wage, and it’s their job, their entire livelihood, supporting themselves and their families. I am just shocked that people talk about other people’s lives in this tone, in this way.

That's what you're outraged about from my post? I've worked my fair share of awful below-minimum wage jobs for years.

She should be completely unbiased but instead she showed complete bias.

I would not confront her/them over it just in case of food sabotage. What you could do, is bring your own breakfast and eat it there, so they have lost profit.

I would do that with a clear consciousness.

The waitress has bad people skills and is not the sharpest tool in the box because of her inability to adapt to the customers needs.

“Didn't complain as I'm just glad I'm not working a shit job at minimum wage and mgmt probably don't care anyway”.

And why would describe someone’s job like this? How derogatory.

I understand that you didn’t want to hang around, and you had the proof of payment and confirmation, but the staff still had to follow the order procedure for the shop, the system in place. If they didn’t they would get into trouble by their management. Why should you be treated any differently from any other customer? From what you describe, there was absolutely nothing wrong with their customer service.

Rude but I've had much worse customer service before on man occasions.

Once I was in Homebase, paid for a pair of bathroom scales through click and collect, I got the scales off the shelf, took them to the till, and even though I had the receipt and email as proof of purchase, they said they had to wait for the email to come through 'on their end'. I told them it's my weekend and that their emails being down is not my problem so I walked towards the exist. The lady shouted 'CUSTOMER LEAVING WITHOUT PAYING'.

The manager RAN over and they tried to block me leaving, even after I'd calmly explained the situation and threatened to call the police and even did a pretend phone call to the police.

I handled the situation with incredible patience, humility and calmness. I calmly told him that is no way to treat a young lady, and I'm right. Didn't complain as I'm just glad I'm not working a shit job at minimum wage and mgmt probably don't care anyway.

If you complain they will probably just make fun of you behind your back and possibly flag you as a problem customer.

Extremely rude, I would have escalated this if I were you OP

But it's not a minor change and this shows you haven't worked in a kitchen before.

I never claimed I had. Some pps who have are saying they don't think it's a big deal, though, so it's obviously a matter of opinion. Personally I'd have thought a bit of flexibility would pay dividends in terms of return business.

As someone who works in a cafe at a health club what you asked for was not a big deal. Our omelettes are also a choice of 2 fillings, cheese pregrated so it would be no hardship to whisk the eggs, chuck it in the pan with the spinach, put the cheese in a pot on the side and shove some toast into the toaster.

I know chefs can be moody about people making up their own stuff but that is so simple and no extra work unless they didn't offer toast on the menu but if that's the case then say no it's not possible.

So yes they were rude and unprofessional. There is no excuse for rudeness, even if you were the most annoying customer ever it should be kept professional, what is said out of earshot is fair game but as I've said, something like that wouldn't even register on the awkward scale.