'If it's not piping hot, I'm going to send it back': Karen asks for her soup to be piping hot, server maliciously complies

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Aug 23, 2023 2:00 PM EDT

There's a certain kind of satisfaction that comes with giving demanding customers a hard time, but there's also the satisfaction that comes with giving them exactly what they asked for. It takes a specific kind of person to order food at a restaurant and immediately threaten the server before they've done anything wrong yet. It's as if they're asking to be messed with in some way, which is exactly what happened with this demanding customer who we will refer to, unsurprisingly, as Karen.

 

Karen insisted that she wanted her soup to be "piping hot" and delivered that message with an immediate threat. The server ensured that she was going to do exactly that and shared her story via this thread on Reddit's r/TalesFromYourServer subreddit. Despite what she told the cooks in the kitchen, when the soup was ready, the server checked the temperature and it was lukewarm at best. So, she took matters into her own hands knowing that if she gave that lukewarm soup to the Karen customer, she would likely be verbally destroyed.

 

However, the server took things a bit too far when she decided to microwave the soup for a full five minutes. Let's just say half of the soup went all over the microwave, and the half that was left was completely blackened. Instead of putting the kitchen staff through the trouble of remaking the dish, she thought, "Well, this is what Karen wanted!" So she served the blackened soup to Karen. Keep scrolling below to see how she responded. For more stories like this, here's one about a young woman who got revenge on her roommate for talking about her in another language.

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  • 01
    Food - "I want it piping hot"
    via Monika Grabkowska
  • 02
    Font - Lady who demanded her soup be "piping hot." Medium Once, I waited on this insane- looking lady and her husband. Her red, rosacea-stricken face coupled with a body that tapered down into an 84-inch waist gave her a striking resemblance to an active volcano.
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 03
    Font - She ordered the corn chowder, and then looked into my face with her beady eyes and said, sternly: "...and I want it piping hot. If it's not piping hot, I'm going to send it back." Her husband glanced up at me sheepishly.
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 04
    Font - I sent the order in and I modified it "piping hot," but then when it showed up in the window, I stuck my pinky finger in there, and it was lukewarm at best.
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 05
    Font - I knew (from experience) that I couldn't trust the kitchen to do anything right, so I brought it into the back and stuck it in the microwave. I set it for 5 minutes, planning to check back and stir it up a little bit after about 45 seconds, but then I got distracted at the bar...
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 06
    Font - Four minutes and fifty-five seconds later, I raced back over to the microwave, scattering eff-bombs left and right. I yanked the microwave open as it started beeping.
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 07
    Font - The bowl of soup looked like it had been hit by a nuke. There was only about half of the soup left in the bowl, and it was bubbling and popping like a geyser. The rest of the soup was plastered to the top of the microwave and to the side of the bowl, blackened and burnt.
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 08
    Font - I was too embarrassed back to the kitchen, so I just to bring it grabbed a soup spoon and brought it to the lady... About a minute later, I checked on her. She fixed her cold eyes on me and said: "This soup is perfect..."
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 09
    Font - newyne 16 hr. ago Reminds me of this story my mom told me about this old lady who kept sending her soup back saying it wasn't hot enough. Finally my mom told kitchen, Boil it. She took the steaming soup back to the lady, stood there and watched her try it, then asked, "Is it hot enough now?" The woman said, "No, but it'll do." My mom said she knows that woman scorched the 1 her tongue. I almost respect that she committed that hard. 817 out of Reply Share
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
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    Font - LOUDCO-HD. 16 hr. ago. edited 16 hr. ago Our Chef wanted to 'class the joint up' a bit so he expanded the line of Soup de Jours we featured, including Gazpacho every Thursday.
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 11
    Font - It said 'served cold' on the menu. When someone ordered it I would confirm with them they knew it was 'served cold'. Before I left the table I would confirm they knew the soup was 'served cold'. I'd look them in the eye an make sure they understood.
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 12
    Font - 99/100 they would call me back to complain the soup was cold. Eventually we convinced the Chef to remove it from the menu as it pissed off so many people. 805 Reply Share
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 13
    Font - AustinBennett Writer 16 hr. ago I love gazpacho! I make a watermelon with tomato. It's delicious and amazing on a nice day. I live in San Francisco so we don't really get hot days. 248 Reply Share •
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 14
    Font - M1sterSir 16 hr. ago Had a pregnant lady ask us in a kitchen at a Chili's if we could "cook the outta that burger" that she ordered. We cooked it well done, sent it out. She sent it back, asking for more. We cooked it for another minute on each side. Now this thing is COOKED. It's not even a burger anymore it's just charred grill. We sent it out, and again, she sent it back. We weren't angry, she wasn't rude. Just said "a little more cooked."
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 15
    Font - We left it on the grill and forgot about it while we made another tables dinner. Probably 4-5 minutes later and this thing was unrecognizable. It easily could have been misidentified as the Stanley Cup puck.
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 16
    Font - She loved it. Said it was the best burger she's ever eaten. Honestly I don't think I'll ever forget that. We had a pretty good laugh in the back about it. 413 Reply Share
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 17
    Font - spaghettiinmynostril 15 hr. ago You... stuck your pinky finger in? I know that's nothing compared to what goes on behind the scenes normally but that's nasty 347 Reply Share
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
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    Font - kittybutt414 12 hr. ago Yes I'm shocked I had to scroll this far to see anyone talking about it!!!!! 4 . 142 Reply Share
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 19
    Font - bhender 13 hr. ago I served breakfast and lunch shift at a local joint, and some of our breakfast regulars were elderly. One lady always legit wanted her food hot as 1. Like, dangerously hot, so we'd set her plates in the salamander while cooking their eggs or whatever.
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116
  • 20
    Font - She loved it. I later found out that this is a sign of dementia and there's a good chance that she was likely burning the k out of her mouth. Just some food for thought, as it were. 183 Reply Share
    via u/Alternative_Run_6116

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customer service karens malicious compliance server waiter restaurant karens in the wild entitled reddit thread Reddit tales from your server karen entitled people
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