When I was about 12, I was watching the news with my socially-conservative, Christian, moderate-republican dad (it was the 80s if this is confusing... Such ppl were common back then, as was “watching the news”) and I remarked that I was 100% anti-abortion/prolife, and he said something to the effect of “you can’t…

My mother. She can't decide so she wants to convince everyone at the table to order one of her options so she can try them all. I love her dearly, but she is the worst restaurant customer. At least she tips well!

Yes! The ppl that say they are ready to order but clearly haven’t even looked at the menu yet so they want you to patiently wait while they deliberate.

So I don’t mind at all, unless either it’s super busy & they are taking forever camping out, or if once they finally order then make a big stink that their food took too long to arrive (as in “the tables next to us got their food first but we we seated way before them!”) ...as if the kitchen was supposed to stop doing…

I tend to live in the “should’s”! We should pick up the slack for servers who are exasperated at the litany of requests. We should take the precautions in all cases for the ones that are real hiding in their midst. It’s a bit exhausting.

It’s particularly galling when the customer changes the whole item, then has the nerve to complain about - well, really anything. As in: they don’t want the sauce so ask for the other sauce, then didn’t like the way it went with their food. Or, they order the steak well done & think it was dry.

I completely agree—- nobody -not customers (or staff of course!) needs to be an asshole & yes, the non-medical special diet crowd are a major pain in the ass.

That sucks! I’d recommend that they express those sensitivities much like an allergy to their servers- if they have serious reactions, so the server knows to mark it as an allergy/sensitivity to the kitchen. Servers generally have a lot to take care of & generally are trying to see to ppl’s needs, but since many…

You’re probably right! I hated apples til I moved to New England at 17 and had my first crisp, perfectly ripe one that fall.... And I was fairly anti-tomato too, until my twenties when I first tried a fresh locally grown one from the farmer’s stand. Like most folks, I grew up on supermarket food & it’s honestly not as…

You aren’t crazy, nah. and since you know most ppl don’t wash their hands after “just peeing” but then they flush, right They then touch the door. So your clean hands? They just touched the door. So, fat lot of good it did us clean-hands crazies, huh?

Not sure about what this big fuss up here is all about, or if it’s directed at me at all, but I commented to you primarily in disagreement with your statement that there is “more” blame to be put on the many customers that falsely claim allergy than staff that (for whatever reason) fuck up. As a cook, I totally…

But - I wasn’t trying to be argumentative up there, I just think that until the public changes (hahahahaha) this is a situation in which staff have to suck it up. Yet again ;)

I completely agree that the general public has a role to play in this, that if far less ppl falsely claimed allergy that those with allergies would be better protected.

Hope they learned their lesson. And- man, I'm sorry!

Hon, if that is what happens when you eat tomatoes, of course you should say allergic! That sounds awful.

Exactly!!!

As a chef, can I plead that if you are going to have symptoms from eating something, please DO tell your server! It’s fine to be nice/funny about it & say “it’s not going to kill me, but I’ll feel it for a few days” or whatever, but assuming you can kinda avoid it without explicitly asking to have it omitted is just…

Why do so many (non-allergic) people dislike tomatoes? I’ll tell you: refrigerated hot-house tomatoes, gased into ripeness. They are gross, mealy & smell bad.

That sucks! I guess that since olives are a little bit less common, no one blinks an eye. But you should absolutely be entitled to ask for “no tomatoes” or whatever, or at the least to be treated with respect when asking for help in finding a tomato-free menu item to order!

And “well it won’t KILL ya” is definitely not a reason to disregard these types of allergies, omg.