24 Restaurant, Bar, And Coffee Shop Customers Who Were So Rotten, Employees Are Still Haunted By Their Behaviors
Human beings can be so damn rude, and no one knows that as well as restaurant, bar, and coffee shop employees.
Nickelodeon
I recently came across a Reddit thread that really hit this point home. User u/ChipFan111 asked restaurant workers to share stories about "the worst customer" they ever had to deal with, and honestly, all of these made my jaw drop:
1."This one guy who hated his order so much that he waved me over and told me to put my hand out, then proceeded to spit out the entirety of what was in his mouth into my hand, then told me to refund him and make him something else."
Roku
2."Barista here. We had a guy that regularly came in and ordered a complicated drink. He always finished the order by asking for a 'finger swirl' in the drink. If you gave him a confused look, he would say, 'Well, how else am I gonna taste you?' He was the worst."
3."I worked at Domino's. I had a guy throw a handful of pennies at me while laughing that the 30 odd cents was my tip. He was mad when I turned around and walked away without picking any of them up. His exact words were, 'Oh, my money's not good enough for you? Fine, I'll never order Domino's again!' I've never had a customer fire themselves like that before — it was great."
4."I had someone order hot water, and when I brought it out to her in a cup, she said, 'Now that the cup is clean, you can dump that out and put tea in it, please.' I was literally speechless."
OWN
5."I used to work in a bar that sold very old booze. A drunk man tried to impress his friends by chugging from a bottle of Amaro from the early '60s. He had to pay for the whole thing since his lips touched it, and it was useless. It cost him around $800."
6."I worked in a popular restaurant for awhile. We usually had quite a long wait (30-40 minutes) during dinner service, and people were told by the hosts about this. There was this lady who got fed up with the wait after 10 minutes. She stormed into the restaurant, stood next to a table of four people, and literally asked them, 'Are you guys done? We've been waiting for a long time now and would like to have the table if you guys are just chatting...' I was completely mind-blown that people are able to not give a fuck and pull something like that in public."
7."A guy threw a beer in my face when I stuck up for myself and told him to stop banging his fist on the bar and screaming ‘YO!!’ to get my attention."
8."Our bar was having a private party. A drunk dude walked in and ordered a drink. I knew he wasn't with the party based on his attire, and the fact that he came in every so often. I told him I couldn’t get him a drink. He lost his mind. He told me to fuck off and then wanted to fight me. On his way out, he yelled that we should put up signs (as he walked by the signs on the door saying we were closed for a private event). He came in the next day sober and apologized."
NBC
9."After a wedding reception ended at our facility, we were cleaning, and I began the cleaning process on our espresso machine. The party had been over almost half an hour already. The process to clean the machines takes 12 minutes. People were still there as the party slowly let out, and the father of the bride asked me for an espresso. I told him I could get it to him (as we have a strict policy of always trying to satisfy a guest's needs), but the machine was cleaning, and it would be done in about 10 minutes. He began ranting about how much he paid for the wedding and stormed to our banquet's manager and told them I refused to make it for him. The manager was a d-bag and started ripping me in front of the guy. I showed both of them that the machine was just finishing the cleaning process, and it was impossible to make it beforehand. I got suspended for two weeks."
10."I was bartending in a restaurant a few years ago. There was a private party, and one of the guests asked me to plug in his iPhone to listen to a song. No big deal — I did it, and he tipped me $20. He left his phone behind the bar and got wasted. When he was leaving, I said, 'Sir, don't forget about your phone!' He threw a beer on me and told me to 'leave him the fuck alone' and 'get a real job.' Guess who got to keep a nice, new iPhone?"
11."I worked at a fast-food place near a high school. The absolute worst were the moms. We had one who came in weekly and screamed about wrong orders (or whatever complaint she could dream up) so she could get free food for her entire family."
C-SPAN
12."I used to manage a restaurant and hated those couple of times in my five years of working there when some entitled customers left without paying because 'the waitress didn't come to pick up my money.' That's a piece of shit move and a poor excuse, when all you need is to grab a waitress's attention by simply talking!"
13."A customer ordered one of our daily specials and didn’t like it, so instead of complaining to me about the food and letting me offer something else, she complained to my manager about ME. This was May of last year. In August of last year, it turned out she was one of my college professors for the semester, teaching A MANAGEMENT course. She recognized me the first day, but I played it off like I didn’t know her."
14."Any table that mentioned the tip at all. 'Don't worry, we tip well.' 'If you do X, we'll tip big.' 'We'll take care of you.' Holding the tip over my head doesn't get you better service — you get the same everyone else does. They were always pretentious and rude and never tipped well."
15."I had a customer randomly ask if I spoke English, as I was talking to them in English."
SNL
16."I worked at a fast-food restaurant in high school. A man ordered a double cheeseburger with extra cheese, and received one with four slices instead of the usual two. Two minutes later, he was absolutely red in the face and screaming at the poor cashier. He demanded to talk to the 'little shit' that made his sandwich — asking if we thought this was 'some kind of joke.' Apparently, when he ordered extra cheese, he wanted one extra slice; not two."
17."One time, a guy stared at my chest as I explained the specials, and then asked me about the specials. His girlfriend didn't speak to me for the rest of their meal. He gave me a 10% tip."
18."I worked in a restaurant that was in a 55-plus community while I was in high school. During our busiest night of the week, Thursday night karaoke, I was bussing tables to get empty glasses that the bar desperately needed. When I grabbed a clearly empty wine glass from in front of a woman, she stabbed my hand with a fork (to the point of drawing a fairly significant amount of blood), screeching, 'I'm not done with that!' Mind you, the only thing left in this glass was a droplet of wine at the bottom that had dried up 30 minutes prior."
Channel 7
19."Once, I had a family of four come in. I work at a sushi restaurant, and there's an 'open sushi set.' Logically, each person gets charged for their own. The dad started joking around, trying so hard to make me charge him with two sets instead of four. I apologized, and said I couldn't do anything about it. He got mad, and said bitterly, 'Some disrespectful staff this company has. I want to speak to the manager.' I told him there was no manager at this branch. He laughed like he didn't believe me and said, 'I'm gonna ruin your life for his.' Two days later, HR called me and told me that a man came in and said that I yelled at him, and that I was very disrespectful toward him and his family. ... I stood up for myself and told them what really happened. They proceeded to say, 'I really don't know who I should believe,' and hung up. Two days later, I was fired."
20."Working at IHOP led me to witness a man add Tabasco, Cholula, salt, pepper, and Heinz 57 sauce to his pancakes. That should be a crime."
21."I was working for Olive Garden at the time, and I had a guest ask me if a particular entrée (braised beef and tortellini) was good or not. I replied that the dish was amazing and one of my favorites on the menu, and 'honestly, if you don’t like it, I will pay for it.' He happily agreed, and later, when I walked past his table, I noticed his plate was completely empty. I asked him how he liked the dish, and he replied he hated it and demanded I uphold my promise from earlier. I laughed, thinking he was joking, but soon realized he was 100% serious. It was this day that I learned how na?ve I’ve been living my life, that I expect others to treat me how they would like to be treated."
22."I was a cook, so I didn't deal with the customer directly — but I felt the server's pain as she came back and told me stories. This one woman came in with her young daughter and asked what the soup of the day was. She was told it was tomato garlic. She then demanded we serve her a bowl without the garlic because she had a date later. She was far from the worst customer ever, but maybe one of the most unaware of how food preparation in a restaurant kitchen works."
NBC
23."I work in a fish and chips shop. There’s a regular who comes in every Thursday/Friday. One time he came, I accidentally charged him for slightly more than he bought — I eventually noticed, fixed it, and life went on. But now, every time he comes in, whenever I ask him for his payment, he makes a point of counting how much his order comes up to, and how much change I gave him really loudly under his breath. And he doesn’t stop after one count; he just counts it over and over again while I’m trying to wrap up his chips, all the way up until he leaves. He doesn’t do this when he gets served by my coworker. I fucking hate that guy."
24.And finally, "This old guy who asked if I was included in the order. I'm 17."
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity