Dear Plain Omelette Lady,
Update: It’s been about 7 months since I’ve quit my job as a barista and started working as a waitress. I know I haven’t posted in a while, but I’m going to try my best to keep you updated on my crazy customer experiences (and boy do I have a lot of them).
Dear Plain Omelette Lady,
Every Saturday and Sunday the restaurant I work at gets slammed. This is mainly because we offer our brunch specials that range from fried chicken and waffles to cinnamon roll pancakes, to a variety of omelettes.
Already I’m a little overwhelmed because I’m working a fast-paced section that continuously gets seated. By the time my guests leave, the table is already being cleaned, set, and sat again. While I generally try my best to greet a new table within a minute or so of them being seated, I also try to check in on my other tables by grabbing drink refills, clearing plates, or putting in orders.
We’re in the middle of our brunch peak and these three women get sat at one of my tables. Before I can even greet the women, a host comes up to me and says, “One of the women at table sixty-one is diabetic, can you grab her some bread?” Despite being in the middle of something, I run to the kitchen, cut some bread, and bring it to the table. Within seconds of putting the bread on the table, one of the older women, who I’m assuming is a great aunt, says to me, “My niece needs to eat as soon as possible. We need to order.”
I take out my server book and pen to start taking down orders and the niece goes, “I don’t even know what I want yet.” So I respond with, “No worries at all. Can I grab you something to drink?”
The women put in their drink orders and I go grab them. One of the women ordered an iced green tea. Whenever anyone orders an iced green tea we’re supposed to put a mint leaf as a garnish, but 99% of the time no one wants the garnish and they just end up throwing it on the table, so I leave the garnish out.
Before I can even open my mouth, the woman says, “Where’s the mint leaf?” Knowing it was my fault, I apologize and go grab a mint leaf for her. Of course, with my luck and with 50,000 other things I need to do, there are no mint leaves in the kitchen. So, I run over to the bar to grab some.
I return with the mint leaf and ask the women if they’re ready to order. The first woman orders one of our speciality omelettes with bacon, swiss, mushroom, and spinach. The third woman orders our other speciality omelette with avocado, ham, bacon, sour cream, salsa, and 10 other different ingredients. It comes time for the niece to order her omelette and she gets a plain American cheese omelette with no sides and requests hot sauce when it comes out. As I’m taking the order, the women keep saying over and over, “Our niece needs to eat as soon a possible. Tell them to cook it fast.” After putting in their order I let my manager know and she says, “I will definitely try my best to get it out to them as soon as possible. The omelettes cook pretty quickly but in the meantime offer her bread and orange juice.” Keep in mind, we’re still in the middle of our brunch rush and there are 40 orders on the screen. Not to mention, these women probably waited a good 45-60 minutes before getting sat so if they were in such a hurry to eat they could have gone to the 5 other restaurants in that mall that aren’t as busy.
After the women get settled in and I place their order, I return to my other tables. Within 10-15 minutes a food runner brings over one omelette and hands it to the niece. Keep in mind that whenever a food runner drops off food to a table, they always announce what the food item is. They don’t just hand it to the first guest they see. A minute or so later another food runner brings out the remaining omelettes and from the corner of my eye, I can see them yelling at her. I approach the table and say, “Is everything alright?” The niece looks at me and says, “No, it’s not. They gave me the wrong omelette and I put hot sauce all over it. Now my aunt can’t eat it.” So the niece shoves the spinach, bacon, mushroom, and swiss omelette at me. I apologize for the mistake and let them know that I will have it made again as soon as possible. While the aunt who’s omelette got sabotaged it completely okay, the niece has a giant scowl on her face, the same one she’s has since she entered the restaurant.
I go back to the kitchen with the omelette and have to explain to my manager that it needs to be remade because the women who order a plain American cheese omelette thought that the mushroom, bacon, spinach, and swiss omelette was hers. Keep in mind, THE TWO OMELETTES LOOK NOTHING ALIKE. The omelette that this woman doused her hot sauce in was filled with an abundance of ingredients in it and had two sides. The plain American cheese omelette is as flat as a sad pancake and had no sides whatsoever. HOW DO YOU MISTAKE THE TWO? YOU CAN’T.
Finally, the new omelette comes out and the women are happy, well except for the sourpuss. Throughout their whole experience, I was nice, accommodating, and even showed them more attention than I did my other tables who were still extremely pleased with their experience. I pick up the check after they leave and am confronted with a 10% tip. Am I surprised? No. Was I angry? No, but my bank account definitely was. So here are my final thoughts: DON’T GET ANGRY WHEN YOU ORDER A PLAIN AMERICAN CHEESE OMELETTE AND HIJACK YOUR AUNT’S PERFECTLY GOOD OMELETTE THAT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE YOU ORDERED. USE SOME COMMON SENSE.
