Today's Pet Peeve

Servers who fib about ingredients/the resto's ability to accomodate diner requests.

I had a lady come in today, asking for chicken marsala, hold the wine. Um...that's not exactly chicken marsala, then, is it? I told her that Marsala wine is what gives the dish its distinctive flavor, and I could have the chef do a mushroom cream sauce, but it would take a bit longer and not be quite the same.

She said, "But last time the server told me I could have it with no wine, and it didn't take any longer!"

I hate to break it to you, lady, but your server just said that to shut you up, and gave you the same damn marsala s/he gives everyone.

I gave her the wine-free sauce, and she was happy.

It pisses me off, though, when people are coy about food preferences and allergies and whatnot. You can not like something, and that's fine. In most cases, any decent restaurant will be able to leave the onions out of a dish, or hold the peas if you'd like. Sometimes it's not possible, of course...in a high-volume kitchen, many sauces are pre-made, pasta casings are pre-stuffed...it has to be that way to get through a shift. Normal people understand this. And most people who come through with legitimate food allergies are very understanding of what we can and can't do.

I can't imagine how difficult it must be to have celiac sprue, or be allergic to milk. But I had a guest who was allergic to garlic, and apparently thought I had personally planned our menu to piss him off. First of all, asstard, you're at an ITALIAN RESTAURANT. Garlic? Who'da thunk? Secondly, I'm trying to work with you; I pulled our chef off the line, for pity's sake, so he could come talk to you. Brighten the fuck up.

Once we ran a crab canneloni special. Damn, it was good. Anyway, an older woman ordered the chx canneloni off our regualr menu. I rang it in, and it all went downhill from there. The expo called a canneloni, and the cooks made a crab canneloni. The expo pulled the plate without noticing it was the wrong dish, and the food runner dropped the dish without announcing the name (also a no-no). When I checked back with them, the woman had taken a few bites of the canneloni.

I said, "Oh, they made you the wrong dish...that's crab. Shall I get you the chx, or do you like this?"

She dropped her fork and said, "I'm allergic to shellfish."

Shit. I ushered them out the door and they hightailed it to the ER.

Yeah, we paid for that ER visit. Scary, though...those shellfish allergies are nasty.

So, moral of the story: if you've got food allergies, let servers know. Restos want you to come back.

Well, the managers do. I could give a shit. I don't like people.