Do waiters and waitresses really spit (and other things) in your food if you treat them poorly?
I’ve heard tons of waiters and waitresses caution against being too mean to them, lest one end up with a sneeze muffin (at best). But here’s where it all falls apart for me: When I was working as a cook, if anyone had ever found out that I did that to someone’s food, I would have been fired immediately. Hell, I would have been fired for accidentally forgetting to take off a ring, thus bringing in dirty under the ring to the food. And the restaurant would have gotten some seriously huge fines, if not gotten shut down. So is this just a threat than has continued from days when you really could do that, or have the laws and enforcement made it so that this is an empty threat designed to keep customers in line?
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I worked in restaurants for 8 years and never encountered it.
I’m sure it happens somewhere, though
I AM a cook an there was only one time in my 6 years of cooking food where I did something like this, and it was VERY targeted…
Adding: I get especially confused when I hear people talking about peeing/ejaculating in food. Spitting, it’s quick, you can do it right there, you might not be seen. But the other one? You kinda have to steal the plate for 2–5 minutes and find some personal time with it first, which seems so much harder, especially when there’s so much pressure to have things out fast.
It happens more than you want to know.
Oh yeah, unquestionably. I’ve personally done very foul things I won’t describe (unless requested). Also seen some really bad stuff. Don’t be a dick to anyone until after you’ve received your food. Should be common sense by now.
@MyNewtBoobs “and find some personal time with it first” Lol. You want the dish to warm up to you first, you can’t just grab them by the arm and ask to ejaculate on them ya know.
I would like to think it is somewhat of an irrational fear now. I’ve only heard of one story, but it wasn’t spitting. A former manager at a restaurant was fired for intentionally putting excessive amounts of salt on certain foods so people would get thirsty, then buy their cheap beers.
I’ve never been rude to a server (not out of fear, either, I respect that job, because I know it’s shitty), so I would hope that hasn’t happened to me.
@Blackberry I’ve worked in three places I’ve seen vile things happen to bad customers.
@MyNewtBoobs OMG, peeing/ejaculating in food? I better avoid ordering banana cream custard for dessert the next time I tick off a waiter. ;)
I heard from my young teenaged nephew, who worked in a spaghetti/pizza restaurant last summer, that when someone made a complaint about the food, the waiter would take the plate of spaghetti back “to the kitchen”, put his dirty hands into the dish and run it around and through his fingers and then bring it back to the grouchy customer. Then from afar, the waiter would watch with delight as the unknowing customer ate the manhandled pasta! Yuck!!
I REFUSE to read thisI Okay, morbid curiosity might keep me lurking.
I am a great customer, friendly, undemanding, humorous, tip well..I hope to freaking god I have never had someone piss in my soup!
I did have a really jackass waiter once whom I complained about.
Little jerk, we had been waiting for our wine and bread forever and when I asked him if our bottle of wine would be coming soon he replied ” Why? Do you NEED it?”
Little fuck…I called his manager when I got home…hope he got the boot.
Ugh that’s horrible! As a waitress, I would never dream of doing this. If customers don’t treat me well which doesn’t happen, cause I charm their pants off I just don’t smile as big when they leave.
@MyNewtBoobs The only thing is, I don’t think a pissed-off waiter would be in the mood or frame of mind to ejaculate, anywhere! lol
@cockswain If you don’t mind, can you tell me where you live so I don’t go there?
It depends on what type of place you’re in. Most decent restaurants have managers watching and strict rules about messing with food. I guarantee that there are places where the manager/owner may be the one doing terrible things themselves and turning their head as other employees do it too. Just don’t complain until you get your food if at all possible!
@cockswain How bad do customers have to be to get this treatment? Do you mean people who are blatantly rude or the people who send their steak back because it’s too raw? Give me some pointers here!
@Blackberry Doesn’t matter, I don’t work in food service and have matured since then. Besides, this likely happens everywhere. I did it in Madison.
@Coloma Nonsense. Having a bad streak doesn’t make one pure evil.
@BBSDTfamily It’s someone who is rude or unreasonable. I saw a lady get her spaghetti spit in for complaining there was some tiny problem with it. I’ve seen terrible things happen to pizzas for being a repeat customer that doesn’t tip the driver. If you lie, you get fucked with badly. Sort of an urban justice thing. If you are a good, rational person, you will be fine.
I’ve done many, many good things in my life. I’ll grant you ¼ evil and nothing more.
Some places yes, some places no. It really depends on a bunch of factors. As for my own personal experiences over 10 years in restaurants/banquets, most places I’ve worked, it barely happened at all. However, it did happen sometimes. Not so much spitting or direct food tampering, but, like, if the customer was a total dick and part of their dish accidentally fell on the floor, well, fuck ‘em.. and it’d go on the plate and be served.
Besides that, I’ve witnessed incidents of spitting, ‘accidentally’ dropping something and serving it, cooks dropping a difficult customer’s steak and stepping on it, Visine shooters…
I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.
@MissAnthrope
What is a Visine shooter? Eye drops in your Margarita?
@Coloma – Yeah, pretty much. A few drops in Visine in someone’s drink supposedly causes explosive diarrhea. I researched this because I was curious and apparently, it can be dangerous to do this because some people have a reaction to the chemical that can cause death. I’m not sure if it even actually does cause diarrhea.
@MissAnthrope
Wow! Never would have imagined! Jeez…am I at some sort of disadvantage because this crap would never cross my mind? Guess so. :-/
@Coloma – Nah… I mean, how would you even be able to tell if someone did almost anything to it? The best defense is to be kind and respectful, which is what people should be doing with each other anyway…
I’m almost always nice to servers, but my wife can be pushy and unreasonably demanding at times.
I’m going to email her a link to this thread with a subject title of, “Be nice to servers!”.
I’ve never seen it or done it after years of being a waiter. The most they’ll probably do is passive-aggressively grumble. If you’re really rude, or the waiter is a great big douchecanoe, they might take a long smoke break or wait on the other tables first while you stew. If you get caught spitting in someone’s food, you’ll be instantly fired. But there’s no way the manager or customer can exactly pinpoint passive-aggressiveness.
@Haleth
Oh those sneaky passive aggressives…gah…my biggest hatred! lol
@cockswain So, was this awhile back, and it’s possible that health regulations have gotten stricter since then?
@Blackberry Well, you know, plates of lasagna are notorious for letting the cops know how you manhandled them!
The person who spits in my food…if I see it happen, will be hospitalized and I will be incarcerated for mangling a waiter.
I guess this what happen if you treat someone in a bad way. Even a member from your family will do so if you shout or scream.I am telling you this beacuse once my sister have done it and spit in the cup of milk that my dad have drunk. Disgusting! If my sister have done it, I won’t expect it from a waiter who doesn’t know me and hates me???
No, even threats can create back lashes that will get you fired.. This actually only happens in comedic movies concerning these things.. Not saying there isn’t perverts out there who do it in secret.. I know I damn well better not discover it happening to me.
I don’t know but this sure makes eating out such a downer.
Ahh, there’s nothing like being contented in your work. A joy which obviously eludes these dirty bastards ;¬}
I’ve worked in many restaurants, from chains, to local waterfront eateries, to high-end steak houses. I never spat in someone’s food. And I never got upset if someone sent their food back to the kitchen. I didn’t cook it, and I didn’t taste it. So for all I knew, there was something wrong with it. Hell, even if they just didn’t like it, I would go out of my way to get them something else. They were paying, it was their night out, and I wanted them to have a good time.
However, I did not sit idly by if someone was going out of their way to belittle or abuse me.
The 8–10% that the average abusive bastard threw my way was not going to get them off the hook. My favorite was telling the person that their credit card was declined. “Sorry, I rang it twice.” The mere implication that their finances were not in order was beautifully humiliating. If I was really lucky, I’d get to watch the bastard pathetically ask his family, friends, colleagues, or date to pony up some cash for the meal.
@MyNewtBoobs I don’t think any regulations have significantly changed in the last dozen years to prevent this. If you are an asshole to anyone involved in bringing you your food, you’ve put yourself at risk. Jerking off in food doesn’t seem common at all, but I do remember it made the paper in Madison once. A guy at a Domino’s did it, the customer saw it and called the police. The Domino’s guy got fired and charged with something.
@GladysMensch I think you’ve hit the nail on the head regarding abusive customers. If someone was condescending or rude to me or any of the other employees because we were “lowly service employees” in the eyes of the well-heeled customer, they got the proper treatment. Don’t think I don’t understand your belittling sarcasm because I haven’t finished college yet, asshole. Or don’t make me drive back to your house to bring you an extra 17 cents when I ran out of change at your door and you already aren’t tipping me. Don’t order delivery four times a night, never tip, and laugh and call me “white boy” or some other bs when I get there.
We discussed this practice at length. The rationale was “I’m being mistreated, how can I become OK with this? How can I bring about justice to this unfair situation so I can stomach being treated so poorly?” And the answer was clear.
The movie “Waiting” was pretty accurate from my point of view.
Really, my best revenge was when I realized that most people are too stupid to get my sarcasm, to understand when I’m making fun of them.
<3 sarcasm.
@GladysMensch
“My favorite was telling the person that their credit card was declined.“
Excellent!
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