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Elevenyearstoomany

I used to have a family who would come in and inform us, while ordering at the counter, that if their soup wasn’t hot they WOULD be sending it back. We always took it back and literally boiled it. One time we did that and their kid stuck their finger in the soup to check the temperature. He just gleefully exclaimed that it was hot but seriously why are you teaching your kid to stick their fingers in hot food?!


onamonapizza

"I will have the spaghetti with a side salad. If the salad is on top, I will send it back."


wolfie379

They tell you they will send back “regular temperature” soup? Sounds like they need to be told “No soup for you, come back one year!”.


OrangeJuliusPage

Relevant [Seinfeld reference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH2Wz9MqqGI&ab_channel=CoverSolutions).


straightouttasuburb

Bread please.


TheGoddamnAnswer

I’ve had people ask for food to be hot then leave it sitting on the table for it to cool down


murphyslavv

We have a regular who always says he wants his food “hot and not sitting in the kitchen.” As soon as i drop his food, he goes to the bathroom. Every. Single. Time. Spends 4-5 minutes in there because he’s over 70. Eats his mashed potatoes last and complains that they’re cold. No shit Sherlock, they’ve been sitting on your plate for 30 minutes.


straightouttasuburb

Wish granted


[deleted]

I hate when they say" ice cold." They're clearly exaggerating. Next time ask them "what's cooler than being cool?"


butteryspaceman

Alrightalrightalrightalright


CaliBlue17

OK, now ladies...


aabrithrilar

Yeah


NBThrowbe89

I used to get the “ice cold” comment all the time when I used to barista at this cute brunch place. One time I even had a giant burn on my arm from the hot water machine and had a customer tell me later that day that the steaming, piping hot milk for their latte was “ice cold.” I said, “Really?” And gestured towards my arm lol. People have no concept of heat for food.


Warm-Alarm-7583

I now believe old ladies are lined with asbestos. Couldn’t burn them if we tried


Thermitegrenade

I finally learned to make coffee for my mom who drinks hers black. Make it like usual then microwave it for 30 seconds...perfect for her every time.


Warm-Alarm-7583

I had a customer named Mrs. Sullivan. I microwaved her cup with water in it, then again with coffee in it. I had to use a bar towel to touch it. She thought it was perfect. I loved that woman.


ztarlight12

I had a woman say that about her coffee once. I replaced it for her, took the old one back and temped it just for shits n giggles. 130 degrees. Yes, colder than coffee is typically served at, but hardly “ice cold” 🙄


JelmerMcGee

I always thought the people who ordered lattes extra hot were a different breed. Yes, I would like my milk burnt in flavor because I have removed my taste buds by drinking scalding hot milk.


Pagan_Chick

Either that, or they’re lizard people, and *need* the extra heat to survive.


NormalHorse

Hah! I got a one week suspension from a shitty café because of how I handled a customer who didn't like the temperature of their latte. To be fair, the coffee was shit, no fault of mine, but I could heat milk and make espresso like a pro. It was the perfect temp. So I just microwaved it. They saw me do it. "YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT!" I shrugged. Like bruh if you want better service, go to Starbucks, everyone here is a hungover burnout. Fuck I hated that place.


cherriedgarcia

Omg I hate complaints ab heat for lattes too cuz it’s like … there’s a point where you want me to *burn* the milk??? Like ok but then don’t complain ab it tasting bad 😭 at this cafe I work at we don’t have microwaves or anything either so like I will have to remake the whole drink too if it’s “not hot enough” bc I’m not putting something someone drank back on the steamer (though many, many people request this, and then they are surprised I say no because it’s…not sanitary)!!!


NormalHorse

Literally all of the "food" was microwaved as well. This includes eggs for whatever fucked up breakfast bagels they served. I tried not to work day shifts because the office crowd was more intolerable than the stragglers who'd show up for the late night shift. It was not a place you'd go for a great latte, or for decent food, but I'll be damned if I didn't try my best. I know that barista game. Perfect temp, even made you a little swirly guy in there. Cute! I had to run the dish pit and expo food because NO ONE ELSE SHOWED UP FOR SHIFT AND THERE ARE 20 PEOPLE IN LINE so, yeah, I'm gonna microwave your fuckin' coffee. Yeah, get pissed off about what was already gonna be a shit latte because the coffee is trash and the milk is garbage and write an email to the owner, whatever. I honestly don't know what that person expected.


Valderius

More often than not it's because they're old. As we age we lose sensitivity to all sorts of things, and detecting heat is one of them. I used to work as a barista and I got lots of older customers who wanted me to basically boil their coffee simply because that's the only way they could tell they were drinking a hot beverage.


filthycasual908

Freezer burn. /s


[deleted]

I worked in a Mexican restaurant and had a regular who wanted his cheese dip microwaved for exactly 2 minutes. It was already hot, but it was boiled and burnt at that point. Stuff was like napalm if you accidentally got it on you.


Kmw134

Used to take care of regulars that had issues with “hot” not being hot enough. Kitchen started tossing their plates in the oven before plating the food. That fixed the problem immediately. From then on, anytime we rang in food for them, we would special prep “Jim and Jan” and the kitchen knew the drill!


dead_PROcrastinator

I thought heating plates is standard?


Vness374

Most restaurants I’ve worked in (probably around 20 in the last 30 yrs) have the plates stacked under warmers. Not all restaurants have the space for that tho


Kmw134

More than a warmed plate. We literally put the plate in the oven that we baked food in. They used tongs to pull the plate out. I used a towel to deliver it.


AffectionateFig9277

Lol how? Do you really think we preheat every single plate we send out?


dead_PROcrastinator

You put each one in the microwave separately /s All restaurants I've worked at kept their plates in large warmers. Warm plates keep hot food hot for longer.


betcher73

“I’d like my food served on a plate please.”


Buddybouncer

Sir this is a Wendy's


vandelay714

Beats a basket or cutting board that some restaurants use


betcher73

Can I get my food on a roof tile please?


basketma12

r/we want plates has entered the chat


BadPom

If it’s not on fire, it’s ice cold to some of these monsters. Like, how is your tongue not constantly burned and annoying feeling? Do you have tastebuds left or did you scorch them off long ago?


DippySwitch

Yeah there’s no middle ground. It’s either piping hot or ice cold. It’s such a ridiculous exaggeration. All you have to say is “I’m sorry, my food isn’t quite as hot as I’d like it, would you mind warming it up for me?”. But no, you have to throw a tantrum like a toddler and push your plate away while telling me it’s “ice cold”.


onamonapizza

Not to defend these customers....but I personally do prefer my food to be PIPING hot when I get the plate in front of me. I'm a slow eater, so that way it will still at least be warm by the time I finish. Obviously that's a me problem, though...and I've never complained to a server about the temperature of my food


DippySwitch

Yeah and that’s totally fair, I think most people like their hot food to be super hot when it’s served. Your server will have no problem warming it up for you if it’s not to your liking.


SassyQueeny

Same. I like my food to still be “hot” until I finish it. Even at home. If it gets cold I just reheat it. My husband though is the person who will eat it even room temperature. I can’t I hate it


Ok_Ruin_4902

Yeah, dude, I hear you. No one wants their food cold. I had a guy one time who ordered a soup and said this. It was slow enough that I felt okay going to my manager on expo and being like "this is what this guy told me, so basically, just do what you always do and we'll be fine." But if it was busy? I can't bother him with that bullshit. It's insulting to him and his kitchen. About the "ice cold" thing, I had a lady one time say her food was "ice cold." I said "ICE cold? We don't even freeze that! That's crazy! Let me have them remake that for you." Brought out a new one and that was that. I did throw her some sass, though. Chill tf out lady. You exaggerating doesn't prioritize your concerns in my mind, it makes me take you less serious. Shit gets messed up. I get that. Communicate it like a normal human being.


DippySwitch

I always feel like saying something like that. Like, ice cold would mean that it’s literally frozen. Are you saying that your mashed potatoes are frozen solid? No? They’re just warm instead of steaming hot? Then don’t be a baby, and tell me that.


PointlessDiscourse

Haha I did something similar once. Someone said their food was ice cold, so I acted genuinely confused and said in a wondering tone "Ice cold? Wow I just can't believe they would have put your plate in the freezer before serving it. I'll have to go figure out what happened." I got an eye roll and a bad tip, but it was worth the story.


Violet624

I have a lot of elderly customers and there are quite a few that complain about temperature, but it's because, possibly, their taste buds are deadened. Then there was one guy who kept complaining his coffee was cold, I thought he was one of the dead taste bud people and it turned out the coffee warmer had accidentally been turned off. I ate some humble pie at that moment. But taste buds really do age and get less sensitive and temperature is one aspect of that.


Forward_Grade_4326

First server job I had was at a Macaroni Grill and we had a regular couple who had the most insanely modified orders. To the point their salads were added to the POS to save time since they came in so often. Anyway, the wife would always order hot water for her teabag she brought and it couldn’t be heated in the microwave. Had to be heated on the stove to a boil.


blair639

how would she know thoufh


Forward_Grade_4326

Not sure if they’re all like this or still like this, but ours was open kitchen. So the dining area could see all the cooks clearly


blair639

i imagine her frothing at the mouth and peering into the kitchen to make sure y’all aren’t using the microwave


happyapple52

Some people recently have been asking me for salt and pepper on their food as they are ordering. Nothing wrong with wanting this obviously but i think it’s funny because we do keep salt and pepper shakers on the table, and i would also assume that a professional kitchen seasons their food with the basics without me having to ask lol. But it is so awkward when a customer says last time i came my food was cold/bland/messed up so you can you make sure it’s right this time? Like i’m sorry it got messed up last time but I always try my best for things to be right and i’m not sure what to tell you.


S3xySouthernB

I literally had people ask me to microwave it…we don’t have a microwave…we cook food on the flat top, grill, and fryer. I was fully prepared to toss a bowl and our metal plates (metal pizza pan plates was the style..) into our dishwasher and pull the straight from there steaming hot and put the food on that… Every food item was hot hot like what the heck


BabbleAli

I would make a dramatic show of writing "HOT!" in big letters on your order pad/tablet and say, "Hot! Got it!". Make sure you make a big swoosh with your pen and dot the exclamation point. Smile and leave.


GalacticCmdr

"My gazpacho soup was cold, so I called over the chef and told him to take it away and bring it back hot."


Rockcrusher79

No no no, it's Gestapo soup. /s


RaniPhoenix

The piping-hot gazpacho 😂


HaplessReader1988

My friend's very French restaurant spelled out on the menu that vichyssoise is "traditionally cold soup for a hot day" because he dreaded someone asking this. 😞 He was born & raised in France... my husband joked about heating up the potato soup and he repliied "I'd rather lose the customer" !! Only time I ever heard him sputter like that.


[deleted]

This is why I don't go out to eat with my in-laws anymore. Or spend any amount of time with them. They are jerks, especially to servers. I was so embarrassed the first time I heard this come out of my father in law's mouth. I apologized to the server, left a good tip (because they never do), and decided I am done eating out with them.


Opposite_Weekend9194

Holy fuck I had a customer order a seafood sampler during the summer. They sat outside. When the crab, mussels, shrimp, potato’s, corn and sausage came straight out of the boiling pot, I was also running my own food and it’s did not sit in the window. She said it wasn’t hot so I grabbed my manager and we took it back to be dumped back in. When we brought it out, she said it was still not hot. My manager had enough of that shit at that point and promptly paid them out, pretty sure they had one comped.


ophaus

They want attention. Squeaky wheel gets molten food and all that.


Variable-moose

When i worked for a fast food place a long time ago, i would get this old man, maybe in his 70’s, who would order his fries “piping hot” every time he came in. He always came in at around 9:00pm, and would come to eat once or twice a month. At 9pm everything is made fresh, nothing is left in the warmer. Every now and then he would bring his fries back and say they’re too cold. We had those fryers with the timers on them, so we didn’t have to guess if they were ready. We just cooked more fries, same time and everything, and gave him more fries. Somehow those ones were hot enough.


DippySwitch

It might have been a play to kind of trick you into making a fresh batch for him. Some people like to order fries without salt because they think it’ll force us to drop a separate batch for them. Once they get the fries they start dumping salt all over them.


RaniPhoenix

Those people ruin it for people like me, who genuinely don't want salted fries.


Upper_Fig3303

Last week a lady came in to place a to go order for her and her husband and she said “my husband likes it to be *hot*” and at first I thought she meant like spice wise til she clarified “no *hot* like steaming. Like freshly hot” and I’m like ..??? Okay… how am I supposed to do that. Like this food is coming fresh off the grill so it’s gonna be hot. It’s not like we can make it any hotter than that. Then I was like this woman still has to drive home with this food. There’s no way it’s going to stay nice and hot. At that point just come in to eat instead of taking it to go


Miss__Behaved

Lmao the “karen definition” reminded me of a shift i worked a couple weeks ago where the waitress of a table i wasn’t serving was literally burning her fingers and hands trying to set her tray up and the guy ended up complaining after eating the entire meal saying his food was “ice cold”. Our GM was like “sure dude. i can see you’re looking for a free meal so i’ll comp this for you but don’t come back with this bullshit again”


weinthenolababy

Idk, as long as they politely bring it up (or any other issue they had from a previous experience at the location), I kinda like it. Because then it lets me know I need to focus really hard on providing a great experience for them this time to make up for a less-than-ideal one in the past, and they're usually very appreciative of that. Of course, I also mentally roll my eyes when I get a "make sure it's hot" like wtf am I supposed to do about that?? But then it snaps me into my best behavior and making up for a poor experience.


[deleted]

We used to have this older couple come into a place I worked, we called them "Asbestos Mouth". Nothing was ever hot for them, despite being hot AF, so we boiled everything we served them minus their steaks. Soup? Boiled. Coffee? Boiled. Then they would sip that shit like nothing.


katherinewhatever

It’s like the people who say they’re allergic to “bad food.” Good one sir, I’ve never heard that joke before. Everyone else here at this restaurant is getting served trash food, but for you we’ll roll out the good stuff, since you told me about your allergy


Quackcook

Pour Tabasco all over it.


throwaway_20200920

As a customer what we asked is if possible serve the dishes as ready, no matter what order- all bar deserts. That way we ate it when hot. We have got used to this in asian restaurants and have occasionally got colder food as the staff waited for all our dishes to serve us all at once. Does that request place an undue burden?


DippySwitch

As long as you’re actually ok with dishes coming out at different times, then this is fine! I had a table request this, so we brought out the first order to come up since it’s a relatively quick order to make, then the second order, then the other people at the table started wondering where their food was, and if I had forgot to ring theirs in, because the others had their food, so where’s mine? I reminded them that they asked to have the dishes brought out as they’re finished, and they just kind of rolled their eyes at me. If one person at your table orders a salad, and another orders a well done steak, it’s highly possible that the salad person will be finished eating by the time the steak comes out.


Wubwubpeow

What's to stop you carrying a food thermometer, and say a little card printed with safe temperatures for the human mouth, and maybe little sterile wipes for, like, sanitation? Show these dumbos how hot/warm/ice cold everything really is?


[deleted]

We had a guest ask for his food hotter and kept saying “go put it in the microwave like I know you’re going to” and I was like “actually they’re going to heat it up more in a pan” because there’s guests all around and it’s a bad look to mention microwaves in a nice restaurant people are celebrating special occasions at…the reheat comes out very quickly, but he then starts loudly bitching about how it would have been so much faster in a microwave. Bro if you want microwaved food go home and do that?? It was just so cringe


bigdtbone

They want all the dishes for their table to finish being made within 2 minutes of each other and to be delivered to the table within 3 minutes of that. Ie, every single item you serve should be no more than 5 minutes old. That’s what they want.


HonestCamel1063

Proper restaurant etiquette says that all the tables main course be served at the same time. Meaning one plate might rest why the others are being prepared and that resting plate could cool. Wanting food hot could be a "code" for bring the food as it becomes available.


2ndPersonSingular

We had a customer who literally wanted every item boiling or sizzling. When it was brought to her table doing just that, she would send it back saying it needed to be hotter. We stopped serving her out of concerns for her physical safety and mental health. I’m fairly certain our insurance company would be glad we did, too.


HaplessReader1988

I see you met my old housemate...


iangrichardson

I will intentionally set that plate in the oven, and burn the shit out of them. Courtesy of that one cook who you just insulted and pissed off.


infinitewowbagger42

I want it hot hot!


TucsonNaturist

I visit a chain restaurant/brewery regularly. The one thing that pisses me off is when they try to serve me old, warm fries. Totally unacceptable and I call them on it every time. There is zero excuse for this other than laziness. I don’t preface my orders on food temperature, but I assume that hot food will be presented hot. I’m also a trained cook, so I know how serving should work.


Pale_Routine_8855

If you are going to be that picky just order the sizzling fajitas ffs.


clangin813

My uncle is this person and it hurts me so much. Last time I ate at a restaurant with him (and the whole family) like 10 years ago he said “so are the fries supposed to be cold or did I just get lucky” DUDE. ugh. I hate it.


[deleted]

The causes of cold restaurant food are pretty well known. Mitigations and workflow optimizations have existed for over a century. It's disingenuous to blame a customer for not knowing that your restaurant has not modernized their methodology and quality controls. Speak to your kitchen and floor manager about your customers' concerns.


rr90013

Perhaps management should figure out why food isn’t reaching customers piping hot. Things like fried food get exponentially less good with every passing minute.


DippySwitch

You’re getting downvoted because you sound like you don’t work in a restaurant and don’t know how things work there. It’s not a matter of “figuring out why food isn’t going out piping hot”. It’s not that easy, you can’t just send out each dish the moment they come out. You have to wait for the rest of the tables order to finish, and some dishes take longer than others. The tickets are trayed up and sent out in the order that they’re bumped on the expo screen - when a table’s full ticket is complete, it jumps to the front of the line. It’s then bumped and sent out. Like I said in another comment, you technically could send out each dish as they come up, but as much as tables say that’s what they want, they’re lying. If you bring out the first dish that’s quick to come up, then everyone else at the table (the ones that ordered more complicated/modified meals and well done steaks) will be wondering where their food is, and become upset when everyone gets their food at different times. And that’s also not really feasible on a busy night when the expo screen is several pages back - the expo will be too busy putting together the completed orders at the front of the screen to keep an eye on some order on page 2 and send things out as they come up.


waltthedog

So last night I ordered my steak medium well. When it came out, there was not pink in the center, plus there was no juice when I cut it up. The first bite, the steak was not hot. Warm, but not hot. And this from a national chain.


batmandi

Do you expect to get a hot pink center on a medium well? I would call that medium. Med-well is nearly uniform with a slightly lighter brown center, no pink at all. Not trying to be an ass, genuinely asking because that’s what I’ve always been taught.


RaniPhoenix

You got a medium-well. 🤷‍♀️


lady-of-thermidor

I always thought the folks who ask for hot food really just mean don’t let it sit before serving.