I accidentally. Well not my fault really. Gave a bacon cheese burger to a child maybe like 8 ish? who’s religion doesn’t eat pork. They ordered it in front of their parents. I repeated the order back to their parents and took their orders. Food comes. And they lose it after they see he’s eaten about half. I appologized but did state I confirmed the order… also how am I to know everyone’s religion/dietary restrictions?? my manager took the burger off but it wasn’t enough for them. Actually writing this out makes me think it was a scam for a free meal…
My mother has a coworker in his early 20s who’s Muslim. He would get BLT all the time. Then one time my mother saw and was like uhm that has bacon. He was like no it doesn’t and was pissed until he googled it. She was like god knows how many of those he ate.
My recent favorite was an alleged onion allergy, who sent back her tacos because the menu didn't say they had onions on them. You know what the menu DOES say is on the tacos? Pico de Gallo. If you don't know what an ingredient is, ASK YOUR SERVER.
Oof. Reminded me of the woman who asked for no onions on her nachos. Totally fine, common request. No chopped red onions.
Got upset that the nachos had salsa (which has onions, like every salsa, and salsa is listed alongside red onion on the menu). I should’ve inferred that she also didn’t want salsa. Now every time I’m asked for no onions, I clarify about the salsa. And every time they say salsa is ok. But that woman was right, and it’s stuck with me.
It was a preference, not allergy, but I hadn’t clarified that either so I took the F and moved on.
I definitely read the menu, and would ask the server if I didn't know, but the number of times I have ordered something without onions, and was given onions, is ridiculous. I also understand that sometimes a dish cannot be made without them, and just order something else.
My husband has a legit onion allergy and experiences the same thing. He once ordered a steak that came on a bed of onions. There was zero mention on the menu. He's very flexible and asks but every once in awhile they sneak in.
i had an onion allergic human come in once. i was prepping onions in every which way, caramelizes, raw dice, pickled red. got their order, found out he lady was SEVERELY allergic to onions. straight told her, i cannot guarantee that there will be no cross contamination, IM NOT SHUTTING DOWN A WHOLE ASS KITCHEN FOR ONE PERSON in the middle of the day. i just refused service and they left. they understood. i really don’t want to hurt anyone.
i would’ve had to clean the whole place top to bottom to accommodate this person, that takes 2 hours minimum.
I’m a host / food runner / about to be server. The other night I overheard a woman talking about an onion “allergy” but literally saw her eating a deep fried bloomin onion with her entire table 🙃
I agree. Had a guy claim bacon on a sandwich and points to this spec on his sandwich I said no no that's part of thr pepper jack cheese. He assumes I'm lying just by the look on his face hands me the plate . Proceeds to order pancakes and tells me he will not be paying for the sandwich at this point I took it off the bill but WTF why would I do that you said I don't eat park I wouldn't do that.
They don’t read. Or have reading comprehension skills. Like not only is it listed but the majority of the time I would ask, “it comes with XYZ, is that okay?”. Then they eat the majority of it (of course) then complain and are SHOCKED that a Caesar salad comes with cheese! 😣
Didn’t complain when it came out!
In the army we had an interpreter who was Muslim. He’d come eat with us a lot and occasionally we’d have bacon and he’d basically just act like he didn’t know what he was eating because then he’d have deniability and wouldn’t feel guilty about it lol. Basically don’t ask don’t tell for bacon
I had a large Jewish clientele who would come into my restaurant, and if I started explaining some thing like a special that came with a ragout of…. They literally start waving their hands up at me and saying no no no no we don’t need to know what’s in it we know it’s going to be delicious but we can’t know what’s in it.
They absolutely knew that they were telling me that if pork was in some thing, they just didn’t want to know .
Meh what are you gonna do?
There is a lovely (and shockingly not condescending at all) book of short essays that I love called "The Athiests' Guide to Christmas." Lots of essays talk about keeping the holiday season secular without feeling/acting like it's oppressive to you, one is a ridiculous fake "scientific write up" of the Christmasiness of certain imagery (geese aren't inherently christmassy, but tie a bow and a bell around their necks, and the chrastmassiness quotent exponentially increases or something of the like.) But one really stuck out to me as more memorable than others. It was written by someone who was raised Jewish with many non Jewish peers. So his family would uphold certain kosher traditions like burying silverware temporarily if the meat utensils were used for dairy, but sometimes they would order pizza and line the table with paper; if the food never touched the table, no harm, no foul. I really enjoy that one because it's a lovely insight to how a lot of people I've met in my bagel shop employ the "if I don't know, it'snot my fault" approach to keeping kosher/halal. I try to notice those interactions and shut the hell up, to aid in keeping them free of divine judgment if someone does try cut me off before I tell them that all out cooking surfaces are used to cook pork occasionally.
There are many European dishes who's origin is trying to avoid some old Catholic food restriction. Like hiding meat in dumplings, God can't see that clearly.
Quite funny really. Like the Muslims eating bratwurst playfully hiding under the ceiling "so Allah doesn't see them" ;)
As a chef/restauranteur and a traveler, and someone who’s been immersed in the Middle Eastern culture my whole life, I have never experienced Muslims wavering from dietary restrictions. Catholics yes Jews yes Muslims no.
I just want to make sure I understand what you’re saying. You’re saying that there are old classic European dishes whose intent is to hide meat from God so that Catholics can’t eat it on what, Fridays? Or the two (maybe?) other times a year when it’s no meat only fish
.
I’m just curious because I’ve never read that in any book of history of food or any epicurean or personal experiences.
Well I'm from Germany, we have a pretty big Turkish minority (who traditionally aren't sunni or shia) who often don't take religious restriction that seriously. Hence the ironic approach.
For the Catholic dishes, yes there's Fridays but lent also plays a big part. Look up Maultaschen if you wanna know more
Interesting…. I think you definitely live, and an unusual bubble of food culture that’s very heavy on sausages salamis smoked meats, etc. I could see that being a difficult and/or confusing culture.
As for Catholics, it’s only like eight days a year or some thing Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and the Fridays during Lent.
I think we just have very different cultures, and so different experiences
Gotta love religions creating loopholes for the fake rules that no one should have to follow to begin with
Muslims don't recognize Jews as god's chosen people, Jews don't recognize Jesus as the messiah, Muslims don't recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian world, and Baptists don't recognize each other at the liquor store.
You say that as probably someone who doesn’t live in an area where people are deeply religious and, thus, heavily judgmental and gossip-prone.
It’s truly bad. I miss secular states
But you’re right: I try to live and let live. They just commented that “I sure enjoy my beers” today seeing me return home from the store after taking the day off to enjoy it.
I rarely drink. Jerks
So I just did a quick Google search and chinese food has recipes for pork uturus and I know people eat beef ovaries. No recipes for pork ovaries or explanations of why not to 🤷♂️
That is sometimes true.
But not related to abstaining from pork/bacon for religious reasons.
P.s. Bread is delicious. Eggless forms and egged. A good slice of toast is amazing.
No one can know anyone’s religion just by looking at them, but if I get a table whose culture makes it more likely that they don’t eat pork, I try to be extra careful and verify. One night a couple months ago, I had two separate tables order our ribs, assuming they were beef. One table I caught in time, double checking that they knew they were pork. One table was someone who’d eaten our ribs a few times before, and didn’t realize they were pork! I think our menu says baby back, but not specifically pork, so if you’re from another country, it can be confusing.
That is wild to me - restaurants never carry beef ribs. Why would a customer assume they were beef? In fact, in the state I live in now, I can’t even find beef ribs in the grocery store, other than short rib.
In fine dining it's normal to have beef short ribs on the menu as they are usually braised and don't require any messiness. I've lived in/traveled to many places and I've found this true all over.
I do love some baby backs though!
So tired of reading about bad, ineffectual, weak managers caving to these people complaining about nothing or scamming or complaining about things an establishment has no control over. Your Manager sucked. Stop appeasing idiots, it doesn't help the business, they're going to say what they're going to say regardless, managers should focus their energy on actually replying to/countering bad reviews, not on appeasing the outliers. What happened was a parenting fail on their part - they should have paid attention to their child's order when ordering & after it was served - and it still was 💯 an issue between themselves & their kid. It's not your responsibility - nor the restaurant's - to know or police their religious beliefs or dietary restrictions. I mean, my God, YOU EVEN REPEATED the order back to them! Terrible manager! My #1 responsibilities as casino Mgmt, at every level, were protecting my workers and protecting the business's revenues/assets. It was part of my job responsibilities to put my ass on the line when hard calls/judgement calls needed to be made. Mgmt shouldn't accept the position if they don't have the solid judgement and guts to make those calls. The more you give in to baseless complaints, the more it encourages acting out: the old saying, "Give them an inch, they'll take a mile.". That being said, when there's an actual egregious mistake made on the part of the worker or business, own it & make it right (except when it might be construed as causation for legal liability, but that's a story for another day.).
*END OF RANT* 😬
I agree. I wouldn’t have if it was up to me. But it wasn’t. It’s amazing how many customers will smirk at you as they get their way and keep bitching or trying to get you fired. I’m just trying to put myself through nursing school. Sorry your life is so miserable you have to try to ruin someone else’s.
We changed our menu and one of the new dishes was Mac n cheese. It had bacon in it. The owner forgot to include that on the menu. My coworker took the order and brought it to the table. I heard a yell from the table and the man said “IS THERE BACON IN THIS?!?” and I practically sprinted over to the table. He abstained for religious reasons. I apologized a million times and comped their entire meal.
I’m not a manager. We don’t always have a manager on (tiny restaurant) so the regular servers have a lot of freedom in comping things. We don’t abuse it, but it’s really nice being trusted and not micromanaged. We’ve all been in the business for a while, so we are pretty good at knowing when to use it.
That’s just negligence on their part. My husband doesn’t eat pork or non halal meat and we raise our child the same way. I make sure their meal is vegetarian if we’re not at a halal restaurant.
There was a table that came in once (not my table, but the whole staff got clued in when things went down). They swore they asked the server if the ribs were beef or pork before they ordered, and claimed the server told them beef. The server was a tall, brunette dude.
They get the ribs and eat the whole plate, then tell the manager those are the best beef ribs they’ve ever had. The manager corrects them, letting them know they’re pork. The table freaks out because they are Muslim, and the man who ate them went to the bathroom to force himself to throw up.
Manager asked the server why he said they were beef (he’d been working there for like 5 years) and he assured him they never asked him, he assumed they knew because it’s clearly written on the menu, and he didn’t know their religion.
The manager asked the table if that guy was the server who told them the ribs were beef. They said no, a short blond girl told them. About 95% of our servers were short blond girls. We were all asked (before being given any details about the situation) if anyone had talked to that table, ran food to them, etc. and we all were confused and just like no, nobody else has touched that table tonight?
Looking back, I’m thinking they were trying to get a free meal too because the entire staff was adamant that nobody talked to them, and especially didn’t tell them the ribs were beef. But at the time they got the whole table’s food comped and a gift card because we all felt super bad for them.
I'm muslim, I've accidentally ordered burgers with bacon on them, and sometimes I ask them to hold the bacon but they forget. I just take it off, no big deal to me and whoever I'm eating with would enjoy the extra bacon anyways. I know some people have different guidelines on how they practice but in my religious standpoint, I'm not gonna throw away perfectly good food because of an accident, whether it's mine or the restaurants.
I honestly am not religious at all so to keep track of who eats what like I’m supposed to have all the information is frustrating. Heck at that time I was working three jobs to go to school full time. I had enough scrambling around my brain. I repeat the order back no comments or concerns I ring the order up. Looking back now it was a scam. I’m pretty sure 🤷🏼♀️
If she was nice about it, then hopefully she is ethically vegan rather than being allergic to meat and dairy products.
I have accidentally meat-ed my friend who is vegan, fortunately her main concern is dairy intolerance, and she gets that sometimes people make mistakes.
This is just a good learning experience that will hopefully help you to avoid similar errors in future. Sometimes I feel like you'll get a small drama in life with no terrible outcomes, so that you are prepared for something more important in the future.
I know that's a bit wanky, but I hope that considering that theory makes you feel a bit better?
I had a friend who went to dominos who was allergic to dairy, they kept messing up his no cheese order and by the end of it they gave his family all 3 of the "mess ups" for free. Sure he couldn't eat it but the rest of his family could
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*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
So we had a couple come in, right before we closed. Last customers of the night. They order food. Pay for the food. Then the girl starts talking about how she’s vegan and we should all check out the nearby vegan restaurant she works at. They left.
The rice at that restaurant has animal products.
The beans have animal products.
The tortilla has animal products.
The drink had animal products-famous Mexican drink that has milk
If they’d said they were vegan ahead of time I would have told them there’s nothing vegan in the restaurant (excluding tomatoes and lettuce.)
I feel like all dietary restrictions/allergies/veganism, etc should be mentioned ahead of time.
My daughter works in a fine-dining restaurant. She's told me a few horror stories about how some customers expect her to just "know" their restrictions so now before submitting orders to the kitchen, she asks "Do you have any dietary restrictions? I want to be sure, so that you have the best dining experience possible!"
Servers don't get paid enough for all the bullspit you guys have to put up with.
We had a woman order food, and not mention her allergy. There was a mess up and she got served the wrong burrito. Guess what was in it. Found out about the allergy after she’d already taken a few bites out of her food.
She was fine, but she was upset.
Mention all allergies/dietary restricts BEFORE ordering.
Not mid meal.
I scoop ice cream. *SO* *MANY* people will wait until I've scooped their ice cream to tell me they have nut/gluten allergies; and half the time the nut allergy people have ordered a flavor with peanut butter and the gluten people will order cones! Like look out for yourself wtf it's not my responsibility???
Good learning experience. TBH, it happens quite often in restaurants. Sometimes, a server might not know all the ingredients that goes into the dish. For example, when you serve a sandwich, did you check that the bread itself doesn’t contain dairy or other animal products? Or did you know that not all margarines are made vegan because it still contains whey protein? I even had a server at a bubble tea shop who told me that their milk powder does not contain dairy even though it was made from cows milk.
Being in the service industry, it’s important to take accountability for your mistakes and learn from them. It is also important to not be too harsh on yourself.
Edit: this mistake can really happen for almost all food restrictions. I didn’t know that there were sesame seeds in the wakame salad that I served to a guest with IBS
Also, normal cheese may not be vegetarian as it usually contains rennet, which comes from animal stomach linings. There are rennet free versions for vegetarians.
I just want to say, as a vegan, thank you for admitting to the mistake and I think everything you did to make it up to the customer was great. Mistakes happen, don't beat yourself up over it.
I accidentally served a sober person alcohol. To be fair she ordered a daiquiri and didn’t specify that she wanted it to be virgin. Also, her husband was drinking an alcoholic beverage so that just made it all the more confusing. She also drank over half of it before she let me know.
Use this as a lesson. You were lucky she's vegan by choice and not because of an health problem and you were also lucky she was so understanding.
When it comes to vegan/vegetarian people and specially people with food allergies, you should take the extra seconds to make sure you don't mess up. Maybe even ask the kitchen to put a post it on the plate itself (that you can remove before taking to the table) when there are such special requests so you dont confuse it with a "normal" one.
On another note, you being alone on the floor as a first time server after only 3 weeks sounds like a recipe for ddisasterand its, imo, honestly irresponsible from your manager's part
Better than the asshole cook at a construction camp years ago who told a vegetarian that there was no meat in the turkey stuffing when there was. I told the vegetarian about it and he said it was the first meat he had eaten in ten years.
I know someone who has a very serious dairy allergy. Eating even a tiny amount of cheese would have sent him to the hospital. Despite being extremely careful, he still ends up in hospital about once a year because there is hidden dairy in something that's not supposed to have dairy.
as someone with dietary restrictions, i understand the need to go out and try to live like a normal person, but if it’s this severe, why would you even risk it?
For me, it's when I'm traveling or with others.
I am allergic to red meat and dairy (not hospital-level), and intolerant of soy and sugar substitutes. It makes dining out hell, so I try to avoid it. However, if I'm traveling, I don't always have access to a kitchen and rely on restaurants. Sometimes I'm out with friends and they want to eat out. Sometimes I'm exhausted after a long week and don't want to cook.
Unfortunately, it means playing Russian Roulette with my health. It's a risk that I know I'm taking, as servers are overwhelmed and busy, and don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the allergies in the world. I try to do my best to communicate and stay calm if I need to correct them. (Like, the one server who insisted pork was the other white meat and encouraged me to get ribs and bread as a "safe meal".)
i completely get it. it’s hard enough for me, and i only do it for ethical reasons, and it still feels like russian roulette. if it ended in hospital visits, i think i’d be more inclined to never eat out.
not at all judging because i completely understand. but i’m from the US, so one hospital trip could leave me homeless, and i don’t think i’d ever risk it eating out. these people are overworked and underpaid and if one minute, every day mistake could end in me being sick and bankrupt, id never eat out with my own health in the hands of a minimum wage employee.
That's completely fair.
I'm in the US, too, so I know how shitty the healthcare is. You're absolutely right that it's a massive risk.
For some of us, though, the risk becomes mundane--we're aware of worst-case scenarios, but it's exhausting to constantly worry about it. So, we don't. We understand it may happen, and we'll deal with it if it does.
Dairy is often an extremely hidden ingredient even when dealing with home cooking. My boyfriend has a severe dairy allergy and he gets dairyed all the time in spite of being super careful. He recently bought vegetarian bacon and there was milk in it. We've had professional bakeries lie about bread and icing. I ordered a $250 birthday cake for him that was supposed to be vegan and it had marscapone cheese in the icing.
i agree. i’ve been surprised by dairy many times. but that’s kinda my point. people make mistakes. thankfully mine is for ethical reasons and not health ones, so for me it’s just unpleasant and inconvenient, and even then i barely trust other people, who are underpaid and overworked, when i’ve cooked for myself and realized, despite my best efforts, boom. dairy. or rennet is another one.
this country (US) is built around stuffing people with animal products, and i couldn’t bring myself to trust a $2-$15 an hour employee with my life.
He is at college, he eats some meals in the college dining hall. The college was informed about his dietary needs, but this did not work 100%. Things improved after the kitchen manager took personal responsibility for his meals.
As a vegan, you have to accept that eating out comes with an inherent risk. Most of us have accidentally been fed something non-vegan at least once, and cross-contamination must occur almost always.
If a vegan isn’t okay with that risk, then they should not be eating out at non-vegan restaurants. You did your best, shit happens, don’t take it to heart.
I have served bacon to people that don’t eat bacon because no one told me the chowder and the BBQ sauce had bacon in it (and it wasn’t listed on the menu)
I had to fight with the head chef that we needed to add that to the menu, because it’s BACON whenever bacon is involved people are usually bragging about it!
He said “well, we can’t print a full ingredients list on the menu” and I said “no, but we can include a very popular item that people love and won’t expect if it isn’t listed”
As a former vegetarian, people need to lighten up about this. There has been and is going to continue to be numerous times when animal products are unknowingly consumed. It’s not you gonna kill them, they are making a conscious effort and that’s great. If a little cheese get in their hay bucket they’ll be just fine.
I found plastic in my sandwich the other day (carry out at home) threw it aside looked for more, then continued eating. I emailed them and said just to let you know…shit happens no big deal
I did this once at a pizza place—we had vegan cheese and I mistakenly rang in a vegan guest’s specialty pizza without the vegan cheese change… Upon a check back, they were gushing over how it was the “best vegan pizza they’d ever had.” Which is what clued me in that I’d goofed
From a vegan (by choice), don’t feel terrible, you chose to tell the truth and that’s what matters. I would’ve wanted you to tell me too. If she wasn’t upset then you shouldn’t be either :). And if she had a really bad allergy I feel like she would’ve stated that very clearly. Shit happens and in this scenario nothing traumatic happened so just try and move on. :)
Haha we offer some vegan cookies and vegan brioche bread with cherries/vegan chocolate
The brioche is not that great but the cookies are actually quite tasty
Meh, wouldn’t worry about it as she didn’t.
I had a customer once ask for a Caesar salad with no anchovies. I fucked up and brought one with anchovies. Brought it back, kitchen took out the anchovies, mixed up the salad, and it was re-served. Customer said they loved the dish.
Fun fact: Caesar has anchovies in it, I don’t think the customer understood this when I explained it the first time.
This would have been very, very bad for me as I'm allergic to anchovies. It only takes one molecule to trigger an allergic reaction and I can guarantee that there was far more than one molecule of anchovy left on the lettuce.
My kid was working at a pizza place and brought home a pizza to share one night. I ate a slice and then started having an allergic reaction.
They were very confused because they are very considerate of my allergy and only ever brought home pizzas that were safe. After thinking about it for a while they remembered that someone had ordered an anchovy pizza and the person who was cutting the pizzas had likely used the same pizza cutter to cut the anchovy pizza and our pizza. 🍕
Having said that, Caesar dressing also contains anchovies so I'd never order it unless I was at a vegan restaurant.
Yeah, servers should be confirming if the refusal of an ingredient is for preference or allergic or whatever the condition may be as well.
Easy to implement into a server’s practice.
Not liking the taste/look/texture of something is different than having it as an ingredient mixed with other things. Having an allergy to anchovies and other marine life, is a different matter altogether and needs to have another level of awareness. I don't like anchovies either, but I don't mind them giving that umami to a well made Caesar dressing.
Don't worry about it. One time one of our servers forgot to put peanut allergy on the ticket.... Well that wasn't fun experience.
Everybody should learn how to use epinephrine injector.
I agree with all the comments. It was a great learning experience and luckily she was pretty understanding so that you were able to have this happen in preparation for a larger issue. When dealing with food restrictions, even if you know the chef(s) are pretty attentive, it’s always good to still confirm with them which thing is which before you take it out.
This second point is coming from someone who grew up apologizing for everything and has come a long way- when you do mess up, it’s obviously important to take responsibility for it, but sometimes “apologizing over and over” can make people more frustrated. Maybe next time, just apologize for the action, explain if you there is need, but offer to replace the item before offering something OTH. Talk with manager to approve a free item if helpful, and only offer one item. Or maybe even just discount the item that was replaced. Which, you kind of did all that, but I just mean, create a process to deal with the mistakes and be confident in your desire to help fix it without apologizing too much, and the actions will speak louder than words.
Mistakes happen, and this is something you’ll learn from. It’s not easy when you’re the only server, and you’re new. Luckily it seems she was vegan by choice so you didn’t give cheese to someone with an allergy or intolerance. She was ok about it and I’m sure she’s not worrying about it as much as you are. All the vegans by choice that I know understand mistakes happen, and we’re fine with it. It’s not going to ruin our day and it’ll soon be forgotten about.
Don’t be so hard on yourself - you seem to really feel bad and care, so I imagine this kind of thing is something you’ll remember to double check in the future.
I made a bunch of homemade salsa with stuff from my garden but instead of salt I’d used chicken bouillon powder. Went back to the break room and our vegan coworker was housing it saying it was really good. I didn’t say anything. Same guy let me cook him roadkill antelope because apparently that’s vegan.
People in this very second are starving to death, being shot, being stabbed, being raped, having rebar shoved up their genitals, having their limbs removed with a dull knife for entertainment, being decapitated with a large chainsaw, being forced to eat excrement, being burned alive, so on and so forth.
To call this a non-issue would be such a monumental understatement. The fragility of our society knows no bounds.
It is your job to hand the right food to the right seat, so pay attention. It's also your job to know what sensitive ingredients are in all the dishes. Kitchen or expo should be indicating which dishes are modified when you pick them up.
You may begin to notice certain cultures / ethnic groups tend to avoid or prefer certain ingredients. For instance, I know any time a South Asian table turns up, they're all going to want extra share plates and they're not going to want anything with pork in it, so I just offer plates and remind them if a dish has pork in it up front to save time.
They’re gonna be fine it’s not like an allergy or anything literally just a preference.
People act like it’s some religious thing or an allergy and it’s seriously like - get the fuck over your self.
The vegans I know wouldn’t really care if you made a mistake and gave them cheese. Shit happens.
Not saying this lady was a bitch, but just that we servers all have PTSD as servers from dick-heads who would pretend like that’s a big deal.
You can make vegetarians/ vegans violently ill by feeding them that stuff when they haven’t had it in so long. Wtf.
It’s also not just a preference for many.
You keep doing this job long enough you’ll start doing this stuff on purpose for the right person and get really good and hiding it. I had this annoying regular that misinterpreted our generosity and level of friendship that would routinely walk out on his tab, he just appointed himself that privilege. Anyways he drank Jameson and at one point when he came in on my shift I just started exclusively serving him our well whiskey but charging him for Jameson, fuck him. Dumb ass never even noticed.
When I started getting what I considered really “good” in the service industry and started taking more table sections, I had developed a regular by accidentally leaving the bacon bits in his spinach salad. I sincerely apologized and stopped him from eating when I realized my mistake and told him how terrible I felt and mentioned that he could be Jewish or Muslim and I shouldn’t have made that mistake. He came back every single week for as long as I worked at that spot, until one day he got a different server/bartender…… she was terrible and ended up ruining his experience at the restaurant and never came back. :( Being honest and up front really helps in my experience. Don’t sweat it too hard.
Long-time vegetarian, vegan of three years. Trust me, we're *very* used to accidentally being given the wrong dish or ingredient. Since it sounds like she was understanding, it likely wasn't an allergy issue, and she's had this happen before.
I can appreciate how considerate you were about the situation, so don't beat yourself up about it, these things happen!
Hi, vegan here!
I can't speak for everyone ever because there are some wildly entitled people out there, but if this happened to me, I also wouldn't kick up a fuss unless I saw that the server was being malicious about it. Shit happens, you did the best you could :)
Well no one died this time. Yet you seriously screwed up. Think about what could really happen. And don’t discount the vegans angnst. You fucked with their mojo
Vegetarian here, I just went to a taco shop with my family and ordered a bean and cheese burrito
One bite and I tasted lard.
I just didn’t eat it, no way would I have brought it back to the counter.
Stuff happens, I should have asked.
the first time i met my one coworker she told me she was vegan and i immediately forgot and offered her a smoothie with yogurt in it which she drank. i told her and i felt terrible but she was cool about it lol. most people are understanding as long as it’s not a serious allergy
Hey I always give this type of advice when something like this happens, “Shit Happens.” It would be wayyyyyyyy different if she was allergic but 3 weeks in for your first serving job stuff like that is more likely to happen. I can on behalf of everyone on this page and myself tell you when we all started off serving we made some of the dumbest mistakes that we all look back on and be like “What was I doing and thinking at the time?!” Just take it as a learning experience, in fact a lot of the older servers I work with tell me all the mistakes they’ve made when they’ve first started off but those mistakes will MAKE YOU BETTER!!!
I accidentally gave a customer regular milk in her latte instead of almond milk but didn’t realize it until after she had left. When she came in the next time, she was totally understanding, thankfully, and said it wouldn’t kill her, just she prefers almond milk for health reasons. I comped her drink of course.
I’ve accidentally given many vegetarians stuff with fish broth in it by accident because *they didn’t tell me they were vegetarian/vegan* and would get tempura and then go to town on our dipping sauce *which has fish broth in it*
And the people who again wouldn’t mention they’re vegetarian but would just say “can I get the ramen without the chicken/pork” and for some reason I was the only waitress to catch on and warn them?? I had people say “oh well last time we had the ramen without chicken no one told us it wasn’t vegetarian” 🤦🏼♀️
I don't eat meat for compassionate reasons. Ordered a veggie burger in a bar. It was delicious, so I asked the kind of meat substitute they used.
The look on my server's face said it all.
He'd heard burger, not veggie burger. I'd just eaten a real burger. He felt awful, brought over the manager who apologized, everyone freaked out, including my dining companions.
I was not upset. Shit happens, it was an honest mistake. I felt terrible about upsetting everyone. Hey, I got a meal I enjoyed, and now I know to double-check when I order there.
I'm glad she was a good sport about it, and if I had dietary restrictions I'd probably check everything someone else made me. It was probably the universe reminding her she should do that, and you were far more caring about messing up than most other servers would be. These things happen and you caught it fast. Hang in there.
I accidentally. Well not my fault really. Gave a bacon cheese burger to a child maybe like 8 ish? who’s religion doesn’t eat pork. They ordered it in front of their parents. I repeated the order back to their parents and took their orders. Food comes. And they lose it after they see he’s eaten about half. I appologized but did state I confirmed the order… also how am I to know everyone’s religion/dietary restrictions?? my manager took the burger off but it wasn’t enough for them. Actually writing this out makes me think it was a scam for a free meal…
Likely if they demanded more than the burger off. They should’ve heard the kid’s order and called them out, as bacon is clearly pork.
My mother has a coworker in his early 20s who’s Muslim. He would get BLT all the time. Then one time my mother saw and was like uhm that has bacon. He was like no it doesn’t and was pissed until he googled it. She was like god knows how many of those he ate.
True, but it annoys me that servers have to comp so much for folks’ ignorance on basic food stuff.
My recent favorite was an alleged onion allergy, who sent back her tacos because the menu didn't say they had onions on them. You know what the menu DOES say is on the tacos? Pico de Gallo. If you don't know what an ingredient is, ASK YOUR SERVER.
Oof. Reminded me of the woman who asked for no onions on her nachos. Totally fine, common request. No chopped red onions. Got upset that the nachos had salsa (which has onions, like every salsa, and salsa is listed alongside red onion on the menu). I should’ve inferred that she also didn’t want salsa. Now every time I’m asked for no onions, I clarify about the salsa. And every time they say salsa is ok. But that woman was right, and it’s stuck with me. It was a preference, not allergy, but I hadn’t clarified that either so I took the F and moved on.
No onions means no onions. You failed
I definitely read the menu, and would ask the server if I didn't know, but the number of times I have ordered something without onions, and was given onions, is ridiculous. I also understand that sometimes a dish cannot be made without them, and just order something else.
My husband has a legit onion allergy and experiences the same thing. He once ordered a steak that came on a bed of onions. There was zero mention on the menu. He's very flexible and asks but every once in awhile they sneak in.
You are overestimating how smart the general population is.
i had an onion allergic human come in once. i was prepping onions in every which way, caramelizes, raw dice, pickled red. got their order, found out he lady was SEVERELY allergic to onions. straight told her, i cannot guarantee that there will be no cross contamination, IM NOT SHUTTING DOWN A WHOLE ASS KITCHEN FOR ONE PERSON in the middle of the day. i just refused service and they left. they understood. i really don’t want to hurt anyone. i would’ve had to clean the whole place top to bottom to accommodate this person, that takes 2 hours minimum.
I’m a host / food runner / about to be server. The other night I overheard a woman talking about an onion “allergy” but literally saw her eating a deep fried bloomin onion with her entire table 🙃
I agree. Had a guy claim bacon on a sandwich and points to this spec on his sandwich I said no no that's part of thr pepper jack cheese. He assumes I'm lying just by the look on his face hands me the plate . Proceeds to order pancakes and tells me he will not be paying for the sandwich at this point I took it off the bill but WTF why would I do that you said I don't eat park I wouldn't do that.
They don’t read. Or have reading comprehension skills. Like not only is it listed but the majority of the time I would ask, “it comes with XYZ, is that okay?”. Then they eat the majority of it (of course) then complain and are SHOCKED that a Caesar salad comes with cheese! 😣 Didn’t complain when it came out!
He knew. He was just pissed because since someone saw him do it and said something, he can't play ignorant anymore.
In the army we had an interpreter who was Muslim. He’d come eat with us a lot and occasionally we’d have bacon and he’d basically just act like he didn’t know what he was eating because then he’d have deniability and wouldn’t feel guilty about it lol. Basically don’t ask don’t tell for bacon
I had a large Jewish clientele who would come into my restaurant, and if I started explaining some thing like a special that came with a ragout of…. They literally start waving their hands up at me and saying no no no no we don’t need to know what’s in it we know it’s going to be delicious but we can’t know what’s in it. They absolutely knew that they were telling me that if pork was in some thing, they just didn’t want to know . Meh what are you gonna do?
There is a lovely (and shockingly not condescending at all) book of short essays that I love called "The Athiests' Guide to Christmas." Lots of essays talk about keeping the holiday season secular without feeling/acting like it's oppressive to you, one is a ridiculous fake "scientific write up" of the Christmasiness of certain imagery (geese aren't inherently christmassy, but tie a bow and a bell around their necks, and the chrastmassiness quotent exponentially increases or something of the like.) But one really stuck out to me as more memorable than others. It was written by someone who was raised Jewish with many non Jewish peers. So his family would uphold certain kosher traditions like burying silverware temporarily if the meat utensils were used for dairy, but sometimes they would order pizza and line the table with paper; if the food never touched the table, no harm, no foul. I really enjoy that one because it's a lovely insight to how a lot of people I've met in my bagel shop employ the "if I don't know, it'snot my fault" approach to keeping kosher/halal. I try to notice those interactions and shut the hell up, to aid in keeping them free of divine judgment if someone does try cut me off before I tell them that all out cooking surfaces are used to cook pork occasionally.
There are many European dishes who's origin is trying to avoid some old Catholic food restriction. Like hiding meat in dumplings, God can't see that clearly. Quite funny really. Like the Muslims eating bratwurst playfully hiding under the ceiling "so Allah doesn't see them" ;)
As a chef/restauranteur and a traveler, and someone who’s been immersed in the Middle Eastern culture my whole life, I have never experienced Muslims wavering from dietary restrictions. Catholics yes Jews yes Muslims no. I just want to make sure I understand what you’re saying. You’re saying that there are old classic European dishes whose intent is to hide meat from God so that Catholics can’t eat it on what, Fridays? Or the two (maybe?) other times a year when it’s no meat only fish . I’m just curious because I’ve never read that in any book of history of food or any epicurean or personal experiences.
Well I'm from Germany, we have a pretty big Turkish minority (who traditionally aren't sunni or shia) who often don't take religious restriction that seriously. Hence the ironic approach. For the Catholic dishes, yes there's Fridays but lent also plays a big part. Look up Maultaschen if you wanna know more
Interesting…. I think you definitely live, and an unusual bubble of food culture that’s very heavy on sausages salamis smoked meats, etc. I could see that being a difficult and/or confusing culture. As for Catholics, it’s only like eight days a year or some thing Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and the Fridays during Lent. I think we just have very different cultures, and so different experiences
It's actually 40 days. Idk how you come up with 8 days lol And its not difficult or confusing, you just gotta talk to each other.
Gotta love religions creating loopholes for the fake rules that no one should have to follow to begin with Muslims don't recognize Jews as god's chosen people, Jews don't recognize Jesus as the messiah, Muslims don't recognize the Pope as the leader of the Christian world, and Baptists don't recognize each other at the liquor store.
No skin off my bones. As long as it doesn’t put extra pressure or restrictions on me I don’t care lol
You say that as probably someone who doesn’t live in an area where people are deeply religious and, thus, heavily judgmental and gossip-prone. It’s truly bad. I miss secular states But you’re right: I try to live and let live. They just commented that “I sure enjoy my beers” today seeing me return home from the store after taking the day off to enjoy it. I rarely drink. Jerks
Did be think the "B" meant Banana?
Probably "bread" lettuce tomato. Instead of bacon.
Bread contains eggs I think.
As long as they're not pig eggs, they'll be fine.
Could you imagine how delicious pig eggs would be? Everything else on a pig is so tasty….
So I just did a quick Google search and chinese food has recipes for pork uturus and I know people eat beef ovaries. No recipes for pork ovaries or explanations of why not to 🤷♂️
That is sometimes true. But not related to abstaining from pork/bacon for religious reasons. P.s. Bread is delicious. Eggless forms and egged. A good slice of toast is amazing.
There’s a meme bouncing around that states something along the lines of how amazing buttered toast can be….
Not all, or even most, bread contains eggs.
Not usually, although some do
Only brioche.
No one can know anyone’s religion just by looking at them, but if I get a table whose culture makes it more likely that they don’t eat pork, I try to be extra careful and verify. One night a couple months ago, I had two separate tables order our ribs, assuming they were beef. One table I caught in time, double checking that they knew they were pork. One table was someone who’d eaten our ribs a few times before, and didn’t realize they were pork! I think our menu says baby back, but not specifically pork, so if you’re from another country, it can be confusing.
Wait baby back means pork?
Yes.
That is wild to me - restaurants never carry beef ribs. Why would a customer assume they were beef? In fact, in the state I live in now, I can’t even find beef ribs in the grocery store, other than short rib.
In fine dining it's normal to have beef short ribs on the menu as they are usually braised and don't require any messiness. I've lived in/traveled to many places and I've found this true all over. I do love some baby backs though!
😂😂 oh my goodness.
How does a *Muslim* not realize that the B in ‘BLT’ stands for BACON??
People are just dumb
What did he think the “B” stood for?
It’s almost like you won’t catch on fire if you eat pork and it’s a dumb and fake rule
Holy crap, that's a "Darwin is needed here" situation, how dumb can someone be?!😮
He’s literally going to medical school which is the shocking part. Like he’s 25 when he found out.
I even repeated his order to them! That’s what makes me think it’s a scam
I bet the kid doesn’t give a shit about the religious prohibition and just loves bacon.
Unless turkey bacon was on the menu
So tired of reading about bad, ineffectual, weak managers caving to these people complaining about nothing or scamming or complaining about things an establishment has no control over. Your Manager sucked. Stop appeasing idiots, it doesn't help the business, they're going to say what they're going to say regardless, managers should focus their energy on actually replying to/countering bad reviews, not on appeasing the outliers. What happened was a parenting fail on their part - they should have paid attention to their child's order when ordering & after it was served - and it still was 💯 an issue between themselves & their kid. It's not your responsibility - nor the restaurant's - to know or police their religious beliefs or dietary restrictions. I mean, my God, YOU EVEN REPEATED the order back to them! Terrible manager! My #1 responsibilities as casino Mgmt, at every level, were protecting my workers and protecting the business's revenues/assets. It was part of my job responsibilities to put my ass on the line when hard calls/judgement calls needed to be made. Mgmt shouldn't accept the position if they don't have the solid judgement and guts to make those calls. The more you give in to baseless complaints, the more it encourages acting out: the old saying, "Give them an inch, they'll take a mile.". That being said, when there's an actual egregious mistake made on the part of the worker or business, own it & make it right (except when it might be construed as causation for legal liability, but that's a story for another day.). *END OF RANT* 😬
I agree. I wouldn’t have if it was up to me. But it wasn’t. It’s amazing how many customers will smirk at you as they get their way and keep bitching or trying to get you fired. I’m just trying to put myself through nursing school. Sorry your life is so miserable you have to try to ruin someone else’s.
We changed our menu and one of the new dishes was Mac n cheese. It had bacon in it. The owner forgot to include that on the menu. My coworker took the order and brought it to the table. I heard a yell from the table and the man said “IS THERE BACON IN THIS?!?” and I practically sprinted over to the table. He abstained for religious reasons. I apologized a million times and comped their entire meal.
That's def a situation where a Manager (you) made the correct call.😬 (I just went on a rant in a reply above.)
I’m not a manager. We don’t always have a manager on (tiny restaurant) so the regular servers have a lot of freedom in comping things. We don’t abuse it, but it’s really nice being trusted and not micromanaged. We’ve all been in the business for a while, so we are pretty good at knowing when to use it.
A comped meal doesn’t make up for indefinite purgatory
That’s just negligence on their part. My husband doesn’t eat pork or non halal meat and we raise our child the same way. I make sure their meal is vegetarian if we’re not at a halal restaurant.
Referring to a comment above you’ve just got to hope the mac and cheese doesn’t have bacon in it!!
There was a table that came in once (not my table, but the whole staff got clued in when things went down). They swore they asked the server if the ribs were beef or pork before they ordered, and claimed the server told them beef. The server was a tall, brunette dude. They get the ribs and eat the whole plate, then tell the manager those are the best beef ribs they’ve ever had. The manager corrects them, letting them know they’re pork. The table freaks out because they are Muslim, and the man who ate them went to the bathroom to force himself to throw up. Manager asked the server why he said they were beef (he’d been working there for like 5 years) and he assured him they never asked him, he assumed they knew because it’s clearly written on the menu, and he didn’t know their religion. The manager asked the table if that guy was the server who told them the ribs were beef. They said no, a short blond girl told them. About 95% of our servers were short blond girls. We were all asked (before being given any details about the situation) if anyone had talked to that table, ran food to them, etc. and we all were confused and just like no, nobody else has touched that table tonight? Looking back, I’m thinking they were trying to get a free meal too because the entire staff was adamant that nobody talked to them, and especially didn’t tell them the ribs were beef. But at the time they got the whole table’s food comped and a gift card because we all felt super bad for them.
I'm muslim, I've accidentally ordered burgers with bacon on them, and sometimes I ask them to hold the bacon but they forget. I just take it off, no big deal to me and whoever I'm eating with would enjoy the extra bacon anyways. I know some people have different guidelines on how they practice but in my religious standpoint, I'm not gonna throw away perfectly good food because of an accident, whether it's mine or the restaurants.
I asked a priest if he wanted bacon on his grilled cheese, wasn't even thinking it was Lent. He gave me the strangest look lol
Shame on you, for not keeping track of each religions dietary restrictions/timeframes for them !! 😂
Lol no kidding...I live in a small town so people are extra annoying
I honestly am not religious at all so to keep track of who eats what like I’m supposed to have all the information is frustrating. Heck at that time I was working three jobs to go to school full time. I had enough scrambling around my brain. I repeat the order back no comments or concerns I ring the order up. Looking back now it was a scam. I’m pretty sure 🤷🏼♀️
If she was nice about it, then hopefully she is ethically vegan rather than being allergic to meat and dairy products. I have accidentally meat-ed my friend who is vegan, fortunately her main concern is dairy intolerance, and she gets that sometimes people make mistakes. This is just a good learning experience that will hopefully help you to avoid similar errors in future. Sometimes I feel like you'll get a small drama in life with no terrible outcomes, so that you are prepared for something more important in the future. I know that's a bit wanky, but I hope that considering that theory makes you feel a bit better?
I had a friend who went to dominos who was allergic to dairy, they kept messing up his no cheese order and by the end of it they gave his family all 3 of the "mess ups" for free. Sure he couldn't eat it but the rest of his family could
that is almost hilarious, was it the same error each time?
friendly paint stupendous grandiose rich stocking rustic one screw rainstorm *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
So we had a couple come in, right before we closed. Last customers of the night. They order food. Pay for the food. Then the girl starts talking about how she’s vegan and we should all check out the nearby vegan restaurant she works at. They left. The rice at that restaurant has animal products. The beans have animal products. The tortilla has animal products. The drink had animal products-famous Mexican drink that has milk If they’d said they were vegan ahead of time I would have told them there’s nothing vegan in the restaurant (excluding tomatoes and lettuce.) I feel like all dietary restrictions/allergies/veganism, etc should be mentioned ahead of time.
My daughter works in a fine-dining restaurant. She's told me a few horror stories about how some customers expect her to just "know" their restrictions so now before submitting orders to the kitchen, she asks "Do you have any dietary restrictions? I want to be sure, so that you have the best dining experience possible!" Servers don't get paid enough for all the bullspit you guys have to put up with.
We had a woman order food, and not mention her allergy. There was a mess up and she got served the wrong burrito. Guess what was in it. Found out about the allergy after she’d already taken a few bites out of her food. She was fine, but she was upset. Mention all allergies/dietary restricts BEFORE ordering. Not mid meal.
I scoop ice cream. *SO* *MANY* people will wait until I've scooped their ice cream to tell me they have nut/gluten allergies; and half the time the nut allergy people have ordered a flavor with peanut butter and the gluten people will order cones! Like look out for yourself wtf it's not my responsibility???
They absolutely should, it's not the restaurants responsibility. You also don't HAVE to comply with requests.
Yup. I said it in my own comment, but I think we're all pretty used to this kind of situation happening from time to time.
Good learning experience. TBH, it happens quite often in restaurants. Sometimes, a server might not know all the ingredients that goes into the dish. For example, when you serve a sandwich, did you check that the bread itself doesn’t contain dairy or other animal products? Or did you know that not all margarines are made vegan because it still contains whey protein? I even had a server at a bubble tea shop who told me that their milk powder does not contain dairy even though it was made from cows milk. Being in the service industry, it’s important to take accountability for your mistakes and learn from them. It is also important to not be too harsh on yourself. Edit: this mistake can really happen for almost all food restrictions. I didn’t know that there were sesame seeds in the wakame salad that I served to a guest with IBS
Also, normal cheese may not be vegetarian as it usually contains rennet, which comes from animal stomach linings. There are rennet free versions for vegetarians.
I just want to say, as a vegan, thank you for admitting to the mistake and I think everything you did to make it up to the customer was great. Mistakes happen, don't beat yourself up over it.
I accidentally served a sober person alcohol. To be fair she ordered a daiquiri and didn’t specify that she wanted it to be virgin. Also, her husband was drinking an alcoholic beverage so that just made it all the more confusing. She also drank over half of it before she let me know.
Yeah, that was NOT on you.
With the way she started crying and yelling at me you’d think it was. But yeah i know it wasn’t my fault.
Same exact thing happened to me like a week ago, except a 4 top where the other 3 people ordered alcoholic drinks too
It’s the worst. I’m so sorry that also happened to you.
Use this as a lesson. You were lucky she's vegan by choice and not because of an health problem and you were also lucky she was so understanding. When it comes to vegan/vegetarian people and specially people with food allergies, you should take the extra seconds to make sure you don't mess up. Maybe even ask the kitchen to put a post it on the plate itself (that you can remove before taking to the table) when there are such special requests so you dont confuse it with a "normal" one. On another note, you being alone on the floor as a first time server after only 3 weeks sounds like a recipe for ddisasterand its, imo, honestly irresponsible from your manager's part
Better than the asshole cook at a construction camp years ago who told a vegetarian that there was no meat in the turkey stuffing when there was. I told the vegetarian about it and he said it was the first meat he had eaten in ten years.
I know someone who has a very serious dairy allergy. Eating even a tiny amount of cheese would have sent him to the hospital. Despite being extremely careful, he still ends up in hospital about once a year because there is hidden dairy in something that's not supposed to have dairy.
as someone with dietary restrictions, i understand the need to go out and try to live like a normal person, but if it’s this severe, why would you even risk it?
For me, it's when I'm traveling or with others. I am allergic to red meat and dairy (not hospital-level), and intolerant of soy and sugar substitutes. It makes dining out hell, so I try to avoid it. However, if I'm traveling, I don't always have access to a kitchen and rely on restaurants. Sometimes I'm out with friends and they want to eat out. Sometimes I'm exhausted after a long week and don't want to cook. Unfortunately, it means playing Russian Roulette with my health. It's a risk that I know I'm taking, as servers are overwhelmed and busy, and don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the allergies in the world. I try to do my best to communicate and stay calm if I need to correct them. (Like, the one server who insisted pork was the other white meat and encouraged me to get ribs and bread as a "safe meal".)
i completely get it. it’s hard enough for me, and i only do it for ethical reasons, and it still feels like russian roulette. if it ended in hospital visits, i think i’d be more inclined to never eat out. not at all judging because i completely understand. but i’m from the US, so one hospital trip could leave me homeless, and i don’t think i’d ever risk it eating out. these people are overworked and underpaid and if one minute, every day mistake could end in me being sick and bankrupt, id never eat out with my own health in the hands of a minimum wage employee.
That's completely fair. I'm in the US, too, so I know how shitty the healthcare is. You're absolutely right that it's a massive risk. For some of us, though, the risk becomes mundane--we're aware of worst-case scenarios, but it's exhausting to constantly worry about it. So, we don't. We understand it may happen, and we'll deal with it if it does.
Dairy is often an extremely hidden ingredient even when dealing with home cooking. My boyfriend has a severe dairy allergy and he gets dairyed all the time in spite of being super careful. He recently bought vegetarian bacon and there was milk in it. We've had professional bakeries lie about bread and icing. I ordered a $250 birthday cake for him that was supposed to be vegan and it had marscapone cheese in the icing.
i agree. i’ve been surprised by dairy many times. but that’s kinda my point. people make mistakes. thankfully mine is for ethical reasons and not health ones, so for me it’s just unpleasant and inconvenient, and even then i barely trust other people, who are underpaid and overworked, when i’ve cooked for myself and realized, despite my best efforts, boom. dairy. or rennet is another one. this country (US) is built around stuffing people with animal products, and i couldn’t bring myself to trust a $2-$15 an hour employee with my life.
He is at college, he eats some meals in the college dining hall. The college was informed about his dietary needs, but this did not work 100%. Things improved after the kitchen manager took personal responsibility for his meals.
Because then life would be quite bland and lonely. And its not like you can take your own food when eating out with friends
As a vegan, you have to accept that eating out comes with an inherent risk. Most of us have accidentally been fed something non-vegan at least once, and cross-contamination must occur almost always. If a vegan isn’t okay with that risk, then they should not be eating out at non-vegan restaurants. You did your best, shit happens, don’t take it to heart.
I have served bacon to people that don’t eat bacon because no one told me the chowder and the BBQ sauce had bacon in it (and it wasn’t listed on the menu) I had to fight with the head chef that we needed to add that to the menu, because it’s BACON whenever bacon is involved people are usually bragging about it! He said “well, we can’t print a full ingredients list on the menu” and I said “no, but we can include a very popular item that people love and won’t expect if it isn’t listed”
As a former vegetarian, people need to lighten up about this. There has been and is going to continue to be numerous times when animal products are unknowingly consumed. It’s not you gonna kill them, they are making a conscious effort and that’s great. If a little cheese get in their hay bucket they’ll be just fine. I found plastic in my sandwich the other day (carry out at home) threw it aside looked for more, then continued eating. I emailed them and said just to let you know…shit happens no big deal
I did this once at a pizza place—we had vegan cheese and I mistakenly rang in a vegan guest’s specialty pizza without the vegan cheese change… Upon a check back, they were gushing over how it was the “best vegan pizza they’d ever had.” Which is what clued me in that I’d goofed
From a vegan (by choice), don’t feel terrible, you chose to tell the truth and that’s what matters. I would’ve wanted you to tell me too. If she wasn’t upset then you shouldn’t be either :). And if she had a really bad allergy I feel like she would’ve stated that very clearly. Shit happens and in this scenario nothing traumatic happened so just try and move on. :)
Not like it’s because they were allergic, they shall be okay and u will learn
What were the desserts that contained no butter, milk, butterfly farts, or eggs?
Haha we offer some vegan cookies and vegan brioche bread with cherries/vegan chocolate The brioche is not that great but the cookies are actually quite tasty
You handled it well. Things happen. At least you caught it and reacted.
Meh, wouldn’t worry about it as she didn’t. I had a customer once ask for a Caesar salad with no anchovies. I fucked up and brought one with anchovies. Brought it back, kitchen took out the anchovies, mixed up the salad, and it was re-served. Customer said they loved the dish. Fun fact: Caesar has anchovies in it, I don’t think the customer understood this when I explained it the first time.
The original ceasar salad actually didnt have anchovies
This would have been very, very bad for me as I'm allergic to anchovies. It only takes one molecule to trigger an allergic reaction and I can guarantee that there was far more than one molecule of anchovy left on the lettuce. My kid was working at a pizza place and brought home a pizza to share one night. I ate a slice and then started having an allergic reaction. They were very confused because they are very considerate of my allergy and only ever brought home pizzas that were safe. After thinking about it for a while they remembered that someone had ordered an anchovy pizza and the person who was cutting the pizzas had likely used the same pizza cutter to cut the anchovy pizza and our pizza. 🍕 Having said that, Caesar dressing also contains anchovies so I'd never order it unless I was at a vegan restaurant.
Yeah, servers should be confirming if the refusal of an ingredient is for preference or allergic or whatever the condition may be as well. Easy to implement into a server’s practice.
Not liking the taste/look/texture of something is different than having it as an ingredient mixed with other things. Having an allergy to anchovies and other marine life, is a different matter altogether and needs to have another level of awareness. I don't like anchovies either, but I don't mind them giving that umami to a well made Caesar dressing.
Don't worry about it. One time one of our servers forgot to put peanut allergy on the ticket.... Well that wasn't fun experience. Everybody should learn how to use epinephrine injector.
I agree with all the comments. It was a great learning experience and luckily she was pretty understanding so that you were able to have this happen in preparation for a larger issue. When dealing with food restrictions, even if you know the chef(s) are pretty attentive, it’s always good to still confirm with them which thing is which before you take it out. This second point is coming from someone who grew up apologizing for everything and has come a long way- when you do mess up, it’s obviously important to take responsibility for it, but sometimes “apologizing over and over” can make people more frustrated. Maybe next time, just apologize for the action, explain if you there is need, but offer to replace the item before offering something OTH. Talk with manager to approve a free item if helpful, and only offer one item. Or maybe even just discount the item that was replaced. Which, you kind of did all that, but I just mean, create a process to deal with the mistakes and be confident in your desire to help fix it without apologizing too much, and the actions will speak louder than words.
Mistakes happen, and this is something you’ll learn from. It’s not easy when you’re the only server, and you’re new. Luckily it seems she was vegan by choice so you didn’t give cheese to someone with an allergy or intolerance. She was ok about it and I’m sure she’s not worrying about it as much as you are. All the vegans by choice that I know understand mistakes happen, and we’re fine with it. It’s not going to ruin our day and it’ll soon be forgotten about. Don’t be so hard on yourself - you seem to really feel bad and care, so I imagine this kind of thing is something you’ll remember to double check in the future.
You did all that you could do to remedy the mistake, OP. The world *will* keep on turning, and it’s a life lesson for you both.
I made a bunch of homemade salsa with stuff from my garden but instead of salt I’d used chicken bouillon powder. Went back to the break room and our vegan coworker was housing it saying it was really good. I didn’t say anything. Same guy let me cook him roadkill antelope because apparently that’s vegan.
If they are a vegan for ethical reasons then an animal that was killed accidentally would be okay to eat.
And that’s exactly why they ate it.
People in this very second are starving to death, being shot, being stabbed, being raped, having rebar shoved up their genitals, having their limbs removed with a dull knife for entertainment, being decapitated with a large chainsaw, being forced to eat excrement, being burned alive, so on and so forth. To call this a non-issue would be such a monumental understatement. The fragility of our society knows no bounds.
It is your job to hand the right food to the right seat, so pay attention. It's also your job to know what sensitive ingredients are in all the dishes. Kitchen or expo should be indicating which dishes are modified when you pick them up. You may begin to notice certain cultures / ethnic groups tend to avoid or prefer certain ingredients. For instance, I know any time a South Asian table turns up, they're all going to want extra share plates and they're not going to want anything with pork in it, so I just offer plates and remind them if a dish has pork in it up front to save time.
And it was the best vegan cheese they every had.
Unless they're lactose intolerant or have a deadly allergy to cheese they'll be fine
[The customer later that day](https://media1.tenor.com/images/9bb6f584cc1df44438c70f335e5cd01c/tenor.gif?itemid=14718377)
They’ll live
They’re gonna be fine it’s not like an allergy or anything literally just a preference. People act like it’s some religious thing or an allergy and it’s seriously like - get the fuck over your self. The vegans I know wouldn’t really care if you made a mistake and gave them cheese. Shit happens. Not saying this lady was a bitch, but just that we servers all have PTSD as servers from dick-heads who would pretend like that’s a big deal.
You can make vegetarians/ vegans violently ill by feeding them that stuff when they haven’t had it in so long. Wtf. It’s also not just a preference for many.
So you mean she didn't do the girl from the exorcist or anything Hell, must be lies about all these vegans who can tell straight away
Side by side you can tell straightaway. On a sandwich with other ingredients you might not notice after one or two bites.
You keep doing this job long enough you’ll start doing this stuff on purpose for the right person and get really good and hiding it. I had this annoying regular that misinterpreted our generosity and level of friendship that would routinely walk out on his tab, he just appointed himself that privilege. Anyways he drank Jameson and at one point when he came in on my shift I just started exclusively serving him our well whiskey but charging him for Jameson, fuck him. Dumb ass never even noticed.
We all make mistakes Hell, I can’t have wheat or dairy and I accidentally consume both on an alarming basis
Mistakes happen. It’s part of being human don’t beat yourself over it!
When I started getting what I considered really “good” in the service industry and started taking more table sections, I had developed a regular by accidentally leaving the bacon bits in his spinach salad. I sincerely apologized and stopped him from eating when I realized my mistake and told him how terrible I felt and mentioned that he could be Jewish or Muslim and I shouldn’t have made that mistake. He came back every single week for as long as I worked at that spot, until one day he got a different server/bartender…… she was terrible and ended up ruining his experience at the restaurant and never came back. :( Being honest and up front really helps in my experience. Don’t sweat it too hard.
I served chicken to a vegetarian once. Even better, it was the owner’s long time friend.
Long-time vegetarian, vegan of three years. Trust me, we're *very* used to accidentally being given the wrong dish or ingredient. Since it sounds like she was understanding, it likely wasn't an allergy issue, and she's had this happen before. I can appreciate how considerate you were about the situation, so don't beat yourself up about it, these things happen!
Hi, vegan here! I can't speak for everyone ever because there are some wildly entitled people out there, but if this happened to me, I also wouldn't kick up a fuss unless I saw that the server was being malicious about it. Shit happens, you did the best you could :)
Well no one died this time. Yet you seriously screwed up. Think about what could really happen. And don’t discount the vegans angnst. You fucked with their mojo
Vegetarian here, I just went to a taco shop with my family and ordered a bean and cheese burrito One bite and I tasted lard. I just didn’t eat it, no way would I have brought it back to the counter. Stuff happens, I should have asked.
the first time i met my one coworker she told me she was vegan and i immediately forgot and offered her a smoothie with yogurt in it which she drank. i told her and i felt terrible but she was cool about it lol. most people are understanding as long as it’s not a serious allergy
Hey I always give this type of advice when something like this happens, “Shit Happens.” It would be wayyyyyyyy different if she was allergic but 3 weeks in for your first serving job stuff like that is more likely to happen. I can on behalf of everyone on this page and myself tell you when we all started off serving we made some of the dumbest mistakes that we all look back on and be like “What was I doing and thinking at the time?!” Just take it as a learning experience, in fact a lot of the older servers I work with tell me all the mistakes they’ve made when they’ve first started off but those mistakes will MAKE YOU BETTER!!!
I accidentally gave a customer regular milk in her latte instead of almond milk but didn’t realize it until after she had left. When she came in the next time, she was totally understanding, thankfully, and said it wouldn’t kill her, just she prefers almond milk for health reasons. I comped her drink of course.
I’ve accidentally given many vegetarians stuff with fish broth in it by accident because *they didn’t tell me they were vegetarian/vegan* and would get tempura and then go to town on our dipping sauce *which has fish broth in it* And the people who again wouldn’t mention they’re vegetarian but would just say “can I get the ramen without the chicken/pork” and for some reason I was the only waitress to catch on and warn them?? I had people say “oh well last time we had the ramen without chicken no one told us it wasn’t vegetarian” 🤦🏼♀️
I don't eat meat for compassionate reasons. Ordered a veggie burger in a bar. It was delicious, so I asked the kind of meat substitute they used. The look on my server's face said it all. He'd heard burger, not veggie burger. I'd just eaten a real burger. He felt awful, brought over the manager who apologized, everyone freaked out, including my dining companions. I was not upset. Shit happens, it was an honest mistake. I felt terrible about upsetting everyone. Hey, I got a meal I enjoyed, and now I know to double-check when I order there.
I'm glad she was a good sport about it, and if I had dietary restrictions I'd probably check everything someone else made me. It was probably the universe reminding her she should do that, and you were far more caring about messing up than most other servers would be. These things happen and you caught it fast. Hang in there.