Food & Drink

I work at a fine dining establishment — these are the customers I hate most

The customer is seldom right, according to this fed-up fine-dining server.

A Georgia waitress turned the tables on complain-y restaurant patrons after revealing her 19 biggest customer “icks” — which range from the rude “church crowd” to diners who ask questions sans reading the menu.

A TikTok video detailing her patron pet peeves is sparking a raging debate online as viewers argue over whether her gripes are justified.

“This is a list I’ve been working on for quite some time,” Grace — who goes by @gracefromthe6 on the China-owned video platform — said in the clip.

The Atlanta-based server didn’t disclose the swanky restaurant at which she works, but told viewers she decided to air her culinary complaints after “working a double [shift] on Father’s Day and getting severely undertipped.”

Below, a selection of the customer behaviors that the TikTokker finds most maddening.

Skimmers

Chief among Grace’s many customer complaints: patrons who ask questions without looking at the menu.

“People will ask the dumbest f–king questions you’ve ever heard in your life and you have to look at them with a straight face like they didn’t just do that,” the server sassed.

The fed up food-bringer continued: “You read the menu to see you wanted the salmon. Why are you asking me, ‘Does it come with sides?’ when clearly right next to it says, ‘Served with broccoli and mashed potatoes.’ Don’t p–s me off.”

It’s not fantastic, it’s plastic

Second on the server’s blacklist are the “plastic silverware brigade” — a.k.a germaphobes who request disposable utensils at restaurants to avoid the supposedly tainted metal versions.

Grace said she found this precaution pointless as they’re “using plastic silverware to eat off a plate that went through the same dishwasher as the silverware.”

“If anything, I feel like the silverware is cleaner than the plates because we have to run the silverware through twice, so do what you will with that information,”she declared.

Grace points at her waitress grievance list.
Grace was not a fan of customers who ask questions without reading the menu. TikTok/, gracefromthe6

Straw-pocalypse Now!

A splinter faction of the plastic silverware brigade are customers who ask for straws while Grace has her hands full with drinks.

“You see I have four drinks in my hand,” she griped. “I only set down two of them. I still have two drinks in my hand. B—h, can you wait for me to put everything down so I can give you a straw?” 

Piecemealers

The waitress served up an extra side of sass for patrons who make their special requests one at a time, rather than all at once.

“I drop something off. I ask, ‘Do y’all need anything else?” Grace explained while describing having to fetch everything piecemeal. “You say, ‘Oh, yeah, can I get a side of A1?'”

In the clip, the server describes bringing the steak sauce, only for the patron to then request a side of ketchup.

“Okay, I go get the ketchup and bring it back,” she states. “Don’t ask me for anything else.”

Snackreligious

Churchgoers are the customers from hell, according to Grace, who claimed “Sundays are the worst day” for servers seeking a fair gratuity.

“I know you just left church,” the restaurant worker said while crucifying the allegedly holy misers. “You just praised the Lord, and now you are in here acting a fool, being rude, and you just tipped me $5 and acted like you gave me the key to the city.”

And that was just the tip (or perhaps no tip) of the waitress grievance iceberg.

Other awful patrons, per the server, are non-tippers of any denomination as well as customers who camp out at their tables after paying, taking up prime space.

The Atlanta-based server didn't disclose the swanky restaurant at which she works, but told viewers she decided to air her culinary complaints after "working a double [shift] on Father's Day and getting severely undertipped."
The Atlanta-based server didn’t disclose the swanky restaurant at which she works, but told viewers she decided to air her culinary complaints after “working a double [shift] on Father’s Day and getting severely undertipped.” Getty Images/iStockphoto

Needless to say, the contentious video overwhelmingly resonated with many fellow servers, who agreed with Grace’s gripes.

“‘Can I have a straw’ triggered me,” one agreed. “[Hearing that] makes me feral every time.”

Meanwhile, some viewers thought Grace’s complaints were petty and unwarranted with one bluntly telling her: “It’s time for a new job.”