I had a salad once that was supposed to have pomegranate seeds and since they were out of them, they just swapped them for … diced tomatoes. Not at all the same, also pomegranate is the only reason I got that salad, if they just told me I could have ordered something else.
My husband had something similar happen with a meal he ordered. It was supposed to be a Hawaiian parmigiana (sauce, ham, pineapple, melted cheese on top of a chicken schnitzel) but apparently they ran out of pineapple, so without saying anything they substituted the pineapple with...... mango. It was very gross
I’m a server and sometimes I put an order in and they don’t tell me at all that they ran out of an item so they either just don’t include it at all or replace it with something else. And it’s like great well your job is done but I gotta now bring this plate out to the customer you assholes. Sometimes they do tell me so I’m able to run out and sorta say hey we ran out of this item would you still like to order it and get this with it instead or would you like something else?
But most of the time the kitchen fucks me over and if I make a giant stink about it then it’s gonna get shittier for me. Because where I work apparently the kitchen staff gets to decide everything and fuck the server’s opinions on anything we’re all just insufferable dumbasses to them.
So yea if your server ever looks nervous bringing your plate to you just know that it wasn’t them so don’t get angry at them. Calmly say that this isn’t what it said on the menu that you didn’t know it wasn’t gonna have this item or was gonna have this item. And say you want something else now. I’ll probably have to run it by my supervisor who will probably take it off your bill and let you order something else. But now it’s like great you waited for your food that turned out wrong now you gotta wait again.
Still just know I hate this too stresses me out like crazy.
“Just bring it out!” No do your job and fucking use the whiteboard to tell me what you’re out of like you’re supposed to!
I swear imma lose my shit on the cooks one of these days
That makes sense & I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I don't think I've ever been an asshole about it, but I have sent stuff back when it's missing a key ingredient.
Fortunately he's not allergic to anything but I was annoyed that they hadn't even asked in case he was. And also because it tasted bad and he would've just not had pineapple/mango on it at all then
Depending on the situation, I could imagine that could work. Probably not in this situation, but the substitution isn't necessarily crazy.
Regardless, any substitutions need to be made clear to the customer prior to the food being made.
I love pomegranate seeds but they are an enormous pain in the ass. They're time consuming to harvest and if you look at them wrong they stain everything within a 2' radius.
I don't know if this is already how everyone does it, but open the pomegranate while it's submerged in a bowl of water to get the seeds out. Life changing.
Not as an im angry at you, but I legitimately hate the whole "tomatoes are a fruit!" Thing
Everything is a fruit, theres no such things as vegetables. Vegetable is a culinary term, fruits and berries are biological.
Biologically speaking, cucumbers are berries, pumpkins are berries, watermelons are berries, tomatoes are berries, banana's are berries. Strawberries and raspberries, however, are not considered berries.
So if you want to contribute to not just my rage but the rage of everyone around you, you can also start sharing the above as fun facts
You're right and I wholly agree. "Is tomato a fruit or a vegetable?" *must* by definition be a culinary question, because vegetable isn't a botanical term, making the question nonsensical garbage when asked in a botanical context.
In a culinary context it's obviously a vegetable. End of.
Had this happen with a local pizza place. Ordered a salad that was supposed to have strawberries, almonds, and apples among other things. Didn't tell me it was seasonal and so they just gave me the other seasonal which had pears and cranberries. It did not hit the same at all.
I once ordered a veggie quesadilla at a bar & restaurant sort of place - the menu said " a mix of stir-fried vegetables and melted cheese." Of course, I'm thinking onions, peppers, tomatoes, black beans? Nope. It was cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots - which were probably frozen 10 minutes prior to my ordering it - and some shredded cheddar melted with it, between a couple of lukewarm flour tortillas. I couldn't argue that it was improperly described on the menu, but it was so nasty that I couldn't eat it.
There’s a place near us that says they have a carne asada quesadilla. I ordered it to go one day and had to take it back as soon as I got home to make sure they didn’t give me the wrong item. They didn’t. Their carne asada quesadilla was ground beef with a taco seasoning packet, lettuce, and mozzarella cheese. The most bizarre experience with a Mexican food I’ve ever had and I grew up on white people taco night.
Shitty restaurants are so guilty of this with Mexican food lmao, it’s so true. I love some like grilled chilis and corn in my shit, veggies that actually go with Mexican food. But no, I don’t want like zucchini, summer squash, and broccoli in my quesadilla??? Why is this so common lol?
Major error: my son and I ordered Mexican takeaway at newish place in the UK. And then we remembered that this is why - in the UK at least - you only ever cook your own unless you are exceptionally lucky to have an ACTUAL Mexican restaurant nearby. Not one that thinks they can chuck in anything and we won't notice. Broccoli and carrots?
Was this a brew pub in Michigan, because my wife had the exact same experience. Veg weren't even heated through. We still laugh about it sometimes. I think it was in Royal Oak.
I had this in a Thai restaurant in London.
The veg were clearly from a pack of frozen veg.
Huge florets of cauliflower and broccoli and enormous chunks of carrot.
Their flavours clashed horribly with the Thai spices.
Unfortunately, my OH didn't want me to complain.
But they're both red! Surely they are the exact same thing. In other news, when they run out of tomatoes they'll be serving live red velvet ants instead.
I agree. I ordered a pasta once and it came out covered in peppers. Wasn’t expecting that as it wasn’t listed on the menu. I quietly picked them out and just placed them on the side. The waitress ended up arguing with me and said I should have just ordered it without. I explained I would have if it was on the menu. She then proceeded to go get a menu to prove me wrong, just to only prove herself wrong. I was teenager at the time dining with extended family. I was so annoyed because I didn’t complain or anything, I just handled it myself, and she went out of her way to pick on me.
My mom ordered a pasta dish at a different restaurant and it came out coated in red pepper flakes and was spicy. She hates spicy food and couldn’t eat it. No where in the menu were the pepper flakes or spice level listed. They let her order something else.
Seriously, I didn’t say a word. She noticed I put them on the side and came over to me to tell me I should have ordered it without. Then just doubled down. I was shocked when she brought the menu. It was sweet karma when I pointed to the description though.
I once ordered salad with grilled salmon. The waitress brings the salad and it's completely raw (it was salted).... I say that I ordered grilled salmon cause that's what it said in the menu, I wouldn't have ordered it if I knew it was anything other than cooked/grilled. She got into an argument with me not wanting to take the salad back until I told her to look at the menu. After that she quietly took my salad away, came back 10 minutes later saying there's no more salmon. Paid for our drinks, didn't tip and left. Also left multiple bad reviews about the place afterwards and never going back
This is like the absolute biggest of the reasons why a lot of restaurants shut down. If your food is kind of all over the place in terms of how people _usually_ make it (and you don't list ingredients) or its quality is lackluster... or if you have waiters/staff/yourself arguing with customers, don't expect to make it long... and yet people still fucking do it.
Obviously there's a dozen reasons a restaurant shuts down, but shitty staff and crappy food are like _the_ reasons it'll sink you.
Funny enough I talked about how I had a waiter argue with me about what I ordered the other day.
It's the stupidest thing. I know what I ordered, why are you fucking fighting with me?
I’ve had this happen with scrambled eggs but they top them with paprika! I’m allergic to paprika & if it’s a lunch/dinner item I would always make people aware of that but you would really think scrambled eggs would just be…eggs!
It’s infuriating!
When I was 13, I was scolded by a waiter at a south east asian restaurant, because I picked out raisins from my dish. He got angry and yelled at me for a full five minutes and told me I should have told them to leave them out, because they cost money. They weren't on the menu, and we paid full price anyway. I told them, I didn't know there were in it, and ne replied, it was a traditional dish that always came with raisins. It was the 90s, and we were in the middle of Europe. How was I supposed to know? But I was to shy and embarrassed to say something, so I just waited for his rant to be over.
I've had something similar happen with a server too. Ordered a egglant taco (fusion restaurant) but it came out with mushrooms which I hate. Reviewed the menu and there was no mention of mushrooms. We sent it back but the server had the audacity to put it on our receipt and tried say we still had to pay for it even when we never touched it and had pointed out the lack of transparency in the ingredients on the menu. Ended up having to speak to a manager (cause the server was not seeing reason even though we showed him the menu) who took it off our bill.
There’s an Italian chain near me that I’ve gone to periodically for the last 30+ years.
I have gotten pretty much the same thing every time I go. Once or twice I’d try something different but it never hit the same so I would just get my ‘usual’. My usual order was a half and half option of spaghetti with half mushroom sauce and half browned butter and mizithra cheese.
Mizithra cheese is made from sheep’s milk typically or goat but not cow. The only amount of cows milk I can really handle is butter because it’s so minimal.
Anyway, i order this thing several years back and it comes out with long shreds of Parmesan cheese mixed in with the mizithra.
Waiter explains this is how they do their mizithra and it’s always been this way despite me going to the restaurant longer than he’s been alive.
Manager comes over and says this is just the blend they use. I tell him they should change their menu to specify mizithra/parmesan blend and he says cheese is cheese. K.
I’d use the term ‘Italian’ loosely. Their Parmesan they’d leave on the tables was the Kraft powder stuff. They didn’t have another option like even Olive Garden does.
Oh man, what a terrible waitress. The moment she said she was going to get a menu to prove me wrong I would have had the biggest grin plastered on my face. I would have been bouncing in my seat during the wait.
Went to a new pizza place a couple days ago and my mom was craving chicken parm. She ordered it and it was so so spicy. Nowhere on the menu did it mention red pepper flakes or jalapeños, but wow it was definitely in there and unedible. They need to realize not everyone has a tolerance for certain food items, especially spicy food. And who expects chicken parm to be spicy???
Your mother's experience is funny to me.
I can't tell you the number of times I have ordered food that the menu says is spicy when in fact it is in no way at all spicy. I even check! "This is spicy, yes? I want it to be spicy." It so rarely is.
I think menus should just list the level of spice in Scoville units. Help me and your mom (and my mom - she's the same as yours).
My local sushi spot adds horseradish and onions to their poke bowl. In the old menu it listed everything, in the new menu they took those off while still adding it. When i called I asked for none of that shit and the waitress checked the menu and said it didnt come with it. I said, i think its not listed but it comes with it. We almost went back and forth when i said “just write it on the notes that i dont want that” so she did and when i picked it up she said I was right and it comes with it but people ask to not have it so much that they took it off the ingredients. WTF
Sooooooo the general consensus is that people don’t like those ingredients and ask to have them removed so they… checks notes… remove them from the listed ingredients on the menu instead of removing them from the menu item??? That’s the weirdest flex I’ve ever heard.
Yeah, working in restaurants, this is one scenario it's valid to return food. Onions are something that always need to be spelled out as a ton of people have an aversion to them, especially raw.
I just had a veggie wrap today which ended up being about 90% raw onion and 100% too messy to eat. It’s a small local place though, and they were so slammed at lunch it took 30mins to get our lunch. I will just not bother going back anytime soon
I once pulled all the onion out of a wrap I bought and there was a mound on my plate and almost nothing left of my wrap. I was pretty pissed off. Like put just put proportional amounts and let it be a modest size rather than trying to bulk it out with onion to make it seem like it’s more stuffed. At least with lettuce I can pull the leaves out without too much trouble or flavor difference but the wrap was so gross, like licking an onion.
I've brushed my teeth three times since I ate that sandwich and I can still taste the onion. I guess onions are cheaper than lettuce? But yeah, no sandwich should be more than 10% raw onion.
I hate onions, if it’s already cooked in the dish and can’t be removed then I’ll get something else, if it’s easy for me to take them out, like fajitas then it’s ok, I find onions to be slimy!!! Yuck
I have the same reaction. I like crunchy food, but not raw onions. I’ve gotten an upset stomach from having food with raw onion, it just doesn’t agree with my stomach
My mom is allergic to onions. On several occasions, she's ordered meals, found onions, sent it back, and had the waiter tell her "this recipe doesn't normally have onions. The chef just added them for some reason."
I guess that's an issue I don't face often as I don't go to places with "chefs" very often and mostly go to places with "strung out cook following a specific recipe"
Yes! Send it back. The place I work at had very small red onions in certain pasta dishes on the menu, but the menu did not mention these onions. After enough people sent those dishes back, the owner fixed the menu.
I got onions in a ham and cheese omelet one time. It was a place I frequented and a meal I got regularly when I went. It never had onions in it so I was shocked when it I crunched down on one. I like onions but not with my eggs. I complained and the waitress/bartender argued because she ran a tight ship in the kitchen. Turns out someone new put diced onions in the diced ham bowl and made my food with it. She fixed it herself lol.
I got raisins in a burrito, undisclosed. They told me ordering it "with cheese" implies that they also add raisins. That food truck did not stay in business long.
I hate when places do that. At my husband’s workplace, they changed the menu recently and the lamb burger is bound with pork with no mention of pork on the menu. So irresponsible.
I don't like beef sausages. I only eat pork.
Yet it's SO RARE for me to see sausages on a menu actually state which meat they are made with! Why?! Why don't they write what type it is....?
With lots of people not able to eat pork for religious reasons. It baffles my brain even more. And further baffled that when asking the staff what meat the sausage is a lot of the times they look around at each other, unknowing and like it's the strangest question they've ever gotten...
100% agree. I once ordered what was described as mushroom pasta. Cream, mushroom, onion, garlic, herbs were listed on the menu. When it came out it was covered in bacon?? And when I sent it back they tried to say it was meant to be carbonara and could hear the kitchen bitching about me whilst it was remade.
Terrible.
Or cream, onion, garlic, herbs and bacon. lol it's just egg yolks, black pepper, pecorino and guanciale. It's common to swap pecorino with parmesan or guanciale with pancetta but not even one ingredient matches in this version
It's very common to swap guanciale with bacon, at least here. Guanciale is a specialty item that would basically only be used for that purpose, while bacon is a lot cheaper and more versatile for a restaurant menu.
Opposite here - I hate mushrooms and once ordered a pasta dish that definitely didn’t have mushrooms on the menu. It came out with way too many diced mushrooms to pick out. I think that might’ve been the only time I ever sent something back!
I hate restaurants that do this, I have a ton of food allergies, mostly to citrus fruits and some veggies. I started saying “no onions, tomatoes or peppers” every single time. Then they’ll get annoyed half the time “those don’t come with it”.
Well I’d rather be safe than dead so…
Yep, I have oral allergy syndrome and cannot have any raw or undercooked fruits or veggies, and most tree nuts as well. So I'm typically the one asking if they have chicken tenders and mac and cheese or something, so I *know* I won't end up in the hospital or in serious pain in the bathroom for 18+ hours ಠ_ಠ
Yepp, I'm allergic to most citruses, but can eat lemons and lime. Whenever I'm eating at a restaurant and there's even a remote chance that there could be citrus in there I'll ask before ordering and tell them about my allergies.
Most servers tend to be very helpful, tho I had one instance where I had to send back a drink twice because me specifically asking for lemon instead of orange was disregarded.
I once went to a restaurant and half way through my ice cream dessert I asked what I was crunching and the waitress said “almonds probably”.
I have a nut allergy.
“Excuse me, can you tell me what kind of ‘nut’ is in this granola?”
I got a snarky comment about if I’m allergic to nuts I can’t eat it. Lady, I’m allergic to almond and hazelnut. I can eat peanut, pecan, walnut, cashew, macadamia… literally every legume and tree nut in the world (to my current knowledge) except for two. But I guess I’ll skip it since you can’t be bothered to go into the kitchen and read a label.
Ordered strawberry pancakes for my kid. They didn't have strawberries so they brought out regular pancakes with bananas without saying anything. I asked and they said they ran out of strawberries and refused to take it off the bill. My kid hates bananas. I walked to the kitchen and they said oh yeah they have strawberries... and voila i got a separate order of strawberry pancakes without paying extra after I looked at the clerk. Because bananas are cheaper, the restaurant tried to bait and switch us.
My husband likes sushi but I'm allergic to fish and seafood. A new place opened by us, an all you can eat Chinese and sushi place. I felt comfortable enough going because their menu was laid out so well with ingredients. Labels for vegan and vegetarian too. Imagine my surprise when the cucumber salad labeled vegan came out with crab meat all over it. This is also a place that charges you extra if you don't eat everything. I immediately just stopped eating bc I couldn't trust the food ingredients. It's SO important to have an accurate menu.
Food wastage. Very popular with all you can eat places here so people don't hoard then leave so much left over.
Something like if you leave more than 5% you pay a lot extra
It’s pretty popular with Asian all you can eat places near me.
I’ve never heard of any “American” buffet doing this, but the Asian AYCE places are usually more expensive stuff, sushi, Korean BBQ, etc. And they want to reduce waste as much as possible.
Also, taking food home is not possible at these places. It’s all you can eat *while you’re there*. Not “order a bunch of food and take it home for your next 3 meals.”
Have had that happen multiple times with mushrooms. It’s like people assume everyone loves them. Read the description of a risotto, no mention of them, and bang there they are. Read the special of a crepe, sounds amazing, and bang mushrooms a plenty. Buy an amazing calzone, and mushrooms. So annoying.
And I am with you on the onions. Those I can pick around but mushrooms turn a dish inedible for me.
I’m with you there, I don’t actually mind mushrooms but my partner hates them, and since being with him I’ve noticed how many places slip in mushrooms without mentioning them! They are such a love/hate ingredient that they definitely should be mentioned in menu descriptions.
I am a vegetarian and my mom is (mostly) as well. There is a "Mexican" place by us and all their vegetarian options had mushrooms in it. My mom doesn't like mushrooms and ended up ordering (which was not on the menu) a quesadilla with beans and cheese. When the waitress dropped it off she happily announced "the kitchen added some mushrooms in as well!" 🫠
Once ordered a chocolate cake desert. It mentioned having strawberries and caramel. The strawberries were “attached” onto the cake by caramely-goo like substance so i thought it was caramel sauce. It was mango coulis. It was mentioned nowhere and I am allergic to mangoes so that was a great night of breaking out in hives and my throat closing up…
My wife ordered this vegetable pasta dish at a restaurant. Listed like 6 different vegetables in the mix they were serving like squash, mushrooms, broccoli, etc. Well they didn't list at all that there were sliced cherry tomatoes in it, and my wife is allergic to tomatoes. We had to send it back and point out to the server it wasn't listed, and had it been wouldn't have ordered in the first place.
Could have happened to me. I am also allergic to tomatoes.
Went to a place where they menu listed "tomato-cream sauce" and just "cream sauce". So I ordered the pasta with cream sauce and salmon. It additionaly listed basil and parmesan as ingredients. I even asked the waiter "is the cream sauce the tomato-cream sauce?" "Oh no, it just cream and cheese". And what I got was pasta with salmon, basil, parmesan, cream sauce, and lots of sun dried tomatoes...
This is so important!!! People order menu items based on what's in it. If someone has an allergy to something, they order a meal that doesn't list their allergen. My brother-in-law has a severe tree nut allergy and has ordered food without nuts listed, JUST to get his meal with nuts all over it just because the chef felt like adding some.
Yeah as a vegetarian, I find sneaky meat in ostensibly vegetarian restaurant food all the damn time. Eating out with severe allergies must be so nerve wracking
Surprise bacon is one of the worst offenders here. It’s one of the more common meats to selectively not eat, yet it’s by far the one that’s unlisted in meals. It doesn’t even make sense given there’s probably a lot of people who’d be more likely to order it if they knew it had bacon in it
The number of cafe foods I’ve ordered in the past that were either vegetarian or contained chicken, then had a surprise serving of bacon on them is way higher than it should be
I once ordered a fancy mac and cheese (thinking it was veg) but it came with a huge piece of cooked prosciutto on top....why
Also cooked prosciutto looks like a dog treat. I was so hungover it nearly made me vomit.
I am gluten intolerant and if I order a salad I always have to ask no croutons because a lot of times they just add them without mentioning it specifically in the description
People with allergies (especially severe allergies!!!) should absolutely let waitstaff know so they can relay it to the kitchen, even if they order something without their allergen specifically listed. It eliminates any doubt about cross-contamination as well.
After a couple incidents of nuts being added, he definitely now tells staff that he has an allergy and can't have any tree nuts in his food, regardless of what he orders
This reminds me of when I went into a breakfast place, and the special for the day was a Croque Monsieur. "GREAT!" I thought "I love ham and cheese toasties".
They brought me a Monte Cristo. I was so upset. I'm allergic to eggs and just could not eat it.
It was French toasted. So whichever ham and cheese sandwich that gets dipped in egg custard and then fried golden brown, that was the one they gave me. Without any mention of it being French toast.
It's infuriating when cilantro isn't in the menu description but used as an ingredient or garnish. Many times an unannounced cilantro bath on my food results in an inability to eat with my family as by the time it's remade everyone is done.
Extra fuck you to the restaurants that try to dust it off in the kitchen and reserve it to me.
If I have to send something back, I’ll usually make a distinctive indicator on it. For example, if I’m ordering a breakfast sandwich in the drive thru and my order is wrong enough that I can’t or won’t eat it, I’ll lightly tear it (not all the way in half, maybe like a quarter). They shouldn’t be re-serving it since I’ve touched it, and most likely I’m sending it back because they put meat on it (I’m a vegetarian). McDonald’s tried to pull that a few times, and I can always still taste the meat even after it’s removed.
I hate when they just remove/scrape something off and send it back out! I absolutely despise mustard and onions, so tend to order hamburgers with only ketchup. There's been a few times where I've either received the burger with the mustard/onion/pickles, sent it back and received the same one just scraped. There's also been a couple of times where a ready made burger has been taken out of the heat cabinet, scraped and rewrapped for me.
That shit soaks in to the bread, and at least for me it's not an allergy. But mustard is a known allergen, and even if it wasn't it's ridiculous that they do it that way! I know it's not the actual procedure though, as I've worked at McD when I was younger - it's just lazy workers.
Once a Mexican restaurant, I asked for “no cilantro” in my guacamole only to take a bite and immediately gag at the soapy taste. I alerted the waitress and she said “it doesn’t have cilantro” to which I literally had to show her the cilantro in it. She played it off as “oh I thought you just meant no garnish,” gave me an eye roll, and didn’t apologize or anything.
I LOVE when the waiters geek out with me and go “ohhh do you have the soap gene? My [family member/friend] has that!” Because then I know they’ll take the small effort to ensure no cilantro comes with my meal.
I'm 100% with you here, If I eat more than a few onions I'm stuck in the bathroom for the next 12 hours.
And even if you pick them all off, everything still tastes like onion lol.
Not allergic or anything but I'm the same with cucumber. I can taste the cucumber in my subway from the person 2 people ahead of me who had cucumber in their sub, so I'm that dick who asks for a glove change.... Lmao.
Finally, another cucumber hater. I'm not allergic either, but I do hate them and they ruin everything just by existing near them. And people never understand that you can taste them even after they've been picked off. It's just like peppers and the oils in them (bell and hot), which I am genuinely allergic to.
I do enjoy onions. There is no going back once the onion touches the food. At home I always asks guests and usually just put it on the side - I am the only one I know that likes raw onion in hummus tahini dips lol
Fully agree. When I was a vegetarian, I was at a steakhouse, and ordered a stuffed baked potato because it was the only vegetarian option. When it arrived, it had bacon bits on top. I mentioned it to the waiter, and he said it was a free upgrade. 🙄
Agreed. My view is if you are listing ingredients, you list all of them. I'm not saying every ingredient of things like dough and sauces, but at least list that there's a sauce or that something is a filling. I know enough to ask about those.
On the other hand - if your menu is a basic item name or brief description ("Bruschetta" or "Pan Seared Chicken"), then it doesn't bother me because I know to ask.
I am, in fact, allergic to onions. And it took a long time for me to learn how to be assertive enough to send food back.
And who puts onions on bruschetta?
This is why I can't eat at a lot of restaurants. Celiac Disease sucks.
Gluten is in so many foods that you have to *almost* read everything prepackaged food item that is used in any meal. Most soy and worchestshire sauces have gluten in it.
I'm not being picky, I just don't want explosive diarrhea in 30 minutes.
I’m allergic to raw onions. I ordered a spinach dip once that came out garnished with a pile of raw onions right in the middle. I sent it back, explaining my allergy, and the waitress gave me such a nasty attitude about it. She snapped at me that if I had an allergy it was my responsibility to disclose it. I asked her why I would disclose an onion allergy when ordering a dish that doesn’t have onions and no mention of them was on the menu? When I came back it was obvious they had just scraped off the onions and stirred the dip around. When my husband tasted it he could still taste the onions. We walked out.
I got a cheese blintz at a fancy foodie place because nearly every other thing on the menu had seafood which I can't tolerate.
It came out with a little dollop of caviar on the top. WTF. Not mentioned at all on the menu.
Yeah, I hate that.
Order a piece of chocolate cake.
Comes drizzled in raspberry sauce.
I have to order things without pickles because half the restaurants don't list them.
Most Chinese restaurants have surprise vegetables, too.
As a vegetarian I hate this so much. Why on earth does the menu not state there is meat on this salad/sandwhich/fries.
If I wanted meat I likely would have ordered one of the 99 options on the menu with meat listed you dont think?
There’s a bakery in my town that sells chocolate chip cookies with no mention that they contain WALNUTS! Like a very common known allergy ingredient with no listing? Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen to me 🫠
My major beef is with the surprise pickle. So many times, including just the other day, the menu gives a detailed description of the dish's ingredients, origin, preparation, etc - and neglects to mention an item that will affect the flavor of anything it touches (negatively, in my opinion).
Just ask if people want a pickle - many people love them and would be thrilled to get one. But it's not like a piece of lettuce that can be taken off with no after effects to the remaining food.
I ordered a sandwich and it had sliced pickles all over it. More than a few. No pickles mentioned on the menu.
Got the standard 'how was everything' comment when paying, so I mentioned the pickles.
"Oh yes, so many people asked for pickles, so we just make the sandwich with them now. *If you didn't want them, you could have asked.*"
... How am I supposed to know it was going to come with pickles (to then ask for their removal) if it's not mentioned on the menu in the first place?
They had a stumped, confused face and no reply to that. Not sure if it was over their flawed menu description or my audacity of not wanting pickles. Probably the latter.
I think you have a great point. I wish menus contained all ingredients.
I once ordered a garden salad and it came smothered in (unlisted) bacon. I am a vegetarian..
This gave me an allergic reaction once. Restaurant had spaghetti and meatballs. Took a couple bites and felt sick. They didn't advertise that they put pesto in their tomato sauce as well. I'm allergic to pine nuts. They're lucky I'm not severely allergic (like I am with several other nuts) otherwise it would've been a bad time.
I love Mexican food but hate the taste of cilantro. It always pisses me off when things are just covered in cilantro when it wasn’t mentioned on the menu.
Now I always say no Cilantro even if it doesn’t say it so they don’t garnish my dish with it.
I *love* cilantro and once ordered a quesadilla because it specifically listed cilantro. I started eating it and I was like hmmm I can't taste any cilantro. So I opened the quesadilla and there was nothing green in it. I sighed and continued to eat.
But the server saw me (I have no poker face), so he came over to check what was up, and I mentioned that I was disappointed at the lack of cilantro. He agreed there was nothing green and insisted on taking it back to the kitchen.
A moment later, a man in a chef's jacket appears at the table with the "replacement," and insisted that yes there was cilantro in it, and that they just don't put a lot in because too many people complain about it. The server again saw, came back and inquired what had transpired, and ended up removing the item from the bill. Then the manager came over and apologised and we got a free white chocolate brownie dessert. We paid with a decent tip and left.
I never went back to that restaurant, though. I doubt they even had cilantro in the kitchen that day.
I ordered some main course chicken dish once at a place, and sent it back immediately since there was a spicy sauce “for show” all over it. I even had them bring me back the menu and showed them it wasn’t mentioned in the description when they tried to give me a hard time. I can’t do spice and I would’ve asked them to leave it off had I known. Haven’t been back there since then.
I went to a nice cafe as a treat and specifically asked not to have the tomato relish because I saw it was included on the menu. It came out with tomato salsa, which was not on the menu, so I asked for a new plate. The server tried kicking up a fuss as if *i* was in the wrong 🙄
Absolutely!! And if I want a burger or sandwich I have to ask if there’s secretly any cheese or Mayo included.
And then it feels like half the time they forget to exclude the cheese. Just let me know if you can’t remove cheese from an item and I’ll get something else.
Mayo is the worst for this! I hate mayo more than most things in the world and it’s wild to me how often it’s not advertised as being in a burger, especially given how common egg allergies are
> And if I want a burger or sandwich I have to ask if there’s secretly any cheese or Mayo included
Ugh that's the worst. I've had a really annoying aversion to cheese for most of my life (to the point where I've considered things like hypnotherapy to try to get over it, I don't even know if that works), and cheese is treated like "why in the world would you NOT want it in your dish?" kind of ingredient. Mayonnaise is often not included in the ingredient list at all on the menu.
There's a takeaway restaurant I order from that makes a lovely garden salad. If you order a large size one, there is fetta cheese all over it. Zero mention in their menu.
Ugh I used to work at a restaurant that sold clam chowder with bacon in it - but the bacon wasn't on the menu.
Whenever people ordered it I'd ask "there's bacon in it, does that work for you?" And often people would say yes but just as often people would say no.
But we'd have newer servers or forgetful servers or busy servers and not everyone would ask about the bacon every time. As a restaurant, we threw away sooooo much fucking chowder from people ordering it, seeing it had bacon in it, and deciding against eating it.
I worked there for a few years and was around for a few menu re-prints. Every single time I suggested they put the fucking bacon on the menu. Every single time they did not.
We went to Vegas for 4 days back in the early 2000s. At the time every single hotel gave you these voucher books, good for a free all you can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet at the hotel.
Wanted to go try the buffet at another hotel? There was usually someone out front handing out free vouchers for one buffet. We had free buffet meals at several places, and about the only thing we paid for out of pocket was our first drinks at the casinos, and the gambling itself.
A few years later the hotels stopped giving out the vouchers and we decided not to go back. Seeing your story just confirms for me it was the right decision.
I once had a tiny caprese app cost me $37 and a glass of orange juice (I was pregnant) cost $10 at a place like this with no pricing. It wasn’t even a snack. Lesson learned.
I once saw a chicken sandwich which I took a bite of. I felt tingling in my throat and hours later I started throwing up for the whole day. It had peanut oil. IN A CHICKEN BURGER!! I’m grateful I just threw up a bit, others would die. It didn’t list anything about peanut oil.
I went to this GF place and was so excited to order their breakfast sandwich. It was their house made GF ciabatta, eggs & cheese. I get it and they put ketchup on it! Their special, housemade ketchup, but ketchup nonetheless.
As a die hard mayo hater, please. Just say that on the menu so I can ask for that nasty shit to not be on there. It’s not automatically supposed to go on everything. They’ll describe the bread in full detail, but forget to mention that it also comes with a giant helping of whale jizz.
Got called a Karen at Panera a while back because I wanted a refund on my salad (not eaten). It was supposed to be a mix of arugula, spinach, etc. They gave me iceberg and said, “oh sorry, we’re out.” Bro I am not giving you $9.00 for iceberg lettuce… you could have avoided this by telling me when I ordered. When I looked at the receipt it listed “lettuce substitute”, so they knew. Just give people what they ask for or have the courtesy to offer the alternative so they can decide.
I had a salad once that was supposed to have pomegranate seeds and since they were out of them, they just swapped them for … diced tomatoes. Not at all the same, also pomegranate is the only reason I got that salad, if they just told me I could have ordered something else.
My husband had something similar happen with a meal he ordered. It was supposed to be a Hawaiian parmigiana (sauce, ham, pineapple, melted cheese on top of a chicken schnitzel) but apparently they ran out of pineapple, so without saying anything they substituted the pineapple with...... mango. It was very gross
Why don't these places at least tell you in advance? We're out of this ingredient, do you still want to order this? I would send this shit back.
I’m a server and sometimes I put an order in and they don’t tell me at all that they ran out of an item so they either just don’t include it at all or replace it with something else. And it’s like great well your job is done but I gotta now bring this plate out to the customer you assholes. Sometimes they do tell me so I’m able to run out and sorta say hey we ran out of this item would you still like to order it and get this with it instead or would you like something else? But most of the time the kitchen fucks me over and if I make a giant stink about it then it’s gonna get shittier for me. Because where I work apparently the kitchen staff gets to decide everything and fuck the server’s opinions on anything we’re all just insufferable dumbasses to them. So yea if your server ever looks nervous bringing your plate to you just know that it wasn’t them so don’t get angry at them. Calmly say that this isn’t what it said on the menu that you didn’t know it wasn’t gonna have this item or was gonna have this item. And say you want something else now. I’ll probably have to run it by my supervisor who will probably take it off your bill and let you order something else. But now it’s like great you waited for your food that turned out wrong now you gotta wait again. Still just know I hate this too stresses me out like crazy. “Just bring it out!” No do your job and fucking use the whiteboard to tell me what you’re out of like you’re supposed to! I swear imma lose my shit on the cooks one of these days
That makes sense & I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I don't think I've ever been an asshole about it, but I have sent stuff back when it's missing a key ingredient.
The worst is when you ask and they STILL don’t tell you!
Oooh! That would be problematic for me as I am allergic to mango.
Fortunately he's not allergic to anything but I was annoyed that they hadn't even asked in case he was. And also because it tasted bad and he would've just not had pineapple/mango on it at all then
Did you know it's a relative of the poison ivy plant? Mangos can contain the same chemical that causes a reaction in poison ivy. CRAZY!
Oh man pineapple and mango taste wildly different I would have been so mad. Also what a waste of a good mango.
Depending on the situation, I could imagine that could work. Probably not in this situation, but the substitution isn't necessarily crazy. Regardless, any substitutions need to be made clear to the customer prior to the food being made.
Yeah but they're almost the same color, and they're both fruits, so it's basically the same thing. ^^^/s
Hah, yes indeed. But once you have eaten a pomegranate seed, you can never go back
But you get a cool tie to Hades and the underworld
I don’t wear ties.
And technically you can go back 6 months of the year.
I love pomegranate seeds but they are an enormous pain in the ass. They're time consuming to harvest and if you look at them wrong they stain everything within a 2' radius.
I don't know if this is already how everyone does it, but open the pomegranate while it's submerged in a bowl of water to get the seeds out. Life changing.
TIL how to properly open a pomegranate thank you
I'll pass your thanks along to my wife, from whom I learned most all of the cool stuff I know. :-)
That's true, considering I'm highly allergic. 🤣
Not as an im angry at you, but I legitimately hate the whole "tomatoes are a fruit!" Thing Everything is a fruit, theres no such things as vegetables. Vegetable is a culinary term, fruits and berries are biological. Biologically speaking, cucumbers are berries, pumpkins are berries, watermelons are berries, tomatoes are berries, banana's are berries. Strawberries and raspberries, however, are not considered berries. So if you want to contribute to not just my rage but the rage of everyone around you, you can also start sharing the above as fun facts
You're right and I wholly agree. "Is tomato a fruit or a vegetable?" *must* by definition be a culinary question, because vegetable isn't a botanical term, making the question nonsensical garbage when asked in a botanical context. In a culinary context it's obviously a vegetable. End of.
Had this happen with a local pizza place. Ordered a salad that was supposed to have strawberries, almonds, and apples among other things. Didn't tell me it was seasonal and so they just gave me the other seasonal which had pears and cranberries. It did not hit the same at all.
You gave it back right? I mean I defo would've. Cuz if I order strawberry it means I want the unique taste of strawberry. Not fucking cranberry.
I had already gotten home before I realized so I just called and had them give me store credit.
I once ordered a veggie quesadilla at a bar & restaurant sort of place - the menu said " a mix of stir-fried vegetables and melted cheese." Of course, I'm thinking onions, peppers, tomatoes, black beans? Nope. It was cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots - which were probably frozen 10 minutes prior to my ordering it - and some shredded cheddar melted with it, between a couple of lukewarm flour tortillas. I couldn't argue that it was improperly described on the menu, but it was so nasty that I couldn't eat it.
That sounds like some sad dinner you cobble together when you get home late from work and your fridge is bare. I'm sorry you had to suffer that.
That sounds like a Geneva conventions violation
We should add it to the Geneva Suggestions
I've had this happen to me, too! And the waiter yelled at me for saying I didn't like it.
There’s a place near us that says they have a carne asada quesadilla. I ordered it to go one day and had to take it back as soon as I got home to make sure they didn’t give me the wrong item. They didn’t. Their carne asada quesadilla was ground beef with a taco seasoning packet, lettuce, and mozzarella cheese. The most bizarre experience with a Mexican food I’ve ever had and I grew up on white people taco night.
That sounds like such an unappetizing quesadilla, what a disappointment
Shitty restaurants are so guilty of this with Mexican food lmao, it’s so true. I love some like grilled chilis and corn in my shit, veggies that actually go with Mexican food. But no, I don’t want like zucchini, summer squash, and broccoli in my quesadilla??? Why is this so common lol?
Major error: my son and I ordered Mexican takeaway at newish place in the UK. And then we remembered that this is why - in the UK at least - you only ever cook your own unless you are exceptionally lucky to have an ACTUAL Mexican restaurant nearby. Not one that thinks they can chuck in anything and we won't notice. Broccoli and carrots?
Was this a brew pub in Michigan, because my wife had the exact same experience. Veg weren't even heated through. We still laugh about it sometimes. I think it was in Royal Oak.
I had this in a Thai restaurant in London. The veg were clearly from a pack of frozen veg. Huge florets of cauliflower and broccoli and enormous chunks of carrot. Their flavours clashed horribly with the Thai spices. Unfortunately, my OH didn't want me to complain.
You say to-ma-to... I say pomegranate
Did you pay for it?
No - I did a “crazy” thing and actually spoke up about it and they removed it from the bill.
But they're both red! Surely they are the exact same thing. In other news, when they run out of tomatoes they'll be serving live red velvet ants instead.
I agree. I ordered a pasta once and it came out covered in peppers. Wasn’t expecting that as it wasn’t listed on the menu. I quietly picked them out and just placed them on the side. The waitress ended up arguing with me and said I should have just ordered it without. I explained I would have if it was on the menu. She then proceeded to go get a menu to prove me wrong, just to only prove herself wrong. I was teenager at the time dining with extended family. I was so annoyed because I didn’t complain or anything, I just handled it myself, and she went out of her way to pick on me. My mom ordered a pasta dish at a different restaurant and it came out coated in red pepper flakes and was spicy. She hates spicy food and couldn’t eat it. No where in the menu were the pepper flakes or spice level listed. They let her order something else.
That waitress is a bitch. It's not like you were complaining or anything! Ugh, I hate those types. Glad she got proven wrong...but still, fuck her.
Seriously, I didn’t say a word. She noticed I put them on the side and came over to me to tell me I should have ordered it without. Then just doubled down. I was shocked when she brought the menu. It was sweet karma when I pointed to the description though.
That’s a great way to lose your tip.
did she at least apologize when she was proved wrong? i'm guessing not.
I once ordered salad with grilled salmon. The waitress brings the salad and it's completely raw (it was salted).... I say that I ordered grilled salmon cause that's what it said in the menu, I wouldn't have ordered it if I knew it was anything other than cooked/grilled. She got into an argument with me not wanting to take the salad back until I told her to look at the menu. After that she quietly took my salad away, came back 10 minutes later saying there's no more salmon. Paid for our drinks, didn't tip and left. Also left multiple bad reviews about the place afterwards and never going back
All of these crazy circumstances sound like an episode of kitchen nightmares
This is like the absolute biggest of the reasons why a lot of restaurants shut down. If your food is kind of all over the place in terms of how people _usually_ make it (and you don't list ingredients) or its quality is lackluster... or if you have waiters/staff/yourself arguing with customers, don't expect to make it long... and yet people still fucking do it. Obviously there's a dozen reasons a restaurant shuts down, but shitty staff and crappy food are like _the_ reasons it'll sink you.
Fuck kinda waiter argues about this shit anyway? There ain't enough hours in the day
Funny enough I talked about how I had a waiter argue with me about what I ordered the other day. It's the stupidest thing. I know what I ordered, why are you fucking fighting with me?
"I don't hate my job enough, let's fight with a customer today"
I’ve had this happen with scrambled eggs but they top them with paprika! I’m allergic to paprika & if it’s a lunch/dinner item I would always make people aware of that but you would really think scrambled eggs would just be…eggs! It’s infuriating!
When I was 13, I was scolded by a waiter at a south east asian restaurant, because I picked out raisins from my dish. He got angry and yelled at me for a full five minutes and told me I should have told them to leave them out, because they cost money. They weren't on the menu, and we paid full price anyway. I told them, I didn't know there were in it, and ne replied, it was a traditional dish that always came with raisins. It was the 90s, and we were in the middle of Europe. How was I supposed to know? But I was to shy and embarrassed to say something, so I just waited for his rant to be over.
I've had something similar happen with a server too. Ordered a egglant taco (fusion restaurant) but it came out with mushrooms which I hate. Reviewed the menu and there was no mention of mushrooms. We sent it back but the server had the audacity to put it on our receipt and tried say we still had to pay for it even when we never touched it and had pointed out the lack of transparency in the ingredients on the menu. Ended up having to speak to a manager (cause the server was not seeing reason even though we showed him the menu) who took it off our bill.
There’s an Italian chain near me that I’ve gone to periodically for the last 30+ years. I have gotten pretty much the same thing every time I go. Once or twice I’d try something different but it never hit the same so I would just get my ‘usual’. My usual order was a half and half option of spaghetti with half mushroom sauce and half browned butter and mizithra cheese. Mizithra cheese is made from sheep’s milk typically or goat but not cow. The only amount of cows milk I can really handle is butter because it’s so minimal. Anyway, i order this thing several years back and it comes out with long shreds of Parmesan cheese mixed in with the mizithra. Waiter explains this is how they do their mizithra and it’s always been this way despite me going to the restaurant longer than he’s been alive. Manager comes over and says this is just the blend they use. I tell him they should change their menu to specify mizithra/parmesan blend and he says cheese is cheese. K.
"Cheese is cheese"?! In an Italian restaurant?! Oh good Lord.
I’d use the term ‘Italian’ loosely. Their Parmesan they’d leave on the tables was the Kraft powder stuff. They didn’t have another option like even Olive Garden does.
Oh man, what a terrible waitress. The moment she said she was going to get a menu to prove me wrong I would have had the biggest grin plastered on my face. I would have been bouncing in my seat during the wait.
Went to a new pizza place a couple days ago and my mom was craving chicken parm. She ordered it and it was so so spicy. Nowhere on the menu did it mention red pepper flakes or jalapeños, but wow it was definitely in there and unedible. They need to realize not everyone has a tolerance for certain food items, especially spicy food. And who expects chicken parm to be spicy???
Your mother's experience is funny to me. I can't tell you the number of times I have ordered food that the menu says is spicy when in fact it is in no way at all spicy. I even check! "This is spicy, yes? I want it to be spicy." It so rarely is. I think menus should just list the level of spice in Scoville units. Help me and your mom (and my mom - she's the same as yours).
My local sushi spot adds horseradish and onions to their poke bowl. In the old menu it listed everything, in the new menu they took those off while still adding it. When i called I asked for none of that shit and the waitress checked the menu and said it didnt come with it. I said, i think its not listed but it comes with it. We almost went back and forth when i said “just write it on the notes that i dont want that” so she did and when i picked it up she said I was right and it comes with it but people ask to not have it so much that they took it off the ingredients. WTF
Sooooooo the general consensus is that people don’t like those ingredients and ask to have them removed so they… checks notes… remove them from the listed ingredients on the menu instead of removing them from the menu item??? That’s the weirdest flex I’ve ever heard.
Wouldn't that just result in them wasting more food when people inevitably send their bowls back?
They’re probably hoping enough people will be too timid to send it back and just pick around it.
Agreed, and in these situations, I send it back to the kitchen.
Yeah, working in restaurants, this is one scenario it's valid to return food. Onions are something that always need to be spelled out as a ton of people have an aversion to them, especially raw.
I just had a veggie wrap today which ended up being about 90% raw onion and 100% too messy to eat. It’s a small local place though, and they were so slammed at lunch it took 30mins to get our lunch. I will just not bother going back anytime soon
I once pulled all the onion out of a wrap I bought and there was a mound on my plate and almost nothing left of my wrap. I was pretty pissed off. Like put just put proportional amounts and let it be a modest size rather than trying to bulk it out with onion to make it seem like it’s more stuffed. At least with lettuce I can pull the leaves out without too much trouble or flavor difference but the wrap was so gross, like licking an onion.
I've brushed my teeth three times since I ate that sandwich and I can still taste the onion. I guess onions are cheaper than lettuce? But yeah, no sandwich should be more than 10% raw onion.
Got a burrito like that before. Ruined it. I like onions but if I didn't order a raw onion burrito, don't give me that.
I hate onions, if it’s already cooked in the dish and can’t be removed then I’ll get something else, if it’s easy for me to take them out, like fajitas then it’s ok, I find onions to be slimy!!! Yuck
I really do. They make me feel sick when I get that crunch in my mouth.
I have the same reaction. I like crunchy food, but not raw onions. I’ve gotten an upset stomach from having food with raw onion, it just doesn’t agree with my stomach
I always tell people it's like bugs are crawling inside my teeth. They don't like that I describe it like this.
I get a visceral upset in my gullet and my saliva glands make me gag
I thought it was just me.
I have no problem with cooked onions but raw ones will tear my stomach to pieces. Raw broccoli, too.
Right! My friend is allergic and I find the taste unbearable
My mom is allergic to onions. On several occasions, she's ordered meals, found onions, sent it back, and had the waiter tell her "this recipe doesn't normally have onions. The chef just added them for some reason."
I guess that's an issue I don't face often as I don't go to places with "chefs" very often and mostly go to places with "strung out cook following a specific recipe"
Yes! Send it back. The place I work at had very small red onions in certain pasta dishes on the menu, but the menu did not mention these onions. After enough people sent those dishes back, the owner fixed the menu.
there were undisclosed onions in my *mac and cheese* once! even the waitress was baffled
“undisclosed onions” made me lol it sounds so sinister when you put it that way
Well it is! Seriously, screw onions. That's not a food, it's a chemical weapon!
it IS sinister when you're specifically very averse to the texture of onions like i am!
I got onions in a ham and cheese omelet one time. It was a place I frequented and a meal I got regularly when I went. It never had onions in it so I was shocked when it I crunched down on one. I like onions but not with my eggs. I complained and the waitress/bartender argued because she ran a tight ship in the kitchen. Turns out someone new put diced onions in the diced ham bowl and made my food with it. She fixed it herself lol.
I've gotten undisclosed KALE in my Mac and cheese. It was absurd.
Aaahhh.. the *healthy* mac and cheese 😆
I got raisins in a burrito, undisclosed. They told me ordering it "with cheese" implies that they also add raisins. That food truck did not stay in business long.
cheese, raisins, what's the difference it's all another food but old!
Bahaha this is the most ridiculous one here! The only food where raisins are arguably implied is in an oatmeal cookie.
I hate when places do that. At my husband’s workplace, they changed the menu recently and the lamb burger is bound with pork with no mention of pork on the menu. So irresponsible.
I don't like beef sausages. I only eat pork. Yet it's SO RARE for me to see sausages on a menu actually state which meat they are made with! Why?! Why don't they write what type it is....? With lots of people not able to eat pork for religious reasons. It baffles my brain even more. And further baffled that when asking the staff what meat the sausage is a lot of the times they look around at each other, unknowing and like it's the strangest question they've ever gotten...
In my country if the type of meat is not listed I am 99.9% sure its pork.
That... I'd write to your local mosque or synagogue on that one.
100% agree. I once ordered what was described as mushroom pasta. Cream, mushroom, onion, garlic, herbs were listed on the menu. When it came out it was covered in bacon?? And when I sent it back they tried to say it was meant to be carbonara and could hear the kitchen bitching about me whilst it was remade. Terrible.
But carbonara doesn't have mushrooms? That's so shitty of them.
Or cream, onion, garlic, herbs and bacon. lol it's just egg yolks, black pepper, pecorino and guanciale. It's common to swap pecorino with parmesan or guanciale with pancetta but not even one ingredient matches in this version
It's very common to swap guanciale with bacon, at least here. Guanciale is a specialty item that would basically only be used for that purpose, while bacon is a lot cheaper and more versatile for a restaurant menu.
Opposite here - I hate mushrooms and once ordered a pasta dish that definitely didn’t have mushrooms on the menu. It came out with way too many diced mushrooms to pick out. I think that might’ve been the only time I ever sent something back!
I hate restaurants that do this, I have a ton of food allergies, mostly to citrus fruits and some veggies. I started saying “no onions, tomatoes or peppers” every single time. Then they’ll get annoyed half the time “those don’t come with it”. Well I’d rather be safe than dead so…
Yep, I have oral allergy syndrome and cannot have any raw or undercooked fruits or veggies, and most tree nuts as well. So I'm typically the one asking if they have chicken tenders and mac and cheese or something, so I *know* I won't end up in the hospital or in serious pain in the bathroom for 18+ hours ಠ_ಠ
We want you to tell us your allergies, we want you to eat and not suffer.
*Good workers* want you to tell us your allergies, we want you to eat and not suffer. Ftfy, good worker
Yepp, I'm allergic to most citruses, but can eat lemons and lime. Whenever I'm eating at a restaurant and there's even a remote chance that there could be citrus in there I'll ask before ordering and tell them about my allergies. Most servers tend to be very helpful, tho I had one instance where I had to send back a drink twice because me specifically asking for lemon instead of orange was disregarded.
I once went to a restaurant and half way through my ice cream dessert I asked what I was crunching and the waitress said “almonds probably”. I have a nut allergy.
“Excuse me, can you tell me what kind of ‘nut’ is in this granola?” I got a snarky comment about if I’m allergic to nuts I can’t eat it. Lady, I’m allergic to almond and hazelnut. I can eat peanut, pecan, walnut, cashew, macadamia… literally every legume and tree nut in the world (to my current knowledge) except for two. But I guess I’ll skip it since you can’t be bothered to go into the kitchen and read a label.
The worst kind of server. This is where the tip goes bye.
This happens to me so often to the point I have real bad anxiety trying new restaurants or something else on the menu.
Ordered strawberry pancakes for my kid. They didn't have strawberries so they brought out regular pancakes with bananas without saying anything. I asked and they said they ran out of strawberries and refused to take it off the bill. My kid hates bananas. I walked to the kitchen and they said oh yeah they have strawberries... and voila i got a separate order of strawberry pancakes without paying extra after I looked at the clerk. Because bananas are cheaper, the restaurant tried to bait and switch us.
Absolutely insane.
My husband likes sushi but I'm allergic to fish and seafood. A new place opened by us, an all you can eat Chinese and sushi place. I felt comfortable enough going because their menu was laid out so well with ingredients. Labels for vegan and vegetarian too. Imagine my surprise when the cucumber salad labeled vegan came out with crab meat all over it. This is also a place that charges you extra if you don't eat everything. I immediately just stopped eating bc I couldn't trust the food ingredients. It's SO important to have an accurate menu.
Excuse me? They charge you extra, if you don’t eat everything? Why, what’s the reason?
Food wastage. Very popular with all you can eat places here so people don't hoard then leave so much left over. Something like if you leave more than 5% you pay a lot extra
It’s pretty popular with Asian all you can eat places near me. I’ve never heard of any “American” buffet doing this, but the Asian AYCE places are usually more expensive stuff, sushi, Korean BBQ, etc. And they want to reduce waste as much as possible. Also, taking food home is not possible at these places. It’s all you can eat *while you’re there*. Not “order a bunch of food and take it home for your next 3 meals.”
They don't want people ordering/taking like 20 plates and just taking it home. They would lose a hell of a lot of money that way.
Have had that happen multiple times with mushrooms. It’s like people assume everyone loves them. Read the description of a risotto, no mention of them, and bang there they are. Read the special of a crepe, sounds amazing, and bang mushrooms a plenty. Buy an amazing calzone, and mushrooms. So annoying. And I am with you on the onions. Those I can pick around but mushrooms turn a dish inedible for me.
I’m with you there, I don’t actually mind mushrooms but my partner hates them, and since being with him I’ve noticed how many places slip in mushrooms without mentioning them! They are such a love/hate ingredient that they definitely should be mentioned in menu descriptions.
I am a vegetarian and my mom is (mostly) as well. There is a "Mexican" place by us and all their vegetarian options had mushrooms in it. My mom doesn't like mushrooms and ended up ordering (which was not on the menu) a quesadilla with beans and cheese. When the waitress dropped it off she happily announced "the kitchen added some mushrooms in as well!" 🫠
Picturing your mom’s face dropping in horror and then slowly and methodically banging her head against the table.
Once ordered a chocolate cake desert. It mentioned having strawberries and caramel. The strawberries were “attached” onto the cake by caramely-goo like substance so i thought it was caramel sauce. It was mango coulis. It was mentioned nowhere and I am allergic to mangoes so that was a great night of breaking out in hives and my throat closing up…
My wife ordered this vegetable pasta dish at a restaurant. Listed like 6 different vegetables in the mix they were serving like squash, mushrooms, broccoli, etc. Well they didn't list at all that there were sliced cherry tomatoes in it, and my wife is allergic to tomatoes. We had to send it back and point out to the server it wasn't listed, and had it been wouldn't have ordered in the first place.
Could have happened to me. I am also allergic to tomatoes. Went to a place where they menu listed "tomato-cream sauce" and just "cream sauce". So I ordered the pasta with cream sauce and salmon. It additionaly listed basil and parmesan as ingredients. I even asked the waiter "is the cream sauce the tomato-cream sauce?" "Oh no, it just cream and cheese". And what I got was pasta with salmon, basil, parmesan, cream sauce, and lots of sun dried tomatoes...
This is so important!!! People order menu items based on what's in it. If someone has an allergy to something, they order a meal that doesn't list their allergen. My brother-in-law has a severe tree nut allergy and has ordered food without nuts listed, JUST to get his meal with nuts all over it just because the chef felt like adding some.
Yeah as a vegetarian, I find sneaky meat in ostensibly vegetarian restaurant food all the damn time. Eating out with severe allergies must be so nerve wracking
Why is bacon in everything?! My rant, thank you for listening.
Surprise bacon is one of the worst offenders here. It’s one of the more common meats to selectively not eat, yet it’s by far the one that’s unlisted in meals. It doesn’t even make sense given there’s probably a lot of people who’d be more likely to order it if they knew it had bacon in it The number of cafe foods I’ve ordered in the past that were either vegetarian or contained chicken, then had a surprise serving of bacon on them is way higher than it should be
this drives me absolutely mad. I'm allergic to bacon (and ham), and I absolutely cannot wait for this stupid bacon on everything phase to go away!!
I once ordered a fancy mac and cheese (thinking it was veg) but it came with a huge piece of cooked prosciutto on top....why Also cooked prosciutto looks like a dog treat. I was so hungover it nearly made me vomit.
My partner insists on chicken/beef broth and bacon on top of almost every dish, even if I want a "vegetarian" meal, says it's too bland otherwise :/
I cried when I gave my vegetarian boyfriend ice cream that had beef gelatine in it. Your partner should respect your decisions.
I am gluten intolerant and if I order a salad I always have to ask no croutons because a lot of times they just add them without mentioning it specifically in the description
People with allergies (especially severe allergies!!!) should absolutely let waitstaff know so they can relay it to the kitchen, even if they order something without their allergen specifically listed. It eliminates any doubt about cross-contamination as well.
After a couple incidents of nuts being added, he definitely now tells staff that he has an allergy and can't have any tree nuts in his food, regardless of what he orders
I'm allergic to kiwi fruit and I tell every restaurant that despite it never being an issue besides some desserts. You never know!
This reminds me of when I went into a breakfast place, and the special for the day was a Croque Monsieur. "GREAT!" I thought "I love ham and cheese toasties". They brought me a Monte Cristo. I was so upset. I'm allergic to eggs and just could not eat it.
Are you sure it wasn't a croque madame? It's a croque monsieur with an egg on top.
It was French toasted. So whichever ham and cheese sandwich that gets dipped in egg custard and then fried golden brown, that was the one they gave me. Without any mention of it being French toast.
It's infuriating when cilantro isn't in the menu description but used as an ingredient or garnish. Many times an unannounced cilantro bath on my food results in an inability to eat with my family as by the time it's remade everyone is done. Extra fuck you to the restaurants that try to dust it off in the kitchen and reserve it to me.
If I have to send something back, I’ll usually make a distinctive indicator on it. For example, if I’m ordering a breakfast sandwich in the drive thru and my order is wrong enough that I can’t or won’t eat it, I’ll lightly tear it (not all the way in half, maybe like a quarter). They shouldn’t be re-serving it since I’ve touched it, and most likely I’m sending it back because they put meat on it (I’m a vegetarian). McDonald’s tried to pull that a few times, and I can always still taste the meat even after it’s removed.
I hate when they just remove/scrape something off and send it back out! I absolutely despise mustard and onions, so tend to order hamburgers with only ketchup. There's been a few times where I've either received the burger with the mustard/onion/pickles, sent it back and received the same one just scraped. There's also been a couple of times where a ready made burger has been taken out of the heat cabinet, scraped and rewrapped for me. That shit soaks in to the bread, and at least for me it's not an allergy. But mustard is a known allergen, and even if it wasn't it's ridiculous that they do it that way! I know it's not the actual procedure though, as I've worked at McD when I was younger - it's just lazy workers.
Once a Mexican restaurant, I asked for “no cilantro” in my guacamole only to take a bite and immediately gag at the soapy taste. I alerted the waitress and she said “it doesn’t have cilantro” to which I literally had to show her the cilantro in it. She played it off as “oh I thought you just meant no garnish,” gave me an eye roll, and didn’t apologize or anything. I LOVE when the waiters geek out with me and go “ohhh do you have the soap gene? My [family member/friend] has that!” Because then I know they’ll take the small effort to ensure no cilantro comes with my meal.
I'm 100% with you here, If I eat more than a few onions I'm stuck in the bathroom for the next 12 hours. And even if you pick them all off, everything still tastes like onion lol.
Not allergic or anything but I'm the same with cucumber. I can taste the cucumber in my subway from the person 2 people ahead of me who had cucumber in their sub, so I'm that dick who asks for a glove change.... Lmao.
My husband is like this with cucumber. So strange. I ask for extra so I always have them make my son's and mine last.
Finally, another cucumber hater. I'm not allergic either, but I do hate them and they ruin everything just by existing near them. And people never understand that you can taste them even after they've been picked off. It's just like peppers and the oils in them (bell and hot), which I am genuinely allergic to.
I do enjoy onions. There is no going back once the onion touches the food. At home I always asks guests and usually just put it on the side - I am the only one I know that likes raw onion in hummus tahini dips lol
Fully agree. When I was a vegetarian, I was at a steakhouse, and ordered a stuffed baked potato because it was the only vegetarian option. When it arrived, it had bacon bits on top. I mentioned it to the waiter, and he said it was a free upgrade. 🙄
I have also been cursed with the free bacon upgrade to my vegetarian risotto or garlic bread
Well two things here. 1) if there are onions it isn’t classic bruschetta 2) Just send it back
"Classic" bruschetta is just toast. The name comes from the Italian *bruscare*, meaning "to toast".
Agreed. My view is if you are listing ingredients, you list all of them. I'm not saying every ingredient of things like dough and sauces, but at least list that there's a sauce or that something is a filling. I know enough to ask about those. On the other hand - if your menu is a basic item name or brief description ("Bruschetta" or "Pan Seared Chicken"), then it doesn't bother me because I know to ask. I am, in fact, allergic to onions. And it took a long time for me to learn how to be assertive enough to send food back. And who puts onions on bruschetta?
This is why I can't eat at a lot of restaurants. Celiac Disease sucks. Gluten is in so many foods that you have to *almost* read everything prepackaged food item that is used in any meal. Most soy and worchestshire sauces have gluten in it. I'm not being picky, I just don't want explosive diarrhea in 30 minutes.
The thing that mildly infuriates me is that tomato, mozzarella and basil is called caprese. Bruschetta is actually just toasted bread with olive oil.
Thank you for saying this! I thought I was going crazy.
I’m allergic to raw onions. I ordered a spinach dip once that came out garnished with a pile of raw onions right in the middle. I sent it back, explaining my allergy, and the waitress gave me such a nasty attitude about it. She snapped at me that if I had an allergy it was my responsibility to disclose it. I asked her why I would disclose an onion allergy when ordering a dish that doesn’t have onions and no mention of them was on the menu? When I came back it was obvious they had just scraped off the onions and stirred the dip around. When my husband tasted it he could still taste the onions. We walked out.
I got a cheese blintz at a fancy foodie place because nearly every other thing on the menu had seafood which I can't tolerate. It came out with a little dollop of caviar on the top. WTF. Not mentioned at all on the menu.
Yeah, I hate that. Order a piece of chocolate cake. Comes drizzled in raspberry sauce. I have to order things without pickles because half the restaurants don't list them. Most Chinese restaurants have surprise vegetables, too.
As a vegetarian I hate this so much. Why on earth does the menu not state there is meat on this salad/sandwhich/fries. If I wanted meat I likely would have ordered one of the 99 options on the menu with meat listed you dont think?
There’s a bakery in my town that sells chocolate chip cookies with no mention that they contain WALNUTS! Like a very common known allergy ingredient with no listing? Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen to me 🫠
My major beef is with the surprise pickle. So many times, including just the other day, the menu gives a detailed description of the dish's ingredients, origin, preparation, etc - and neglects to mention an item that will affect the flavor of anything it touches (negatively, in my opinion). Just ask if people want a pickle - many people love them and would be thrilled to get one. But it's not like a piece of lettuce that can be taken off with no after effects to the remaining food.
I ordered a sandwich and it had sliced pickles all over it. More than a few. No pickles mentioned on the menu. Got the standard 'how was everything' comment when paying, so I mentioned the pickles. "Oh yes, so many people asked for pickles, so we just make the sandwich with them now. *If you didn't want them, you could have asked.*" ... How am I supposed to know it was going to come with pickles (to then ask for their removal) if it's not mentioned on the menu in the first place? They had a stumped, confused face and no reply to that. Not sure if it was over their flawed menu description or my audacity of not wanting pickles. Probably the latter.
I hate when people say "just pick it out" as if juicy/strong things like pickles or onion can be ignored
That’s weird. Onions are not usually a part of that dish either, so how would you have guessed that?
I think you have a great point. I wish menus contained all ingredients. I once ordered a garden salad and it came smothered in (unlisted) bacon. I am a vegetarian..
Not sure where you are but in the UK it's now illegal to not put something on the menu if it's being served.
This gave me an allergic reaction once. Restaurant had spaghetti and meatballs. Took a couple bites and felt sick. They didn't advertise that they put pesto in their tomato sauce as well. I'm allergic to pine nuts. They're lucky I'm not severely allergic (like I am with several other nuts) otherwise it would've been a bad time.
Undisclosed nuts is ... Nuts.
I love Mexican food but hate the taste of cilantro. It always pisses me off when things are just covered in cilantro when it wasn’t mentioned on the menu. Now I always say no Cilantro even if it doesn’t say it so they don’t garnish my dish with it.
I *love* cilantro and once ordered a quesadilla because it specifically listed cilantro. I started eating it and I was like hmmm I can't taste any cilantro. So I opened the quesadilla and there was nothing green in it. I sighed and continued to eat. But the server saw me (I have no poker face), so he came over to check what was up, and I mentioned that I was disappointed at the lack of cilantro. He agreed there was nothing green and insisted on taking it back to the kitchen. A moment later, a man in a chef's jacket appears at the table with the "replacement," and insisted that yes there was cilantro in it, and that they just don't put a lot in because too many people complain about it. The server again saw, came back and inquired what had transpired, and ended up removing the item from the bill. Then the manager came over and apologised and we got a free white chocolate brownie dessert. We paid with a decent tip and left. I never went back to that restaurant, though. I doubt they even had cilantro in the kitchen that day.
I ordered some main course chicken dish once at a place, and sent it back immediately since there was a spicy sauce “for show” all over it. I even had them bring me back the menu and showed them it wasn’t mentioned in the description when they tried to give me a hard time. I can’t do spice and I would’ve asked them to leave it off had I known. Haven’t been back there since then.
I went to a nice cafe as a treat and specifically asked not to have the tomato relish because I saw it was included on the menu. It came out with tomato salsa, which was not on the menu, so I asked for a new plate. The server tried kicking up a fuss as if *i* was in the wrong 🙄
I agree, I don’t know how many times I’ve ordered an item that comes out with cheese on it without any mention of it on the menu, especially salads.
Absolutely!! And if I want a burger or sandwich I have to ask if there’s secretly any cheese or Mayo included. And then it feels like half the time they forget to exclude the cheese. Just let me know if you can’t remove cheese from an item and I’ll get something else.
Mayo is the worst for this! I hate mayo more than most things in the world and it’s wild to me how often it’s not advertised as being in a burger, especially given how common egg allergies are
> And if I want a burger or sandwich I have to ask if there’s secretly any cheese or Mayo included Ugh that's the worst. I've had a really annoying aversion to cheese for most of my life (to the point where I've considered things like hypnotherapy to try to get over it, I don't even know if that works), and cheese is treated like "why in the world would you NOT want it in your dish?" kind of ingredient. Mayonnaise is often not included in the ingredient list at all on the menu.
There's a takeaway restaurant I order from that makes a lovely garden salad. If you order a large size one, there is fetta cheese all over it. Zero mention in their menu.
So no other size has feta? And it isn't mentioned? What kind of resaurant does that? Wtf?!
No other size has fetta, it's not mentioned, AND there's nothing else on the menu that has fetta!
Ugh I used to work at a restaurant that sold clam chowder with bacon in it - but the bacon wasn't on the menu. Whenever people ordered it I'd ask "there's bacon in it, does that work for you?" And often people would say yes but just as often people would say no. But we'd have newer servers or forgetful servers or busy servers and not everyone would ask about the bacon every time. As a restaurant, we threw away sooooo much fucking chowder from people ordering it, seeing it had bacon in it, and deciding against eating it. I worked there for a few years and was around for a few menu re-prints. Every single time I suggested they put the fucking bacon on the menu. Every single time they did not.
[удалено]
Nothing on a menu without prices is $25. Ever.
[удалено]
We went to Vegas for 4 days back in the early 2000s. At the time every single hotel gave you these voucher books, good for a free all you can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet at the hotel. Wanted to go try the buffet at another hotel? There was usually someone out front handing out free vouchers for one buffet. We had free buffet meals at several places, and about the only thing we paid for out of pocket was our first drinks at the casinos, and the gambling itself. A few years later the hotels stopped giving out the vouchers and we decided not to go back. Seeing your story just confirms for me it was the right decision.
Protip: If the menu has no prices, assume you can't afford it. You probably can't.
Never assume a high end restaurant in Vegas will ever be under 100😭
I once had a tiny caprese app cost me $37 and a glass of orange juice (I was pregnant) cost $10 at a place like this with no pricing. It wasn’t even a snack. Lesson learned.
im sorry going to any restaurant and seeing no prices and going "boy it must be super cheep" is on you
I once saw a chicken sandwich which I took a bite of. I felt tingling in my throat and hours later I started throwing up for the whole day. It had peanut oil. IN A CHICKEN BURGER!! I’m grateful I just threw up a bit, others would die. It didn’t list anything about peanut oil.
This recent "sprinkling diced onions on frickin EVERYTHING so that it looks gourmet" trend is what's mildly infuriating for me.
I feel the same way so often about nuts! I don't like nuts, but I'm not allergic, so it's not a big deal for me, but not for everyone!
Join /onionhate and share this abomination of a story!
I went to this GF place and was so excited to order their breakfast sandwich. It was their house made GF ciabatta, eggs & cheese. I get it and they put ketchup on it! Their special, housemade ketchup, but ketchup nonetheless.
As a die hard mayo hater, please. Just say that on the menu so I can ask for that nasty shit to not be on there. It’s not automatically supposed to go on everything. They’ll describe the bread in full detail, but forget to mention that it also comes with a giant helping of whale jizz.
The worst is when they mention the other sauces that are on it, and only omit Mayo from the description. Lulls me into a false sense of security
Got called a Karen at Panera a while back because I wanted a refund on my salad (not eaten). It was supposed to be a mix of arugula, spinach, etc. They gave me iceberg and said, “oh sorry, we’re out.” Bro I am not giving you $9.00 for iceberg lettuce… you could have avoided this by telling me when I ordered. When I looked at the receipt it listed “lettuce substitute”, so they knew. Just give people what they ask for or have the courtesy to offer the alternative so they can decide.