Never work in hospitality. Strangest things people have complained about.

[KnopkaPixie]

Here's some to get us started:

"There's broken glass on this steak."
It was fancy coarse ground salt.

"I can't eat from a square plate. It's bad feng shui."

Any more?

Marked down for being better than expected?!
Make it make sense lol 🤣

@DisabledDemon

im not sure of the difference but as we know it it's as described - cooked macaroni covered in a bechamel and cheese sauce and baked until,the top,is crispy.

The American one is not in a loose sauce (or the one I had wasn't). It was macaroni tossed with an orange cheesy paste so it was sticky. hopefully an American will be able to explain the difference.

In fairness, I think macaroni cheese is like a roast dinner or shepherds pie or spaghetti Bol. Everyone prefers the sort they grew up with. It might not be authentic or even any good but if it's what they are used to, it's what they like.

Yes, you're right in French it's steak tartare and sauce tartare. Becuase that's how the French spell tartar/Tartar you know, the people who put their meat under the horses' saddles before they ride it all day, so as to tenderise it before eating it.
Raw, I presume.

Then the same Germans turn up at my restaurant at lunchtime, order a coca cola between four and eat the snaffled breakfast buffet sandwiches, oblivious to other patrons with their fancy 'Ordered from the kitchen' meals. (See previous post.)

I think the 'orange cheesy paste' is melted Velveeta.

I have also seen a recipe for melted Velveeta cheese and chocolate which when cooled and hardened turns into 'fudge.'
Don't knock it 'till you've tried it. Might be really nice.

I used to work in a well-known catalogue shop. Christmas was terrible. The must have toy of the year always sold out, and we had people in on Christmas Eve looking for it. Screaming at us when we didn't have it saying we spoilt their child's Christmas and how can they tell their child Father Christmas didn't have the toy they wanted.
And then after Christmas, the returns were awful, if a toy was broken or didn't work the abuse we got was unreal! Yes I understand it's disappointing the toy was broken but it wasn't our fault! You could have made up a story saying it fell off the sleigh or something! Don't shout and swear at shop staff!

Does this look familiar?

Why can't they be banked at the post office? This seems so crazy to me! It's British banknotes. Why do English not accept them but we accept theirs? I thought we were supposed to be part of the same united kingdom.
That's not a swipe at you btw, I'm genuinely perplexed as to why the post office or banks don't accept them. There are pens to check fake notes and I'd have thought the post office and banks would be most likely to have them. Supermarkets do.

You don't have to persuade me, I'll happily eat them raw (see steak tartare recipe upthread). Just suggesting reasons why others might be wary.

Classic American mac & cheese is always with cheddar. Only a philistine would use Velveeta. 😁

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/238691/simple-macaroni-and-cheese/

In a cafe/soft play at a zoo.
' can I have extra milk in my latte, but no less espresso '

' my child has just pooped down the slide, you need to clean it'

During a power cut ' can you put some lights on?'

When the zoo was on lock down due to escaped animals, we've locked the door to keep people in. A family asked to be let out as 'they still had a lot of the zoo to see' Timber wolves are loose ffs!

I was asked to make up several packed lunches one day after a parent helper on a school trip encouraged her group to feed their own lunches to the zebras shortly after arriving.

Multiple times I was sworn at during the summer holidays by a frazzled parent because we didn't sell chips.

They’re not British banknotes - there’s no such thing. They are technically promissory notes issued by 3 Scottish retail banks, whereas the Bank of England is a central government bank.

It’s hard to spot a forgery if you don’t see all 3 designs regularly so it’s just not worth the risk.

Ds1 once asked a waitress “what’s in the beef sandwich, please?” What he actually ^^meant to ask was what else was in it - ie. salad/horseradish/mustard, but this has gone down in family history now, and any dumb question is known as a beef sandwich question. The waitress’s face was a picture.

@PandoraSox - make sure the coffee isn’t too hot before you dunk the bee in it, to sober him up!

I remember queuing behind a woman in Naples airport about 15 years ago

She ordered a decaffeinated double espresso

Very confused barista who delivered a regular double espresso & she toddled away quite happily.

Wtaf is wrong with people?

We once had the exact opposite experience as a customer. October, east coast Scotland where we live. It was a lovely sunny day, not warm but dry at least, and my 5 year old decided she simply HAD to have lunch somewhere we could sit outside. I rocked my brains to figure out which lunatic would have tables outside in October and remembered a cafe I had cycled past. Looked generic as anything, had never been inspired to go in there but it had tables outside. Took her there and asked nicely if we could eat outdoors. It is run by the loveliest wee Turkish Grampa who was happy to serve us outside but full of apologies for the Scottish cold wind and kept checking we were fine. I couldn't help chuckling at his worry that 2 Scots couldn't handle Scottish weather on a nice day. We go back regularly even now. It is so friendly and welcoming (and they serve us outside no matter how crazy they think we are).

Recently had a man complain that the restaurant chairs were more upright than normal?
They are standard chairs exactly the same as one of our other restaurants that he gave 5 stars to on Trip advisor?
Oh also had a complaint the staff seemed to happy!

Doesn't surprise me with Waitrose. Mine was a small little independent sandwich bar/bakery so if they did that for everyone it would hurt the business. I was only young then too, it certainly opened my eyes to horrible people in a customer facing job!

Exactly. I don’t think I’ve seen a Scottish bank note since 1983. It might have wee Jimmy Krankee on it now for all I know.

“can I have a cream tea please, but I don’t like tea so can I swap that for a coffee? And I don’t like scones so any chance I can have a piece of cake?”

so you want a coffee and cake then?

By British bank notes I meant that we're a part of Britain, therefore our notes should be accepted in every part of Britain. It's not worth the risk? Buy one of those pens. Another example of Scotland being seen as lesser in my opinion. Can't even be bothered checking our legal tender but would fully expect us to accept yours.

"Can I have a black latte please"

(That was me and I'd like to apologise profusely, again, to the very young barista who thought it was a new drink she hasn't heard of. In my defence I was fresh off a very worrying few days with DS in hospital)

Posted too soon - then carried on to complain how pointless cream teas are and that it should just be advertised as cake and a hot drink

And it makes life so difficult for people who really do have allergies. Makes my blood boil.

Not hospitality but I was once the manager of a school uniform shop. I’ve got some doozies! One woman wanted her book bag replaced that she had for 3 years because the Velcro wasn’t sticky anymore. She was reporting us to trading standards for a £5 bag. One woman screamed at me because we didn’t stock the skirt in a shorter length when the school requested a very strict knee length rule. She was reporting us to trip advisor! I got called racist because our card machines went down. Total outage, she thought I was refusing her card because of her skin colour after repeatedly telling her the card machines weren’t working. She wanted me fired. There are many many more.