I worked as a waitress at 15 and I’ve never forgotten this…
A man came into the department store cafe I worked in at lunchtime, he was in his late forties in a suit with a briefcase and very well spoken. He took his menu a big dismissively but still polite and I left him to choose his food.
A woman came and joined him who was also in a suit and lots of serious murmured conversation and paperwork being pulled out of briefcases, I was a bit shy and didn’t want to interrupt so sort of hovered until they waved me over to take the order.
The women ordered a salad and sparkling water, the man said “ah yesss I’ll also have the salad” and the woman starts to hand me back the menus.
Suddenly this buttoned up man grabs the menu back and shouts “and CHIPS! DO YOU HAVE CHIPS?! I WANT CHIPS!”
The woman looks at him surprised and says slowly “okkkkk if you want chips then have them” she’s staring to look a bit uncomfortable.
The man says “ohhhh goody gum drops, we are having chippies, CHIPS CHIPS CHIPS”
He was actually holding his knife and fork upright and banging the ends into the table in excitement chanting the last bit.
After we established he was getting his chips he suddenly became professional again and said “Well very good, thank you” and went back to looking at documents with the woman.
The restaurant was quiet and I stayed in the kitchen waiting for their order, I was too confused to even laugh about it. When it was ready I took the meals out and this man literally threw all the paperwork onto the floor and shouts “yayyyy chips! Chips are here!” And nudges the woman who is now looking so embarrassed and uncomfortable. She picked everything up and I had to run back to the kitchen to hide and laugh hysterically.
I didn’t witness him eat the chips but when I cleared the plates he was back to being posh and buttoned up except to say “Bloody lovely chips!” I got a £10 tip which was a lot in 1999!
I started to tell some other staff about it later and they all looked at each other in recognition and said “oh yes we know the chippy man”
He came in a few more times whilst I worked there and it didn’t happen every time but sometimes there with a similar performance about his excitement for chips.
My partner has probably been the topic of one of these conversations after we ate at a restaurant in London. I can’t stand tomato and cucumber, if I pick it off I can still taste where it’s been so where ever we go we always stress when ordering not to include it - if I don’t mention it then it gets added to everything, if not as a main ingredient then as a garnish. You don’t realise unless you hate it how disappointing it is.
I ordered a burger at this restaurant and we did request a few times not to include the tomato and cucumber, unfortunately when the burger came it had a huge tomato on.
We had already had starters and I’d had two cocktails so when the meals came I actually was happy to share DP’s meal and he had the burger and tucked in and said it was really nice. When the waitress came over and asked if everything was ok he said “not really” and went on to complain about the almost finished burger 🤦🏼♀️.
I apologised, DP has ASD so when I told him it didn’t matter and we were happy with swapping meals he also apologised and we all had a laugh about it, they actually removed the burger from the bill so we tipped the cost of the burger and extra. He explained he wasn’t asking for a refund he’d just taken the question “Is everything ok with your meals?” very literally.
I was worried they thought we were after a refund for an almost finished and clearly enjoyed meal!
My friend is very difficult to eat out with, she’s 40 and the only fish she has ever had anywhere is fish fingers or cod battered from a pub or chip shop. She also has ASD and is a restrictive eater with only a few things she will eat, she always orders fish and chips whenever we eat out anywhere.
She ordered fresh cod on holiday and when it came in it’s natural form without batter she argued with the restaurant owner about what cod was supposed to look like, she absolutely refused to believe that the fish in front of her was cod.
He had to point to the sea and remind her that it had been caught from there and just hadn’t been battered and fried.
The worst part about this is it was recently as well, it was June this year 😂.