30 Waiters and Waitresses Share Shocking Stories of Their Worst Customers

Waiters and waitresses witness a world of dining drama, from perplexing demands to tossed plates and abrupt rejections of delicious meals. These frontline food servers have experienced bizarre things that have reshaped their views on humanity.

From well-known fast-food chains to cozy local diners, the life of a waiter is a journey laden with responsibilities. Beyond serving food and sharing smiles, they navigate the unpredictable terrain of mood swings, tantrums, and even confrontations with patrons on their worst behavior.

When a few waiters and waitresses got a chance to share their experiences on Reddit, they didn't hesitate to share who their worst customers were. Brace yourself for a rollercoaster of dining disaster as we unravel the most outrageous experiences shared by waitstaff.

Comments have been edited for clarity and grammar.

1. She Wanted a Refund

u/Cornelius280: A lady wanted a refund because her stupid kid threw their food on the ground. Sadly, she got it.

2. 'That's Her Job!'

u/[deleted]: When I brought the food out, the little girl said, "Thank you." The mother responded, "You don't have to thank her, honey. That's her job."

3. The Awkward Request

u/Pommesdor: When I worked at a restaurant, a guy complained that his wife was cold while sitting on the patio. I suggested moving inside, but he didn't listen. Instead, he asked, "We want to sit outside, and she's cold. What are you going to do about that?"

"Sir, I'm sorry I can't do anything but offer to move you inside," I replied. "Well, you're wearing a sweater. Aren't you even going to offer it to her?" The guy asked.

"No, sir, I won't give your wife MY sweater," I responded. As a result, he asked to speak to my manager, who spent ten minutes explaining that he would not require me to hand over the literal clothes off my back and that we had no control over the weather.

4. Onion or Red Cabbage?

u/GenXStonerDad: I worked at a pizza place in college where I made the to-go salads. We had red cabbage that was cut to look like onions.

One day, a woman who, from her uniform, looked like a high-ranking officer at the local Air Force base visited us.

Everything was great until she lost her calm, accusing me of trying to poison her with onions that she claimed to have said she was allergic to (I took the call, too, and this never came up).

As this escalated, she eventually accused me of wanting to hurt an officer in the armed forces. I mean, she went ballistic over red cabbage.

At no point did she listen that it was red cabbage, not onions. In fact, she accused me of lying about this at least once.

She yelled and screamed about this for five minutes before the owner finally came to my aid and ultimately banned her from the restaurant.

He also let me go home with my pay early because I handled the situation as professionally as possible.

5. The Rude Parents

u/Noctrim: I work at a restaurant that has a separate bar area. Service is the same on both sides except for the age limit.

One day, I was working the restaurant side, running food out to someone else's table, and I almost tripped on a child running around.

After setting the food down, I looked at the kids and realized they were just running around the entire building, jumping into other people's booths, doing things at their table, etc.

Many customers were upset, so our manager asked them to control their children. The parents got distraught and started screaming, saying it wasn't their responsibility. They said the kids could do what they wanted because they were paying customers.

Our manager intervened and told the family they would be asked to leave if they didn't get their kids under control.

Then, one of the little girls ran past her mother, and the woman grabbed the girl, lifted her off the ground, and yelled at her, saying, "Sit down, or this [expletive] is going to make us leave!" Then, she dropped her kid on the floor.

By this point, my manager was on the phone with the police, and about seven tables were trying to find the number for CPS.

When the parents realized what was happening, they ran out without paying. Just then, about 25 customers and some employees followed them outside and tried to note their license plate number. The police found the parents later that night!

6. The Sandwich with Onions

u/[deleted]: Someone threatened to get me fired and called me an idiot because the sandwich she ordered on a shift I didn't work had onions.

7. I'm from Chicago!

u/EatsHerVeggies: I worked at a pizza place next to the Metrodome in Minneapolis, where the owner had a terrible habit of chronically understaffing the place, which made for hideous blunders on days there were events.

On one particular Sunday, there was a massive blizzard and a Vikings vs. Bears game. These things alone made for a perfect storm of terrible working conditions.

Firstly, all my orders were about two hours late. Then, some people threw snowballs at my car, and my car got stuck in the snow about ten times. I was soaking wet.

At this point, our store was a zoo. We had seating for about eight people, but there were at least 50 in the store. The kitchen was going wild.

I was about three hours past the end of my shift and was already mentally done when I got stuck working the counter. I had many more deliveries but had to be at the counter because no one else could do it.

While I was there, this mean woman complained that all her food was inedible. I felt she shouldn't have complained after noticing the working conditions. It was likely we had made a mistake since we were working in chaos.

When I politely asked her what was wrong and what I could do for her, she said her food tasted like garbage and she couldn't eat it. I asked, "What can I do to make you feel better?"

She asked for a salad, claiming it was the only thing she could probably bear to eat in our store. I'm usually not allowed to give out food, but I quickly got her a salad to get her out of my way because other customers were waiting for our service, and I also wanted to complete my deliveries.

Two minutes later, her husband appeared and said, "I just want you to know that this is the grossest food we have ever eaten. We're from Chicago, and this was so gross. I took one bite and threw it out. My wife's salad is repulsive."

He continued about how he was from Chicago as if that made him extra special, while a line of people was waiting behind him out the door.

At that point, I was dripping wet, freezing, and not in a good state of mind because I had been yelled at all day. I lost my cool since I knew the food wasn't as bad as the man said. As a result, I snapped at him and yelled, "Then go back to Chicago!"

He looked stunned, shook his head, and walked out the door. Meanwhile, my manager looked at me (I never did stuff like that. Ever.) and told me to go into the office and wait.

Five minutes later, she handed me receipts for my next order, hugged me, and said it never happened. I've since graduated and moved on to a much more enjoyable job, but I still think of how terrible those two were and how bad that day was.

8. We Had to Call the Cops

u/Navizgane: The worst customer I had to deal with was a lady who had a complete mental breakdown in the middle of the store because we wouldn't give her a free side of ranch.

She was probably having a bad day, and that was it for her, but the ranch was 75 cents, and she already was buying $80 of pizza.

She was stomping her feet and shedding legitimate tears in front of 20-30 other customers in line because she couldn't get the ranch.

At that point, my manager refused to deal with her, and we called the police to remove her from our store. The staff ate her pizzas after she left.

9. The Phone Call

u/BiscuitsnGravyyy: I had three middle-aged men in one of my booths. Everything was going well; they even laughed at my lame server jokes.

During our conversation, I mentioned that I had been in New York City a few days before this particular shift and said I was tired of it.

The men told me they had never been to New York before and asked what it was like and what I had been doing. I explained it was for my sister's bachelorette party.

They immediately asked if I had any pictures from the trip because they had never been there. So, I showed them some of the typical tourist shots that I had taken.

They were very polite and said it looked like I had a great trip. Eventually, they were done and left me a nice tip. I didn't think much of it as I continued working the rest of my shift.

It wasn't until later that night that I got a call on the work line. One of the servers said that a guy who ate in my section wanted to talk to me. Confused, I answered the phone.

It turns out it was one of the men from the booth from earlier. He told me he was staying at the hotel about a quarter of a mile from my restaurant.

Then, he asked me if I had more pictures I could show him from my trip, saying, "Some that might not be appropriate to show while working." He also said he had a jacuzzi tub that I could relax in after my long night at work.

It was creepy, but I tried to be as polite as possible to get him off the line. As I tried to say no, he kept asking when I got off work and if I was SURE I didn't have anything I wanted to show him and talk to him about.

I lied about when I got off work to ensure he didn't show up in the parking lot. The guy was at least twice my age.

10. The Chaotic Family

u/soomuchcoffee: I never waited tables but was a busboy during high school. We had this family that would come in: a man, his wife, and their two small kids.

They seemed like the most ordinary family, but the truth was otherwise. They always left a disaster: fries everywhere, things all over the floor.

I watched one of the kids put the salt and pepper shakers into a glass of milk. Then, the father said, "Hey, can Junior have a new milk? He had a little accident."

BOTH SHAKERS WERE SUBMERGED IN MILK. Besides that, there were fries and crumbs everywhere. They had only consumed 1% of the food.

The kids screamed the entire time to zero reaction from the parents. It was chaos for the whole hour they were there.

I had to clean this up probably a dozen times before the hostess asked them not to visit again. Yeah, they threw a fit but didn't come back. It was a nightmare.

11. The Unexpected Response

u/Stewartchase1: I had a particular type of restaurant job in high school (I hated every minute of the two years I spent there).

It was a BBQ place in Texas set up like a conveyor line. The customers had to grab a tray, and then a meat cutter (me) used to greet them, cut the meat they wanted to eat, and give it to them. Then, they used to pick the sides they wanted with the meat.

Now that you know how it worked, you'll understand the story. It was a typical day at work and was not very busy when an older couple entered the store.

The man looked angry, but the lady said she wasn't hungry and asked for a child's plate. I said, "I'm sorry, but those are reserved for children 12 and under, and you're a little bit too tall to be 12. I can give you the same portion with one side, and it'll be cheaper if you'd prefer?" My response was according to the instructions I had received from the management.

However, before the word "prefer" came out of my mouth, the man silently grabbed his tray, threw it, and stomped out of the restaurant without saying a word. Mortified, the wife said sorry and left while I wondered if I smelled bad or something.

12. The Wrong Iced Tea

u/KhaosElement: I did a stint at Starbucks. They put me into the Target I was working at. I had just graduated from my degree program, and they offered to let me manage it. It was good money.

It's important to note that I had graduated from college, just like the person I was working with. One day, we made a woman's iced tea wrong.

I don't remember why. It was a stupid mistake, but those happen. Remaking it would have taken only thirty seconds, but the woman didn't allow us to do that.

She threw it back across the counter, literally threw it, turned to her daughter, and said in the most preppy, never-worked-a-day-in-her-life, soccer-mom, "trophy" wife voice, "See, this is why we finish high school."

Being the manager, I refused her any further service. She thought she could get me in trouble by going to the Target store manager, but when many other customers backed up my story, she was removed from Target.

13. He Needed Blueberry Pancakes

u/DrMeatBomb: My first serving job was at a brand new IHOP. It was the only one in the area. I have a million stories, but the most memorable individual was a middle-aged white male already having a bad day when he walked in.

I greeted him, and he cut me short to demand a decaf with cream—no big deal. I returned to take his food order, and he wanted the all-you-can-eat pancakes. Great. He wanted blueberry, but I couldn't do that because the deal was only for plain pancakes.

This man lost it. He began screaming at me at the top of his lungs about how he "needed" blueberry, how "this was an outrage," and that he would never return to this restaurant again! He was on the verge of tears. His face was red, and his veins were bulging.

Our managers came out after hearing the commotion, and he screamed at them, too. He stopped when the police came and escorted him out thirty minutes later.

14. The 'Crazy Bacon Lady'

u/Br1lliantJim: I used to work at Subway, and there was one legendary customer that we only refer to as "Crazy Bacon Lady."

She was an older woman. She came in and asked how much a 6" BLT was. We told her it was $3.50 plus tax.

She then yelled at us, saying it was $2 when she came in a day before (hint: she didn't come in. In fact, this was the first time she had even been in our store. Plus, the fact that the BLT was never at any point $2 in the three years I had worked there).

She screamed her order the whole way up the line, saying things like, "I am a good Christian woman. I don't deserve to be treated this way," "For $3.50, that bacon better be fresh!" and "The service here is terrible! I'M NEVER COMING BACK, YOU HEAR ME!"

The best one was when she got to my co-worker operating the cash register, and he told her the total was $3.68 (tax and all). She said, "You people are workers of the DEVIL!"

Then she plopped down the exact change, snatched up her bag, and stormed out the door. Whenever I see my old co-workers, we still have a good laugh about it.

15. The Old Couple

u/[deleted]: I was working a lunch shift at a small restaurant, and an adorable old couple came in to eat. They sat down, and immediately, the woman received a phone call.

I gave them some time to look at the menu. Then, I came back to take their order. The woman was still on the phone, so the man ordered for her.

I listened briefly, trying to determine if it was an important call. It wasn't. The woman was just chatting about what she was doing that day.

During the entire meal, this woman talked on her phone, and the man just waited patiently, ate slowly, and looked at her lovingly. She completely ignored him and spoke on the phone during their entire lunch.

I was extra sweet to the older man who waited lovingly for his partner to get off the phone for an hour.

16. They Called Me Stupid

u/Gore-MayCupcake: I had a group of girls speak to my manager and call me stupid over $0.13. They ordered a side of fries, and one maybe got a lemonade.

Anyway, I gave them their bill, and they gave me just enough to cover it since we round to the nearest dollar instead of dealing with coins.

The girls flip out over $0.13, so I go in my bag to scrounge it up. They spoke to my manager, who refunded them everything (stupid), while they proceeded to call me names as they left their table.

I was already having a bad day, so it upset me at the time. However, now I find the whole thing laughable.

17. Returning Meals

u/JennaSidal: In my mid-teens, when I was a waitress at a local pub, a family of 15 people walked in, completely unannounced, without a reservation, on a Friday evening.

Unfortunately, I had the space to seat them, so I did. They ordered 15 meals, all with lots of nitpicking changes, and sent 12 back.

Not politely, I might add. No, the family sent them back with much screaming and swearing about my incompetence (because I had apparently cooked the food).

I dutifully took the meals back and had our cook remake them. The family returned ten of the 12 remade meals and asked to remake them.

They then screamed that I had ruined their day, repeated that to the manager, and stormed out without paying.

Everyone left except for one embarrassed-looking middle-aged man who whispered, "I'm so sorry, they do this every time. He then slunk out after the family.

18. It Was an Accident

u/[deleted]: I accidentally spilled a small glass of water on a lady dining alone in our restaurant. The place was packed, and a customer had banged into me, making this happen.

I apologized profusely, but she was vile. She was shouting at me so loud the whole restaurant could hear. When she had finished, I walked out into the kitchen and explained what I had done to the manager and my co-worker.

They started laughing, and I started crying and told them how vile she had been and that I'd usually laugh too but couldn't this time.

I told my manager how vile she'd been, and with each word, I could see him getting angrier and angrier until he said, "Where is she?"

Then, we left the kitchen, and I pointed her out. My manager marched over to her, and I don't know what he said, but it involved escorting her out while the customers who had overheard her applauded.

To my old manager Matt, you were a legend of a boss. To the lady, that's why you dine alone. You are a horrible person.

19. The Gluten-Free Menu

u/redpan: This is not mine, but a coworker's story. This woman came in with a few of her friends on a relatively busy night. The woman told my coworker that she had celiac disease and asked what items were gluten-free.

We had a separate menu listing all the gluten-free items, with a breakdown of the side dishes. My coworker brought this out and reviewed the menu with the customer, who complained that she disliked the items listed there.

The customer kept asking about other options or if we could make something special for her. The coworker suggested she try any of our salads and ran back and forth to the kitchen to think of modifications for this woman.

When my coworker told the woman that no, she wasn't sure exactly what the ingredients for our tortillas were (they come from a local bakery), the woman freaked out.

She started complaining that the server wasn't cooperative and was unhelpful. Of course, she sent back her meal, too. In the end, she left my coworker a 25-cent tip.

20. I'm Not Uneducated

u/__underscore: I once had a woman tell me in the most condescending tone: "You're lousy at serving. Education is the way to go."

When I replied, "Well, thanks, but I'm currently getting my undergrad degree at a local university," she said, "Well, you best stay there then."

I slammed the drive-through window in her face. Don't assume I'm uneducated because I work in fast food. Something has to pay for school.

21. Asparagus from the Dumpster

u/in_wonderland: When I was working as a waiter, I came across a couple that were extremely rude to me from start to finish. What got me was when I asked how their food was.

The man picked up the end of a piece of asparagus and began twirling it at me like helicopter blades, saying condescendingly, "Can we get some asparagus that didn't come out of the dumpster?" However, looking back, I think it's hilarious.

22. The Customer at Domino's

u/sixesand7s: When I used to work at Domino's, I had a guy throw a handful of pennies at me while laughing.

He left me 30 cents as my tip and was angry when I turned around and walked away without picking up any of the coins.

His exact words were, "Oh, my money is not good enough for you? Fine, I'll never order Domino's again!" I've never had a customer fire themselves like that before. It was great.

23. She Didn't Want the Basket

u/g-dragon: I work in a local diner as a line cook. We have beer-battered deep-fried cod on the menu. It comes in a basket with fries.

Once, a lady ordered it. When we prepared it, the dish went out and immediately came back in. Apparently, the lady who ordered it was angry that it wasn't on a plate.

If you order a salad or soup, it does come on a plate because it's pretty difficult to eat those things from a basket, but she had onion rings or something in her basket. It just baffled me.

24. The Long Waiting Time

u/daofuu: I used to work in a popular restaurant where we usually had quite a long wait (30-40 minutes) during dinner service, and the hosts told people about this.

This lady got fed up with the wait after 10 minutes. She stormed into the restaurant, stood next to a table of four people, and asked them, "Are you guys done? We've been waiting for a long time and would like to have the table if you guys are just chatting." I was utterly shocked at her audacity.

25. 'My Breakfast Is Ruined Now!'

u/[deleted]: Once, when I was working at this extremely popular breakfast joint, my first table of the morning was a seemingly adorable old couple.

After going through our specials, the lady ordered the duck hash special, and the man ordered two boring poached eggs on toast. All good.

When I brought their food, the man started freaking out. You see, I didn't get him a tablespoon for his eggs. Granted, he didn't ask for one, but according to him, everyone knows that poached eggs are supposed to be served with a tablespoon.

I've been a waitress for nearly a decade, and I've served a LOT of poached eggs, and I've never heard this rule. Nonetheless, I apologized profusely and told him I'd grab him a spoon. "No!" he yelled. "My breakfast is ruined now!"

Then, this adult threw his plate of food at me and stormed out. His wife gave me a sympathetic smile as she slinked out behind him, and I worked the next 8 hours with egg yolk stains all over me.

26. The Entitled Customer

u/LilRed2112: I worked at a bakery for two years and dealt with the most HEINOUS and rude customers ever.

I've worked in the food service industry my whole life AND lived in Toronto until three years ago, but I have never dealt with such entitlement.

Anyway, one day, one of our staff members quit through text message five minutes before her shift and 30 minutes before we were set to open at 8 a.m. on a Saturday.

We were hard-pressed to find someone to cover, so I was alone until a front-of-house person could come in about an hour later.

I had one of the kitchen staff helping me, and all they could do was grab things and bag them as they weren't trained on cash or coffee.

So, here I was running around trying to help customers, make coffees, ring people through, and clearly stressed.

At that point, this one man was annoyed that he had to wait. He was huffing and puffing and eventually exclaimed, "I'm not [expletive] waiting for this." He threw his bagged muffin at my head and stormed out. I legitimately almost chased him down; I was livid.

27. 'Professionally Challenged'

u/nanapeaches: I had a man and his wife come in during a hectic lunch rush. He was rude, interrupting me and not wanting to listen to me speak. It happens all the time.

He wanted chips and salsa with a plate of roasted wings as appetizers. He kept emphasizing that he wanted them together before they ordered their lunch.

Even though chips and salsa only take a minute and wings take about 12, I rang them in together because of how he ordered them.

Not THREE minutes later, the man was waving at my coworker across the restaurant, yelling at her about how they had been there for thirty minutes. He said his appetizer was taking too long and wanted it before his wings.

I was at a party table, so she ran back, grabbed the chips and the wings, and brought them out. The man tasted one wing and tossed the plate like a frisbee across the table towards her and started complaining about them being cold.

I rushed over to see what was happening, and he started yelling at me, saying his food was awful and this was the worst service he had ever received.

I don't do well with grown men yelling at me, so I went to the kitchen, and my manager went out and thankfully had my back as much as he could.

He made the guy pay for the food and leave. After he left, I started to clean the table, where I found the penny he had tipped me with. My coworker promptly threw the penny in the trash.

Later, I got a call from my general manager asking why a man had called me "professionally challenged" on Yelp.

28. The Allergy

u/koledgeguy: I had a customer order a crab-crusted salmon. After about 30 minutes, I brought out the food, and the customer told me they couldn't eat it as they were allergic to crab.

They said they didn't read what the meal was. My manager and the chef were angry because the customer didn't want to pay for the meal.

29. The Prestigious School

u/HiImBoops: I worked as a server in a 24-hour diner in a small Massachusetts city where a prestigious school was around the corner.

The students were wealthy kids, and almost all of them were awful. The school did this thing called "button bucks." It was a prepaid card, and many businesses in town accepted them, including the diner.

The worst part was that those kids treated us like we were subhuman. They snapped fingers, interrupted me while I was taking another customer's order, made a giant mess, cracked jokes about us, and did all kinds of terrible things. AND THEY NEVER TIPPED!

Once, a group of boys ordered about $70 worth of food and paid $100. After I brought them their change (some bills and 13 cents), they walked out the door, and one of the boys said, "Your tip is on the table." I could tell something was not right by the way he said it.

When I went to their table, I realized they had put the 13 cents in a cup full of water, napkins, ketchup, and half-chewed fries. The 13 cents on the bottom of the glass was my "tip."

That was the only time I threw a glass in the trash. I refused to degrade myself further by picking through it. It's been years, but I still feel angry thinking about those kids.

30. No Room for Mistakes

u/bonesapart: When I was in high school, I worked at Johnny Rockets. It was my second day as a waitress when a guy with his family ordered a plain burger.

After I put the order in, I realized it was slightly incorrect because the burger did not come out with the toppings the man had ordered. However, it did have the Thousand Island dressing. In my defense, it was an honest mistake by a new kid.

However, the guy was furious. He made such an angry face that I can still recall it 13 years later, and then, out of nowhere, smeared the burger all over my chest and walked out.

These shocking and bizarre real-life narrations from waiters and waitresses are a testament to the unpredictable nature of the job. These stories reveal what waitstaff goes through when customers lose their calm in public.

Have you ever experienced something similar or have an unforgettable dining story the world should know of? We'd love to hear it! You can share your story in the comments section.