A customer has brought his drink back up to the counter where I am making another customer’s order.

Customer #1: “Excuse me, my drink is like half a cup of foam!”

Me: “I’m sorry about that; let me top it up for you.”

Customer #2: “You should have made it right the first time. I’m not paying for half a cup of coffee.”

I top up his drink with more milk and hand it back to him.

Me: “I’m sorry, sir. Have a good day.”

Customer #2: “Wasn’t that a cappuccino?”

Me: “Yeah, you’d be surprised how often that happens.”

In the tearoom, it’s a common policy to take off your shoes and put them in the shoe locker. First-time visitors usually don’t know this so we ask them to do it. But when it’s too busy we sometimes miss them. This is one of the very busy days.

Customer: “Hey, I want a shisha.”

Coworker: “Okay. Oh, can I ask you to take off your shoes and put them in the locker, please?”

Customer: “Why? I will put them next to my table.”

Coworker: “Please put them in the locker.”

Customer: “Why? I want my shisha.”

Coworker: “Because they would be in the way. I could trip over them and hurt myself or someone else.”

Customer: “I don’t care. I want my shisha!“

I was speechless. In the end, one of his friends did it for him.

I work at a restaurant that also has a coffee bar. I work in the kitchen and don’t know anything about the coffee bar. The barista is speed-walking towards me.

Barista: “I need some help!”

Me: “I don’t know anything about the coffee bar.”

Barista: “No, it’s a customer.”

Me: “Okay, I don’t think I can help, again, but what’s wrong?”

Barista: “She ordered a vanilla latte but she said it tastes like a vanilla bean latte.”

Me: “Do we sell vanilla bean lattes?”

Barista: “No.”

We ended up remaking it for her. It was perfect this time, somehow.

I work at a very busy tourist place in the capital. The cafeteria has all kinds of food — warm or cold, sweet or salty — including twenty different-flavoured ice creams that are made at the same place.

All kinds of nationalities come to visit this place and sometimes we can get quite funny and weird questions about the food.

A group of teenagers, who clearly aren’t from this country, are all standing in front of the ice cream, talking together in a language we don’t understand. One of them comes forward and starts asking me about the ice creams.

Customer: “Is there anything from pigs in your ice cream?”

Me: *Very confused* “Um… What? Pigs?”

Customer: “Yes! It’s very important. Is there anything from pigs in your ice cream?”

Me: “Well… no. We don’t use pigs in our ice cream.”

Customer: “Are you sure? Nothing from pigs? Are you totally sure?”

Me: “Yes, we don’t use pigs in our ice cream. In fact, there is a sign in front of this glass where it says what we make our ice cream of. There is nothing from pigs.”

The customer accepted this and most of the teenagers bought some ice cream, mostly without any kind of special flavours. It turned out that most of them were Muslims and didn’t know much about this country’s customs or food, so they wanted to be totally sure it didn’t break their rules.

I work in a cafeteria at a busy tourist place. All kinds of nationalities visit, and even if most of them speak good, okay, or bad English, we almost always manage to get them what they want.

There are two men in their mid-twenties standing a bit from us, talking in low voices together for a while, before one of them comes towards the counter, seemingly to order something. Before I manage to say anything, he starts speaking in a British accent, with a very sorry face.

Tourist: “I’m sorry, but I don’t speak Icelandic.”

I am totally dumbfounded for a second.

Me: “T— That’s okay. I speak English. In fact, almost everyone in this country speaks and understands English very well.”

He still looked sorry, as if it was his fault that he didn’t speak Icelandic, but he and his friend got their questions answered and orders made without any problems.