Learning to Read

One notion we have come to understand in the restaurant is that our guests don't know how to read. I'm not trying to be mean, I know people can generally read. When it comes to reading a menu, however, it's a different story. It's one of our guilty pleasures; watching the guest get upset about what's in their food because they didn't take the time to read the description. Those two fragments underneath the menu item, describing what the item entails, may as well be extra room for their kids to draw on, because it's clearly just too much to read. Their lack of reading these two fragments almost always ends up in a complaint. As the server, we need to tell them what's in the meal they're ordering as often as we can.

Of course there are those random times when we just don't feel like explaining it or don't have the time, and it always pisses them off. "I didn't know the burger came with sauce on it." "What's this green stuff on my pizza?" "You didn't tell me this came with spicy cheddar." Well, if you would have taken about ten seconds to read about what you were ordering, we wouldn't be having any problems. But they act like we intentionally put ingredients in their entree just to spite them. Trust me, if we knew what they didn't like we probably would do that. But how do we know what they like and don't like? That's why the menu tells them what is in their food.

My favorite complaint happened last night when a woman ordered a drink off the page titled in big bold letters, "Cocktails." I came back a few minutes later and she says, "This drink is not what I wanted. Does it have alcohol in it?" Yesssss, hence the word "cocktails." "Oh, I didn't know that. Just bring me a Pepsi." I do my best to describe the ingredients every time, but do I really need to let a grown woman know that there is alcohol in a long island?

We all do it. I know I've skimmed over the ingredients before and got an entree that wasn't quite what I expected. But I don't blame my server for that and make her go out of her way to fix my mistake.

Rule of common courtesy: Own that you made the mistake, not the server, and eat your damn food. It never hurts to try something different. (Unless you're allergic, then bitch about it all you want!)

Any other servers have guests who can't read? Leave a comment :)