People Share The Most Ridiculous Order They Saw In A Restaurant

Steven Cleghorn

Working in a restaurant can be a lot of fun, and for the most part, it is. It can also be extremely stressful, as there are few things that can give you the fear like seeing two parties of 10+ diners coming in on an already busy Saturday night and before long you’re quite literally juggling plates.

The job can also throw up some real curveballs, often in the form of people’s wacky orders. There are people out there who will run for the hills at the sight of a tomato or will only drink sparkling water at room temperature. It can be a real pain in the a** but when you’re working in the service industry it’s just something you have to accept. After all, the customer is always right, even when they aren’t.
Still, people like what they like and if they’re paying their hard-earned money to eat out then they’re entitled to ask for those things, and now we get to read about them

29. He Wanted A Pizza With No Cheese Or Tomato, Please

Pixabay

“I worked at a national pizza chain for a while as a manager.

We used to get this guy who would order all the time. He was lactose intolerant so he couldn’t have cheese, and had severe heartburn when he ate red sauce so he avoided that too. He would order an XL Supreme with no sauce and no cheese. I told the guy if I did that the toppings would just fly all over the box but he didn’t care.
We ended up just baking the dough separate from the toppings and put the toppings in a small wing box on the side for him. The guy said no other pizza place would do that for him and he turned out to be a great repeat customer who always tipped well.” Aeorik

28. She Wanted Her Tofu Set On Fire

Pixabay

“I’m not a waiter but a cook.

Our restaurant once had a lady order her tofu scramble burnt. So I cooked it hard. She sent it back because it wasn’t burnt enough. So I cooked it harder. She sent it back again and the waiter said she ‘really’ wants it burnt. So I got a wok super hot, put too much oil in and proceeded to burn the hell out of it. My chef came by and lost his sh*t. I explained it to him and he watched me just ruin the thing. It was black and smelled like a tire fire. She ate all of it and said we were the only place to get it right.

She came back every weekend for it and we had to train new cooks on how to torch her food for her.

I still can’t comprehend why she would eat it like that.” stylinghead

27. She Deliberately Asked The Kitchen To Prepare The Hottest Meal Possible For Her

Pixabay

“I had a lady tell me it was impossible to make her dish too spicy. When I told the cooks what she’d said they took it as a personal challenge to prove her wrong.

I don’t remember what they put in it, but I do know that someone ran to a grocery store to grab another ingredient.

The dish ended up being literally the spiciest thing I have ever smelled. Just being an arm’s length away from it for 30 seconds while I delivered it had me coughing and there were also tears streaming down my face. Guests at nearby tables complained about the smell; just so much capsaicin in the air that people 15 feet away were uncomfortable.
But, she ate everything. She ate every single bite and then scraped up the remaining sauce and ate that too.” hipster_jesus_91

26. He’s Someone Who Prefers His Food Chewed By Someone Else

Pixabay

“It wasn’t so much the order which was disturbing but the post-order request.

He asked me to chew up the food and put it back onto his plate. No medical reason. No missing teeth. Not old. Just creepy as f*ck. He got very upset when I declined.” finishrampant

Another User Comments:

“Are you a wanted criminal, or a suspect in an unsolved mystery? Maybe he was trying to scam a DNA sample from you.

Pretty crafty, if you ask me…” [deleted]

25. She’s Not Too Familiar With The Concept Of Salad

Pixabay

“I worked for a while in a vegetarian/vegan-friendly buffet restaurant. Now, the great majority of people were actually really nice, not particularly haughty about their diet or anything, but I had one customer who was, let’s say, different.

She came up to me with a plate already filled with various salads (that she, being a buffet, had personally selected). She showed me the plate and asked me: ‘Do your salads have any raw ingredients in it?’ And before I could answer: ‘Because I’m pregnant, see, so I can’t eat anything raw.’ While still showing me her plate of definitely-raw, various-veggies-and-fruits salads.
I was so dumbstruck that all I could say was ‘Let me ask the kitchen to make sure’. And I actually did, because ‘is salad raw’ is one of these questions that make you question even the most basic things, such as what a salad is, or what hats are.

I asked the chef if our salads had raw ingredients in them, he looked at me and said: ‘Is she familiar with the concept of salad?’

We ended up switching her plate for another one because yes, our salads had raw ingredients in them. However, all in all, she was really nice about it and didn’t mind waiting a bit more for us to fix her plate.” Calembreloque
24. All She Wanted Was A Pepperoni Pizza Without The Pepperoni

Pixabay

“I worked at a pizza parlor, and the most ridiculous request was one that could have been so simple.

A lady calls and orders a ‘small pepperoni pizza with no pepperoni.’ I clarify and ask her ‘So just a small cheese?’ To which the woman, clearly annoyed by my lack of understanding, says ‘NO.

A small pepperoni with no pepperoni.’ I again clarify and ask ‘You want a pizza with sauce and cheese only?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Ok, so a cheese pizza?’ ‘NO, I WANT A SMALL PEPPERONI WITH NO PEPPERONI.’

We made her a cheese pizza. She didn’t call and complain. Still not sure what on Earth she thought she was ordering.” crigsdigs
23. He Got A Whole Lot Of Onion, Just Like He Asked

Pixabay

“I had a table of four come in once and when one of the gentlemen was ordering, he asked for extra onion, and he made extreme emphasis on EXTRA ONION.

So I go to put the order in and I have to talk to the chef to make sure he understands EXTRA ONION.

So when the order comes out, I get a side plate of a cut WHOLE ONION.

I giggle and take the order to the table. I put the orders of food in front of all the other guests and leave onion man for last. I set his plate of food and extra onion down, he looks up at me and starts laughing. The whole table is now laughing too. I’m so confused by it all. Apparently wherever they go, no matter what he always has to ask for MORE onion, and this time my snarky chef nailed it.” Rock_Hound
22. He Doesn’t Believe There’s Such A Thing As Too Much Garlic Juice

Pixabay

“I used to work at Whole Foods as a juicer and this one guy would come in every day and order 12 ounces of garlic juice to go (which is about 20 dollars).

After a couple weeks of seeing him order the same thing, I asked him to drink it in front of me because I didn’t believe it was humanly possible to ingest that much garlic. He downed it all in front of me and said: ‘With much garlic comes much loneliness’, I laughed and he said: ‘No seriously I work from home’.” he_shootin
21. He Knew Exactly What He Was Ordering When He Asked For A Triple Triple

Amirali Mirhashemian

“A customer ordered a ‘Triple Grandpa Burger.’ This is a common mistake customers often make with us. A Grandpa Burger is a triple patty burger, so they often say ‘triple Grandpa burger’ when really they just mean the one three-patty burger.

But after this one guy, I always clarified that was what they wanted because this guy actually wanted a nine-patty burger.

I asked him twice to make sure I wasn’t hearing wrong but no, that’s exactly what he wanted. Not only that, he wanted cheese on every single patty.
So that’s nine 5 oz. beef patties AND nine slices of cheese. Plus, y’know, condiments and the like. This wasn’t even a big guy. Looked fit as a fiddle, handsome, about 25-years-old. And he was alone so it couldn’t have been a dare. I guess he was just really f*cking hungry.

So I had the cook make it.

And we stood behind the counter and watched as he ate Every! Single! Bite! I wasn’t even sure how I was supposed to react when he was done, but he seemed quite pleased, thanked us, and left. Never saw that guy again.” codeyva

20. He Likes His Sub Floating In A River Of Chipotle

Pixabay

“Not a waiter, but I worked at a Subway in high school. A guy came in and told me to put a lot of chipotle sauce on his sub. He said, ‘Put it on until you think there’s too much, and then double it.’
His sub became a bread bowl filled with several cups of chipotle sauce.

He paid for it, I gently handed it to him, and he walked away. In the deli paper and plastic bag it felt like a warm, very full diaper.” SQUANDERER

19. He’s A Fire Fighter Who Downed Nearly 20 Shots Of Espresso

Pixabay

“When I was in high school my cousin died, and my family went down to Phoenix for the funeral. Needless to say, my uncle was distraught since his son had just passed away.

We met up at a coffee shop one day, and my uncle, not wanting to think too hard about his order and not being used to visiting coffee shops, just ordered one of what my dad was having.

Now my dad is a big espresso drinker. Every morning he makes himself six shots. So that’s his normal coffee order at coffee shops, six shots in a cup.

My uncle finished his six shots fairly quickly, and noticed that the rest of us were still drinking our drinks, so he ordered another drink, same as before.

We finished our drinks and my uncle finished his second round at about the same time, so we all got up to leave, and my uncle, having apparently enjoyed his drinks, ordered one more for the road. He drank eighteen shots that day. I can’t imagine what the barista thought.

“Edit: My uncle was fine. He was jittery for about a day and a half though. He was and is still a 6′ 6″ firefighter in the best shape that you can be at 54, though he was younger then. Interestingly enough he was diagnosed with a heart condition two years ago after a severe heart attack that put him on desk duty until this fall when he was reinstated to full, active duty.” TickledPear

18. He Wants The Cheesiest Dish Without The Cheese

Pixabay

“I used to work at Olive Garden. At Olive Garden, there’s a dish called the ‘Five Cheese Marinara.’

You know, it’s essentially a plate loaded up with cheesy magic with a little bit of pasta thrown in.

One day, a stupid man with his wife comes in, and the man says ‘I want the Five Cheese Marinara, but I don’t like cheese.’ I look him dead in the eye and say ‘then don’t order that, you’re not going to like it.’ Instead of being a sane, rational person, the man says ‘Oh, can’t you just have them take some of the cheese off?’ Again, I repeat ‘You will not like this, it’s almost all cheese.’ But he insists.

I just accept it, curse this stupid man, ring the dish in, and immediately run to the kitchen. I let the kitchen and my manager know that he’s going to send it back.

Of course, my manager is the nicest man in the entire world and refunds his ENTIRE MEAL and brings him a new one once he, unsurprisingly, sent it back because it was ‘too cheesy’.
He left me four cents as a tip. Stupid a**hole.” cold-coffee

17. She’s Not Really Sure How An Omelet Works

Pixabay

Some people just don’t get it

“Over the summer, I had a customer who came in for Sunday brunch and ordered a spinach and feta cheese omelet. She then adds that she would like it made without eggs. I clarified that she wanted an omelet WITHOUT eggs, not made with egg whites which is quite normal.

She said yes that’s correct.

We made her a spinach feta salad and she was happy.” PaintedPony

16. He Really Just Wanted To Waste Her Time

Pixabay

“One night I had a guy send one of our servers to the kitchen about seven times, which is down the stairs far away from her section, to inquire about the weight of different hamburgers, all of them were the same weight yet he insisted that she go down and check and would watch to make sure she did.
He sends her away to mull it over for a while and you can see him snickering with his equally annoying two sons.

Finally, the guy decides he wants a 24oz grilled ‘burger’ with nothing else but the patty, no seasoning or anything. Not like some hulking bro trying to get extra protein, just an old a**hole who wanted to mess with the poor server. Ate a bite, said he didn’t like it and ordered another burger.

Tipped a very solid 0% after telling her ‘it’d all be worth it!’

This is why we’re all mildly functioning alcoholics.” maplebaconchips

15. They Were Certain They Could Just Ask For More Food For Free

Pixabay

“A customer once asked for spaghetti with a side of more pasta and extra sauce because they were going to share.

“So, I said ‘you’d like one spaghetti and then an additional order of spaghetti?’

“They told me I wasn’t getting it and they just wanted extra pasta and some sauce on the side. I told them we would have to charge for extra pasta, and they ended up not wanting it. They somehow thought that free spaghetti was a reasonable request.” llkylej15

14. She Ordered A French Dish She Had No Idea About

Pixabay

“I had a lady order our Filet Mignon. When it was brought out to her she said with disgust that she had ordered the filet, not a steak.

She proceeded to argue that a Filet Mignon was a type of baked potato rather than a steak.

When asked how she wanted it cooked she looked puzzled and said ‘regular’ which I took as meaning medium.” poopy_shoe
13. They Are A Very Entitled Couple

Pixabay

“One particular couple made our chef rage so hard she just walked out.

The wife orders some meal and makes a ton of changes to it. She gets the plate, takes one bite and sends it back because she doesn’t like it.

“Husband orders a $60 lobster plate. The lobster tail comes with pepper sprinkled on top. The husband sends it back and wants a whole new one with no pepper on top. The reason? Apparently his wife wanted to try one piece but doesn’t like pepper.” I_Dont_Live_Here

Another User Comments:

“I’ve seen that happen.

The manager came over to the table next to mine just as we were being seated and politely said, ‘Sir, ma’am, I’ll have to ask you to leave the premises immediately. The chef has refused to prepare your order and the waiter refuses to return to this section until you’re gone. The drinks you’ve already had are gratis, of course.’
They sat there in shock, after a moment the guy said, ‘Well, I’m not leaving.’

The manager’s tone changed and said, ‘Sir, if you’re not out the door in the time it takes for me to walk to the phone over there, I’ll be calling the police.’

“He then walked to the phone and the couple left without another word.

It still bugs me that I missed what actually happened because I bet it was good.” my_NSFW_posts

12. She Obviously Has No Idea How A Restaurant Works

Pixabay

“Well, I don’t even remember all the specifics, but I once had this old lady come into Olive Garden and order something and literally customize every ingredient.
We had one promo entree that contained risotto. She asked me what risotto was, and then asked me to switch it out for plain brown rice and squash. Neither of which we had. We made all our sauces in house, but they weren’t made on the spot for each order.

She even tried to customize the ingredients in the sauce.

And after I’d ran around trying to make her happy all night, she complained to management that I was incompetent for not being a magician and changing how a restaurant works.” SquidLoaf

11. When You Just Don’t Understand What Coleslaw Is

Pixabay

“I once had a guy place his order, and then say ‘And give me one of those spaghetti appetizers.’
I had been working there for a couple of months so I was a little inexperienced but I knew we had no pasta dishes whatsoever on the menu. I politely tried to clarify this, but he wasn’t having it.

He just kept getting more irate. He insisted that he eats there all the time, and he always gets the spaghetti appetizer.

Eventually, he gets up from his table, storms over to another one, and points at what he wants on another diner’s table. He was pointing at their coleslaw. And yes, as far as he was concerned, I was still the schmuck for not knowing what he was talking about.
Our slaw was a southern style slaw, where the cabbage is shredded. So, the cabbage is in strings, but you would still have to be some sort of weirdo to confuse it with noodles.

This happened in 1994, and the customer was an older, well-dressed guy out to dinner with his wife. I’m positive he wasn’t messing with me, he was just an obnoxious a-hole that expected me to know what his confused mind was talking about.” dudervoog

10. He Ordered A McFlurry With Extra Bacon And So Did They

Pixabay

“At McDonald’s you can order extra bacon. I watched someone order a Reese’s McFlurry with extra bacon. They whipped the bacon right into the dessert. My best friend and I stepped up and ordered the same thing. It was delicious!” Hamabo
Another User Comments:

“Ice cream: Good.

Reese’s: Good.

Meat: Good.

This sounds like something Joey Tribbiani would order.” PM_YOUR_ANKLES_MLADY

9. She Has An Allergy No One Understood

Pixabay

As it turns out, being allergic to the cold is a thing. Cold urticaria is a disorder where hives (urticaria) or large red welts form on the skin after exposure to a cold stimulus.

“I had a woman ask me to microwave a milkshake she ordered. She claimed she was allergic to cold things. Is this even possible? When I told the management (we’re supposed to tell the managers if anyone has an allergy) we all kind of just sat there for a minute and thought about what was just said, laughed a little, then microwaved her shake.” motiviation150
8. He Requested His Big Mac Be Cooked Medium-Rare

Pixabay

“When I worked at McDonald’s, someone asked for a Quarter Pounder medium-rare, light ketchup with an extra toasted bun.

It was a very slow time and we were all amused by it so I made one for him. He came back to compliment my cooking.

“ETA: This happened way back in 1980. We used real grills and spatulas to cook the burgers then. We didn’t know about E. coli in ground beef. I made it by cooking it a little less than normal so it was still safe in any case.” Ice_Burn

7. They Couldn’t Have Ordered Anything More Opposite If They Tried

Pixabay

Different strokes for different folks? Sounds like one was really hungry and the other was healing or maybe hungover? We will never know.

“My aunt works in a restaurant and one day, she had two guys in suits show up. They sat down at the counter.

One guy, tall and skinny, wanted dry white toast, nothing on it and nothing to drink. Meanwhile, his round brother wanted four whole fried chickens and a Coke. What a bunch of crazies.” JOK3R2

6. The Table Asked For Their Meal To Be Blended – And For Good Reason!

Pixabay

“Not a waiter, but a cook. I worked at an upscale pan-Asian restaurant. We were asked to make an almond chicken, with the sides, but the entire contents of the plate had to be put in a blender to be made into a shake for a woman who had recently had her jaw wired shut.

“We made it… It was actually quite tasty.” Evangelos

5. She Knew The Order Didn’t Sound Right!

Pixabay

“The strangest request! When I worked for Starbucks, I helped open the first drive-thru store in the area so it was a learning process for some customers.

A lady in the drive-thru lane orders an iced venti vanilla latte with 22 sweet ‘n lows.

“Me: ’22 sweet n lows, like two, two??’

“Customer: *sighs* ‘Yes 22 sweet n lows.’

“Me: ‘OK, please pull up.’

Now at the drive-thru we put the extra milk and sugar in the drinks for the customers when in a cafe they would add it on their own.

So, the person working the bar looks at me like for real this lady wants 22 packs of sweet n low in her latte? That’s what she said so that’s what we made her.
The lady pulls up and pays for her drink. I hand it over and tell her to have a nice day. She stops and says ‘oh, can I get those sweet n lows now’ I just looked at her and said that they were already in her drink, boy was she p*ssed!!

She wanted us to hand her 22 packs of sweet n low in the drive-thru so that she could take them home.” Notsocreativeeither

4. She Thought There’d Be Toast In An Asian Restaurant

Pixabay

“When I worked at a hibachi/sushi/Japanese place this family came in with an adult son who had some kind of mental disability and only wanted to eat breakfast food.

The mom asked if we had bread, we didn’t, she went to the gas station next door and bought bread, and came back and asked me to toast it.

Now, there is no toaster in the restaurant, and I had to explain to the 100% Chinese barely English-speaking kitchen to cook three eggs rare on one side (sunny side up) and bread medium-rare (toast). It worked out and everybody was happy, but the chefs were super confused as to why anyone would want that.” gypsypanda

3. He Thought He’d Be Smart, Instead, He Created A New Drink

Pixabay

“Not a waiter, but one time I walked into Starbucks with my friends and ordered an Orange Mocha Frappuccino to be funny.

Without blinking, the barista said ‘okay’ and made it for me. I ended up being the smarta*s drinking an Orange Mocha Frappuccino (Yes it was delicious).” tatitatta25

2. He Doesn’t Know The First Thing About Being A Wine Connoisseur

Pixabay

“I used to run my own restaurant and a client once asked for a bottle of wine, I served it. Two minutes later the client called me at his table and with a schmuck’s face told me that the wine had a cork taint (trying to impress the people at his table that he knows wine) and that he wasn’t going to pay for that bottle and he demanded another one.

I had to explain to him that it was impossible because that particular South African red wine had no cork but a screw cap…” Beerschot13
1. His Regular Had A Very Specific Set Up

Pixabay

“Oh, how I miss my old regular.

We are not a fine dining establishment, it’s a small family-style Italian restaurant.

This lovely gray-haired gentleman would call ahead so that we could put a salad bowl in the freezer for him. After that, I would go to his spot at the bar (or the closest one open to it) and set a large dinner napkin down (that he placed his salad/meal on).

I would then place an empty wine glass with a napkin over it (per his request), just in case the dinner napkin didn’t specify that the seat was taken.
Once he got there I would go to the back and make his specific salad: Very little lettuce, extra mushroom, extra tomato, extra onion, no shredded cabbage, and no cucumber.

I would also get him two ice-cold beer glasses for his 70/30 sweet/unsweet tea mixture with an extra glass of ice.

He would then attempt to engage in a 5-10 minute conversation about our specials for the evening, and how he could alter them.

The guy came in between 3-6 nights a week and always tipped fairly.

He was the kind of nice old guy that would get you and your wife’s birthday cards because that stuff was important to him.
He then moved 45 minutes away and we never see him anymore. Miss the hell out of that old man though.” ScatterBastard

People like to eat the same food differently. We all have a little weird food fetish. I like my marshmallows burnt and I’ll order extra hot coffee on a hot summer day outside on a patio. Have you come across any strange food orders in your time? Tell us everything!


Let Us Know What You Think...

Post