To Ask For An Omelette?!

[MagicalMrsMistoffelees]

Cafe Rouge has a range of menus covering different times. We visited for lunch today at around 12.30pm and I asked for an omelette and fries. It's not on the main menu but is on other menus. I've been to CR twice before and made this request and both times they were fine about it.

Today the waitress said a straight no. She said the breakfast menu was no longer being served (fair enough) and the whisk had been washed up. She was friendly but certain that we could only order off the main menu. I mentioned that I'd been to CR before and it hadn't been a problem but she said they wouldn't have the eggs prepared and it wasn't happening. I shrugged it off, ordered something else and thought no more. But 10 minutes later she came back and said actually I could have an omelette after all, it was no problem. I'd gone off the idea by then. But it got me thinking.

Was it unreasonable to ask for an omelette?! I thought, based on my previous visits both to CR and other restaurants that requests were usually no problem. But this got me thinking. Perhaps it's not as straightforward as it seems?! A couple of eggs whisked in a bowl and heated in a frying pan seems fairly basic but maybe not. (Especially if the whisk has already been washed up. ) Can anyone who's worked in a restaurant enlighten me please?

[iwouldgoouttonight]

A microwaved frozen omelette sounds revolting.

I love an omelette though, as a veggie with coeliac disease it's often the only thing on a menu I can eat, and I've often asked for one even if it's not on the menu. There's a greasy spoon near us that does the best ever cheese omelette. I bet they have several whisks.

[CombineBananaFister]

Sounds daft Barbaraofseville but they might not just have been lazy in Morrisons by not selfsupplying muffins from the shop floor. Quite often cafes attatched to other big companies aren't always run by them and are contracted out so their stock can come from a completely different supplier. Even if it is run by the same company they can sometimes use different stock to the shop floor so it would knacker their stockfile - ridiculous, I know

[SaucyJack]

I tend to assume none of those places have an actual chef cooking in the kitchen, so I'd never bother asking for something that wasn't on the menu.

[BarbaraofSeville]

I'm just stunned that anyone thinks that it's worth going to the effort of pre-preparing an omelette, packaging it, freezing it, defrosting it and warming it up again.

I have an omelette for breakfast nearly every day and it takes about 5 minutes to make and eat.

[honeyroar]

That's the trouble when you go the extra mile and do something off menu for a customer, quite often you get it thrown back in your face rather sarcastically when you have to say no the next time. It's often possible but you should understand when they say no.

[SparklyPenguin]

Supply chain Barbara . This method makes perfect sense if a centralised factory-kitchen overseen by a decent chef is making several thousand of the same item at the same quality (eg. omelettes) at a time, to go to multiple sites where lower-skilled staff with limited kitchen facilities can simply reheat them. It's cheaper for the company over all. And of course you can quickly knock up a nice omelette for yourself, most people can, but you're not also simultaneously catering to 75 other people having different dishes.

[SeaRabbit]

Barbara I can remember seeing frozen omelette mix on sale in Morrisons in Leeds circa 1984. For the reasons you gave it didn't take off but someone obviously thought it was worth trying.

[CandOdad]

Much easier for them to buy ready frozen omelettes, defrost and then add filling.

[oldlaundbooth]

I can hear the whisk right now:

'I want to come back out! Let me be used for an omelet! I'm here!! HERE!'