A dining experience should be a delightful affair, with attentive service and a welcoming atmosphere. However, there are times when a rude server can leave a bitter taste in our mouths. In this collection of stories, we delve into the experiences of diners who have encountered outrageous encounters with rude servers.
From condescending attitudes to neglectful behavior and outright rudeness, these accounts shed light on the moments when a server’s demeanor turned an ordinary meal into a memorable, albeit unpleasant, experience.
Join us as we navigate the world of dining out and explore the tales that remind us of the importance of genuine hospitality and respect in the service industry. Get ready to cringe, commiserate, and perhaps gain insights into how we can ensure a positive dining experience for all.
All content has been edited for clarity.
He Sounds A Bit Unhinged
“This past weekend we went to a restaurant for dinner with my girlfriend and her friends for her birthday. We had about 10 people and had about 5 different tabs which all included an 18% minimum tip.
The service was terrible, the server was incredibly rude and would always respond with some kind of sarcasm when we asked questions about the menu. He took the wrong drink orders twice and blamed us for getting them wrong. Brought all the apps and entrees at the same time and got upset when we said we didn’t want the apps anymore. My friend paid in cash and when he brought back the change, there was no receipt. She was expecting to see 5 bucks and some change back. When the server came back there was no receipt and only 4 bucks and change there.
She asked him to see the receipt to see if she had miscalculated because she expected 5 dollars and then some back. Instead of saying something along the lines of I’ll go check or something accommodating like that, the dude got irritated and said that he threw away the receipt and reached for his wallet and said, ‘How about I just give you a dollar if you want it that bad.’
That made us all angry so we didn’t leave any extra tip. I wrote down ‘NOPE!’ on my receipt in the additional tip line. When I went to use the men’s room before leaving, he tapped my shoulder as I was washing my hands and went, ‘You think ur pretty funny with that tip don’t you? Why don’t we step outside so I can show you how funny I can be?’
I was shocked. I found the manager and told them their server wanted to fight me because I didn’t tip him. I explained the whole situation to her while the dude was just eyeing me the whole time. Other servers had to calm him down because he kept trying to interrupt me when I was talking to the manager. I declined all their gift cards because I don’t want to come back to a place where the staff is going to shank me.”
Maybe They Had Some Feelings They Needed To Address
“I went to McDonald’s a few years ago. I went with a friend of mine, and we just both happened to be gay but not in a relationship or attracted to each other in that way. In a laughing sort of situation, he said that we should pretend to be dating. I asked if he felt like being in danger and he said, ‘Well it’ll be funny to see the reactions.’ We didn’t live in the most accepting area so I was nervous but decided to go with it.
He held my hand and put his head on my shoulder. We shuffled up and I ordered my food and I also said, ‘And my fiance here will have a (insert insanely fattening meal here).’ My friend put this massive dopey grin on his face and reached up and kissed me. I, being fairly good at improv, kissed back.
The server, who before this had already seemed ill at ease, refused to serve us. He stood there with a defiant look on his face, refusing to fill our order. When I asked what was wrong he looked at me and said, ‘I’m not letting some filth-sucking *blanks* get the right to eat here.’
I, taken aback, immediately responded by telling him to go get his manager. He refused. I asked again. He refused. My friend decided it was time to drop the charade and tried to explain that it was a joke. The server said, ‘No, you’re both *blanks*. I watched you kiss and I can see you both have a hard-on for each other.’ I had no hard-on.
We stood there for a few minutes, trying to argue sense into this moron and we saw a flash of a manager’s shirt outside. I told my friend to go get him. He ran out, got the manager, and hauled him back in. The manager is standing there on the floor with me and my friend and I’m trying to explain to the manager how the server is a massive homophobe. By now we’ve gathered a small group of people watching, including a couple of other servers.
The manager looked at me and said, ‘I don’t see what the problem is here. You don’t deserve rights,’ and walked away.
One of the people in the ‘audience’ came over. He was dressed in a suit and he said he was going to sue the place on behalf of us if they didn’t serve us. The manager still refused. The guy in the suit, who turned out to be a lawyer, said that they needed to provide the owner’s information.
We got the phone number of the guy who owned the place and called him with the lawyer. He said he would be right there. When he arrived, he proceeded to fire the server and the manager in front of us as well as give us free coupons and a free meal.”
Employees At “Trendy” Places Are The Worst
“My parents and I decided to try a new, trendy pizza place right around the corner from my apartment one night last month. We decide to sit outside because the weather was nice and they had a big patio and a side deck. Everyone working at this place had an attitude, from the hostess who seated us to the waitress taking our orders. They made us feel like a huge inconvenience, but we were hungry and had heard the pizza was good so we tried to look past that.
As soon as we are seated on the patio the girl offers to lower the shades because the sun was setting and was directly in our line of sight. We said that would be great and a guy came out and lowered the blinds for us. We ordered our drinks and looked over the menu.
Not even five minutes later a young employee came to our table incredibly upset that the blinds were lowered. In a very condescending manner, he told us that he was going to have to raise the blinds because they trap heat in the patio ultimately raising the patio temperature about 20 degrees.
My dad politely told him that the sun was in our eyes and that they really shouldn’t have offered to lower the shades if it was going to cause a problem. The guy snapped.
He was incredibly disrespectful toward my father and went on a tangent assuring us that the sun would set and even going as far as to take his sunglasses off his head and offer them to my dad. He was young, maybe 25, and treated us like we were imbeciles saying that our request to lower the shades would make the other customers less comfortable. Whatever, they raised the blinds and we questioned whether or not we would stay to order food.
We ultimately decided to stay. Our drinks arrived and we took a few more minutes to look over the menu. The waitress was nowhere to be found. We sat in awkward silence trying to get past what had just happened. Other tables were seated and the hostess offered to lower the shades for each table. We finished our drinks and the waitress still hasn’t returned to take our order. We contemplate leaving but she finally showed and we ordered.
The food came out cold, but one of the managers was walking around asking how everything was. We told him about the sunglasses prick and he was furious.
I haven’t seen the guy working there since.”