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?

Turning things around a little

Me - on the menu the pannacotta is down as vegetarian, can you check that please
Staff - goes to ask chef and comes back to list the ingrediants including gelatine and confirms the chef says it’s vegetarian 🤯

Another
Me - Can I have marmite on toast
Staff - Marmite isn’t vegetarian (that one was from the chef at our local hospital)

Sometimes we just have to complain

Oh but I remember the first time I got to taste smoked salmon. I was at work and a colleague brought some in with bagels and cream cheese. I was so so so so SO disappointed. I'd always imagined it being like smoked haddock, only more delicious and sweet because I loved tinned salmon. I couldn't believe it was this sticky, slimy uncooked mess!

The steak is too beefy

I always thought this was an urban legend, but I did in fact witness a family ordering steak tartare, well done.

Greggs.

Coffee boiled is coffee spoiled

One bloke complaining that the apple (that his son had taken a tiny bite out of) was bruised. It wasn't, it was the little freckles that some apples have. He went all 'big man' in front of his partner and kid and I wouldn't back down. (Had dealings with someone similar in Tesco last year. As I was also a customer I wasn't taking it lying down. Twat. If his missus is here, (who gave me a little smile that was both apologetic and embarrassed) I feel for ya.)

The woman who kicked off about me not cleaning her table 'properly'. She spilt her coffee. The kid she was with (I assumed grandson) asked her why she was being so rude to me. 🤣 Of course she wasn't being rude, I was! I wasn't going to crawl around on my hands and knees to clean up the bit of coffee that had dripped down the gap in the middle. (Two square tables pushed together.) Her grandson was absolutely going to be running around under the table and slip on said coffee. He'd have needed to shrink a good deal in order to do so!

The woman who complained I'd asked her not to eat her cake from the shop in the café.

Yes, if you are actually on the restaurant premises, whether inside or outside, and a bee gets in your drink it should be replaced, unless there’s a big sign saying “all drinks ordered at own risk. Drinks used by bees as swimming pools, or shat in by birds, cannot be replaced free of charge.”

What is more scary is when restaurant staff assure you this is the case (has sadly happened very frequently).
We generally leave at that point.

That’s terrible hospitality. If a bee flies in your wine, the restaurant should provide another. I don’t know what kind of place you work in..

"This baguette tastes like fish" It was a tuna baguette

Retail rather than hospitality but remains my favourite WTF customer moment for sheer entitlement...the lady who came in in October (right when the next year's diaries launched) complaining that the diary she had used on a daily basis over the previous 10 months was looking a bit tatty and dog-eared so it clearly wasn't fit for purpose therefore we MUST give her a free replacement.

It's a trendy terrace bar / restaurant overlooking a beach, not silver service fine dining. The girls were laughing about this customer for days 😂

Your customer is too high class for your bar. Lol appalling service.

Ha, she certainly thought she was, that's for sure. By all accounts she was extremely rude and demanding with it. Not a classy way to carry on at all actually. Hopefully the seagulls stole her pasty and shat in her hair too, as they will do in St Ives

Two ladies came into the tea room sat down. Asked for a pot of tea for one with two cups and extra hot water. We said we couldn't provide two cups but extra water was fine. Bugger me one pulled out a box of teabags and they shared the cup

Another couple came in ordered tea for two. I saw them sliding biscuits under the table to each other, eating them when they thought noone was looking.

Restaurant overlooking the marina son worked in had a refit provided big baskets full of rugs for sitting outside. They all vanished within a month as did the pretty salt and pepper sets, crockery, cutlery.

The culprits boat owners.

The only thing not classy about that interaction is that you didn’t agree to replace the wine. Any good quality restaurant/bar would have done that without question. Unless you are on par with a takeaway. And to laugh about it aswell shows how out of touch the staff are. Very low class

Hate those, especially if it makes people like yourself in hospitality not take real allergies seriously 🥲

Customer orders Mac and cheese.

I deliver Mac and cheese to customer at the table.

Customer complains it’s not the burger they ordered.

I told them they ordered Mac and cheese with me.

Customer agrees that’s what they ordered.

Very awkward pause…

I tell them they have Mac and cheese in front of them.

Customer argues it should be a cheese burger.

I explain Mac and cheese is short for macaroni cheese, with macaroni being a form of pasta, so essentially what they ordered was cheesy pasta.

Customer then tells me Mac is a burger at McDonald’s so they assumed it was a cheeseburger and they don’t like pasta.

Nope, not having it. The customer was out of touch with beach / countryside alfresco dining, and extremely rude to boot. The manager's decision was right IMO.

Eat what you like pizza buffet... two women with at least ten kids between them '2 buffet plates and a jug of tap water please'

I agree that's proper arsehole behaviour.

But one time I bought my son a hot dog and he dropped it on the floor a few minutes later. He was only five and very upset. I went back to the stall to get another one and the lady looked at his wee teary face and said "aw, did you drop your hot dog? Here, have another" and insisted it was free.

Different scenario of course but it was a long time ago now and I still remember how lovely she was. We've been back many times since.

Seagulls are a bloody menace

Also a lot of bigger shops like supermarkets. I used to go to the bank for non-Scot notes if I was having to go down south.

told her she’d ordered medium rare she replied “yes I know but just because its fairly difficult to find it doesn’t mean I don’t want it cooked!”

Oh, my, I love this! Wonder what 'very rare' is - unicorn steak?

There was a bee in the garden.She wrote a letter threatening legal action.