If you've worked in a restaurant, you've seen a lot of crazy things. But sometimes, nothing is crazier than the things customers crave. From tuna and BBQ to chocolate and fish, servers share the most disgusting (and surprisingly delicious) things they've serverd.
A Special And Unique Chocolatey Treat
“Oh god. Okay. So I don’t work there anymore but for a little while I was a line cook at a waffle bar, and we had all kinds of waffle toppings available from the normal (strawberries) to the strange (tuna salad). Also, everything that could be waffle-ized was waffle-ized, so we had waffles made out of everything. I mean everything. Spaghetti. Stuffing mix. Everything.
Anyway, pre-lockdown you’d get some occasional weird orders, like ‘egg sandwich on a stuffing waffle’ or whatever, but usually it made at least a little sense and it wasn’t too common. But once we switched to takeout only, things got weird FAST.
I swear to God I didn’t get an order for a normal waffle the entire time. Maybe it was just because the customers didn’t have to look another human being in the eyeballs and ask them to slather nutella on a waffle stuffed with cheese, but the things I put out of that kitchen were universally wild. One particular waffle stands out to me though.
It was a brownie batter waffle, with honey and tuna salad. Incoming orders printed simultaneously at the checkout counter and in the kitchen, so as I stared at the ticket and wailed in frustration (thank you, empty dining room), a similar cry came from the counter. I met the server halfway as I marched up to the dining room, as she was on her way to me to commiserate.
‘This isn’t real,’ She insisted, thrusting the ticket at me. ‘He clicked tuna on accident, he wants the brownie waffle plain with honey.’
I wished it was true, but we’d both stopped calling customers to ask if their lovecraftian orders were mistakes months ago. They were never mistakes. With a heavy sigh, I turned back around to make the offense to god that had been requested. As I looked at the ticket in my hand I noticed something I had overlooked. In the notes, they had written ‘extra tuna, hot pls.’
I don’t know if any of you have ever used an ice cream scoop to shovel a double portion of tuna salad onto a grill before, but there is a stench that fills the kitchen the second it goes down. I want you all to know I did my best to make this cancerous waffle look appetizing, I really do. I toasted both sides of each tuna lump. I lovingly drizzled on the honey in tiny golden strands. I even put a side cup of maple syrup with it, because forget it, maybe they wanted to sin a little extra today. And I closed the box, and handed it off, and returned to my fish swamp kitchen to scrape mayonnaise off the grill.
Checked the reviews later, some broken soul had given us 5 stars for ‘accommodating a special and unique chocolatey treat.'”
Soup Bowls Of Mayo
“When I was a server I waited on a group that looked like a mom, dad, and 2 adult-age daughters. The mom & dad were fairly in shape, but both of the daughters were extremely obese – trouble walking and all that. The daughters each get chicken sandwiches and like 4 adult-sized orders chicken fingers. After I bring all the food out, the daughters ask for more mayonnaise (I’d given each of them a small ramekin on the side with their sandwiches already) so I bring each of them a good-sized ramekin full of it and they laughed and said they’re going to need way more. I was like ‘okay, how much would you like? Would two more ramekins be enough?’ and one of them asked if we had soup bowls. I put the order for a soup bowl full of mayo in and went back to the kitchen to clarify/explain and as soon as I opened the door one of the chefs just said ‘what in Sam Hill did you just order’. So they get their soup bowls filled with like ~2 cups of mayo, and they ate it with their chicken tenders, just scooping as much mayo as possible on each bite. I’m not trying to fat-shame (and I know I definitely indulge in unhealthy food from time to time and enjoy some more unusual food combos), but seeing them consume two soup-bowls worth of plain American mayo made me feel so nauseous.”
Make It Soggy
“I worked at a subway next to the shadiest motel in town and ladies of the night would come in all the time. For the most part they were fine, but one lady would come in and get the cold cut combo and ask for oil on it. I always loved watching new employees make her food because of the look of amusement, turning to confusion, turning to horror as she demanded more oil. Empty the bottle on this sandwich and she’d get all huffy and rudely ask you to refill it and keep going. By the time you were done the bread was so saturated with oil that it just mushed apart if you tried to touch it. You had to use the paper to try and topple the oily mess into a vaguely sub shaped blob and roll it up fast before it leaked everywhere. I always wished she’d stay in the lobby to eat it just once, so I could be sure she really intended to use it as food, but she always shuffled back to the motel to have her oily feast.”
Lettuce Entertain You
“I worked at a subway a long time ago and a guy would order two full bags of lettuce on his sandwich every day. Imagine 2 pounds of lettuce on some bread. He would order often enough that I knew to go in the back and grab two full bags just for him.”
More Than You Think Is Comfortable
“Was getting breakfast at this place called ‘The great Canadian Bagel Company’. The girl ahead of us gets a breakfast sandwich with extra mayo and then says: ‘like a serious amount of mayo, more than you think is comfortable’. The guy does a solid 4 servings and she shakes her head in disgust/shame and is like ‘No.. I’m actually messed up, I need more mayo’.
Took everything in me not to laugh as it happened.”
No Pucks To Give
“We had frozen egg disks that we were supposed to heat in the oven. I say egg, but really it was more of a frozen circle of egg whites with a yellow piece in the middle (that may or may not be missing depending on luck of the draw). This one guy would come in every shift I had and order just the egg circle, but didn’t want us to heat it up. We handed him hard, frozen, disgusting looking, disks that sounded like rocks when banged against the counter, covered in ice flakes. He barely spoke English, so the first time he showed up we were very confused to say the least. But once we understood he was very happy with his egg hockey pucks.”
Nacho Problem
“This is hilarious and reminds me of when I was a server at a very casual bar/BBQ joint, and a woman ordered chicken nachos. Then said ‘but without the pico, the nacho cheese, the sauces, the guacamole, the sour cream, the bean stuff, the salsa, the cilantro, and the jalapeños.’ I repeated her order twice to make sure I’d gotten it right, and she was clearly getting annoyed with me. I was finally like ‘It’s just going to be tortilla chips with chicken on top, are you sure that’s what you want? If you have dietary restrictions or don’t like certain foods, there may be something else on the menu I could suggest that you may enjoy more…’ but she cut me off and said YES, SHE JUST WANTED CHIPS WITH CHICKEN ON TOP AND IS THERE A PROBLEM WITH THAT. I apologized to her and went to explain to the chef what she wanted (he asked me to go back and double check with her, but I said I already asked her like 3 times).
So I bring out this pile of tortilla chips with chicken on top and I’ve never seen someone so angry with me. She made a huge scene, yelling about what in the world I just brought her. I just kept apologizing and explained that I thought that’s what she asked for but I’d fix the problem, and asked what she actually wanted. She said she DID want just the chips and chicken, but what I brought her wasn’t even nachos- it was just chicken and chips! I spent way too long talking with her and trying to figure out what she wanted. Did she want anything else on there or with it? No. Did she want something else made for her? No. Oh, she’s just trying to make up a problem to get a free meal. At this point it’s worth it because I’m wasting so much time and I have other tables that need me. I apologize again and tell her there’s no charge for her meal but she says NO, that’s not what she WANTS.
Eventually I managed to pull myself away to get a manager, who went through the same long set of questions as I did, struggling to understand. Eventually the manager got frustrated and said ‘This is stupid, we’ll comp your meal or get you something else out quick if you change your mind and want something else. But I’m not arguing with you anymore about how the chicken and chips you ordered is chicken and chips.’
Then the woman gestures me over to yell at me about how rude my manager was to her, insisting she didn’t want any of my previous offers when I attempted to re-offer then, and stopping me whenever I tried to excuse myself to attend to other tables. The whole time all of this was happening, the man she was there with just stared down at his plate.
That night I went home and drank a cold one and just stared at the wall for a long time, trying to figure out what in the world just happened.”
$75 Heart Attack
“I used to work at Culver’s and this dude would ALWAYS order 12 patties with 12 slices of cheese on a bed of lettuce. He said he was on a red meat diet. But the thing with Culver’s meat is that it’s never frozen it’s always fresh. So the amount of grease from the 12 patties was ungodly. I’m surprised the dude didn’t end up with clogged arteries or end up obese. His daughter and son even started to do the same thing but only did 7 patties and 7 slices of cheese. His girlfriend was the only one that would get the regular Culver’s Double Deluxe meal. Every time he would come we knew right away what he wanted and started to make his order before he even ordered it. I’m pretty sure the combined total was over $75. And they went in at least 2 if not 3 times a week. It would sometimes work us over when we had the dinner rush since their order took over half the grill and we still had other orders to cook. But we always managed even though it was a pain in the rear hahaha.”
Sweet Tooth
“There was one lady I liked when working at Starbucks who was a recovered addict that would get a short blonde in a venti with a ristretto shot of blonde espresso, 7 pumps white mocha, 7 pumps classic, 7 pumps vanilla, extra caramel drizzle in the cup before any hot liquid, steamed whole milk with a scoop of vanilla bean powder steamed in, scoop of foam on top and (when available) marshmallow whip and more caramel drizzle
I was the only one that cared enough to make it how she liked and not judge her (on the outside at least) and actually talk to her and not look at her like some other people I worked with looked at her
Yes I still have it memorized (I’m kinda scared, it’s been over a year). She would also tip me (only me) with envelopes of $20-50 at least once a week but she didn’t start doing that until I was making that for her at least 4x a week for 6 months. I hope she’s doing good.”
The Best Pizza He’s Ever Had
“I was a pizza maker for years at a pretty nice restaurant. Think Carrabas but local owned and French trained head chef. Anyway, a buss full of special needs folks and their helpers came in one day kind of in between lunch and dinner like about 2:30 ish, they all order food and are having a great time. Italian music blasting delicious homemade bread at the table, everyone’s having a great time. The order comes to me. Nothing to memorable except for this one specific pie. ‘Small cheese pizza, no cheese, no sauce.’ I check with the server. Yep that’s what he requested. No oil, no nothing. So I make it. One beautiful fresh made dough ball expertly tossed and shaped into a small pizza. I stay on top of it in the oven. Popping all the little bubbles that rise up and push them back down flat. It finishes and I cut it into 6 slices. She brings it to the table. The chef wants me to go out and make sure everyone is enjoying their meal. I go. The gentleman eating that unique pizza is ecstatic tells me and the whole restaurant that this is the best pizza he’s ever had. And I truly believe he meant it. This was about 20 years ago and I think about that table often. I’ve cooked and sold thousands of pizzas and that was my most memorable for sure. I hope that guy is doing well and I hope he is still trying all the pizzas this world has to offer.”
Nice Guy. Loves Mio
“I waited on Alice Cooper once and he whipped out a little canister of Mio and squirted it in his water (water flavoring that sometimes has caffeine for those not familiar). He looked at me and was like, ‘you know about this stuff?’ I said yeah I like it. It had been out for years at that point. He mentioned it two or three more times throughout the meal. Super nice guy. Loves Mio.”
More Buttah Is Bettah
“Not a sandwich story, but in high school I worked at the movie theater. This dude asked for extra butter on his popcorn. So I squirted his butter on while giving him the nod, but it wasn’t enough. He kept asking for more and I was a little punk, so I just kept going. After the movie, dude walked out and had a massive butter stain in his crotch area on his pants. I was very proud of myself. Another time this dude wanted butter in his crunch bits chocolate box. So I put butter in and watched him drink the butter-chocolate mix.”
Urine Trouble
” I used to work at Wild Oats (grocery store) and a customer would come in and ask us to put her own pee in her smoothie. She was one of those people who thought drinking urine was good for you. Obviously we didn’t do it, bc we use those blenders for everyone and no one was touching her pee, but really weird and gross request.”
Dr. Butter
“Reminds me of a coworker I had at a Chik-Fil-A. He told me about when he worked at a movie theater and a woman would order the biggest Dr pepper she could get but only have it filled 3/4ths of the way. She would fill the rest with the liquid butter for popcorn. Even after working at sonic that one is the weirdest drink and people put some weird stuff in their drinks at sonic.”
Baby Who Hurt You?
“Bagel sandwich shop worker here- got a regular who gets a blueberry bagel toasted with butter, strawberry jelly, and strawberry cream cheese, then layered with two eggs, double bacon, Swiss and American and cheddar cheese. Sometimes jalapeno cream cheese on the side. Baby who hurt you? It’s impossible to cut after all that smear and sammich.”
Cookie Monster
“AHHH THIS IS MY TIME. So after my 3 years at Subway this is the wildest sandwich I’ve seen. So this guy got a meatball sub, which is disgusting in the first place if you’ve ever worked Subway. Then he continued to ask for numerous veggies. That’s not too strange, people do that sometimes. Then he asked for like 4 different sauces on it, and here’s the kicker: he asked for two chocolate chip cookies crumbled onto it. CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES ON A MEATBALL SUB WITH A LOAD OF VEGGIES AND A DISGUSTING COMBINATION OF SAUCES. So this was my coworker who made it, and my regional manager was also in the store at the time. The manager continued to use him as an example in the regional group chat, as my coworker didn’t question it at all. Which is extremely impressive to me.”
Cherry On Top
“I worked in a pizza place and at one point we had a man walk in and order a personal cheese pizza. Then he specified that he wanted no sauce. Then added that he wanted no cheese. Then decided he’d like to add uncooked cherry tomatoes as a topping. We ended up cooking a slab of dough and throwing some cherry tomatoes on top. He then proceeded to use the pizza crust as a plate for his tomatoes, then threw the crust away after finishing his tomatoes. We had a salad bar with the exact same tomatoes as well.”
Olive You
“Not a subway employee but I was once standing behind a guy that said ‘just f- me up with olives’ and the woman working behind the counter proceeded to put 2 handfuls on olives on a 6 inch sub and the bloke goes ‘perfect’. Very strange.”
But The Eye Contact
“I worked at subway for about a year. Here was the weirdest for me
1: Cold tuna, hot chicken teriyaki, American cheese, buffalo sauce, onions, pickles and oil and vinegar. (This was surprisingly ordered by multiple teenage boys. They’d come in two or three times a week. They’d also mix every soda into one.)
2: Footlong, Italian bread, 4 slices of turkey, 2 slices of American cheese, 1 inch green pepper, 1 inch red onions, absolutely drenched in oil and vinegar and cut into three. (This weird old lady would always order this. It had to be exactly an inch of both. She’d make me get the little ruler we used to measure the kid size sub and watch me out exactly an inch. The sandwich had to be dripping and soggy. She claimed she was a health nut and that it was super good for her health. She’d also get the large 32oz of Diet Coke and a side of cucumbers. Normally, she’d eat it at the table right in front of me and continuously make eye contact.)
3: A meatball salad. (Truthfully, I think this guy just hated me because he’d watch me struggle with the process. Get a salad bowl, add spinach and green pepper, olives, pepperchinis, breakfast egg white, cucumber, onion and avocado. Then get the meatballs and a paper towel, then sit there getting ALL the sauce off. (No cheese. He was ‘on a diet;. Then on top he got chipotle and teriyaki sauce. 3 macadamia cookies and a cup of coffee.
*side note: he would order this first thing in the morning. We opened at 7am and the meatballs typically weren’t ready yet but he would sit and wait. He also would hold the creepiest smile ever, showing his gums because the smile was so big, the entire time.
I also remembered there was a guy who’d come in and get a single cookie nearly everyday. He worked at the grocery store next door. He’d buy a cookie and then use our bathroom for an hour or so. Our bathroom was customer only. He ALWAYS left a huge mess in the bathroom and would only use the women’s toilet. He never even ate the cookies though. He’d put them in the women’s trash can.
I worked in a very bad part of town, so we got all sorts of weirdos. There was one lady who always seemed high. She’d order a six inch on wheat and get it toasted with cheese and then only cucumbers, but she wanted the middle part of the cucumbers removed. So it was just cheese and basically cucumber peel with mayo. Could never wrap my head around it.”
Obey Your Thirst
“My husband works at Chickfila, which idk if that counts as a sandwich place, but a customer once asked him for a Sprite with several Chickfila sauce packets mixed in. And they happily drank it.”
His Poor Ticker
“I use to work at a Subway. The weirdest sandwiches were always the stoned kids who came in at like 9PM on the weekend.
Footlong chicken teriyaki with a scoop of tuna on each half is one that stands out in my memory.
Another one was a regular, he worked at the grocery store around the corner. He would come in once or twice a week after work and get a meatball sub with an egg on it.
ETA another I just thought of. I worked at a bagel shop, and this rather plump man would come in a few times a week and get a bagel toasted with extra butter, 4 portions of bacon (that’s 12 slices!), and a slice of cheese. That thing was literally dripping in grease. At one point he stopped coming in for a couple months and we all thought he must have died of a heart attack.”
Tuna Salad Guy
“When I worked at Subway, we had this regular customer who we referred to as the Tuna Salad Guy. He would order one of two things, a tuna salad (which is unusual but not odd) and a meatball salad. He was a total meanie, barking orders at the sandwich artists, never saying thank you, and expecting every artist to know the exact amount of topping for his salads (they were always the same). For his meatball salad, he would ask for the meatballs to be cut up, to be added to his greens, and then to put in the microwave (30 secs, no more no less). I just found it pretty gross that he wanted his whole meatball salad warmed, and it was heated in those flimsy plastic container which I doubt was supposed to be microwaved. One of my last days there, I actually told him that, ‘When you speak to me like that, it hurts my feelings as I am trying my best.’ He was ashamed I believe, and blurted out a curt sorry before speeding off. I just hope it may have gotten to him in some way and that he treats other food service people better in the future, though I’m personally doubtful.”
Now That’s A Spicy Meatball
“When I worked at Subway, some guy came in and ordered a 6” meatball sandwich on Italian bread. He asked me to put pepper on it until he said stop.
So I shook it.
And shook it.
I looked up at him, confused, but he wanted more pepper.
When my wrist hurt and the meatballs had a weighted blanket of gray pepper, he finally said, ‘Okay, that’s perfect.’ Not toasted, no veggies, no other seasonings, no sauces. No cookies, chips, drinks.. just his meatball-and-pepper sammich. I don’t remember if he even got a water cup.
And I watched him eat the entire thing, straight-faced, while I cleaned the front end. I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe some tears or a runny nose? He just really absolutely loved pepper, I guess.. and he let me keep the change as a tip.
His face comes to mind when someone brings up that ‘nOw tHaT’s a sPicY mEaTbaLL’ meme.”