Peppered With Assumptions

(I am out to eat with my friend. He eats a lot of chili and black pepper on pasta. He is also a vegetarian. He brought his own chili, but uses the restaurant’s pepper. The restaurant is crowded and busy, and our pepper-shaker has enough that would normally be plenty for an entire table. This happens before pasta is brought out:)

Friend: “Refill the pepper, please?”

Waiter: “Uh, we’re kind of busy. Use that up first?”

(My friend’s pasta comes first, and he uses up the pepper. Then, he realizes there are tiny slivers of meat.)

Friend: “Sorry, could you redo this? I wanted to remove the meat. I’m a vegetarian.”

Waiter: “Very sorry! That won’t happen again.”

Friend: “The pepper, too, please? I didn’t see the meat until I put it all on.”

Waiter: “Wow… Here, just borrow the full one from the next table.”

(It was forgotten until we paid. The place was half empty by then. We saw two notes on his order: “Vegetarian, remove meat from pasta,” as well as, “Probably autistic, too.” No, my friend is not autistic, just a bit odd. While I can understand warning staff in case of strange reactions, is it really appropriate to just guess someone’s condition?)