In this day and age, it’s basically common knowledge that you can really make a meme out of everything. Indeed, the more people share some experience, be it living in a certain city or working a specific kind of job, the more likely one is to find a whole crop of memes about it.
We’ve gathered a collection of hilarious memes and posts from restaurant workers that might be painfully relatable if you have ever worked in the food service industry. We also got in touch with personal trainer & nutrition coach Graeme Tomlinson from The Fitness Chef to learn more about cooking if these posts put you off of eating out.
More info: The Fitness Chef
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I know the owner so well I've seen him blackout drunk at the company Christmas party. Care to compare notes?
Bored Panda got in touch with personal trainer & nutrition coach Graeme Tomlinson from The Fitness Chef to learn a bit about nutrition preparing meals at home. First and foremost, we wanted to hear his opinion on meals that can be easily made at home.
“If you're just starting out cooking your own meals, I recommend keeping it as simple as possible. One pan recipes with few ingredients or slow cooker recipes are great for this to become confident that what you cook tastes good! Good tasting food is often all in the seasoning so make sure you season it!”
I think it' s only problematic when it's not done right. I was once eating out with a friend and some of her friends I didn't know yet, and they tried to be helpful - I think - but stacked the plates still with food scraps, napkins, and the cutlery on each of them. There was no way somebody could just grab that and carry it away without something dropping. Otherwise, I think any waiter will be happy about it.
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Most here (NL) don't want you to do that, because they have their own way of stacking the stuff on their arms and hands. They would need to re-sort the plates, with some of them being greasy, sticky or dirty on the bottom, resulting in greasy, sticky or dirty arms or sleeves.
This, in the Netherlands, don't do that. A stack of plates needs to be picked up with two hands and you can't carry more than that. A single plate can be picked up and stacked in the arm into a stack. Yes, put all scraps and rubbish on one plate, set it at an easy to reach place, but Do Not Stack!!! Also don't hand stuff unless it's clear what they want to get. Giving a bowl when they are 3 more plates to stack doesn't help.
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I thought servers don’t like that, because it can make carrying the plates awkward
Some do, some don’t. A lot depends on how you do it. What seems to be most universally hated is putting trash in the drinking glasses, because they have to fish it out by hand.
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I always do this. When I was a waitress the absolute worst thing was having to pick up a plate with one hand where they had smeared their food all around the rim so there wasn't any clear spot for my thumb - just gross, and with an audience of silent customers too! When you stack like this the wait staff can pick it up with two hands from underneath - much better for avoiding wrist strain too.
Tell them you (once) worked in hospo, without telling them you worked in hospo.
Recently read an article that said wait staff does NOT like when you do this, it's messy and they have a preferred way to do that. Who knows.
Cutlery goes in a tall water glass and the rest is rudimentary. Cleaner plates near the bottom of stack, scrape off food from other plates and put the waste where it's not going to cause a problem. I've even taken my utensils back to the "jump" when I've enjoyed myself but I'm more for cooking my own meals so a non-issue but, each to their own I suppose.
So you scrape the plates on to the top plate, stack them and pile in the cutlery and the server comes and there is a suggested tip of 18, 22 or 25% to pay?
This maybe ok in the US, but in the UK it would not be etiquette. Not sure about in a little cafe though.
My sister was a server for almost thirty years. She does this whenever we go out to eat, it’s like she can’t help herself.
My wife does this and I can't break her of the habit. She insists she knows how to stack the plates properly.
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I always do this. Most of my friends and family are like what are you doing. But one time I had a waitress thank me, so I normally try to it.
Never ever try to "help" the staff like this. The only option for the staff here is to pick up the pile of plates with two hands, leaving zero hands free.
I do that while my dining partners huff. "This isn't cleaned yet!" "Get out of my way, she'll be here in a sec. Let's make it easier for her."
Me too. I didn't even notice the plates and wondered what was so special about it.
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We were also curious to hear what cooking hacks he can recommend for people just starting out who might not be confident enough yet. “Frozen fruit and vegetables might not be great to eat on their own compared to fresh counterparts, but they are much cheaper and also last longer,” he shared with Bored Panda.
Depending on the table, you may be wishing them "unsafe" travels on the way home. I'm remembering a specific group who showed up drunk AF and kept going. I wasn't their server but I inherited this massively overserved table when their guy left. Almost two hours after close and the floor manager still wouldn't let me pull drinks. That particular server has a very dark place in hell reserved for him.
“Frozen veg can easily be added to stews, casseroles, curries and many more dishes easily. Some microwave ready meals get slated for being bad for you, but in moderation these can be a convenient way to get energy in when you have limited time,” he added, as a good way to bulk out home meals.
“Homemade sauces are quite straightforward to make at home. Your best friend here will be google. For example, you can make your own satay sauce with 3 ingredients: peanut butter, soy sauce and water. I guarantee it will taste better than the shop bought version. In the case of Japanese cooking, adding rice vinegar, garlic, lime juice and soy sauce can spruce up the taste considerably.”
Clopen. A close and then open shift. Night me "That's a tomorrow me problem!" Morning.."who the f**k left this mess?" Cry-laugh.
Even more fun when you work family dining and it's a kid in the way.
I'm actually so glad I've been given the chance to work a minimum wage job as a teen. Even if I don't have to survive off of just my own money, its an important lesson in empathy. My dad never worked a minimum wage job and sadly you can tell by the way he talks about workers.
Used to work with this one waiter. He would disappear for like half an hour at a time. His tables would be asking for refills or to cash out and they hadn't seen him for a while. "Have you seen our waiter? We haven't seen him for a while". Every damn night. Turns out he was downstairs in the brewery playing his guitar because he was high on LSD and or Ecstasy and he liked the sound resonating off the beer tanks. We fired him for theft. Found out years later that he burned his face off making candles on his kitchen table.
Should ask for a side of balsamic next time.. "side of balls!" kitchen talk can be rude and funny
Fun thing I found out during my first breakfast shift in the UK: The British write their 1s without that small horizontal line and would read a "German" 1 as a 7. Order was 1 Full English.
Even worse when you're the closer and you can't leave until they leave. I shut that open sign off at 11PM on the dot.
Ugh the soda room is the grossest place in any restaurant. Just a sticky ocean of dried soda syrup.
Happened to me when I was just a busser and I kept picking up the barback shifts. within a couple months I had ALL his shifts and was making twice as much money and I'm pretty sure he's homeless.
When I was a hostess I did my best to seat everyone equally in each server's section. But I couldn't help it when everyone wanted to sit by the window and not at the back near the kitchen. I was always low key getting threatened by servers who had the unpopular section that day.
It's worse when you get those fake hundreds with bible verses on the back. I worked at a brunch place in college and every Effing Sunday. Bible quotes can't feed the waitress' kids a-hole.
Had a person with a full list of allergies, like a whole paper full. Note that this was a one week "hotal/camping" (you could do courses there like painting or dancing) with dinner everyday, meaning the same awful customers for a full week
Had a person with a full list of allergies, like a whole paper full. Note that this was a one week "hotal/camping" (you could do courses there like painting or dancing) with dinner everyday, meaning the same awful customers for a full week
