At this particular restaurant, the customers order and pay by the bar and then we bring the food out to the table.

Customer: “I’m a vegan, so can you suggest something that I can eat?”

We only have two vegan options: a salad and a pizza.

Customer: “Oooh! I’d like the pizza, please.”

She then pays and I bring out the food. A few minutes after she starts eating, she YELLS us over in the otherwise quiet restaurant to complain.

Customer: “This is so dry! Could I have some cheese on it?”

Me: “If you’d like, but I must warn you that we don’t have any vegan cheese, so if we put cheese on the pizza, it won’t be vegan anymore.”

Customer: *Stares at me like I’m an idiot* “You can eat cheese when you are a vegan.”

I then started to explain the difference between being a vegetarian and a vegan to make it clear that if she was a vegan, I advised against eating cheese. She then demanded that I put cheese on the pizza, so we did.

She got the food back, and thirty minutes or so later, we saw her leave. My colleague and I almost exploded when we saw she hadn’t even touched the pizza.

It is during graduation week, during which time we are always fully booked. Tables are usually reserved months in advance. I overhear a customer arguing with my boss.

Customer: “We need a bigger table! This is ridiculous!”

Boss: “We don’t have any other tables to give you. We are fully booked.”

Customer: *Practically screaming* “You don’t understand! My boys have long legs!”

She refers to her two grown adult sons.

Customer: “They have long legs and they need a bigger table!”

Boss: “Look, you can either take the table or leave. I have a long line of other customers waiting to be seated. It’s graduation weekend and there are no other tables available.”

This goes on for a while, with the woman insisting over and over that her “boys” need a bigger table for their long legs. The woman eventually gives up and goes back to her table, where her husband and two adult sons are waiting for her, looking a bit embarrassed. My boss turns to me.

Boss: “That’s your table.”

Me: *Sarcastically* “Fantastic!”

I go up to greet the table, where the woman is sitting with her arms crossed and scowling.

Me: “Hello, how is everyone doing this evening?”

Customer: “Terrible!”

Me: “Okay… So, I assume we will be ordering some wine, then?”

The husband and the sons laughed. 

Eventually, the woman warmed up to me and I was able to give them good service. But the woman spent the rest of the night scowling at my boss.

I work at a restaurant in a resort hotel that has a roughly 400-person occupancy post-health crisis, and to say I’ve been getting burnt out is an understatement to the Nth degree. After a rough Friday and Saturday — fifty-plus-minute ticket times, an hour-long waitlist, and just a complete dumpster fire start to finish — I had absolutely no desire to go in yesterday. My faith in humanity was decimated. But I went, and holy s*** was it the best decision I’ve made this year.

The last table of the night was a twenty-two-top youth basketball team with eight adults. I was already pissed, thinking they’d make a mess and have a million split tickets. Then, an angel from the walk-in in the sky blessed me with their presence. All one ticket. More or less well-behaved kids. Everyone was nice and patient. Food came out right. I thought I was having a stroke or another work dream. This angel of a man who was taking care of the tab tipped me $1,200 on top of the included $240 gratuity.

I have never in my life cried from happiness at work in my life. Sad cry? Yes. Angry cry? Abso-f******-lutely. Work July Fourth lakeside and the kitchen catches on fire cry? Just the one time. But never happy crying. This man gave me over $1,400 and could not have been nicer. And I almost called out. My faith in humanity is restored and my eyes are puffy from crying. To think I was dreading coming to work and almost called out.

I am a teen working in a popular local restaurant. It is at the end of a thirteen-year-old’s birthday party. The mother has been a complete nightmare the whole time. Everything goes fine until I’m clearing dessert at the entitled little man’s table where he is surrounded by his twelve- to thirteen-year-old friends.

Boy: “You’ve been absolutely great today!”

Me: “Thank you so much!”

Boy: “In fact, you’ve been so great that my friends and I have gathered a tip for you!”

Me: “That’s terribly sweet of you but I’m sure that’s unnecessary.”

Boy: “But I insist!”

He slides a nickel across the table while I have ten dishes in my hands while his friend snicker.

Me: “F*** YOU!”

I storm away so angry I don’t know what to do. It’s only when I reach the kitchen that I realize what has just happened. I cursed… at a “child”… on his birthday. I immediately go to the owner.

Me: “I need you to hear this from me before you hear it from his mother.”

I tell him the story, expecting to be fired on the spot. The owner is silent for a good ten seconds and then looks me in the eye.

Owner: “Good for you. Don’t you ever take s*** from anyone.”

Me: “You’ll probably be hearing from the boy’s mother.”

Owner: “Don’t worry. I’ll explain to her that I trust and care for my staff and she has a little s*** for a son.”

There was never a complaint, as I think the kid was too afraid or shocked to say what happened.

Not everything is terrible in the service industry if you have a boss that believes in you and backs you up. I was in the kitchen one day and almost backed into him, and he yelled at me, “Hey! Don’t look where you’ve been! Look where you’re going!” Best advice ever.

I work in a small chain family restaurant that serves a lot of home-style cooked food. Lately, there’s only a hostess on weekend morning shifts — my manager desperately needs to hire multiple front-end staff but just “hasn’t gotten around to it” — so it gets pretty hectic having to serve and hostess when it gets busy at night. I usually end up serving my section and hostessing for both me and the other waitress.

Tonight, Friday, the busiest night of the week, my boss had just me and the youngest server —she’s seventeen and she’s actually really amazing at her job — manning the restaurant. We work great together, but both of us being and looking very young makes rude and entitled people not want to listen to us. As soon as I started my shift at 3:00 pm, I covered the whole floor — twelve tables at full capacity — for an hour until the other server arrived, and then we split the floor. The first hour was quite busy, but it just got busier and busier after she arrived until we had to start up a waitlist.

I noticed a new customer at the front as I was bringing out a table’s food. As soon as I walked up to him and was in the middle of saying hello, he looked straight ahead at the one dirty table in the joint.

Customer: “I’ll take that booth; go clean it.”

Me: “I’m sorry but we are full and actually have a waiting list going. There’s one person ahead of you and it should be around ten or fifteen minutes for a table.”

Customer: “Just give me that table. I’m in a hurry; I have places to be.”

Me: “That table is actually for that lady behind you and it’s our only available one, but I can add you to the list and the next available table will be yours.”

Customer: *Points to closed tables* “What about those empty tables? Don’t want to sit me there or what?”

Me: “Those are actually closed for social distancing.”

Customer: “Aren’t there tables around the corner in the back there?”

Me: “They’re all full, as well; everything is occupied. Would you like to be added to the list or not?”

I’m getting impatient as I have about a dozen other tasks that would be much more useful than this conversation.

Customer: “Show me the list.”

Me: “There’s one person ahead of you.”

Customer: “Show me the list.”

Me: “There is only one person ahead of you.”

Customer: *Getting increasingly angrier* “Show me the list!”

Me: “That lady is the only person ahead of you; the next table will be yours.”

Customer: “GIVE ME THE LIST! I WANT TO SEE HOW LONG THE WAIT IS MYSELF!”

The guy literally tries to SNATCH the paper right out of my hands. I’m kind of shocked.

Me: “I am not going to show you the list. It has people’s private numbers on it.”

Customer: “What’s your name?”

I tell him.

Customer: “Well, I’m [Customer] and you’re in trouble. I don’t mean to be short, but people’s time is important, and you are wasting it.” *Turns to walk out*

Me: “I know it is, and so are you.”

I doubt he heard the last part but really hope he did!