'We had a great laugh afterwards': 20+ Waiters who made huge mistakes at work

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 30, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Waiters seem to effortlessly carry those big heavy trays, but every now and again, they slip up. Some of these waiters are strong enough to carry 6-12 meals at once! It never fails to impress me when they carry a huge tray or balance a bunch of plates on their arm. 

However, no one is perfect, and mistakes do happen. Sometimes the waiter will drop an entire tray of food, leading the customers to either clap (sarcastically) or groan, because now their food will take another 20 minutes or so to get to their table. It's a massive mess that the staff needs to clean up… and that's not even the worst thing that can happen to a customer, as these waiters revealed. 

A few people accidentally dropped food on a child, which is mortifying. I keep thinking about the waiter who spilled olive oil on a dude's head, which must've taken ages to wash out! Other people spilled drinks all over women wearing light-colored dresses. It's an entertaining read, and you can check out the tea these waiters spilled down below. 

Next, read about some employees who'd rather quit than deal with their working conditions any longer: '2 weeks later I get a call… He's begging me to come back." 

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  • 01

    "What's the most embarrassing mistake you've ever done in front of the customers?"

    I'll go first today was frankly not my day. It was going alright I did no mistakes for most part of the day nexcept this one. You see I was exhausted and it were few hours till the end of the shift before a prolonged weekend so I was pretty out of it. Now to the embarrassing mistake haha. So we serve our food in huge cramic bowls and they're put onto a ceramic plate/tray cowered with napkins. There's a small bowl with chili and yellow
    via u/ThrowRA020204
  • 02
    melon and chopsticks on the side (as show on the photo). Now I was probably lost in thought or something because I took the bowl in one hand and presented it to the customer... Like that without the plate and utensils. My floor manager saw he brought them the plate and we had a great laugh about it afterwards.
    via u/ThrowRA020204
  • 03
    Mollythemuttsdad I was 15 years old and a bus boy at an Italian restaurant. The owner of this restaurant was a little short stocky, bald guy named Rocco. Rocco ran his ship like he owns his servers. He came in one day and screamed at them all and told them they were all terrible! Four of them walked out and it was busy Friday night. Rocco looked at me and said you
    via u/Mollythemuttsdad
  • 04
    stick with me and I'll turn you into a server. I said yes, boss. Well, part of my job that night was to help him run food to the tables and he asked me to carry a tray of six glasses of red wine to another table that was seated right by the window. Well, me being a 15-year-old kid I got a little spooked by something in my peripheral vision, which caused me to accidentally drop six glasses
    via u/Mollythemuttsdad
  • 05
    of wine all over two ladies in there, white and peach dresses, all down the back and all down the front and all over their laps and the chairs and part of the table. My first instinct was oh my gosh, I have to get a towel! I went behind the bar and there were no towels, so I ran to the kitchen. I saw the stack of towels next to the dish pit. Also next to that stack of towels was the exit
    via u/Mollythemuttsdad
  • 06
    door. I chose the exit door and I walked out and decided to end my career. Unfortunately, I was only 15 and I rode my bike to this restaurant and I locked it up out front. So I had to walk around the restaurant and try to stealthfully unlock my bike and get the f out of there. Remember this table
    via u/Mollythemuttsdad
  • 07
    was seated right by the front window, and my bike was literally right in front of this table on the other side of the window. While I was figuring out the combination, I just happened to look up and I saw the entire table point and I could read their lips. when most of them were
    via u/Mollythemuttsdad
  • 08
    saying "THERE HE IS" luckily I just got my lock undone and I hopped on my bike and was able to get out. The bike lock didn't make it though.
    via u/Mollythemuttsdad
  • 09
    okiidokiismokii we had a charcuterie board that had these little round goat cheese bus and they weren't squished onto the flat slate platter enough. so when I went to set it on the table, one of the little cheese bal's rolled off the plate and into this lady's purse and the worst part is that I had to TELL HER because they were talking and didn't see it happen
    via u/okiidokiismokii
  • 10
    Hot_Scallion_3889 One time I zoned out when I went to refill someone's water, looked up, made eye contact with the people. whose waters I intended to refill, and then realized I was pouring water into an empty glass on an unbussed table
    via u/Hot_Scallion_3889
  • 11

    Oh yikes, the kitchen staff will need to hear about this one

    M... I had no control over this but.....I delivered completely raw cold in the middle chicken strips and watched in horror as he took a bite and literal pink raw chicken was pulled out of his mouth.....on his birthday.......edit:it was a child lol
    via u/Majestic_You_7399
  • 12
    Willowx19stop I was walking to go to the bathroom because it was that time and I needed to do a change and my boss said I need you to take these people's drink order first and I'm like OK fine so I went walking over to their table and I went to pull my order pad out of my apron pocket, and my pad flew out up into
    via u/Willowx19stop
  • 13
    the air and landed on their table And everyone stared at me and then they all started laughing at me. And then I started laughing too, and then they were all joking with me thank God it was a group of ladies.
    via u/Willowx19stop
  • 14
    crazy-underwear Today I had a lady allergic to pepper and we had to replace her dish twice because the kitchen effed up. Then once I finally brought her the right dish, out of habit, I said "would you like some fresh pepper?".
    via u/crazy-underwear
  • 15
    midrangebaker One really busy night I was picking up the phone in between tables. I grabbed the phone and read the caller ID, and said thank you for calling "restaurant" this is Kevin speaking, except I'm not Kevin. The person calling was Kevin. I'm a woman and my customer service voice definitely
    via u/midrangebaker
  • 16
    backs that up Imao. They called to say they were running late. Yes, of course they were assigned to my section and yes they called me Kevin all night
    via u/midrangebaker
  • 17
    ur_moms_gyno Tipped a whole a tray - about a dozen drinks, down a seated customer's back. Totally soaked him.
    via u/ur_moms_gyno
  • 18
    Confident_Weird... My first week or so serving, had a 6 top who all ordered wings. Fairly normal family, except for one man. He was huge. Like easily 6'5, wearing all black, big ol beard, lots of tattoos. He was intimidating to me at the time lol. I go to run the wings, the floors had been freshly waxed two days before, and they were original hardwood in a very
    via u/Confident_Weird5739
  • 19
    old building so the floors were pretty uneven. I get everyone's food out perfectly, I go back to grab the last two sets of wings, set the one down, go to walk around to sit the man's wings down when I caught a bad part of the floor, fell face first and practically launched the hot wings and ranch at this man. I mean, he was covered. Ranch and wing sauce in his face,
    via u/Confident_Weird5739
  • 20
    beard and clothes. I was 15 and it was my first job so I was TERRIFIED this man was gonna go ballistic on me so I immediately got back up, apologized profusely, went to grab wet towels and brought them back only for him to be like "hey, I'm fine and it's not a big deal but your nose is bl ding!". And mind you, one of the cooks in the kitchen had said I was
    via u/Confident_Weird5739
  • 21
    blading but they liked to mess with us so I thought they were joking and just ran back out too focused on getting this guy cleaned up and getting him new wings. I'm still embarrassed about it to this day
    via u/Confident_Weird5739
  • 22
    Cheezburger Image 10523002368
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

     

  • 23

    Oh no... that must've taken forever to wash out of his hair!

    saltnpepper11020 Spilled a plate of olive oil on a guys head
    via u/saltnpepper11020
  • 24
    xXKittyzXx when i was 17 i reached into my apron to give my 4 top elderly group a pen for the check and handed them my retainer instead. i literally could not recover from it no joke could save me, nothing.
    via u/xXKittyzXx
  • 25
    and i will never forget the way they looked at me.... İ was running on 2 hours of sleep and a 5 hour energy that day but i still have no idea how i even f ed up that bad.
    via u/xXKittyzXx
  • 26
    I_am_dean I had a tray with 6 fried seafood platters (all on cast- iron skillets and wooden planks) the tray was HEAVY. Another server squeezed past me, I lost my balance. and they all slid off the tray, onto a 2 year old. She was screaming, covered in tartar sauce and grease. Luckily, none of the giants. skillets hit her in the head.
    via u/I_am_dean
  • 27
    nytypica The kitchen had been inadvertently topping up squeeze bottles that were supposed to be ketchup with sriracha. A guest ended up with very spicy fish and chips. I went back to the kitchen, let them know what the situation was, and they were super apologetic and gave me a second bottle of ketchup; dear reader, it was also mostly sriracha. This all
    via u/nytypica
  • 28
    happened in like 10 minute intervals because the guest was seated on a patio that was downstairs from the kitchen in a parking lot. Oh, and the table were also my parents' neighbours. Fun!
    via u/nytypica
  • 29
    Key-Current-3653 i dropped a skillet plate full of hot eggs & sausage on someone's lap my very first day of food running. i apologized profusely, then went to a bathroom stall to cry when she came in otp with someone talking about how i burnt her legs :\
    via u/Key-Current-3653
  • 30
    Minimum_Friend_... I dumped a bottle of miller lite on a 7 year old girl. On her birthday. Happy birthday b.
    via u/Minimum_Friend_5029
  • 31

    Being kind to the staff can really pay off

    litrecola_ 1. High End restaurant in Scotland. Chateaubriand tableside. Everything is going great, plates are set, now time to carve. When I got to the last cut, I guess my wrist twitched and I fired the end of the steak against the window with my knife by
    via u/litrecola_
  • 32
    accident. My assistant saw it happen and quickly grabbed it off the window with a napkin. Only 1 guy noticed. He got a very hefty scotch after the meal because he didn't say a thing.
    via u/litrecola_
  • 33
    2. Young server in fine dining in the Canadian rockies. Old lady asked me what a capsicum was late 90's so no phones). I being Canadian had zero clue and I quickly told her that it was a mushroom. I then ran into the kitchen and told the sous to put all sorts of mushrooms on
    via u/litrecola_
  • 34
    the dish because she liked them. Later at the bar I bought the line 2 jugs of beer.
    via u/litrecola_
  • 35
    Cheezburger Image 10523002112
    via Amir Hossein Daraie on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 36
    Fear0742 I've dropped 4 full margaritas in someone's lap on the patio. I couldn't say sorry and I'll be right back fast enough. If they heard how hard I was laughing as I explained this to my manager, I probably would've been fired with the complaint.
    via u/Fear0742
  • 37
    I didn't do this, but witnessed it. One of our servers dropped a plate that can hold a 15lb turkey, containing 3 enchiladas, a taco, a relleno and a tamale, as well as 2 sides, right into some nice woman purse cuz she burnt her wrist on the plate. Same sh, absolutely lost it laughing so hard I had to go outside.
    via u/Fear0742
  • 38
    UnintentionallyA... I blurted out for a no tip peak co id for a $250 order. "Thanks that's how we pay our rent!" He had his wife call to complain instead of him speaking to me.
    via u/UnintentionallyAmbi
  • 39
    -PrincessPumpkin- This happened about a week ago, so it's fresh in my mind unfortunately. I was taking out a (very full, very heavy) bag of linens. The route to take out bottles and linens is through the narrow hallway where our bathrooms are located, and out the back door. Because the linen bag was heavier than normal, I had to
    via u/-PrincessPumpkin-
  • 40
    kind of leapfrog it because I couldn't lift it high enough to carry it the whole way. So I would pick it up, swing it forward, then plop it down. again until I got there. I saw there was a lady waiting for the bathrooms, so I stopped to say "excuse me, I'm just gonna squeeze by you sorry". Somehow during that interaction, I moved my foot forward and stepped on the corner of the
    via u/-PrincessPumpkin-
  • 41
    linen bag. So when I went to pick it up, I pulled hard, but the bag obviously didn't move with me. The momentum of that sent me flying forward in true faceplant style, and I ended up in a position with my torso on the floor and my legs on the linen bag. The woman was RIGHT next to me. She did not ask me if I was okay or offer to help me up. She just glared down
    via u/-PrincessPumpkin-
  • 42
    at me like I had massively inconvenienced her (I didn't touch her, only fell down right next to her). And of course right then, the person currently in the bathroom opened the door to find me sprawled out in front of the doorway. Thankfully it was my coworker who helped me to my feet. We had a good laugh about it later.
    via u/-PrincessPumpkin-
  • 43
    Crystalwl 9 I said Greek Greek dip instead of
    via u/Crystalw****9
  • 44
    Cheezburger Image 10523002624
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 45
    000-f This was my 4th or 5th shift at my first ever serving job. I was starting to get a little more confident, so I walked up to my table and said, "hey ladies, how's everything?" One of the "ladies" was a man. I tried to cover my a by saying, "I'm so sorry, my mom has that same sweater." Absolutely made it worse.
    via u/000-f
  • 46
    Thankfully, the wife thought it was hilarious, and she tipped me really well. I'm also gonna nonchalantly mention time I got during Friday fish fry and dropped a massive stack of plates on the way to the dish pit. I would go into more detail, but I don't remember the details
    via u/000-f
  • 47
    ca... I delivered food to the wrong table. But in my defense, there is a couple that are regulars, they show up once a week and they always sit at the same table unless its occupied (its seat yourself), and they order the same thing every time. So when their food came out, I just went on autopilot and walked to the table. Then I saw another couple at their
    via u/cara1888
  • 48
    usual table and realized my mistake. Luckily, everyone laughed it off when I was like "oh this isn't yours," and i looked up and saw my regulars waving at me and laughing from a few tables. down. Lol
    via u/cara1888

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