Restaurants near my workplace are usually VERY busy during lunch hour, so I decide to drive a little distance and try a new (for me) restaurant. A waitress arrives and gives me a menu.

Me: “I see you have ribs on the menu. What kind of ribs are they?”

Waitress: “They are ribs.”

Me: “Okay, but what kind? Are they beef ribs or pork ribs?”

Waitress: “They are ribs.”

I think they might be boneless, mystery meat “ribs”.

Me: “Do they have bones?”

The waitress stares at me and wiggles her pen over her order pad.

Me: “I’ll have a hamburger.”

Guess what restaurant I did NOT revisit!

I work in a restaurant well-known for its steaks. We have at least four varieties of steak available.

Customer: “I’d like to place an order to-go.”

Me: “All right, what can I get for you?”

Customer: “I want a well-done steak.”

Me: “What kind of steak would you like, and what size steak?”

Customer: “Oh, he didn’t tell me that part.” *Walks away*

I am dating a guy who seems to check all the boxes until he shows his true colours when we are on a date at a restaurant. It’s a popular spot with good food and exceptional service; however, he manages to find something to complain about. It gets to the point I am so disgusted with his behaviour that I get up and walk out.

For two weeks straight, this jerk calls me to find out why I left — that’s how clueless he is! I finally block and delete his number.

The day after this disaster of a date, I go back to apologize to the waitstaff, who, despite the horrible behaviour he displayed, maintained their professionalism and dignity.

I had a lovely lunch by myself and tipped my server well! It’s still one of my favourite places to eat!

We rarely go out to eat — the few restaurants that are family-friendly are quite a distance and not exactly cheap — so this meal is pretty special.

Unfortunately, our youngest — four years old — is a bit overtired and is uncharacteristically acting up a little. After a bit of a chat, we make it to the restaurant and are seated without issue, until we come to order, and he has decided he wants “that,” referring to a picture of an adult’s curry on the menu.

It should be noted that he doesn’t like spicy food, has a sensitive stomach to these dishes, and will take one bite only to admit he doesn’t want it. The wait for food is pretty long, so this isn’t the time for entertaining him.

We are talking to him gently to try to get him to realise that he doesn’t want it and to choose from literally anything else on the children’s menu, when a middle-aged woman from the next table leans over.

Woman: “Oh, just let him order what he wants! How is he supposed to express his opinion if he can’t make his own decisions?”

Wife: “We know what’s best for him, so please, just leave us be.”

Woman: *Loudly* “Now listen to me! Children need their own voice; they need to be heard!”

Wife: “I think we know our own child, what he does and doesn’t like, better than you do. Please leave us alone.”

Woman: “These young parents don’t know their a** from their elbow.”

Me: “Will you shut up and mind your own business?! No one asked you to speak. We are not going to order him something he hates and then make him wait another thirty minutes for the food he actually wants to arrive.”

Woman: “Well… I never thought just—”

Me: “Just don’t. Mind your own business.”

Everyone was feeling uncomfortable. Thankfully, my youngest decided that what he actually wanted was something he did like, and we got our food.

A waiter came over — to check on our food, I assumed. Instead, they told me there had been a complaint about us force-feeding our child. Of course, by this point, he was happily chomping through his meal, and after I explained, the waiter went away satisfied.

Of course, children should be listened to, but maybe listen to the parents, as well, and don’t try to parent other people’s children when you have no clue yourself!

I left a negative tip once. It was mostly to let the server know I didn’t just forget to tip — she really was that bad — but partly because I was curious about what would happen.

We had absolutely slow and unfriendly service from the start. I can usually tolerate that; I’ve worked in restaurants before, and everyone has a bad day now and then. But what pushed it over the edge was when our server completely disappeared for half an hour, abandoning not only us but her other tables, as well, without explanation or apology, after I’d told her we had a family emergency and needed our food quickly wrapped to go!

When we finally got the food and the bill, the total was $48.01. I marked minus one cent (“$-0.01”) as the tip, totaled it to $48.00, signed, and left. I also made sure I kept my duplicate copy of the credit card slip.

Naturally, I was watching for my credit card statement to see how the bill had been handled. When the statement came, to my astonishment, the amount charged was $56.00 — the server had changed my minus one cent to an $8.00 tip for herself!

Of course, I still had my copy of the receipt and remembered every detail, so I challenged the excess tip amount with my credit card company and notified the restaurant management.

To the restaurant’s credit, the manager checked their copy of the receipt, saw the tip amount had been altered, and promptly fired the dishonest server. He was extremely apologetic and went overboard to retain us as customers, not only reversing the ENTIRE credit charge but also writing us a check for the amount of our bill — so our meal was basically double-comped! — and then giving us additional gift certificates for our trouble.

We did go back and had good experiences from then on.