'We microwaved her salad': 15+ bizarre requests for servers from entitled customers

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jul 5, 2025 2:00 PM EDT

Some customers are so picky that you wonder why they even eat at restaurants. If you're so particular about how something is prepared, you might consider whether or not it's easier to just stay home and make something for yourself… since only you know what you like the most. That being said, we are sympathetic to folks with dietary restrictions and more common requests like asking to hold the cheese or swapping fries for a salad. 

Still, there is always a line that delineates a decent and understandable request from an unfair and outlandish one. These servers understand that line all too well. They shared the most memorable and straight-up bizarre requests they ever received from entitled customers while working a shift. These requests include a story in which someone asked for a salad to be heated up repeatedly until the servers had to put it in the microwave to satisfy the customer's needs. Then, there's the person who insisted that chicken was vegetarian, and the other customer who asked for chopsticks at a Mexican restaurant. At least that last one was an accident! Keep scrolling below for the full collection of stories!

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    Cheezburger Image 10525523456
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

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

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    [de... We had a woman send a grilled chicken salad back because it was cold. So we cooked some new chicken and made sure to send it back while still warm. She sent it back again. The entire salad wasn't hot enough for her. We microwaved her salad. She ate it. I don't know man.
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    shadowgnome396. Once a very thin, middle aged woman came in. She couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds soaking wet. She asked what our
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    biggest steak was. I told her it was the 24 oz. ribeye. She said, "okay I'll have that." Our steaks came with two sides, so I asked which ones she'd like. She said "I don't want sides." I told her they were included in the price, and she still refused them.
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    I bring out her steak and she begins eating. She's about a third of the way through when I ask, "How is everything?" She says, "Great. Bring me another steak." I say "Is there anything wrong with that one?" She says, "No, it's great. I want a second one."
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    I go back to the chef and tell him, and he couldn't believe it. But we served her another steak. She ate all 48 oz. of steak and left me a $40 tip.
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    jreed356. Honestly, I'd say the weirdest thing was that while I was a server at a restaurant in the Royal Hawaiian, a guest asked me to book a shark adventure tour. It had nothing to do
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    with my job or even the hotel. Those tours were entirely separate businesses. I took his black card, went to guest services, picked up a pamphlet, and booked the tour. He tipped me $250 dollars. Totally worth it!
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    [deleted] ⚫ A middle aged lady insisted she didn't like soda water or sparkling water so instead asked for a white wine spritzer without the white wine... there are two ingredients to a white wine spritzer. White wine and soda water.
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    ⚫eDgAR- . I used to work at a Japanese restaurant and I once had someone come up to me and ask me if we had any low sodium soy sauce. The request itself was not so strange and I gave him the bottle we kept behind the counter. The strange thing was what he used the soy sauce for, which was pouring some of it into his Pepsi.
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    Cheezburger Image 10525523712
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

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

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    Sunless Tatooine "Chicken is vegetarian." Lady orders pizza with chicken, for the table. Rest of the table argued with her that they're vegetarians. She can have chicken on her own pizza with chicken. She
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    replied chicken is vegetarian... refused to understand that her friends were trying to get a vegetarian meal.
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    ReturnOfTheBanned One time at a Mexican restaurant my brain glitched and I asked for chopsticks. Poor girl froze up and said, "I'll... ask my manager but... | don't think we have those..."
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  • I'll be real here. This next one reminds me too much of family members of mine. It is always anxiety-inducing to sit at a table while they ask for an item to be prepared so differently than how it is written on the menu that with each new request, I just want to sink deeper and deeper into the floor!

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    wooldoor2. "can I have the chicken salad please, but instead of corn I want peppers, instead of raisins, dates, and instead of pineapple, apple. Ah, and no chicken, thank you!"
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    himechans⚫ i used to work at olive garden. there was a lady that would come in at least once a week and she was dubbed by us staff as "pepperoncini lady". she would want you to open a new bag of the pepperoncini's we used in
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    the salads and pour out the juice in a cup, she would literally straight up drink the juice. she would also get a bowl of pepperoncinis and just eat them.
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    tehvillageidiot ⚫ I had a couple that told me to wait before I prebussed their table so the man could lick every plate clean first. They had multiple apps and entrees between them and he licked every single one CLEAN before I was allowed to take it.
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    They weren't in a private booth or anything. The other guests could see this happening.
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    cannotaccessorize. Years ago I worked at this amazing Breton French creperie in San Francisco, phenomenal food with a pretty small menu. Guy comes in and orders a sweet crepe with vanilla ice cream.
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    No biggie. Then he wants to add a sunny side up egg and parsley to this crepe. I ask him a number of times if he's sure he knows what he's getting and that it's not 2 separate crepes (1 sweet and 1 savory). He assures me. Of
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    course when I ring it in, the kitchen thinks I made a mistake to which I assure them, it's not a mistake. I bring out said "vanilla ice cream with sunny side up egg" crepe and the client DEVOURS it. Weird.
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    pm_.... Not a server but my grandma would bring in her own bread to restaurants and ask them to toast it as a side for her breakfast.
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    Jackal209 · A whole bottle of fish sauce. And they used the whole bottle of fish sauce.
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    pollypocketp Chili dog, sub chicken noodle soup for chili. She took a bite and said "oh, I made a mistake."
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    jjwax. A grilled cheese, atkins style (this was like early 2000s) My boss told me to microwave 3 slices of cheese and charge her $8 for it. She was thrilled
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workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace server work restaurant server life restaurant work tales from your server toxic-work-environment
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