Let's Just Take Everything Out of Your Meal Tonight

Everyone seems to have specific needs when it comes to food. Some people like to remove certain ingredients from their dishes, adding things is always popular as long as there isn't a price attached and of there are ones that lie about how allergic they are to certain things to be sure that you do not put them in their meals.

Oh yes, I know about the lying.

Plumber is a very regular Take Away only customer. They order almost two to three times a week and their dishes rarely change. In fact we have their order written out because their needs are extremely specific. It is so specific that every little detail is also written on this paper, sticky tapped onto the wall. But due the specifications on each and every meal it is impossible to get it right every time, mainly because we are all only human.

Their order usually consists of one to three meals that contain a main meal and rice together into one container. Tonight's order was rather ridiculous and is probably the biggest order that they will have.


Satay Chicken with Fried Rice
(No peas, no vegetables, extra prawns).

Chilli Chicken with Fried Rice
(No egg, no onions, no shallots).

Beef with Cashews with Fried Rice
(No veg, no shallots, no ham, extra prawns).


There are so many complications to this already. The lady who actually orders these meals talks fast. Really fast. So whoever is taking down the order is already struggling to make sure we get it right. On occasion
she forgets to say certain items, but of course the customer is never wrong so we cop the blame in the end.

Then the kitchen has to interpret this. In fact all the Fried Rice has to be done separately because each one is so unique and complicated. Each dish is also different so then you have to make sure that the Main Meal corresponds to the right Fried Rice because every single person wants something different.

This usually results in a ten minute stand still while everyone from the person trying to cook the Fried Rice, to the Chef, to the person actually packing the meal together, tries to figure what rice is suppose to go with what dish. So then there is this major back log in Take Away orders.


I personally believe that you want to be that difficult there should be a surcharge. Especially if you order three dishes with three things that you want to exclude in every dish and are not easy to do.

I once tried to add a dollar extra for the extra prawns and got a response about how they have always ordered it and there was never extra charge. Yeah, that's because there's a secret. The truth is that we don't put extra prawns in it, we just put them on top. If you don't want to pay extra do you really believe that we would be just giving them out for free?

Seriously, think about that.

They also like to tell us if we do anything particularly wrong. It's not like it's life threatening but it seems like its the end of the world for them. If somehow peas manage to make into their Fried Rice they want the meal replaced, in fact they get really angry about it. No offense, but with so many changes to your meal do really expect it to completely 100% right?

Remember I'm human just like you.

So really in the end they should just get Steamed Rice. (How badly can that go wrong?) And just don't have any vegetables in your dish at all.  Also if you want extra anything, I'll be charging extra, full stop. If you don't like that then maybe you should just stop being difficult.

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It's been a long month.

I work as a part-time waitress yet I'm working six days a week.

So I'm a little tired and a little frustrated tonight.

Therefore this entry is probably a lot angrier and less amusing right now.

And I'll be your waitress this evening...

Hospitality is a great place to work.

It irritates you, makes you think twice about whether or not you are indeed human, push you to the lengths of your wits that you never ever thought you had and it drives you utterly insane.

On the whole I enjoy working as a waitress of a small family restaurant in a not so fancy suburb. I work for a man that looks after its waitresses as well as drives them up the wall. I don't get paid enough for all that I contribute but some days its worth it. The customers on the whole are... interesting, irritable, insane, weird and make my day. In the four years that I have had no formal hospitality or management training since I became a waitresses, I must admit that its given me some interesting entertaining moments.

And that customers are almost never right at all...