Servers see customers on their best and their worst behavior—but they’re also party to people who are downright weird when it comes to food. From impossible allergies to disturbing personal habits, they’ve seen it all. These servers came together to share the strangest requests they got on the job—and they make even the pickiest eater look normal.
1. A Tall Glass Of Nothing
A middle-aged lady insisted she didn’t like soda water or sparkling water, so instead asked for a white wine spritzer without the white wine. There are two ingredients to a spritzer. White wine and soda water.
2. Just Beet It
I once had a dude order a large garden salad, look me right in the eyes, and then make a request I’ll never forget. He just said: "No purple in it". I just acted like yeah sure okay… no follow-up questions. I didn’t trust the kitchen to understand the order so I ended up picking out anything purple colored in the salad. I then very nervously watched him pick through it.
He was satisfied enough and left a decent tip. I can never un-see purple things in my salad now, but I still eat them.
3. When Your Name Is An Oxymoron
Flava Flav came in to the restaurant I worked at. It was a fancy seafood place. He ordered just a plate of cucumbers for himself, everyone else at his table ordered normal things. I’m guessing he maybe doesn’t like seafood? Hilarious.
Yes, he wore a giant clock chain and he let the staff take pics with him as he said “Flava Flav!" Really nice guy.
kowarski, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
4. A Rare Order
Once, a very thin, middle-aged woman came in. She couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds soaking wet. She asked what our biggest steak was. I told her it was the 24 oz ribeye. She said, "Okay, I'll have that”. Our steaks came with two sides, so I asked which ones she'd like. She said "I don't want sides”. I told her they were included in the price, and she still refused them.
I bring out her steak and she begins eating. She's about a third of the way through when I ask, "How is everything?" She says, "Great. Bring me another steak”. I say, "Is there anything wrong with that one?" She says, "No, it's great. I want a second one”.
I go back to the chef and tell him, and he couldn't believe it. But we served her another steak. She ate all 48 oz of steak and left me a $40 tip.
5. He’s Got A Bad Wrap
In college I worked at a burrito shop on campus. One night this guy who was stoned out of his mind ordered a burrito with everything on it, 3x salsa, sour cream, extra beans, meat, rice, everything. I could barely wrap the burrito.
He walks over and sits at a table and takes one bite and all the burrito contents shopt out the bottom. He just went "Oh no" and then just started eating it out of his lap and off the table. It was entertaining to watch.
6. Coming In Hot
We had a woman send a grilled chicken salad back because it was cold. So we cooked some new chicken and made sure to send it back while still warm. She sent it back again. That’s when I made a disgusting realization.
The entire salad wasn't hot enough for her. We microwaved her salad. She ate it. I don't know man.
7. Kicking The Habit
The place I worked at had little water cups on the table and we kept them filled for customers. I sat a party of two women who said they were waiting for a third person. I went to fill their water cups. When I asked if I should fill the third one or wait for the third person to arrive, one woman said, "Oh, no need, he's trying to quit”.
I thought it was a joke, and when the third person (a man) got there, I went to fill his water. He said: "No, don't fill it, I'm trying to quit water!"
8. Their Demands Were Steep
I had this couple come in with their own tea set. The man asked me if had a few minutes to "learn a few things?" They were the second table I sat so I humored him. He showed me a very specific way of steeping and pouring the tea over a sugar cube and had me try it a couple times with water. The whole thing was sort of neat.
He then asked if I would mind serving them their tea this very particular way. They were super kind, even though the man had sort of an intense vibe to him. I filled the teapot with hot water, carried it out like he showed me, and poured their cups of tea exactly how he showed me.
He seemed extra pleased but never said a word or even looked at me. It was no problem and I felt super fancy doing it. I did refill their tea one time while they were there, and he also asked that I keep his wife's water glass full at all times.
I knew it was going to be a good table when the first time I came by and refilled her water glass and inquired if they needed any more tea, the man handed me $20 and sort of dismissed me. He did it twice more that afternoon. At the end they paid with no tip (I thought), but $60 and a cool lesson was enough for me. I was in for a big surprise.
My manager found me about an hour later and handed me an envelope and said they told him they only will come in when I am working from now on. The envelope had $100, a business card, and a handwritten thank you note. Apparently they had put this request up for many fine dining places and I was the only to get it right and do it "graciously".
It was very odd, because after the first lesson they treated me as if I was almost invisible, backed up by the fact they didn't tip me in person. On every return trip it was the same. If you didn't know the deal they would seem like cold jerks, but they tipped really well and I treated them like VIPs every time.
9. A Swing And A Miss
When I went to take an order from two men one grabbed my thigh and said, “I’ll have you. You look meaty”. The other guy at the table was mortified. I was unamused. The other servers wanted to take the table off me but I wasn’t traumatized…just annoyed.
10. The Last Supper
I used to work at a steakhouse. One night a guy came in with his family—and he told he a heartbreaking story. He said this would likely be the last meal he ever eats in a restaurant due to late stage stomach cancer. He ordered a full meal, including appetizer and dessert…but each course had to be blended.
He happily had his salad shake and his steak and potato shake. Of course the cheesecake and ice cream looked so good I made one for myself when I got off the clock.
He and his family were very grateful, spoke to my manager and commended me and the guys in the kitchen and left a healthy tip. If it truly was his last time eating out, I’m glad we made it good for him.
11. When You’re Here, You’re Unsettling
I used to work at Olive Garden. There was a lady that would come in at least once a week and she was dubbed by us staff as "pepperoncini lady". She would want you to open a new bag of the pepperoncini we used in the salads and pour out the juice in a cup, she would literally straight up drink the juice. She would also get a bowl of pepperoncini and just eat them.
12. Baby Blues
While working at a well-known chain "Italian" restaurant, we had a regular. She was late 30s and would come at least two times a week with her "baby". She always got the soup and salad and stayed for at least two hours, if not more.
The baby was always in an infant stroller with the canopy closed. She would "hush" anyone that came near her table, whether it be staff or guests, whispering, "My baby is sleeping". We never saw it. It never cried or made a sound. She never took it out of the stroller. Ever. This went on for over two years before I left that job.
A couple of years after I left, my family and I stopped in for lunch. There she was. Same "baby" in the same stroller.
Nicoleta Ionescu , Shutterstock
13. Good To The Last Drop
I had a couple that told me to wait before I pre-bussed their table so the man could lick every plate clean first. They had multiple apps and entrees between them and he licked every single one CLEAN before I was allowed to take it.
They weren’t in a private booth or anything. The other guests could see this happening.
14. Best Of Both Worlds
Years ago I worked at this amazing Breton French creperie in San Francisco, phenomenal food with a pretty small menu. This guy comes in and orders a sweet crepe with vanilla ice cream. No biggie.
Then he wants to add a sunny side up egg and parsley to this crepe. I ask him a number of times if he’s sure he knows what he’s getting and that it’s not 2 separate crepes, as in 1 sweet and 1 savory. He assures me.
Of course when I ring it in, the kitchen thinks I made a mistake to which I assure them, it’s not a mistake. I bring out said “vanilla ice cream with sunny side up egg” crepe and the client DEVOURS it. Weird.
15. I’ll Take Olive ‘Em
I worked at a sub shop where I didn't really care about "portions". This guy comes in and asks for tuna, avocado and black olives. I put it together.
"Hey, can I get some more olives?" Sure, I sprinkle some more on there.
"Anyway you can hook it up with more?" Ok, I throw another portion on there.
"Possible to get a bit more?" I plunge my hands into the container and grab two fists of olives and pour them on the sub, I can't close the thing with the amount of olives I got on there.
He grins and I watch this dude eat what turned into an olive sandwich with a hint of tuna. Whenever he came back he'd request me to make his sandwich cause, "That guy makes it right".
People like some weird stuff and he tipped pretty well.
16. Making Lemonade Out Of It
I had someone visibly offended that their glass of wine didn't have ice. After I get her a mug of ice to pour it over, she asked for sugar packets which she stirred into it. I could see she still wasn't enjoying it and offered to get her a soft drink instead. She gladly let me swap it for some lemonade.
17. To Each Their Own…
I used to work at a family restaurant and we had this regular we called the “iced tea guy”. He would come in and order a meal with iced tea and the iced tea was always refillable. Long story short everyone knew after his meal was done he would camp out, stay for a long time, and continue to ask for refills of the iced tea—but that wasn’t the strange part.
The weirdest thing about it was that iced tea guy would then ask permission to get up and go to the restroom... and if you said no he would give you $5 each time. In retrospect, I think it was some sort kink thing. It started getting weird—and then it culminated in an incident that got him banned.
Iced tea guy was in my station one day for a couple of hours and he had a new request for me. Iced tea guy wanted me to choose a piece of pie for him to eat with his hands…but he wanted to do it with shoes on his hands!
He asked me to help him buckle the straps on a pair of Mary Janes he busted out of a backpack and put on each hand. So then he ate a piece of Dutch apple pie a la mode with the shoes that were buckled on his hands. Anyway, he wasn’t allowed back after that day and I never saw him again.
There that’s my story of the strangest thing someone has ever asked me for when I was a server.
18. When It Rains, It Pours
I work somewhere that sells Macallan 25, it's a 25-year-aged scotch that is $350 for a 2oz pour. We don't sell it often, just for the occasional high roller, someone asked for two shots of it mixed with Diet Coke one night. The bartender crumbled inside pouring it for them, but a $700 tab is a $700 tab, we aren't in the business of telling you NOT to spend money.
19. The Upper Crust
I worked in an Italian place at the height of the Atkins diet craze. We had someone order a personal pizza, to go, no crust. Along with some other stuff for their family. My kitchen manager thought quick.
He took a piece of foil, built the pizza on top of it (sans crust) and ran it through the oven. We boxed it up and sent it out with the rest of the order. I never heard back from them, and to this day I'm still not sure if it was a genuine request, or someone’s idea of a joke. Either way, I don't really care.
20. Lessons Were Learned
I worked at Bob Evans 20 years ago and there were a few. First, there was the parsley woman. She would order a glass of milk and a large soup bowl full of parsley and eat it. No salad dressing or anything, just straight parsley.
Then there was the apple pie woman, she would order a piece of apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it, but the pie was almost never hot enough. We finally figured out how to make her happy, instead of microwaving the piece of pie for a minute, you'd microwave it for SEVEN minutes.
There was the fan lady. Not food related but the lady would come in every Sunday morning (our busiest time of the week) and demand that the speed of the fans for the whole restaurant be slowed down. She claimed she had a medical condition and got away with it for two months.
This stopped when one of the managers determined they also had a medical condition, but it required the fans to be left on at normal speed. This made fan lady very mad and she never came back.
My favorite, though, was the deep fried bacon guy. No complaint really…it turns out deep fried bacon is delicious!
21. Feel The Burn
I worked at an all you can eat sushi place and customers were allowed one bowl of ice cream—anything more and it would just be an all you can eat ice cream place. A woman once asked for chocolate ice cream—but that’s not the weird part. She wanted it with…a heaping side of wasabi. And then SHE ATE IT ALL MIXED TOGETHER.
She admitted to it being super weird but said it tasted great. It’s still the weirdest order I’ve taken to date—granted, I don’t work in food service anymore.
22. Taking “Iceberg” Literally
I was at a salad bar and a lady put lettuce on her plate and then covered it in ice. She ate it with a fork, attempting to stab the ice like croutons. No one else seemed to notice. She was chatting with the staff like any regular would. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone!
23. Whip It Good
When I was a server, the objects requested couldn't phase me. The quantities of what was requested had the ability to make me question the customer's sanity.
30 ramekins of whipped butter was pretty impressive. The lady who ate them appeared to be in her 40s or 50s and nothing odd or noteworthy about her appearance. She was a bit on the thin side, if anything. That table was a party of eight and she seemed to be the center of attention.
24. Taking “All Dressed” Too Far
I worked at a country club in high school, and with your meal you received a salad. I asked what dressing she’d like and proceeded to name 15 dressings we had. She told me they all sound delicious—but then she took it to the next level.
She said she wanted to have them all on the salad. I initially thought she meant ramekins of each of the dressings, but she said no, she wanted them all on the physical salad. I proceeded to bring a salad with 15 dollops of dressing on it, ranging from vinaigrettes, honey mustard, Chinese peanut dressing, raspberry dressing, ranch, blue cheese, and others.
I watched her from the server station then mix the salad with all the dressings and each every bite of the salad then used the bread to clean the leftover dressing on the plate. By far the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen, there is no way that combination would taste good.
25. Instructions Included
We have a family of regulars who come in and immediately hand their server a printed out list of their order with everything coursed out, including drink refills.
The first time I had them, they seemed almost rude and found any questions I had regarding their order as intrusions, but they always tip well. By now, I know the drill and handle the whole interaction almost without saying a word. I guess they just want their evening to be as distraction-free as possible.
26. He Said Damp, Not Wet
An old man once asked me for a damp napkin to clean his glasses. Although an odd request at a restaurant, I ran a napkin under water and came back to give it to him. He then asked why I was giving him a wet napkin. I have had absurd experiences with other types of jobs but none more than in the restaurant industry.
27. No Means No
I'm not a server, but one time I was in line at a subway. The guy in front of me ordered a cold cut combo. Starting normal. But he follows up with: "And add meatballs to that”. The girl making it paused for a second, but pushed through. But then she did what her job demanded. She asked what kind of cheese he wanted.
The man looked her right in the eyes, didn't hesitate and said, "Cottage”. Her reaction was unforgettable.
The sandwich artist looked at him and just said "No”. To this day, I have no idea if she said no because they didn't have cottage cheese or because she was too disgusted to make it. But that one word "no" sent me into a fit of laughter and I had to leave the line.
28. Going Above & Beyond
Honestly, I'd say the weirdest thing was that while I was a server at a restaurant in the Royal Hawaiian, a guest asked me to book a shark adventure tour. It had nothing to do with my job or even the hotel. Those tours were entirely separate businesses. I took his black card, went to guest services, picked up a pamphlet, and booked the tour. He tipped me $250 dollars. Totally worth it!
29. Sweet N High
There was a lady who appeared to be a little older but looked like she took care of herself and had some plastic surgery done to her face. She asked me for a Coke Zero with extra Splenda on the side. I brought out a few packets but she asked me for a bowl of the sweetener. I then watched her tear open packet after packet to add to her diet soda. After she left I counted how many she used: 16! For a 16oz soda. I replicated the drink to try with my coworkers on shift, just to see what she was thinking. I was trying to slurp a solid through my straw. I then decided maybe it wasn’t Botox but lots of preservatives that made her appear more…youthful.
30. Parlez-Vous Francais?
Once when I was working, a lady ordered a charcuterie board and when it arrived, with disgust, she asked me to take it away because it had meat on it. I carefully explained that the ingredients were listed in the menu and that the meat was implied by the name of the dish. She remained unfazed and I returned the board to the kitchen. That was fun.
31. Gotta Start Somewhere
I worked in a sushi/steak restaurant and we had a sushi roll for people to "try" sushi even if they didn't like fish. It had baked chicken cut into strips, cream cheese and avocado inside.
Someone came in and asked to replace the cream cheese with cheddar cheese. We had burgers so the sushi person took a slice of cheddar cheese we would use for burgers and crumpled it up to put in the roll.
The person liked it so much they got a second order and declared that they loved sushi now.
32. Squeezed Dry
This woman sent a steak back nine times...not to be replaced, though. She would eat a bit and have it cooked more...then eat a bit and have it cooked more. The thing was black and she still wanted the juiced cooked out. Anytime even a drop of juice came out of it, she sent it back…eat a little…hit a middle part where a tiny, tiny drop of liquid comes out…send it back.
I mean this thing was well well well done and she was still complaining. Why even have a steak if you hate the meat juice in it...it was just a dry burnt steak. By the last time she sent it back the part left was maybe the size of a chicken finger and she still wanted to "cook off the juices".
But to each their own.
33. Eatin’ Weird In The Neighborhood
I used to work at a chain restaurant in college. Let’s call it Crapplebees. This woman comes in and asks for a glass of “the mango stuff”. I clarify whether she wants a mango tea or mango lemonade and she says, “No, just the mango stuff”.
For reference, the mango stuff is syrup. Literally sugar syrup with fake mango flavor and food coloring. I explain that the mango stuff is not juice. It is syrup. She insists she wants just the mango stuff. I bring her a glass of straight up mango syrup. She drinks the whole thing and takes one to go.
Not to mention…we had to charge her like $12 a glass because she drank a bottle and a half of mango syrup that would’ve made like 50 mango lemonades. She was cool with that.
34. Say Less
I worked the kitchen at KFC, but from time to time we would all throw on the headsets for drive thru just to listen in. One night we get a guy put in a typical order, but then he starts in on: "Can I get extra hot sauce? I like it hot and spicy. Do you like it hot and spicy? I really like it hot and, I got to have it spicy”. He went on and on.
He pulled up to the window with his wife in the passenger seat and his kids in the back who looked mortified.
35. Holy Puck
I was working lounge side grill one night at a hotel, we had a steak sandwich special. This British businessman orders a steak, well done. He gets a by-the-book well done, but it's not well done enough, according to him. I throw it back on the grill for a few more minutes. Still not enough. Back on for a few more minutes. By now the steak is essentially a hunk of blackened charcoal. But then it gets so much worse.
It's still not cooked enough, apparently...so he asks us to boil it. Like literally boil it in hot water. I do so for a full two minutes.
He personally thanked me, and said it was the best steak he'd had since coming to Canada. I remade it later for my chef and neither of us could even choke down one bite. It was literally like trying to eat a hockey puck.
36. Goodness Gracious, Greats Balls Of Fire
The order was a shot of Fireball, plus hot sauce in a double shot glass. I thought it would be way too much. A half oz of hot sauce just shot back?
So the guy ordered it many a time, and eventually I asked him about it. He told me to try it, which I refused. Not a fan of spicy stuff. He repeatedly told me that it wasn't spicy! Of course I didn't believe him, the thing was like 1/3 hot sauce! He was clearly trying to prank someone who didn't like spicy stuff.
Anyhow, after a year of us going back and forth about it, I finally lamented when he told me he would tip me $20 to take the shot.
So I did.
Crazy how it’s not hot at all. Like its LESS spicy than normal Fireball.
37. When Two Halves Don’t Make A Whole
When I was a server in Aspen in a fine dining restaurant in a very expensive hotel, there was this woman who used to stay at the hotel for the entire month of December each year. She ate in the restaurant four or five nights each week of her stay, and she always requested me as her server.
Every time she dined with us, without exception, she ordered two half bottles of the same Burgundy and drank all of both of them. We definitely had full bottles of this Burgundy, which I told her multiple times, but each time she insisted on the half bottles. And each time I would suggest the full bottle, her reaction was bizarre.
She would look at me like I was completely insane—like I’d suggested she light her hair on fire or something. It was just so odd to me. This was almost 20 years ago, and I still think about it often. The half bottles were $175 each, and the full bottle was $300.
38. Triangle Of Sadness
Former Subway sandwich artist here. A guy wanted a footlong turkey sandwich and for me to put tomatoes on it, but to cut each tomato slice into quarters and for the round edges to face the hinge of the bread and the right angle points to face the outside of the bread.
The white American triangle cheese pieces needed to be split in half and those smaller triangles needed to be put between certain slices of turkey to supposedly fill in the triangle gaps of the quartered tomatoes when the sandwich when it closed.
I apparently didn't figure it out perfectly by his standards because he started screaming at me and knocked over some stuff. I remember being surprised in that moment that I'm actually involved in an interaction this ridiculous.
39. Taken With A Grain Of Salt
I served a woman who wanted to order a grilled shrimp Caesar, but she had to know where the shrimp were caught because she was (not visibly) pregnant. It was a whole thing in the kitchen—the shrimp’s from Cysco, no idea where did they get the shrimp, what body of water?
She ordered the grilled chicken Caesar because we couldn’t be specific enough about the shrimp—but the best part was yet to come. This apparently pregnant customer then asked for a margarita rocks, extra salt.
40. Do The Dew
I worked at Golden Corral for a while and an EMT walked in on Christmas Eve, my birthday, and the only thing he did was drink Mountain Dew. He seemed depressed, maybe the holidays, maybe he had been out on a hard call, maybe because he was alone, not sure.
I kept insisting he eat something since he had to pay for the buffet just to come in and sit down, but he only wanted Mountain Dew refills. I tried talking to him, he spoke some but not a lot. After he finished his 11th cup of Mountain Dew he left while I was in the back.
I came back to the table to find him gone and a note that read, "Thank you for your kindness, I hope this holiday season brings you some happiness," and he left me a $100 bill. I will never forget this guy, and he never came in again the six months I continued working there after. Hope he's okay.
41. Too Hot To Handle
I had a mother ask if I could microwave her babies formula. Sure, no sweat. Except she was adamant that it be microwaved for as long as she did it at home.
I took the bottle, microwaved it what I figured was about the right time on our industrial use microwave...maybe 20 seconds or so. I temped it and got 97 degrees, took it back out to her. She sent it back without even testing it, because it was quicker than the 3 and a half minutes that she KNEW it would need. I knew just what to do.
I took it back and set it on the counter. Waited 4 minutes, popped it back in the microwave for just a second (more so she'd hear the beep of it going off) and took it back out to her. This time it was "perfect".
Yes, she was a jerk, and I was tempted to take her instructions literally. But I'm not going to ruin a baby's bottle, and potentially seriously injure the baby (if she didn't verify temp because she "knows"). That poor baby didn't ask to be born to a witch.
42. He Had Beef With The Kitchen
Academy Award-nominated, Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, father of Jamie Lee Curtis, actor Tony Curtis...was the single most miserable jerk I ever had the honor of waiting on.
He was staying at the resort the restaurant I worked at was in, so I had the privilege of attending to him several times over the week.
He was insufferably smug and condescending, several times saying “This isn't' what I ordered," even though his order had been read back to him and confirmed. How many times can you order in a restaurant and get something you don't think you ordered, before you start to ask if maybe it's you?
But his most ridiculous order really grossed me out. He ordered a hamburger, wanted it cooked rare. So the chef cooked him his burger, and when I brought it out to him he said, "It's too overdone, redo it". So I told the chef and he made a rarer burger, yet Curtis sent that one back too.
Now the chef is furious so he made a patty of raw hamburger and waves a torch over it so it's barely brown and ice cold in the middle. The guy loved it. He said it was the best burger he ever had. But he still complained about how long it took to get his meal.
I remember the chef saying: "If that's what he wanted, he should have ordered a tartare aller-retour, is it too much to ask that people learn the name of the weird thing they like to eat?" I have to look up that name every time I tell this story.
43. Bringing Home The Bacon
This guy would come in and want our giant chicken dinner salad. Every single ingredient had to be on a separate plate. And he wanted to cut his own cucumber, tomatoes and onion. I’m surprised he didn’t ask us to give him the cheese to shred. The salad didn’t come with egg, but he would also request two boiled eggs to cut up.
He also wanted his bread burned. When we saw him walk in, we would shove some bread to the back of the oven and tell everyone not to touch it. He would assemble his salad, scoop out the inside of his bread, put salad in the burnt shell of bread and eat like that. Did I mention he didn’t want dressing either?
I also had a family that would come in on Friday nights and request me as their server. They always tipped on the high end, so I didn’t mind. They would get two tables as they had four kids. Mom and Dad at one and the kids at another. The kids were all old enough to order for themselves. Youngest was about four.
Standard chicken strips or burgers. The youngest always asked for bacon. Just bacon. I double checked with Mom. Yep. Eight pieces of bacon for the kid for dinner. No bread, no nothing. Mom said she goes through about a pound of bacon a day for her as it was all she would eat.
This was about 15 years ago so the kid is either very unhealthy or no longer among the living. And one time Mom opened her purse and handed me about 20 of our very specific ramekins. She always just stick them in her to go box and would bring them back when they stacked up.
44. It’s Always The Ranch Dressing People
I'm not a server, but I was at a Mongolian Barbecue restaurant once and watched a lady lose her mind. If you're not familiar with a Mongolian BBQ, you go through a buffet line of cold/frozen/raw ingredients, then you add whatever sauce and seasoning you want, then your food gets cooked on a large flat-top, then you go to your table and eat it.
She went through the buffet line, got a bowl of vegetables and frozen meat, and went back to her table. I saw her calling her server over, and they had a conversation, and the lady started to get heated. It took a minute to realize what was really happening.
Eventually she was SCREAMING about the fact that this "salad bar" doesn't have ranch dressing.
45. Whatever It Takes
I worked at a large seafood chain. Lady comes in and wants two pounds of crab legs, ok no problem. She then tells me crab legs are her favorite food but she became allergic like 10 years earlier, so what she does is once a year will come in and eat them and stab herself with her Epi-pen.
She put an extra one on the table and asked me to stick her if the first one didn’t work.
Krakenimages.com , Shutterstock
46. Lost And Found
In 2008-09 I worked as a cashier—not technically a “server” but we did serve their meals to their tables…so I guess I was one—at a fast casual restaurant in the South. Where I worked was in the food court of the mall, but you could see the entrance of the restaurant up front next to entrance of the mall.
So I’m standing at the register, waiting for someone to come in. It was slow as it was just after lunch rush. In comes this guy who looked very confused and maybe under the influence. I say, “Hi, what can I get for you”? His answer blew me away.
With a completely serious look on his face, he said, “I want to pay my cable bill”. I forget exactly what I said at that moment, but it was something to the effect of, “You’re at x deli, the kiosk for y cable company is just through the food court, can I get you something to eat?"
Crazy dude says, “No. I want to pay my cable bill here. Now”.
I said, “Well this isn’t the cable company. This is a restaurant”.
Dude is like. “Well, the address is the same!"
“Yes because it’s just outside the food court. I can show you if you like”.
Then he just had this weird look on his face like he snapped in from another dimension, looked up and around like he just woken from a dream…and walked out never to be seen again. Me and my supervisor laughed so hard after that. I think back to it and I laugh every time.
47. There’s Always A Twist
I used to work at a Japanese restaurant and I once had someone come up to me and ask me if we had any low sodium soy sauce. The request itself was not so strange and I gave him the bottle we kept behind the counter. The strange thing was what he used the soy sauce for, which was pouring some of it into his Pepsi.
48. Too Slow To Say No
I was hosting at a chain restaurant. I seated this young couple and their infant. As they were walking out after their meal, the lady stopped at the door, looked back at me, and asked, “Can you throw this away for me?" I wasn’t wearing my glasses that day and didn’t realize what she handed me—and when I did I was horrified.
It dawned on me when my hand was suddenly warm. It was a full diaper.
49. Hail Caesar
I was on a date and she ordered a chicken Caesar salad with no croutons, chicken, cheese or dressing.
The waiter looked at me and I had the same perplexed look.
He said, “So just a bowl of lettuce?"
She said “No, chicken Caesar without the croutons, chicken, cheese or dressing”.
She got a bowl of lettuce. When I asked her about it, her reasoning was deranged. She said you still get all the flavor of the stuff that was in it. I think she was under the impression they premade the salads and just picked the ingredients out before serving.
That was our only date.
50. Consider It A Gift, Not A Loan
I once had a regular customer at the place I worked at ask for a tablecloth—and the reason why was seriously disturbing. He’d soiled himself at the booth and asked for a tablecloth so he could walk out with it wrapped around him.
I still serve him to this day and that was around 15 years ago, no shame. He still comes in once a week. We never asked about getting the tablecloth back…
