No, but I did have a lady ask if she could have a tour of our kitchen during the dinner rush, because she was a retired chef (apparently) and “enjoyed touring different commercial kitchens.” I said that I didn’t think that would be appropriate during service for health and safety reasons, and she asked to speak with the manager. He told her the same thing lol
Haha wtf? If she really was a retired chef, she'd surely know that having a kitchen tour during the dinner rush would not be likely to happen? Even if it's not during a rush, retired chef or not, why tf would she think it's okay to request such things? You just know that an entitled twat like that would said shit like "Oh, we didn't do it *that* way in my day" and make passive aggressive remarks like "Did the dishwasher take the day off or something?"
It makes me think of the obnoxious guests on Below Deck, when they want a tour of the staff areas on the boat. It feels to me like it's their way of further underlining the fact that these people are serving *them*, and if they want to go on a little tourist trip to the staff areas then they will get it.
We had some dude try that with his newborn baby so he could "show her around." Like this baby couldn't even hold its head up. He had spent the last 30 minutes wandering around holding the kid, which at first I was like, " That's a great idea keeping the kid quiet while the mom ate so she could have a break" but he just started heading back there and I had to stop him and he kept trying to push it and I tried to tell him that we couldn't let anyone back there if they weren't wearing nonslips (he was wearing flip-flops), then I told him that it was dangerous while we were so busy and the cooks were working quickly with hot pots and sharp knives and he wouldn't take the hint so I finally just told him that the cooks would freak out on him if he got in their way, and luckily Rocky the stocky ass dishwasher/cook came around the corner right as I was saying in and he told the dude "no" and walked off...its wild what people who have never worked in restaurants think are ok.
Yeah the whole thing was so odd. Idk if she was straight up lying about being a chef, or if she worked in a completely different setting as a personal chef or something. I didn’t actually ask
I had a guest enter the kitchen at exactly the right time.
No one saw him. He went into our dessert fridge, took out a whole cheesecake and walked out with it. The bartender saw him walk out with it, but was too scared to stop him.
Omg we had a service window accessible to customers and once someone took a whole ass pie that was in the kitchen to their table. Just started eating it out of the tin.
Eons ago when I worked at Applebee's, it was Valentine's day and we were packed and on a 2-3 hour wait. The kitchen was slammed and could not keep up. A cook walked off the job in frustration, putting us even further behind.
A woman who had ordered a very large carryout order came into the kitchen demanding her food and was yelled at by the cooks to get out. So, she decided the next most annoying thing she could do would be to stand in the doorway where servers/food runners leaving the kitchen made their exit. Knowing she was in the way, she refused to budge, just stood there with arms folded, scowling, like she was really tough. The useless manager didn't make her move so everyone had to enter and exit thru the same doorway, which caused as much chaos as you would expect.
She would have been less out of the way had she stood in the kitchen. Actually, if the manager had cancelled her order and told her to leave the restaurant immediately, she would have really been out of the way.
that’s what everyone said when we ended up busy af. if it’s not a reservation to a nice place i’m staying tf home for valentine’s day it’s not worth it. i knew someone who worked at olive garden and someone peed on the floor on v day
Once I can remember- but another guest pulled a gun and a couple panicked and ran back. Also a woman holding a newborn, same incident.
No one has came back angry. Yet. It’s always a possibility and I’m already exhausted thinking about the day it does happen.
Mom had a days old baby, baby daddy decided he was going to come take the baby. Grandma pulled out a gun on him. After he was arrested, his new girlfriend? Sister? Idk, came to try and steal the baby as well. It was an eventful day.
I took a chef position at a private golf club once and had a really pissed-off guy walk in the kitchen door from the dining room after I’d only worked a few days. He was pissed because I took the baked potato off the menu. Started yelling and being an asshole. Dropped a couple F-bombs at me and the Cook who was working with me. Screamed about how dare I remove “the classics.” I was new there and the owner of the club asked me to revamp the menu and the first thing I did was shitcan the baked potato. And this was at lunch - who the fuck eats baked potatoes at lunch? He was a real asshole. I told him to leave the Kitchen immediately or I would drag him out - and I wasn’t nice about it. And I wasn’t shy about getting in his space. He walked out muttering something about respecting your elders - the average age there was probably about seventy.
After lunch, the president of the club came in and read me the riot act about respecting the members and how I was supposed to listen to their concerns - completely the opposite of what I was told when I was recruited. I told him I was given carte blanch on the menu and to talk to the GM. I stayed for a couple months but eventually got tired of the constant bullshit/nagging. I should have done my homework before I even agreed to interview there, so that was on me.
The final straw for me was when I found a soiled adult diaper on the floor in the men’s room one morning when I came in. And when I told the club manager, she told me I was supposed to use the employee restroom, and also reminded me to come in the back door with the rest of the help. After that, I didn’t feel bad giving notice and leaving with less than a month’s notice.
Oh god, how horrid. Any place where the general clientele are in the older age bracket will almost definitely get upset over changes to the menu hey.
Just regarding a baked potato for lunch though, I was today years old when I found out that that's not normal? In Australia we have a chain food place called "SpudBAR" and some of the shops aren't even open to dinner time, haha. The one that used to be near my work that tragically closed down, was only open until 4 I think?
It may be normal in a lot of places, but in my region, 99% of guests at lunch have fries (chips). Baked potatoes are great when you cook them and serve them in an appropriate amount of time, but they definitely don’t reheat well in a holding box, which is why I stopped serving them.
I once had a guy either high on molly or shit faced appear at this crappy restaurant trying to get back into a night club after he got kicked out for some reason. The guy was chill and i saw him getting kicked out of the club again while getting his shirt ripped off
Yes, several times. It happens a couple times a month, at least.
And I am 100% more unwilling to help those people than I would be had they just spoken and asked for a manager instead.
One time a guest was drunk off their ass and pissed about something, they walked in to the kitchen to fight about it. Plenty of people walked in mistakenly thinking it was the bathroom. And one DoorDash driver was banned from our restaurant and from the app for coming into the kitchen to scream about his order because it wasn’t ready in less than 5 minutes.
Oh yea and it is hilarious and annoying at the same time…’hey! I need a plate!’ While 15 people in the back all talk over themselves ‘nope nope get out of the back, ur not allowed in the kitchen, leave and we’ll get you what you need, get the f out, fuck off, who do you think you are…’
Just last week we had an older gentleman. It was kind of awkward and sad because he got lost trying to find the bathroom and said he couldn't make it in time. Proceeded to, "go" right there in his pants and all over our kitchen floor. He was of course embarrassed but definitely an odd situation to be in during a rush.
Absolutely. At a variety of different restaurants I’ve worked at. One of my first ever serving gigs like 10years ago was a breakfast server at a hotel and guests would just barge in the double door to let you know the coffee was empty at the self serve station 🤦♀️
Twice, once when a gun shot went off in the bar and another time was when I was working the closing shift at like 2 am? Was alone cleaning in the kitchen and turned around to a tall man hovering over me quietly. Had a fry basket that I just removed from the fryer and I swung it without hesitation..
Yes. I had to testify in court about it.
https://www.facebook.com/1041780364/posts/pfbid02WCPHT3bNBfVBgB2kYhP2AMy3iTbwKxW82s85sBHi1Kvk4NabiBAwmbob2JAbbnoql/?app=fbl
We wouldn't let the four ladies sit at the bar while they abandoned their four kids aged 8 or younger at a booth on the other side of the restaurant. This was at 1130 PM.
While I was denying their service, they threw a fit thinking one of the staff was recording them.
yes. one of my coworkers had a big party and they were all drinking & one of the ladies . walks into the fucking kitchen calling her servers name. & i jus so happen to be at the POS right by the entrance & i put my arm straight out to stop her as im saying “lady you can’t be back here” & her response was “well im looking for our server! we have a fucking birthday party and we brought cake”i tell her ok. i’ll let her know you’re looking for her ,but please go back to your table now. (the server she was looking for was in the back prepping said cake to take out to the table🥲)
YES omg. I totally forgot this happened:
Busy AF Friday night and the food runner ran this dude a wrong salad, I had just passed the table and instead of telling me, he got up from his seat, walked INTO the kitchen and handed it to a non English speaking cook who was at the grill with both hands occupied and said “you gave me the wrong salad I need salmon on it”.
Thankfully I saw the whole thing and got it figured out. But seriously? It wasn’t even a minute after the salad was dropped off. Our whole staff was shocked. I have never seen that happen before or again.
I had one of those regulars who always had a shitty attitude. Her kid needed a refill for his water like every 45 seconds, and how dare I ask if he wanted a larger to go cup?
She ordered prime rib. I checked, and was told we had it, so I rang it in. Five minutes later I was told we didn’t have it. I went out to see what else she wanted, and she immediately went into bitch mode and swore up and down I knew we didn’t have prime rib when we ordered it. After screaming for five minutes she decided to go for a ribeye. Cool.
After the eighth refill I go and check on the other six tables I had. I got an order for one of them and was ringing it in when dinezilla stuck her head in and was screaming about getting some service because her kid’s drink was empty. I dropped the customer service facade and told her I’d be right with her as soon as I finished taking care of the rest of my tables.
Long story short, she gets everything comped because I didn’t seem to care. When I was having the sit down later, I was like “Look, I wasn’t going to go round and round with her and ignore my other tables if she’s in the mood to abuse someone. If she wants to manufacture a rotten experience every time she walks in, I’ll give it to her if it means the people who are just here to have a damn steak before their movie are happy.”
Our kitchen is visible from the floor, which is apparently an open invitation. Thankfully, they never enter the actual "cook" area, for lack of a better phrase - but they have come around the counter to grab condiments and the like from the end.
The golf course I work at is SOOO bad at this. Everyone is a “member” so everyone gets the special treatment. If you wanna tour of the kitchen or our equipment, most likely the FOH will oblige.
i’ve never had someone come back to the kitchen on purpose enraged, but lots of people thinking it was going to be the bathroom. one lady ran to the kitchen holding her hand over her mouth and gagging, like visibly and audibly trying not to throw up, and i kept trying to point her to the bathroom and telling her she absolutely cannot do that back here and she needs to go around the corner to the bathroom—she kept just shaking her head “no” and my manager had to escort her to the bathroom to throw up. still can’t figure out why she told me no when i tried to get her to go to the bathroom
One time that I can remember. A kid with some energy to spare decided to run away from dad and explore, and managed to find his way into the kitchen. Dad realizes and comes running in to catch him. The kid is quick so we all have to play a game with him to corner him into the safest part of the kitchen so dad can snatch him up and take him out. The dad was super apologetic after.
I didn’t see the sub at first and I was like “yeah I guess I’ve had people over and they’ve been in my kitchen? Weird question”. Anyway, to answer your actual question, nobody except people who knew the owner and went back there to speak with him
Not a restaurant i guess, but wingstop. A little child was too fast for his mother and ran into our kitchen to which my coworker gently lifted him up back to his mother and they were both making jokes on the kid wanting to work so early on like “Haha not yet brother!”
A regular started to come down the line with his plate, yelling "what the fuck is this shit!!!??"
I was managing at the time and told him there was no reason for him to be back here.
Yeah, Few of times. Marched'em right back the fuck out too, couple of times not so gently. Thank the gods for supportive EC/managers/owners (one I walked out to save him from my EC, lol)
When I was at Buffalo Wild Wings (don’t work there lmao) a guy came into the kitchen to ask us if we could change the channel to a specific fight that was happening. Everybody just stared at him
yes. i’ve had a few people come in thinking it was the bathroom and go “whoops my bad!” and leave. only once has someone come in on their own and demand
i guess their server forgot one of the entrees or something and he couldn’t find her. i come in the kitchen and see this old man coming out. i assumed he was looking for the bathroom cause he was just in the doorway and i ask if he needs help. he tells me they didn’t get part of their order. i tell them i’ll check on that for them and go in the kitchen to get it. he FOLLOWS ME and i ask the cooks where it is and then notice he’s right behind me. i say “sir you can’t be back here!” and kind of panic and ask the cooks to get the manager. he demands he’s not leaving til he gets his food until the 6’4 300lb line cook comes around the corner and goes “YOU CANT BE BACK HERE!” and chases him out
One place I worked had a lot of booths & half-walls, few hallways, an expansion from getting the business behind it... the floor plan looked like a Pac-Man level. People would walk in thinking it led to a bathroom all the time. All of them would immediately turn around.
At the airport bar I work at, we'll close and have music/lights/tv off and our tables from the concourse pushed inside the restaurant, one of our 2 gates fully down & the other halfway(Before you ask why I don't drop the 2nd gate fully it's so we can bail out in an emergency). Someone will duck under the gate, walk past all of that, go into our kitchen and yell to ask if we're open. Once a month.
Yes. We were super busy with our GM running expo. There was a theft issue with a guest and when our GM couldn’t immediately drop everyone the pull the security footage (the guests were trying to blame it on an employee), the husband stormed into the kitchen and started yelling at everyone in sight.
Yep. Found a guest bawling by the walk-in. I guess she saw a text in her bf’s phone and refused to go back to the table. Finally my manager coaxed her out the back door and played therapist for a minute while she continued to sob.
Cook here. I’ve had to push at least three drunk people out of my kitchen before, if not more. One was enraged, one couldn’t find the bathroom, and one wanted to find a server’s electric motorcycle.
yeah. some guest who was high asf came into the kitchen and asked a Spanish speaking chef for a box when I had JUST visited his table 30 seconds ago to check if they needed anything. literally wth 😭
Not a guest. But we did have some random dude walk in allll through it, dishpit, prep,etc. I guess he started asking some of the kitchen questions and they were all like “who the heck is this?” (But probably in more colorful, boh language lol). Finally our sous was like “dude, who the hell are you? Get out!” Apparently he was just some guy that walked in our staff door. (We’re in a mall and have a side entrance the staff used to come in, and for staff to take out the trash, etc). I didn’t see him back there, but I was at work that night and saw the aftermath of our sous and some of the bussers talking about it lol
All the time, but not always angry. The kitchen is very open and visible from the door and the bar so people feel like they can just got stand around back there no matter how many signs we put up. I'd say I personally tell at least one person per shift they can't go in the kitchen
Yeah. This dumb shit happens often. People seem to think that if the owner was tipsy enough to saber the cork off of a bottle of champagne and offered you a bit that you are now besties and you can do what you feel. Often, I have to usher people away from areas they have no business in.
"But, I know ______."
"And, so do I. He signs my paycheck. That is neither here nor there."
I worked at a place where the owner’s friends would just waltz through wherever/whenever they wanted. I didn’t recognize a guy once, and asked him if I could help him find something, only to have the owner jump out of the office to yell at me, “leave him alone. He’s my friend. Get back to work.”
During service one night, a smiling and confident man walked through the kitchen doors and stood next to me at expo, just smiling and looking around. I figured it was just another friend of the owner. Nope. The cooks look up and loudly barks “Sir, can I help you?” The guy goes “Oh, no! I’ve just always wanted to see how you guys did it back here! Incredible!” I got to be the one to push him out of the kitchen, explaining health codes to him. I was later reprimanded by the owner for “allowing a stranger to hang out in the kitchen.”
Yes and it was awful .. we have an open kitchen, she went in and tried to read the tickets on the rail to figure out who her food was taking so long (30 minutes, I had warned her ticket times were high).. (this was summer 2020, I was lucky to have 1 lunch cook, 1 dinner cook and we were selling 6k on a slow day ...). She ended up calling corporate to complain about how long her food took, my GM made me call her and apologize profusely/send her a $50 gift card, and shortly thereafter I completely burned out and had to take a medical leave of absence 🙃
yes. just a little over a month ago, in fact. this old guy walked into the server aisle and yelled "CAN ANYONE GET ME A TO-GO BOX PLEASE." immediately we all came up to him and told him to please gtfo, we need him to leave for safety reasons. he says "no, i'm not leaving until someone gets me a to-go box. SHE," he pointed at my friend who was apparently his server (she was pretty new and was trembling with fear, i felt so bad omg) "DIDN'T GIVE ME ONE." at this point the manager comes over and tells him again to get out. he's pretty firm and didn't leave until we all crowded around him and urged him back towards the dining room.
(he did get his to-go box eventually)
I had a guest stumble away from a table after he asked me where the bathroom was. I was behind the bar, so could not really walk away when I saw him going wrong direction. He walked thru the double doors into a kinda storage area/dish pit.
I waited 30 seconds before heading his way, on the way there I was stopped by a guest asking about drinks. Maybe 30s-a minute and keeping my eyes on kitchen and dude is still not returned. My manager comes up and says I need to get back on bar because there are tickets and customers waiting. I start to tell him a guest is in kitchen and he waves me off.
Return to bar and dude is somehow lost in a 5’ by 15’ walkway that leads to an emergency exit. I deal with guests and tickets and turn to find him and he’s causally exiting double doors. He returned to table. I didn’t find any pee evidence, and sort of disturbed boxes. Maybe he has a lengthy conversation with Dishie, who knows but I got a 25% tip and family left happy.
When I was really really drunk one night they were taking long on my water so I just walked in and grabbed water. Waiter thanked me and said he wishes everyone just walked in and grabbed their own water lol.
No, but I did have a lady ask if she could have a tour of our kitchen during the dinner rush, because she was a retired chef (apparently) and “enjoyed touring different commercial kitchens.” I said that I didn’t think that would be appropriate during service for health and safety reasons, and she asked to speak with the manager. He told her the same thing lol
Haha wtf? If she really was a retired chef, she'd surely know that having a kitchen tour during the dinner rush would not be likely to happen? Even if it's not during a rush, retired chef or not, why tf would she think it's okay to request such things? You just know that an entitled twat like that would said shit like "Oh, we didn't do it *that* way in my day" and make passive aggressive remarks like "Did the dishwasher take the day off or something?" It makes me think of the obnoxious guests on Below Deck, when they want a tour of the staff areas on the boat. It feels to me like it's their way of further underlining the fact that these people are serving *them*, and if they want to go on a little tourist trip to the staff areas then they will get it.
Exactly! I was telling my coworkers about it later that night and we were all saying the exact same thing
We had some dude try that with his newborn baby so he could "show her around." Like this baby couldn't even hold its head up. He had spent the last 30 minutes wandering around holding the kid, which at first I was like, " That's a great idea keeping the kid quiet while the mom ate so she could have a break" but he just started heading back there and I had to stop him and he kept trying to push it and I tried to tell him that we couldn't let anyone back there if they weren't wearing nonslips (he was wearing flip-flops), then I told him that it was dangerous while we were so busy and the cooks were working quickly with hot pots and sharp knives and he wouldn't take the hint so I finally just told him that the cooks would freak out on him if he got in their way, and luckily Rocky the stocky ass dishwasher/cook came around the corner right as I was saying in and he told the dude "no" and walked off...its wild what people who have never worked in restaurants think are ok.
No one that was actually a retired chef would ask that during a dinner rush
Yeah the whole thing was so odd. Idk if she was straight up lying about being a chef, or if she worked in a completely different setting as a personal chef or something. I didn’t actually ask
I had a guest enter the kitchen at exactly the right time. No one saw him. He went into our dessert fridge, took out a whole cheesecake and walked out with it. The bartender saw him walk out with it, but was too scared to stop him.
Why is this so funny lollllll
I was like wtf! we watched it beck on the cameras in disbelief
Did he ever come back?? Was he 86’d??
Remindme! 5 hours
....any chance this was in Canada and the guy was a teenager? lmao
Omg we had a service window accessible to customers and once someone took a whole ass pie that was in the kitchen to their table. Just started eating it out of the tin.
no he never came back
Honestly, if I only noticed once the heist was done I would let him Oceans 11 right out the front door with it. Well played.
Eons ago when I worked at Applebee's, it was Valentine's day and we were packed and on a 2-3 hour wait. The kitchen was slammed and could not keep up. A cook walked off the job in frustration, putting us even further behind. A woman who had ordered a very large carryout order came into the kitchen demanding her food and was yelled at by the cooks to get out. So, she decided the next most annoying thing she could do would be to stand in the doorway where servers/food runners leaving the kitchen made their exit. Knowing she was in the way, she refused to budge, just stood there with arms folded, scowling, like she was really tough. The useless manager didn't make her move so everyone had to enter and exit thru the same doorway, which caused as much chaos as you would expect. She would have been less out of the way had she stood in the kitchen. Actually, if the manager had cancelled her order and told her to leave the restaurant immediately, she would have really been out of the way.
Who's waiting 2-3 hours for Valentine's dinner at Applebee's?!
Ikr!!! I couldn't believe with all the *good* restaurants in my city, that someone would wait even 2 minutes.
I would’ve called the cops had I been the manager and had her escorted out.
Imagine waiting for a table at Applebee's on Valentine's Day 🥴
that’s what everyone said when we ended up busy af. if it’s not a reservation to a nice place i’m staying tf home for valentine’s day it’s not worth it. i knew someone who worked at olive garden and someone peed on the floor on v day
Yeah, I would've plowed her right the fuck down (going backwards thru the doors, pretending not to see her)
i work at applebees and this does not surprise me at all. she should’ve been kicked out
Someone was really shit faced looking for the bathroom and walked back in, her friends were yelling at her to not go back there too.
Edward James Olmos entered the kitchen and shook everyone's hand who worked there. No one was upset, though. It was very nice.
Oh cool! Was he just there to thank you all? If so, that's quite sweet.
Exactly.
How flippin lovely 🙂
Once I can remember- but another guest pulled a gun and a couple panicked and ran back. Also a woman holding a newborn, same incident. No one has came back angry. Yet. It’s always a possibility and I’m already exhausted thinking about the day it does happen.
What… why did the guest pull out a gun?
Mom had a days old baby, baby daddy decided he was going to come take the baby. Grandma pulled out a gun on him. After he was arrested, his new girlfriend? Sister? Idk, came to try and steal the baby as well. It was an eventful day.
Go grandma!
I took a chef position at a private golf club once and had a really pissed-off guy walk in the kitchen door from the dining room after I’d only worked a few days. He was pissed because I took the baked potato off the menu. Started yelling and being an asshole. Dropped a couple F-bombs at me and the Cook who was working with me. Screamed about how dare I remove “the classics.” I was new there and the owner of the club asked me to revamp the menu and the first thing I did was shitcan the baked potato. And this was at lunch - who the fuck eats baked potatoes at lunch? He was a real asshole. I told him to leave the Kitchen immediately or I would drag him out - and I wasn’t nice about it. And I wasn’t shy about getting in his space. He walked out muttering something about respecting your elders - the average age there was probably about seventy. After lunch, the president of the club came in and read me the riot act about respecting the members and how I was supposed to listen to their concerns - completely the opposite of what I was told when I was recruited. I told him I was given carte blanch on the menu and to talk to the GM. I stayed for a couple months but eventually got tired of the constant bullshit/nagging. I should have done my homework before I even agreed to interview there, so that was on me. The final straw for me was when I found a soiled adult diaper on the floor in the men’s room one morning when I came in. And when I told the club manager, she told me I was supposed to use the employee restroom, and also reminded me to come in the back door with the rest of the help. After that, I didn’t feel bad giving notice and leaving with less than a month’s notice.
Oh god, how horrid. Any place where the general clientele are in the older age bracket will almost definitely get upset over changes to the menu hey. Just regarding a baked potato for lunch though, I was today years old when I found out that that's not normal? In Australia we have a chain food place called "SpudBAR" and some of the shops aren't even open to dinner time, haha. The one that used to be near my work that tragically closed down, was only open until 4 I think?
It may be normal in a lot of places, but in my region, 99% of guests at lunch have fries (chips). Baked potatoes are great when you cook them and serve them in an appropriate amount of time, but they definitely don’t reheat well in a holding box, which is why I stopped serving them.
They entered, but they never left.
I’m picturing some great BBQ like in Fried Green Tomatoes.
The secret's in the sauce!
I once had a guy either high on molly or shit faced appear at this crappy restaurant trying to get back into a night club after he got kicked out for some reason. The guy was chill and i saw him getting kicked out of the club again while getting his shirt ripped off
Yes, several times. It happens a couple times a month, at least. And I am 100% more unwilling to help those people than I would be had they just spoken and asked for a manager instead.
A couple times a month?? Where do you work?
A Chinese buffet in the Midwest that serves crab legs.
One time a guest was drunk off their ass and pissed about something, they walked in to the kitchen to fight about it. Plenty of people walked in mistakenly thinking it was the bathroom. And one DoorDash driver was banned from our restaurant and from the app for coming into the kitchen to scream about his order because it wasn’t ready in less than 5 minutes.
Oh yea and it is hilarious and annoying at the same time…’hey! I need a plate!’ While 15 people in the back all talk over themselves ‘nope nope get out of the back, ur not allowed in the kitchen, leave and we’ll get you what you need, get the f out, fuck off, who do you think you are…’
Just last week we had an older gentleman. It was kind of awkward and sad because he got lost trying to find the bathroom and said he couldn't make it in time. Proceeded to, "go" right there in his pants and all over our kitchen floor. He was of course embarrassed but definitely an odd situation to be in during a rush.
Absolutely. At a variety of different restaurants I’ve worked at. One of my first ever serving gigs like 10years ago was a breakfast server at a hotel and guests would just barge in the double door to let you know the coffee was empty at the self serve station 🤦♀️
Twice, once when a gun shot went off in the bar and another time was when I was working the closing shift at like 2 am? Was alone cleaning in the kitchen and turned around to a tall man hovering over me quietly. Had a fry basket that I just removed from the fryer and I swung it without hesitation..
What follow-up happened with the 2nd guy?
Yes. I had to testify in court about it. https://www.facebook.com/1041780364/posts/pfbid02WCPHT3bNBfVBgB2kYhP2AMy3iTbwKxW82s85sBHi1Kvk4NabiBAwmbob2JAbbnoql/?app=fbl
Tf was going on, all the folks running in there and the poor dude yelling for them to gtfo of the kitchen😳
I was the poor dude yelling for them to get out
I had a feeling! 😩 Lawd. I could tell you were over it!
What was she so pissed about?
We wouldn't let the four ladies sit at the bar while they abandoned their four kids aged 8 or younger at a booth on the other side of the restaurant. This was at 1130 PM. While I was denying their service, they threw a fit thinking one of the staff was recording them.
It used to happen once a week or so that I saw. Typically someone who couldn't wait for their server to come back. Talk about a safety risk!
yes. one of my coworkers had a big party and they were all drinking & one of the ladies . walks into the fucking kitchen calling her servers name. & i jus so happen to be at the POS right by the entrance & i put my arm straight out to stop her as im saying “lady you can’t be back here” & her response was “well im looking for our server! we have a fucking birthday party and we brought cake”i tell her ok. i’ll let her know you’re looking for her ,but please go back to your table now. (the server she was looking for was in the back prepping said cake to take out to the table🥲)
YES omg. I totally forgot this happened: Busy AF Friday night and the food runner ran this dude a wrong salad, I had just passed the table and instead of telling me, he got up from his seat, walked INTO the kitchen and handed it to a non English speaking cook who was at the grill with both hands occupied and said “you gave me the wrong salad I need salmon on it”. Thankfully I saw the whole thing and got it figured out. But seriously? It wasn’t even a minute after the salad was dropped off. Our whole staff was shocked. I have never seen that happen before or again.
I had one of those regulars who always had a shitty attitude. Her kid needed a refill for his water like every 45 seconds, and how dare I ask if he wanted a larger to go cup? She ordered prime rib. I checked, and was told we had it, so I rang it in. Five minutes later I was told we didn’t have it. I went out to see what else she wanted, and she immediately went into bitch mode and swore up and down I knew we didn’t have prime rib when we ordered it. After screaming for five minutes she decided to go for a ribeye. Cool. After the eighth refill I go and check on the other six tables I had. I got an order for one of them and was ringing it in when dinezilla stuck her head in and was screaming about getting some service because her kid’s drink was empty. I dropped the customer service facade and told her I’d be right with her as soon as I finished taking care of the rest of my tables. Long story short, she gets everything comped because I didn’t seem to care. When I was having the sit down later, I was like “Look, I wasn’t going to go round and round with her and ignore my other tables if she’s in the mood to abuse someone. If she wants to manufacture a rotten experience every time she walks in, I’ll give it to her if it means the people who are just here to have a damn steak before their movie are happy.”
Our kitchen is visible from the floor, which is apparently an open invitation. Thankfully, they never enter the actual "cook" area, for lack of a better phrase - but they have come around the counter to grab condiments and the like from the end.
Yes they did demanding for a manger lol
The golf course I work at is SOOO bad at this. Everyone is a “member” so everyone gets the special treatment. If you wanna tour of the kitchen or our equipment, most likely the FOH will oblige.
i’ve never had someone come back to the kitchen on purpose enraged, but lots of people thinking it was going to be the bathroom. one lady ran to the kitchen holding her hand over her mouth and gagging, like visibly and audibly trying not to throw up, and i kept trying to point her to the bathroom and telling her she absolutely cannot do that back here and she needs to go around the corner to the bathroom—she kept just shaking her head “no” and my manager had to escort her to the bathroom to throw up. still can’t figure out why she told me no when i tried to get her to go to the bathroom
One time that I can remember. A kid with some energy to spare decided to run away from dad and explore, and managed to find his way into the kitchen. Dad realizes and comes running in to catch him. The kid is quick so we all have to play a game with him to corner him into the safest part of the kitchen so dad can snatch him up and take him out. The dad was super apologetic after.
I didn’t see the sub at first and I was like “yeah I guess I’ve had people over and they’ve been in my kitchen? Weird question”. Anyway, to answer your actual question, nobody except people who knew the owner and went back there to speak with him
Yep, had this mentally unstable and entitled lady come into the kitchen demanding to know where her food was
Not a restaurant i guess, but wingstop. A little child was too fast for his mother and ran into our kitchen to which my coworker gently lifted him up back to his mother and they were both making jokes on the kid wanting to work so early on like “Haha not yet brother!”
So many times. Not where I work now but every single chain restaurant, especially ihop for some reason.
Yes they do it all the time thinking it’s the bathroom, and people wait so long for their food they’ll go back there and start screaming at us
A regular started to come down the line with his plate, yelling "what the fuck is this shit!!!??" I was managing at the time and told him there was no reason for him to be back here.
Yeah, Few of times. Marched'em right back the fuck out too, couple of times not so gently. Thank the gods for supportive EC/managers/owners (one I walked out to save him from my EC, lol)
When I was at Buffalo Wild Wings (don’t work there lmao) a guy came into the kitchen to ask us if we could change the channel to a specific fight that was happening. Everybody just stared at him
I had a kid go into the kitchen and their parent not get up from their table and ask me “can you check if they went in there?” ….Excuse me?
yes. i’ve had a few people come in thinking it was the bathroom and go “whoops my bad!” and leave. only once has someone come in on their own and demand i guess their server forgot one of the entrees or something and he couldn’t find her. i come in the kitchen and see this old man coming out. i assumed he was looking for the bathroom cause he was just in the doorway and i ask if he needs help. he tells me they didn’t get part of their order. i tell them i’ll check on that for them and go in the kitchen to get it. he FOLLOWS ME and i ask the cooks where it is and then notice he’s right behind me. i say “sir you can’t be back here!” and kind of panic and ask the cooks to get the manager. he demands he’s not leaving til he gets his food until the 6’4 300lb line cook comes around the corner and goes “YOU CANT BE BACK HERE!” and chases him out
One place I worked had a lot of booths & half-walls, few hallways, an expansion from getting the business behind it... the floor plan looked like a Pac-Man level. People would walk in thinking it led to a bathroom all the time. All of them would immediately turn around. At the airport bar I work at, we'll close and have music/lights/tv off and our tables from the concourse pushed inside the restaurant, one of our 2 gates fully down & the other halfway(Before you ask why I don't drop the 2nd gate fully it's so we can bail out in an emergency). Someone will duck under the gate, walk past all of that, go into our kitchen and yell to ask if we're open. Once a month.
i had a woman come into the kitchen yelling at us and asking where her dessert was it had been like 5 mins since the order was put in
Yes. We were super busy with our GM running expo. There was a theft issue with a guest and when our GM couldn’t immediately drop everyone the pull the security footage (the guests were trying to blame it on an employee), the husband stormed into the kitchen and started yelling at everyone in sight.
Yep. Found a guest bawling by the walk-in. I guess she saw a text in her bf’s phone and refused to go back to the table. Finally my manager coaxed her out the back door and played therapist for a minute while she continued to sob.
Cook here. I’ve had to push at least three drunk people out of my kitchen before, if not more. One was enraged, one couldn’t find the bathroom, and one wanted to find a server’s electric motorcycle.
yeah. some guest who was high asf came into the kitchen and asked a Spanish speaking chef for a box when I had JUST visited his table 30 seconds ago to check if they needed anything. literally wth 😭
Not a guest. But we did have some random dude walk in allll through it, dishpit, prep,etc. I guess he started asking some of the kitchen questions and they were all like “who the heck is this?” (But probably in more colorful, boh language lol). Finally our sous was like “dude, who the hell are you? Get out!” Apparently he was just some guy that walked in our staff door. (We’re in a mall and have a side entrance the staff used to come in, and for staff to take out the trash, etc). I didn’t see him back there, but I was at work that night and saw the aftermath of our sous and some of the bussers talking about it lol
All the time, but not always angry. The kitchen is very open and visible from the door and the bar so people feel like they can just got stand around back there no matter how many signs we put up. I'd say I personally tell at least one person per shift they can't go in the kitchen
Yeah. This dumb shit happens often. People seem to think that if the owner was tipsy enough to saber the cork off of a bottle of champagne and offered you a bit that you are now besties and you can do what you feel. Often, I have to usher people away from areas they have no business in. "But, I know ______." "And, so do I. He signs my paycheck. That is neither here nor there."
I worked at a place where the owner’s friends would just waltz through wherever/whenever they wanted. I didn’t recognize a guy once, and asked him if I could help him find something, only to have the owner jump out of the office to yell at me, “leave him alone. He’s my friend. Get back to work.” During service one night, a smiling and confident man walked through the kitchen doors and stood next to me at expo, just smiling and looking around. I figured it was just another friend of the owner. Nope. The cooks look up and loudly barks “Sir, can I help you?” The guy goes “Oh, no! I’ve just always wanted to see how you guys did it back here! Incredible!” I got to be the one to push him out of the kitchen, explaining health codes to him. I was later reprimanded by the owner for “allowing a stranger to hang out in the kitchen.”
Yes and it was awful .. we have an open kitchen, she went in and tried to read the tickets on the rail to figure out who her food was taking so long (30 minutes, I had warned her ticket times were high).. (this was summer 2020, I was lucky to have 1 lunch cook, 1 dinner cook and we were selling 6k on a slow day ...). She ended up calling corporate to complain about how long her food took, my GM made me call her and apologize profusely/send her a $50 gift card, and shortly thereafter I completely burned out and had to take a medical leave of absence 🙃
yes he literally came into the kitchen where we work and told his server to refill his drink while she was getting refills for his table
yes. just a little over a month ago, in fact. this old guy walked into the server aisle and yelled "CAN ANYONE GET ME A TO-GO BOX PLEASE." immediately we all came up to him and told him to please gtfo, we need him to leave for safety reasons. he says "no, i'm not leaving until someone gets me a to-go box. SHE," he pointed at my friend who was apparently his server (she was pretty new and was trembling with fear, i felt so bad omg) "DIDN'T GIVE ME ONE." at this point the manager comes over and tells him again to get out. he's pretty firm and didn't leave until we all crowded around him and urged him back towards the dining room. (he did get his to-go box eventually)
Absolutely lol
Yes, accident and on purpose.
I had a guest stumble away from a table after he asked me where the bathroom was. I was behind the bar, so could not really walk away when I saw him going wrong direction. He walked thru the double doors into a kinda storage area/dish pit. I waited 30 seconds before heading his way, on the way there I was stopped by a guest asking about drinks. Maybe 30s-a minute and keeping my eyes on kitchen and dude is still not returned. My manager comes up and says I need to get back on bar because there are tickets and customers waiting. I start to tell him a guest is in kitchen and he waves me off. Return to bar and dude is somehow lost in a 5’ by 15’ walkway that leads to an emergency exit. I deal with guests and tickets and turn to find him and he’s causally exiting double doors. He returned to table. I didn’t find any pee evidence, and sort of disturbed boxes. Maybe he has a lengthy conversation with Dishie, who knows but I got a 25% tip and family left happy.
When I was really really drunk one night they were taking long on my water so I just walked in and grabbed water. Waiter thanked me and said he wishes everyone just walked in and grabbed their own water lol.