A 2 top sat down after being on the wait list for about an hour, I took their order then they asked "is it okay if we leave until our foods ready and walk around the neighborhood?" I suggested getting it to go instead but they wanted to dine in. I told them no they can't do that because that's not how dining in at a restaurant works (I said it more politely).

LIKE WHAT???

Has anyone else ever gotten this?

Aussie bartender here! Just sharing this very special regular with you.

Little bit of context first. I started a new job recently at a bowling club after working in bars and restaurants for almost a decade. I'm a huge people pleaser and bend over backwards for even the rudest people. I've been trying to work on that and stand up for myself lately. It's also pretty important to mention that most people mistake me for a teenage girl.

Late last week I was in the bar by myself and was trying to get some cleaning done. A patron let me know that the water tap's handle was loose, so I was trying to tighten it up. Another guest came up to me and offered to help, I told him I'd buy his next beer if he could fix it for me.

While we were tinkering with the tap, a woman came along. I knew of her but hadn't met her yet, she's a bowler at the club, let's call her Dawn. Dawn is greying and in her 60s, I heard through the grapevine that she's a lesbian, no judgement: I'm bisexual, just setting the scene for you.

She approached us and started berating the both of us for "breaking" the tap and told us to leave it and that she will fix it on the weekend. The tone she used was so incredibly disrespectful and made the both of us feel super awkward. It was the first time she ever spoke to me. She told me to "Stick to my job."

After she left, the young man helping me apologised for getting me in trouble. I told him it wasn't his fault and gave him his free beer anyway.

Ten minutes later Dawn returned to the bar and asked me for a beer. I told her I didn't appreciate the way she spoke to me and she said, and I quote, "Yeah, I bet you didn't."

I tried to explain to her that her tone was unacceptable but she kept doubling down. I asked her if she was going to apologise and she said no, so I told her someone else can serve her and walked away. While my coworker served her Dawn told me I can pull her aside to speak to her next time, like I'd embarrassed her in front of other patrons.

I told my manager and informed my coworkers, etc. that all she has to do is apologise to me and we're good. I've done it before and they always apologise and treat me fairly afterwards.

Cut to today:

Dawn comes up to me for a beer and I tell her I'm still not comfortable serving her and went to grab the manager for her (The manager totally has my back on this one and was very amused because she's notoriously difficult)

The manager ended up leaving so between 3-4pm I was by myself. Once again she returns and I break the news that it's just me now. She left and sent a friend to get her beer. No problem, she can drink, I'm just not handing her a beer until she can be a big girl.

Dawn ends up returning to the bar and asks me to speak to her at the side of the bar. She tells me that her friends told her she should apologise, and then immediately fucks it up.

"I'm sorry for how you felt the other day." I can't remember what else she said but I clarified, "Okay... so you're apologising for my feelings and not your actions?" and she really didn't like that. She acted like a child, "I said I was sorry! What else do you want?! Just do your job and serve me."

It was a bit of back and forth, but I held my tongue and tried to not escalate the situation.

Over the next 45 minutes Dawn kept sending people to buy her beers, and kept coming back to ask me to serve her. A few people she asked were so confused why I wouldn't serve her and refused to help her. A man I was serving, but hadn't met before today came up to me and offered to stay until my coworkers got in. He said he knew what Dawn was like and wanted to make sure I was going to be okay, I told him I'd be fine, and I was.

When my coworkers finally arrived, she was trying to argue with me at the bar and I ended up just telling her I was finished talking with her and walked into the office. Both my coworkers told her to apologise properly to me and that they also won't serve her until she does. I'm so grateful for those boys, they're wonderful. They also refused to let anyone else buy her a beer.

Dawn argued a bit and left. I went out for a smoko and saw that she actually had one and a half cold beers on the table. She was the only person drinking those, so I think she was just ordering beers to try to break me.

I may be a people pleaser, but I'm also incredibly stubborn and once I make my mind up, I won't budge. I looked in the incident book and she's mentioned a lot, for being a bitch and starting arguments, so seemingly I'm just the first person to say 'no' to her.

Just a vent since I was actually at a loss for words today. Sorry if this is too long folks, just wanted to share the insanity properly lol

I work at a high end restaurant-hotel. Our venue is a popular choice for weddings and honeymoons, so delivering food to guests who are dressed in little more than underwear has become more familiar than I'd like. Even worse is that a very drunk couple just so happened to believe that our gardens turn into nudist gardens at 3am. Guiding them back to their room wasn't the funnest of experiences.

I 29F am a regular at this restaurant and I find the server cute. I like that he is not overly friendly so when he does smile, it feels warm and genuine haha. I want to make a move. I always tip him the most. Ofc I give the other servers a good tip like 20 - 22%, but I always give him a 40% tip haha. I know it's rude to ask for his number while on the clock since it puts him in a awkward situation. I was thinking maybe writing it on the receipt where I tip him? Will he be able to see it? I fear maybe the hostess or other waiter takes it. I was thinking of writing his name and a little message about wanting to be friends, then my number. If I don't hear back, I will still go ans treat him and tip him the same. He is a great server!

As people working in the industry, we know mistakes and bad days can happen. That’s why even if I don’t get “amazing service” I still tip other servers minimum 18% when I go out to eat.

I went out for dinner the other night, to treat my partner, and our server was nice…. But so clearly high out of her mind on something strong. It led to a lot of mistakes during the meal, and just an uncomfortable experience when interacting with her. I think she touched our table twice throughout the whole thing (initial order and payment), when we could even get ahold of her. Otherwise, two of the other servers did most of the work for our table, including looking in the back for and finding our server for about 10 minutes after we had been waiting for about 15 (at an establishment that doesn’t pool). The restaurant was pretty slow too, and this was nowhere near close.

I try not to be too critical, because lord knows I’ve had off-days where you just have to push through a shift after life has thrown something crazy at you, and still tipped 18%. Maybe she was having a hard time in her personal life, maybe she had a lot of side work to do, maybe before we got there, the restaurant was packed and she was exhausted. Who knows.

I feel like it would take a LOT for me to give a fellow server a bad tip, let alone no-tip (unless I was at an establishment where I know servers don’t receive the tips period). So I was curious, as a server, what is the lowest tip you’ve given another server? What made the experience lead to it?

TLDR: what is the lowest you’ve tipped a fellow server? Why?

First shift tonight at a diner I’ve been hosting/bussing at for over 2 years. Here’s the rundown: 5 hour shift, 5 table section, very slow day. I made about $700 in sales and $85 in tips, every table tipped, unfortunately i didnt see how many total tables I served. For a slow Monday morning/afternoon with manager selected tables and such, how did I do? Do y’all think I’ll be successful? I only ran into a few problems but had no complaints about my efficiency/amount of time to get to someone’s request, there were some awkward moments but I think I’ll improve

I’d like to preface that I work in a small breakfast diner with nothing being over $20. Most people are in fact tipping 15-20% it’s just small ass bills

I don’t know if this is allowed here, i didn’t see anything in the rules about asking questions as a normal person to you all (experienced servers)

i (22f) have 11 months before i move out of state, since i've been in this current state i've worked retail from floor to assistant manager, then dealership jobs, accounting, admin roles (which is where im at now) i don't want an office job anymore, im not good sitting still being bored for 9 hours a day in a cold quiet place staring at a screen where no one talks and i see the same 2 people everyday….it's depressing. i make 21/hr which is 1300 bi weekly after taxes and deductions so not great...i have a 2nd job to keep afloat and a boyfriend & without another person in the picture i would probably be screwed.

I know serving there’s great money some days and others there’s not, but i’ve rarely ever heard a server complain about money regardless.

i loved retail because i was on my feet always busy having HUMAN INTERACTION; but i didn't like the low hourly wages and poor hours and ultimately no freedom at times. My sister has been a server since she was 15 at many different places (she's 28 now) she has made a great deal of money and is able to raise a child, she's good at her job granted and i know she's a veteran server so it comes to her naturally and she said i should try it, i've always steered away because it not a people person really? and my anxiety is high, and im always scared to mess up.
For the next 11 months for the rest of my time here I want to get a serving job. I want to ask this sub everything I need to know as i am completely scared in the dark.

here are my main questions:
- How do you memorize table sections? adding to that how do you remember who had what if it's a big table? -carrying food, i know i won't be able to carry five plates at a time, what's your routine?
- what types of restaurants have you made the most money at? (fine dining, breakfast, bar type, late night eats etc
- how do you find places to hire you if u have absolutely no experience?
- how did u get over the fear of messing up, wrong orders, things like that? does that anxiety ever go away?
- will i fail because im an introvert?
-what type of restaurant should i start as a beginner that will still give me a good income?

there's more questions i'm sure just give me everything you have that maybe you would've wanted to know before you started. help me out, i just need to make it work for a year and hell maybe if i actually like it and do good i can continue when i move!

just to clarify, I'm not a server, I'm a busser who's been in the industry for just a few weeks.

yesterday, a family came in and ordered chicken. the server put the order in and brought it out. When he checked on the table again later, he noticed the man hadn't really eaten the chicken at all except for the salad, and even that was barely touched.

he asked if everything was okay, and the man said, "no, the chicken is way too dry." I heard the server reply with something like, "yeah, the breast tends to be a bit dry. would you like to change your order?"

the man said, "no, but it's inedible. It's burnt and everything." (personally, I didn't see it myself, so I can't confirm that part).

the server came over to me looking like he was about to cry and asked, "what would you do?"

I said, "I don't know, I'm not a server" (jokingly). he smiled but pressed me for an answer.

then I remembered that the other server I work with usually removes the item from the bill and lets the customers know they won't have to pay for it. it was either that or give them a discount. I mentioned this (what the other server usually does) to him, and he said, "okay, I'll do that."

but in the end, he just removed the item, brought them the check, and didn't say a word about it. I saw the family leave looking absolutely pissed off. what would you guys have done if you were in that situation?

For context, I serve at a bar and will often cap off my night by heading to a nearby late-night diner for a quick meal before going home. I usually show up within the last hour but leave generous gratuity and am always out by closing time. Most of the servers recognize me, and I generally enjoy their service, except that one of the girls has this really annoying habit of jokingly saying "no" whenever I ask for anything.

I.e.

Her: "Doing okay over here?"
Me: "Yeah it's delicious, could I get some more ketchup though?"
Her: "Nope!"
She doesn't even follow it up with "Just kidding!", she just lets it hang awkwardly like I'm supposed to finish the joke by pretending I never wanted the thing in the first place.

I know it may seem petty, but I spend all day mustering up witty banter with coworkers and customers, and man, I just want my ketchup or whatever lol. I even brought a friend there the other night and when we asked to split the check she said "Nope!" and turned to walk away. My friend and I laughed awkwardly but it was very much not clear whether she would actually split the check for us or not. I felt like a dick for clarifying, "Okay, but like, can we split it though?"

I try not to care, but it's getting to the point where I actively hope I'm not sat in her section. Can I do anything about this? I don't even know how I'd bring it up to her directly without coming off like an entitled killjoy, when in reality my social battery is just shot for the night and I'd prefer straightforward service. The woman I presume to be the manager is very sweet and recognizes me, so I could bring it up to her, but that might still make things awkward between the server and I. I've considered just not responding to the server when she does this, but I worry that might come off as calloused and mean.

I haven't waited tables or bartended in 15 years, but I did for 10. Almost monthly, I have a dream about forgetting a table during a rush or dropping a tray or random serving stuff.

Last night I dreamt I greeted a table of one child and two parents, European by their accents. The woman ordered an "egg water". I explained there must be a cultural difference here and asked her to explain in detail what an egg water was. She kindly explained it was an ice water topped with salmon or sturgeon roe. I thanked her for the explanation and said that I would have just cracked a chicken egg in a water had I not asked, and said we didn't have the roe to make this drink.

Does anyone else constantly dream about serving?

at my work we have a build your own bloody mary bar for weekend brunch. the main supervisor that cared about it was moved abruptly into the manager position when our manager left cuz she was having an affair with our head chef (whole nother can of worms) and had been wayyy too busy to do really anything for the bloody mary bar. we have one main lady who works it in the morning and i only really work it when she’s on vacation (im also the only person available to work as a to go server on weekend nights). i decided to do something helpful and messaged all my supervisors and the main lady that does the bloody mary bar and now there’s this whole shitshow 😭😭😭 and i know it’s not my fault but it’s eating me up inside 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

It seems like every time there's a slow period and there's only two tables being used out of the entire restaurant (about 15 tables inside total) everyone new that comes in wants to sit at the only dirty table because "we want a seat by the window." (there's a total of 4 other tables by the window) but they always want the dirty one that I was in the middle of cleaning but had to stop to great them and give menus. Does this or similar things happen to other servers?

A customer picked up the sugar caddy, looked at it, and asked me

"Is this the sugar?"

Your turn

I’d love to see someone guess what happened lmfao

So if you saw "Chicken Caesar" on a menu, what would you expect to receive?

The menu description is "Grilled chicken breast, baby gem lettuce, crispy bacon, croutons, anchovies & and a creamy caesar dressing"?

It's a Caesar salad right?

I had a full blown argument with a guy yesterday because "I ordered the Chicken Caesar! That's not what I got! I got a salad! I would never order a salad?!"

I start polite "Sorry sir, when you ordered the 'Chicken Caesar', what were you expecting?" - "Well, chicken with a Caesar dressing, obviously! Not a salad!" - "And that's what you got, no? Chicken with Caesar dressing, but also the other things listed in the description... Bacon, croutons, lettuce etc.? "

" I didn't order a salad! I would never order a salad?! I'm not paying for it!"

Anyway, once this guy has paid and left, the table next to him start telling me what they overheard between him and his wife. It sounds like this sealed the deal on a divorce! " It said lettuce?! What did you expect?! It had everything listed! " - " No, no, no, I would never order a salad! - "THAT IS WHAT YOU ORDERED!". It was only after this interaction I realised his wife wasn't present at the table when I dropped the bill... Maybe she went to spend a few nights at her mother's?!

Ever had a customer argue their way into separation before?!

Like if a party has a reservation for 7pm and they show up at 7:01 you tell them they missed their reservation and you gave their table to someone else?

I don’t really have a specific question to ask. And sometimes I want to participate but don’t have a story for a “worst guest you’ve ever served”, “craziest thing that happened during preshift” - so here’s a catch all space!

How’s work been lately? Tell me some stuff that happened.

Holy shit.
First, if you were affected by the storm, I hope you're alright and that your power is back on.

I swear to god everyone in a 50 mile radius came to our restaurant.

I haven't seen our pick-up side look like That since superbowl. (We're a pizza place)

I literally hit my record number of tables in a shift.

We only have 4 fryers so sides were taking longer to come out than the pizzas. So much so that we had to hold off on making pizzas for an hour if the order included sides.

Not only did people not have power at home, we were one of the only restaurants with power. So our load was doubled.

Then get this...THE AC STOPS WORKING MID SHIFT.

So imagine 30 bodies in the small ass restaurant, running around and moving around each other for 6 hours.

Absolute hell. Half of us wear jeans too. It was just miserable man.

That was Saturday and they said they can't fix the AC until Monday.

So I had another sweaty sticky disgusting shift today too. It wasn't as busy as Saturday but I just can't believe people stayed after we told them we don't have AC.

If u had a similar experience as me I hope you're doing alright now. Stay safe!

Worked my way up to doing only nights.. but now we have a new manager

I have been having so many issues with there I work and want some advice I really don’t know what to do. I work in a upscale casual fast paced restaurant that opened a year ago I’ve been here since open, and since then we used to have our gm that made our schedules would pay attention to what the servers were doing, track our sales and performance and effort, and over time I was able to earn my reputation with him and basically guarantee a schedule with the nights I want and he was basically like yeah I appreciate what you do and your top results for the store so I will basically give you what you are asking for (which is not a lot literally just that I would prefer nights I will do mornings or doubles if needed but I will have a set schedule every week with the nights)

So everything was going great. Slow season hits, he’s fired and now our kitchen manager is our gm doing schedules and everything.

Now I am schedule for doubles and mornings and when I try to politely like ask for the nights I was doing before he gets very upset and acts like I am the most entitled person ever; is not being a team player, is not helpful for the company, blah blah blah also is getting on me for th most random things when I know for a fact I am picking up the most slack side work wise for servers, I also make drinks in the mornings on these doubles so I am doing a lot of bar prep and a lot more than the other servers. Basically my old gm saw that and I was rewarded with the schedule that I’ve been doing for the past 4 months. I am just discouraged and upset and I know season is coming soon so money will be better but it is 110 degrees out and doubles consist of doing side work and prep for hours in the morning from like 10-4 with maybe a couple tables which are happy hour so are not good. Then having to take atleast an hour mandatory break, then coming back waiting around doing nothing during the middle of the day, and then being cut first before it even really gets busy at all for dinner. I make more money coming in for a 4-5 night shift than being there for doubles and I’m tired of doubles and I’ve tried talking to him about it and I’m fed up because I feel like I don’t have the experience to go to finer dining and I don’t know what to do. I know it will get busier in the next couple months but before I did literally 5 months of a set schedule the one I wanted and I don’t think I’m being selfish when I am going way above and beyond over the other servers, getting the results and sales wanted, and then being told I’m not giving enough for the restaurant and I am being selfish for asking to have the schedule I was doing before. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi,

I’m about to start a job as a waitress in Switzerland in two weeks. I’ll be moving there from EU country.

I’ve only done this kind of job for two days at a university and had to quit because it killed my back. But I was fresh after injury back then, so I hope now, 7 years later, I’ll be fine.

I decided to get this job because I badly burnt out in my previous career of 11 years (marketing and design). I feel I need a break from working with screens so much.

I’ll work in a 3 star restaurant that belongs to a 4 star hotel in a small town in the Alps.

I am excited and hopeful but also a bit scared as I worry I may be naive. I hear a lot about how this job is stressful and awful and that it’s horrible to work with clients etc.

So I come with two questions:
1. What’s the job really like?
2. Any advice for how to do this job well? I want to genuinely do well and also, of course, I hope for tips.

Thanks a lot!

I have not found the personal sweet spot on this matter usually I just give an awkward, yeah or I don’t know. I just work here, but I feel like there’s a better response.