Customer orders food, and when she doesn't like it, she decides to talk with her mouth full to the server and then spit it in a napkin for the server to pick it up: 'It’s like some people have never stepped foot in a restaurant before.'

Author image for María Cetra
María Cetra • Writer
Jul 27, 2026 1:00 PM EDT

Why do some customers forget to have manners when talking to servers? They wouldn't like that to happen to them, would they?
 

Manners are so important. They are learned when we are children, but still some people don't have them. They are something that is almost too obvious. Don't eat with your mouth open, don't talk while you eat, don't spit the food that you don't like. This Reddit story had all of those. It actually baffles me that a customer could think that doing this is fine. You wouldn't do it at a friend's house or in front of your mother, but you think it's okay to do it in front of a server that is just trying to do her job?

These kinds of people are the reason why working in the servicing industry is so hard. If you think about it, being a server is mostly that: serve. Take an order, pass it on to the kitchen, bring it out when it's cooked, and later on bring the check. Easy peasy, right? Well, no. The job involves having to talk to people, and that is almost always a problem. You have the customers that complain about everything, the ones that expect you to read their mind, and even the ones that think that they can completely mistreat you just because they will pay a bill for their food. People, that is the problem of being a server. Isn't it crazy that a job that seems so simple can become so awful by just having customers that don't know how to behave?

Can't we, customers, be better? Can't we stop expecting to be treated as kings and queens and act normal? Be kind? Have manners? Is that really so hard? If we all thought before speaking and treated people with the respect they deserved, then jobs like this one could go back to being simple. Servers deserve that. So if you act somewhat like these examples, stop it, take a look at yourself, and be better. Nobody deserves to be putting up with this kind of attitude, no matter what their job is. 
 

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  • 01
    had a customer order a scallop ceviche today, i went over a few minutes after i dropped the plates at their table to check on how they were finding the food. i work at a fine dining restaurant with high service standards and our clients are usually fairly distinguished. she clicked her fingers to beckon me over to her side of the table and started talking some gibberish with her mouth full. she then proceeds to hand me her used napkin and spit a piece of chewed up scallop on
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  • 02
    A woman eating a hamburger at a restaurant. Representation.
    via Alex Haney

    A woman eating a hamburger at a restaurant. 

    Representation.

  • 03
    to it. she then tells me it's not her thing and i should take the plate and the eaten scallop back into the kitchen. it's like some people have never stepped foot in a restaurant before. it's so utterly disrespectful to the whole restaurant and i can't believe something i actually experienced.
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  • 04
    OriginalFNG Gross. Sorry that happened to you. If I may respectfully offer a humble piece of advice: If people try to hand you a used napkin, don't accept it. Apply broadly.
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  • 05
    TermAggravating8043 Had a women come in that was already clearly grumpy about something else. She ordered a plain baked potato with plenty of butter and her friend ordered a cake. She was instantly angry because the cake came first (since it was already ready and comes straight from the bar) and her potato took about 5 minutes from the kitchen. Once she got her potato she demanded to know where the butter on it was, I
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  • 06
    assured her the chef put butter on it and didn't want to be r de and point out that's it's clearly melted as that's what butter does on a hot baked potato. But she demanded I clarify with the chef that her potato had butter in it. Checked with the chef who assured me she did, but to be s good server I took individual butter portions to her table. I assured her it it was buttered but heres extra if she preferred to add more herself. At this point she hadn't even checked her baked
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  • 07
    potato but she decided that was enough and to send it back. (Took it back and yes when she checked the potato it was swimming in butter) She then demanded a cake just like her friend, ok no problem. Got her cake, she's then ped off because her cake wasn't heated. She didn't ask for it to be heated but ok we can do that fir her too but that was enough for this women to demand the manager before storming out. Some people just go out looking for
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  • 08
    a fight and unfortunately servers are target
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  • 09
    A person eating from a bowl at a restaurant, model image.
    via Farhad Ibrahimzade

    A person eating from a bowl at a restaurant, model image. 

  • 10
    cooldart61 One of my old science teachers came in once while I was working and had his toddler with. I'm not sure why, but he absolutely hated me. He would try and use trick questions during class and use it to embarrass me. He kept giving his toddler a cup full of soda and no lid. The toddler kept dumping it over the table, seats, floor. This happened twice in a row
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  • 11
    Would he try to clean up after his son or keep the cup away? Nope! But he would rush over to me and demand I clean everything up. I can still picture his smirk as he watched me clean
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  • 12
    shesgoneagain72 I've got one for you. Maybe not the worst customer I ever had but it's definitely stands out in my memory all these years later. I worked at a small Italian restaurant and I had a table of I think it was 10 or 12 people something like that, Anyway one of the ladies ordered a giant Cobb salad. So I bring everybody's entrees to the table and I set hers in front of her and she smiles up at me and says
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  • 13
    "That is beautiful now take it back to the kitchen and put it in a blender so I can eat it and busted out laughing. I thought to myself, why didn't you tell me that to begin with, you know I've got like 11 other people to take care of and you made me bring the salad out here just to tell me to take it back again so she can get a laugh from the other people at the table. I was mad at her wasting my time but I didn't say anything, I took it back they put it in a blender and I brought it back out t
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  • 14
    story. But I can't believe she didn't just tell me that from the beginning..she wanted to get a laugh from everybody else at the table. Actually she only got one or two laughs, everybody else kind of thought it was ridiculous too and that was my little win for the day lol.
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  • 15
    Emotional-Elephant88 Worked at a pizza place that had a buffet for lunch. A family would come in once a week. After binge eating for a while, the little boy would go into the bathroom, vomit, and have explosive diarrhea so he could come back out and binge eat some more.
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  • 16
    Head Razzmatazz7174 Anytime someone tried to hand me a used napkin, I told them to put it on a plate and hand it to me that way. I'm not touching that with my bare hands. If there was a small trash can nearby, I would grab that and tell them to toss it in.
    via Heavy-Obligation-778

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manners restaurant tales from your server entitled people
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