Restaurant workers divulge the weirdest ways customers tried to get a free meal: 'A woman with long, straight black hair found a long, straight black hair in her food'

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Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Nov 18, 2025 9:00 AM EST

By virtue of involving the general public, all customer-facing industries come with their fair share of struggles and horror stories. 

It has to be said, though, that food service seems to have the highest proportion of truly intolerable customers. Perhaps it is just because people are hangry, or they believe that they can push the boundaries more when eating out, but there are a lot of people who go to bars, restaurants, and takeout places and proceed to act on the worst behavior.

While the tips may (sometimes) be good for servers and other similar members of staff, it can be a toss-up as to whether it is really worth it when certain customers walk through the door. It may all be part of the job, but it is far from enjoyable. The one good thing is that at least the most egregious people can give somebody a good story to tell.

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  • 01
    a man wearing a flat cap and glasses bends over a work surface to cut a pizza with a pizza cutter
    via Benu Marinescu

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

  • In this case, food service employees came together to reminisce on the strangest ways that customers had tried to get their place of work to give them a free meal. Involving lots of putting weird stuff in food and occasionally, just blatant entitlement, it is fair to say that many of these examples make you wonder why they thought that such actions would be successful. While those eating at an establishment have to worry about hygiene behind the scenes, those who work there have to deal with stuff like this.

  • 02

    What's the weirdest way someone tried to get a free meal?

    Chart House, Greenwich, CT, 1992 Old Man eats 85% of his prime rib and claims he found a bolt stuck in the meat. But the bolt in question was shiny, new and perfectly clean,j ust inserted 1/2" into the piece that was left behind. I tried to point out that in order for it to end up that way he would have had to somehow cut through the bolt yet leave it completely clean and undamaged. He walked out with no bill (and no tip) because what are we going to do, argue?
    via Been3Years
  • 03
    tastepdad My local Chinese restaurant had so many people say they didn't get the right amount of shrimp in their shrimp fried rice that installed a camera to prove that 5 large shrimp got put on top of the order, watch it get counted by no less than two people, and the customers name written on the container. People would still take the time to drive back to the restaurant, and try to get a free shrimp or two.
    via tastepdad
  • 04
    The owner started to ban people, and word got around so it's calmed down quite a bit, but she told me she's about ready to just not offer shrimp on the menu anymore. Never once has anyone said there's not enough chicken or pork, just shrimp.
    via tastepdad
  • 05
    Melodic_Bet4220 Had an order of onion rings go out last night. We were training a new employee and there was a running joke about how many onion rings go in a side order. The whole kitchen counted out loud as we put them on a plate. "ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR! FIVE! The waitress was standing there watching us do this. She took it to the table.
    via Melodic_Bet4220
  • 06
    She came back after checking with them and said "the customer wants a new order because they said they only got four onion rings". We all looked at each other and started yelling "LIAR!" People like this make me sick.
    via Melodic_Bet4220
  • 07
    fleshybagofstardust Mr. Diamond would come in before dinner service and reserve table 111 and purchase a bottle of Dom Perignon and tell the staff to bring it to the table when he and his date of the month arrived and tell him that it was a gift from the chef. He would act all surprised and grateful in front of his date.
    via fleshybagofstardust
  • 08
    mooroi Had a woman pick up a handful of pebbles from the car park, "surreptitiously" put them into her salad then loudly complain about pebbles. She was invited into the managers office to deal with it privately. Manager had CCTV on a loop of her picking up stones, putting them from handbag onto plate and asked if she would like to continue with complaint or leave. Only time we were happy owner had CCTV cover ever fucking inch of that restaurant.
    via mooroi
  • 09
    luckymountain Guy eats 90% of his meal and calls me over. Shows me a clean piece of plate (window) glass (about a 2 inch triangle) and claimed it was in his food and he bit on it. I told him there's no glass like that in the kitchen and he didn't push it. Asshat
    via luckymountain
  • 10
    BBQQA I was working at a bar/pizza place on a US Army base... I had a soldier try to get a free pizza by saying "can I get it free, I'm going off to war soon." Like sir, 95% of the clientele are going to Iraq or Afghanistan after this. We cannot do that or we'd go out of business.
    via BBQQA
  • 11
    Dietslurm5925 Worked at an ice cream shop and a dude fished a waffle cone out of the garbage can outside, came inside, and tried to convince us his scoop fell off and he needed a new one.
    via Dietslurm5925
  • 12
    Chefmom61 Sometimes we get women who come in and film their whole experience as influencers then expect us to comp them.
    via Chefmom61
  • 13
    Grand-Painting7637 I used to work at a pizzeria. A customer had ordered an extra large pizza and loaded it with toppings. After it had been delivered, they called back stating the entire pizza order was incorrect and demanded their money back and wanted their "correct" order. So we requested them to bring in the pizza for proof and we would gladly give them their correct order with a refund. The customer came
    via Grand-Painting7637
  • 14
    back with a box of only the pizza crust. With a short, "I'm sorry but you ate the entire pizza," they said "okay, that's fine" and ordered 2 more of the same pizza. It was worth a shot.
    via Grand-Painting7637
  • 15
    cablife A woman with long, straight black hair found a long, straight black hair in her food. Immediately blamed us and demanded it be comped. Both me and the other cook have shaved heads. The expo/runner was a black guy with a short flattop cut, and her server was platinum blonde.
    via cablife
  • 16
    She was really rude about it, and was even showing neighboring tables, who clearly weren't buying it either, to try and stir the pot. Thankfully the FOH manager had a spine and called her on it. She loudly said she would never dine here again. The manager literally said "Good! Get out!".
    via cablife
  • 17
    TeMoko There was a case in Aussie probably almost 20 years ago now where a family tries to claim there was human poo in their dessert but they were on camera with one member of the family suspiciously going to the bathroom at the time. I think they ended up going to court over it, not sure what the outcome was.
    via TeMoko
  • 18
    starsforged someone tried to claim they'd found a slug in their food, after we'd all seen it sit clean and clear on the pass only a few minutes prior before being taken out to their seats outside in the garden. surely they wouldn't have just picked it up outside and stuck it on the plate after eating most of it...
    via starsforged
  • 19
    Mini_Chives This was a long time ago. It was not a meal but I saw a guy shove his hand into the trash can for a cup and ask me for a free refill but I told him the full price of the drink. He left.
    via Mini_Chives
  • 20
    The Timeless Traveler Kinda the opposite, a long time ago I was at a tango show & restaurant in Argentina & I found an industrial staple in my meal. Called the waiter over and he proceeded to push the food around to cover the obvious staple on the plate. He kept playing stupid saying "where where I don't see anything". I didn't want a free meal either (had no desire to eat there after that), I just wanted to let them know. Oh well.
    via TheTimelessTraveler

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