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Oh, but I don't like pork...

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  • Oh, but I don't like pork...

    Hello everybody, long time lurker, first time poster here.

    Quick background:

    I work at a small hotel (25 rooms) as a waiter and bartender. Most of our guests are elderly people, some of whom have special needs when it comes to their food.
    We serve a fixed menu everyday, which is posted right in our lobby next to the doors to the dining room.
    If you're on a diet or allergic to something, we're happy to accommodate you. As long as you tell us in advance, like when you're checking in.

    But then there's these:
    Me=Me being my cheery self
    SC=Nice guest
    Chef=My boss who's also the head chef

    While serving the first course
    SC: Excuse me, but what's the main course?
    Me: Today we serve pork loin with a mushroom sauce and roast potatoes.
    SC: Oh, but I don't like pork...don't you have anything else?
    Me: I can't guarantee anything, but I'll ask the cook.
    *return to the kitchen*
    Me: So, guest x of room y doesn't like pork, have we got anything else we can serve her?
    Chef: *curses* I'll see what I can do, tell her she can choose between a turkey schnitzel or grilled salmon. She'll also has to wait 10-15 minutes longer.
    Me: Ok, I'll tell her.
    *hurries back to table*
    Me: I asked the chef, and if you'd like we have either a turkey schnitzel or grilled salmon for you. Unfortunately it'll take about 15 minutes for it to be ready, my apologies for that.
    SC: Oh, that won't do, we're going out early tonight, just bring me the pork then.
    Me: *sigh* Very well madam, i'll relay that to the kitchen. If there are other preferences you have you can tell them to me so we can take care of it in advance.
    *back to kitchen*
    Me: She decided she'll have the pork loin anyway.
    Chef: *grumbles* Wish they'd tell you in advance for once.
    *main course is being served*
    Me: Here you go madam, hope you enjoy your meal.
    SC: I'll try!

    And then the plate returns, completely finished! Guess pork wasn't that bad after all.

    The worst ones are the people who are on a diet, allergic or diabetic, I can understand if you don't think about the food you don't eat, but the food you can't?

    SC: Excuse me, is this soup cooked with salt?
    Me: Yes it is madam. *sees where this is going*
    Sc: Well I can't eat this, I'm on a salt-free diet.
    Me: I'm sorry madam, you should have told us in advance so we could have arranged something, I'll make sure it's in order for the rest of the week.
    SC: You could have asked at check-in.
    Me: I'll remember that for later.

    Ofcourse, I usually do ask at check-in, but I'm not the only performing check-ins, or they forget to mention it, or maybe their spouse checked-in and forgot.

  • #2
    Sc: Well I can't eat this, I'm on a salt-free diet.
    Me: I'm sorry madam, you should have told us in advance so we could have arranged something, I'll make sure it's in order for the rest of the week.
    SC: You could have asked at check-in.
    while it's a courtesy, she bears the burden for telling the staff of her needs, not the staff asking; not everyone has a special need and to expect everyone to know her requirements is simply asinine. you're not doctors or dieticians, after all.
    look! it's ghengis khan!
    Sorry, but while I can do many things, extracting heads from anuses isn't one of them. (so sayeth the irv)

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    • #3
      Kind of nice to see that there is jerkdom and suckiness worldwide, though. If that helps at all.
      Dull women have immaculate homes.

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      • #4
        "...or maybe their spouse checked-in and forgot. ..."

        Or maybe the spouse DIDN'T "forget". hehehe
        "All I've ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who out-drew ya"

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        • #5
          Of course, if you make it a courtesy to ask if they have any dietary restrictions, they'll say no, and then get cross at you later because they didn't know "allergies" counted as a dietary restriction.

          At the very least, I take comfort in consistency.
          Each one of us has a special place just like the Evergreen Forest. Enchanting, sparkling, and perfect. And, like the flowers that bloom there... fragile.

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          • #6
            It's only now (after three years) that I'm remembering that I have allergies. For a while my husband was better at checking ingredients than I was, and certainly much better about remembering to tell people. Unless the hotel has a sign up saying to let them know about allergies, there is no WAY I'd have remembered then, and I'm not sure even about now. The B&B where we honeymooned fortunately said so right on the reservation form, or I'd have been in trouble.

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            • #7
              Quoth lucid View Post
              Sc: Well I can't eat this, I'm on a salt-free diet.
              When I was a waiter, I never could fathom why people with food allergies or special dietary needs would wait until a dish was served to freak out when they discovered the dish contained an ingredient they could not tolerate or simply did not like. I once served a woman who shrieked/gagged and spit out onto the floor the big mouthful she just had shoveled in when she tasted our marinara sauce and detected it had garlic in it. She then threw a tantrum about not being informed of the ingredients at the time she ordered. Of course, she never thought to ask about such a basic ingredient of Italian cooking...

              A person on a salt-free diet ought to know and anticipate that salt is in almost all cooked foods and heavily present in soups.
              "Ignorance is no excuse for a law."
              .................................................. ..................- Alfred E. Newman

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              • #8
                isn't there iodine in salt or something to prevent goiters? so I hope they don't use something else and develope one.

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                • #9
                  Quoth South Texan View Post
                  I once served a woman who shrieked/gagged and spit out onto the floor the big mouthful she just had shoveled in when she tasted our marinara sauce and detected it had garlic in it.
                  Twilight fan?
                  Why do they make Superglue but not Batglue?

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                  • #10
                    Since I'm a diabetic who has to watch my salt for blood pressure issues, that's yet another reason I have a tendency of writing things down exactly as I want them cooked and readied when I go to restaurants I'm not known in.
                    Customers should always be served . . . to the nearest great white.

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                    • #11
                      Quoth South Texan View Post
                      tasted our marinara sauce
                      Yerg... I just read that as "Our marijuana sauce"...
                      "I call murder on that!"

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Juwl View Post
                        Yerg... I just read that as "Our marijuana sauce"...
                        To eat Kitty-Krunchies, Fat Freddy's Cat needs a little appetite stimulation...
                        I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                        Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                        Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

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                        • #13
                          I hate that line.

                          "Well you should have asked!"

                          I always want to scream back: "Well you should have said something in the first place!"

                          Its always our fault that they forget to mention something. It's not our jobs to do their thinking for them.

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                          • #14
                            Quoth South Texan View Post
                            I once served a woman who shrieked/gagged and spit out onto the floor the big mouthful she just had shoveled in when she tasted our marinara sauce and detected it had garlic in it. She then threw a tantrum about not being informed of the ingredients at the time she ordered. Of course, she never thought to ask about such a basic ingredient of Italian cooking...
                            When I was doing banquet serving, I had a similar customer. I served her a chicken dish, and she suddenly went all Drama Queen, loudly asking in a horrified manner, "What is this? WHAT IS THIS?!" Jeez, you think I'd served her grandmother's severed head on a plate!

                            Yeah, she was a vegetarian, but didn't bother to let us know, like, say, putting the green ticket on the table top like the other vegetarian diners did! And if we accidently served a meat entree to another vegetarian, they usually said politely, "I ordered the vegetarian plate." She was just being a primadonna, much like your customer. "Look at me! Look at how special I am! I have needs, and I want the world to kowtow to me! Me! ME!!!"
                            I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem.
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