Your standards are essential to uphold, especially when paying for something.
However, being picky is sometimes not in your best interests. Some Reddit users have shared their experiences with highly picky eaters.
Some laughed, while others were left fuming afterward.
Every experience is different, but one thing was common – these customers needed a chill pill.
We were at Wendy’s when a man came in to buy a milkshake. There was nothing unusual about it until he came back 10 minutes later, his girlfriend behind him, complaining that the consistency was too “milky” for his liking.
By then, there was about one-tenth of the milkshake left in the cup. One of the employees told them that if they wanted a thicker milkshake, they should have ordered a “thick shake.”
Suddenly, the woman took the cup from her boyfriend and threw the contents in the employee’s face.
The employee was on immediate defense and used a caramel sauce bottle to squeeze sauce into the woman’s face.
That wasn’t all – he added sprinkles! He got fired on the spot, but I hope he thought it was worth it as I did.
Story Credit: Reddit/Matt_Surname
I worked at a place that often had people requesting for their “undercooked” burgers to be remade. There usually wasn’t any fuss about it, but there was always that one ridiculous customer every now and then.
We had a customer walk to the counter one day and tell us that their burger was undercooked. They were adamant that we recook their food despite not telling us they had already eaten three-quarters of the burger.
My manager smiled as he told them we would recook it, but he had something else planned. We had just finished with the burger, and he cut the burger into quarters.
The look on the customer’s face when our manager gave them only a quarter was rewarding enough.
Story Credit: Reddit/rbodnicki
I was a waitress at an Italian restaurant when this forty-something-year-old lady ordered a Hawaiian pizza. She later threw a fuss, saying that we got her order wrong, so I asked her what was wrong with it.
She told me it was the toppings, but I was confused when I re-checked them: It had diced tomatoes, ham, and pineapples. That’s how it was listed on the menu, and I pointed it out to her. She screeched as she told me that pineapples were orange, so why were these yellow?
I called my manager, and he tried to explain to her that pineapples are, in fact, yellow and not orange. “If you don’t like it, you can order something else. On the house,” he said. She angrily said no. She specifically wanted the Hawaiian pizza and explained the “right” pineapples.
I asked her if she meant oranges, but she insisted that she was describing a pineapple. After a few minutes of listening to her, I googled each fruit and showed her the images. “Yes!” She yelled and pointed to the oranges. “I want those!” We informed her that the restaurant did not have those before my manager told her that she could either eat what she had or pick something else. She left the restaurant.
Story Credit: Reddit/ autumnx
Someone ordered a pizza with fresh jalapenos, and we cut them longways. He was angry when I gave it to him and demanded why we put bell peppers on it instead. I informed him they were jalapenos, but he didn’t believe me.
He barged into the kitchen to voice his concerns to the chef. “I can’t believe you don’t know the difference between jalapenos and bell peppers,” he said.
The chef held up a while jalapeno and asked the guy to confirm if it was one; he said yes. He placed it on the chopping board and sliced it like it was on the pizza. “Does this look like what you have?” he asked.
The guest was lost for words, and I didn’t get a great tip.
Story Credit: Public Domain
We had a guy come in one day who ordered a Grade 9 Wagyu scotch fillet medium rare. The steak cost him $63, but it was slightly under medium rare, so he cut it up into tiny pieces. We could have cooked it more for him if he hadn’t cut it up. He asked for another steak and what he did next shocked me even more.
He did it again! He said it was undercooked after cutting it into tiny pieces. The kitchen was fuming after he had just wasted $120 worth of meat.
He then ordered a pasta dish which I brought out after being prepared. He consumed everything but claimed it was awful. He told the waitress at the counter that he was friends with the owner and that she should only bill him for a bowl of chips.
I don’t know what my boss did about the situation and if the guy got away with it, but I get mad whenever I think about it.
Story Credit: Reddit/asdqwezc
Three women ordered what seemed to be a simple order: a pork sandwich and two cheeseburgers. But there was more to this order than there seemed.
The customers were on the Atkins diet and asked for no buns, cheese, or toppings.
I brought out three plates with two patties and another with a pork sandwich without any onions, coleslaw, cheese, bread, or fries.
They were confused by what they saw and questioned me about it. I told them it was a pork sandwich without the usual sides. I’m still unsure of what they thought it was going to be.
Story Credit: Reddit/MsBananaHammock
I used to work at a snack bar in a zoo with one of those ice cream carts with wheels. We would spend the day in different areas of the park. One day, I was stationed at the playground. I didn’t enjoy it because the children ran around while their parents sat on benches and ignored them. I spent the old day telling kids that they couldn’t have ice cream if they didn’t have the money to pay for it. But this day, in particular, was when I said no, and the kid completely lost it.
He threw himself onto the ground and wailed. I went about helping the other customers while he had his tantrum. He eventually got up and returned a few minutes later with his mom in tow. He was sniffling back his tears, happy that he was going to get an ice cream. He chose the priciest option, and the mother told him she would get him whatever he wanted.
I gave her the ice cream, and she handed it to her son, who immediately started drooling. It melted quickly in the hot weather. I showed her the price when she was ready to pay, but she didn’t like what she saw. Her son had already started eating it by then, and she eventually settled the amount.
She handed me primarily pennies and nickels. She wanted napkins, but I explained that littering prohibited their distribution. That’s when she lost it. She snatched the ice cream from her son and threw it at me. He cried as she took money from my tip jar before storming away. The only thing I had to clean my shirt was leaves. I still had to spend the rest of the day at my post.
Story Credit: Reddit/MelvinGro
I worked at the Dairy Queen, and I was good at making Blizzards. Once, a woman came through the drive-thru and asked for a small Oreo Blizzard.
She poked at it after I had handed it to her, seemingly suspicious of the contents.
She was unhappy with her Oreos and said they were chopped. I offered to make another one and decided to mix it for a few seconds so that the chunks would be bigger. I handed it over, relieved that she seemed pleased.
She asked if she could have the first one for free. I said no and threw it away, explaining that it was too pulverized.
Story Credit: Public Domain
One year, before I was a chef, I worked at an “Orient Express” booth at the state fair.
A woman wanted a plate of sweet and sour chicken but came back ten minutes later with her plate.
The fried chicken chunks were broken open, and the chicken was gone.
She claimed no chicken was in the breading and asked for a refund.
Story Credit: Reddit/ HexKrak
We sent out an order of grilled chicken that a customer had requested. We ensured it was well done as they wanted, so we left the chicken on for a bit extra before sending it out. The customer sent it back, saying it was uncooked.
We were all confused, but we were going to ensure it was cooked this time. The chicken got thrown in the microwave for a minute, then back on the grill for another few minutes. We sent out the meal again. Meanwhile, everyone had the vibe that this customer was searching for a free meal.
The customer sent it back again, stating that the chicken was still raw. All the line cooks were mad at that point, as the chicken couldn’t get any more cooked without being burnt. Still, they weren’t about to give this lady a free meal.
We ended up cutting it into cubes, per our manager’s order. We microwaved it for a few minutes and grilled it for even longer. The customer still complained but ended up eating this disgusting chicken. The chicken, at that point, must have been like eating warm sawdust.
Story Credit: Reddit/emtfletch
I owned a restaurant. I had a table of three come in and order a fish stew. It would take 45 minutes to make one because it was all made on the spot; it said so on the menu. I also always made a point of saying, “That’s going to take at least 40 minutes to make. Are you willing to wait that long?” The customers said they were sure that they wanted the fish stew. I transmitted the order to the kitchen, gave them some bread, tuna fish paste, and stuff to get them going, and brought them their drinks. Fifteen minutes after I left, the lady waved me over and asked if the fish stew would take much longer. I told her it would be at least another 25 minutes.
She wondered if there was any way of making it cook faster; there wasn’t. She said other places she knows never take that long for their fish stew and start spewing names of well-known restaurants in Lisbon. I told her I understood but that there was nothing I could do and that I did ask them if they were willing to wait. She told me it was a disgrace and that we should be ashamed of our service, then asked for more vino.
When the fish stew was finally ready, I brought it over and asked them if they needed anything else. They told me they didn’t, and I promptly took off to tend to other tables. Five minutes later, I came back to check if they liked it and if they needed anything else. They said everything was OK. I went away again, and about five minutes after that, they waved me over again and told me there were two flies in their stew.
I looked over, and there were, in fact, two lifeless flies in their stew. It was an odd occurrence because my mother ran the kitchen, and she was a hygiene maniac. I profusely apologized and asked her if she wanted the complaints book or if she’d like to order something else. She said she’d like the complaints book and to talk to the manager. I was the owner, so I put up with her, apologized, and told her that there would be no charge. She filled out her complaint in the complaint book and went to the bathroom. As I was clearing her table, I made an infuriating discovery. I found a Ziploc bag with three deceased flies beneath her chair. I waited until she returned from the bathroom and said, “I found this near your chair. We will not serve you if you return to this restaurant again. I will spread the word about you, and there is no place in this area where you will get away with this trick again. Now [get out]”. She went away, saying that it wasn’t hers and that she would call the health inspectors to come and shut us down. I got a picture of her from the security camera footage and sent it to other restaurant owners.
Story Credit: Reddit/bananomgd
I was a line cook in a fairly upscale seafood restaurant. Once in the middle of a busy Saturday dinner rush, we got an order for an ahi tuna tartare.
The way we plated our tartare was pretty elaborate and took a good seven minutes to create. I happened to be tasked with building the tartare that day. I sent it out, and it was beautiful.
Wasabi and sriracha aioli designs surrounded the cucumber slices, and seaweed salad and ginger piled around the perfectly stacked raw tuna marinated in ponzu and eel sauce. I sent it out the window, and it came back almost immediately—the reason why shook me.
The lady who had ordered it “doesn’t do raw fish.” She requested that we sauté the fish and rebuild the plate for her with a gross pile of well-done cooked tuna chunks slopped in the middle.
Story Credit: Reddit/Jeffers315
I worked at a restaurant where we offered a grilled two-pound lobster for $60. It was hefty enough, but you could also get it stuffed with crab meat and bread crumbs for an additional $10. So, a woman at my table inquired about the additional price and said, “Ah, well, I’d love to get the stuffing, but I’m not going to run up the bill that much.”
I told her I understood, smiled, and ordered the basic grilled lobster. As it turned out, the kitchen made a mistake and prepared the lobster with the additional stuffing anyways. I brought it down to her and explained that there would be NO additional charge since it was the kitchen’s mistake and to enjoy it! Big mistake.
She ate the entire lobster and then waved me over and said, “Yeah, I know this had the stuffing and everything, but that’s just not what I ordered, and I’d like them to remake it for me. I’m just not very full because it was mostly bread crumbs”.
I politely told her that it was exactly the same amount of meat, with bread crumbs and crab added. Then, she said it seemed like we had removed a lot of the lobster to fill it with bread crumbs. At that point, my manager assured her this was not the case. Still, she demanded that we make her another. She started making a real fuss about how “this wasn’t what she ordered” and how the enhanced dish version left her hungry. Needless to say, the kitchen was mad. We remade it, didn’t charge her for the second one, and even tried to comp her dessert to keep her happy. But that wasn’t the worst part. After all that, she stiffed me on a $140 tab, making sure to write on the bill, “the service was HORRIBLE” because I think she picked up on our disgust at her lack of tact.
Story Credit: Reddit/KNesbitt11
A horrible woman came in and ordered mussels. After my friend brought their plate out, the woman claimed that the kitchen had taken the meat out of the shells.
My friend tried to explain that live mussels are placed in the pan, so it is not possible that there are more shells than meat pieces.
The woman then spread the shells and meat on the tablecloth to prove her point. She discovered that she was wrong and stormed out.
The awkward part was that the woman was at a table with three other friends who were mortified and paid for the meal leaving a huge tip.
Story Credit: Reddit/grownupprosie
I used to work for a sandwich restaurant where you filled out your order on a paper bag and wrote your name on it. When it was done, we would call out your name, and you would come to pick it up.
The sandwich-making process took about five minutes, so most people would go and fill up their drinks and sit down to wait, but some entitled folks still needed to do this.
They would come in, order, walk to the end of the prep line, and grab the sandwiches that were there as the actual owners of those sandwiches were approaching. Then, they would sit down and begin to eat them. The sandwich thieves would then get very flustered that the sandwich was nothing like they ordered and push angrily to the front of the line to yell and complain.
Meanwhile, the people whose sandwiches had been taken would begin to do the same. We would have to make a ton of replacement sandwiches because a group of idiots didn’t understand that if they didn’t fill out the bag for that sandwich, and if their name wasn’t on it, it was not theirs.
Story Credit: Reddit/IsHomestuckAnAnime
I had a guy eat his entire 14-ounce prime rib, except for the fat. He had made a pile of the fat on his plate and asked me to weigh it so he could have a pro-rated refund equivalent to the weight of the fatty bits.
Roasted prime rib contains a ring of fat in the middle and is often served with some fat at the tip.
People usually enjoy eating fat with meat.
By itself, the fat probably didn’t weigh much, but after the guy had ravaged his plate, the pile of disembodied fat resembled a neat stack of biological debris.
Story Credit: Reddit/Konstantin_Levin
I was the assistant manager at a burrito place. During our annual town festival, it got packed. There were 30 chairs in the area, and there would easily be twice as many people waiting for meals; the line would run out of the door. One day, it was so busy that we were yelling for names, handing people their orders, and politely explaining that we were breaking the fire code and needed the customers to head outside to the festival tables.
We had a guy complain about the wait, and our cashier told him we were working on it. He got his order and immediately asked for it to be remade. He said with the wait. He knew his food was cold. So, we prioritized it and rushed it out in a few seconds. He then went to stand in the window and eat.
I don’t have time to argue with him. I started fuming when I saw him coming back to the cash. He started complaining about wanting another burrito because the one he had was wrong. He wouldn’t tell me how or why it was wrong; it was just wrong.
The owner came flying out of the kitchen, pulled the register open, and pulled out $20. He walked over, pulled the half-eaten $7 burrito out of the guy’s hands, handed him the bill, and told him to get out. It was pretty nice. That day I learned that if you are a big enough problem, my boss would pay you to go away.
Story Credit: Reddit/Nohvarr
I had dinner with a crazy family friend who refused to eat anything brought to the table. We were at an old country-style restaurant that didn’t have menus; you eat what they bring out.
She insisted that they make her special portions of their traditional recipe dishes, prepared precisely how she wanted them.
She then went back to the kitchen to ensure they followed her instructions exactly. She told us—with pride—that she had them remake her vegetables three times. I was 12, and it was my birthday dinner.
I’ve never been so embarrassed. I asked the waiter to take me into the kitchen. I told my folks that after she went back, I wanted to see the big kitchen. I did apologize to all the cooking and wait staff for my guest.
Story Credit: Reddit/TheWoodchuck
