pay refusal/discount demand

What do you mean we have to pay for the food that we ordered? What do you mean that you’re not going to comp us for our own ignorance in thinking we had to pay for the food we ordered?   You’re supposed to give us free food out of fear of being Yelped about, […]

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Ah, Mother’s Day brunch. A paradox to all servers. While we have to deal with not seeing our families and instead cater to loads of little fully awake children, we also have a great opportunity to make tons of money.

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I have worked as a server for almost 4 years now at various restaurants in various parts of Florida. I’m generally not surprised or fazed when people demand things for free when there’s no merit for it. You have to have thick skin in this business, especially on the front lines as a server.

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Forgetful Waitress

January 14, 2010

in Server Stories

Me and my girlfriend love to eat Asian cuisine. We decided to go to a new Asian restaurant near where I live because we have both heard good news about it, and so we both assumed it was good… boy, were we wrong though. It all started when we came through the front doors of […]

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Arrogant P.O.S.

September 23, 2009

in Diner Stories

It was a busy Tuesday night at Downtown Disney and I was having a horrible day already. My back was killing me and the hosts and managers had no sympathy for my pain. There was a family of 4 with 2 young children that was seated in my section. The husband was an arrogant P.O.S. […]

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I was dining at a restaurant on Cape Cod. One of the items on the menu was a 10 oz steak. There was a couple at the next table, and when their dinner was brought to the table, the man complained to the waiter that his steak was too small. The waiter assured the man that […]

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Some people are just looking for anything free. I once witnessed (at a restaurant I used to work at) a man screaming at my manager about how he and his family should receive a 50% discount on their $200 check because his son used to valet there 6 MONTHS earlier!! The manager handled it so […]

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I was managing a very busy steakhouse one Saturday evening, and a server informed me of an overcooked steak that had been sent back to the kitchen at one of his tables. Although regrettable, it does happen and I approached the table to make apologies and let them know their steak would be out very […]

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Difficult Diners

January 17, 2008

in Diner Stories

The owner of a popular, reasonably priced restaurant told me this one. It’s about an unbelievably “difficult” couple they had at their establishment several years ago. This couple, a man and a woman who were pushing middle age (not kids, anyway) ordered two very reasonably priced meals. When the meals came and the man took […]

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