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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/WindWalker_dt4 on 2024-06-22 03:40:19+00:00.

Very minor and petty but funny.

Working at a super fancy high-end restaurant in fine dining, the level of communication between the front-end staff (bartenders, servers, assistants, food runners, etc) is incredible. We want everything that is needed to come to the table at the same time, and we don’t want to ask a guest the same question twice.

For example with beverages, if a table is drinking all kinds of various beverages and you happen to walk by and notice one is low, the correct course of action is actually to not go up to the guest to ask if they’d like another because at that point you don’t know what they’re having. The guest has already told the establishment what they’re having so going up and saying “what did you have again” detracts from the experience. I know this seems minor but the correct course is to find the assistant, or the server, or pull up the table in the POS and see, so that when you do go up and ask the correct questions, "would you like another Old Fashioned with extra " or whatever, specifically naming the drink and modifications.

The same can happen even for a side of ketchup or aioli. The basic process will be, “was it supposed to come with it and kitchen/expo forgot to put in on the plate?”, or, “did the guest ask for it and the server forgot to add it in there”, or, “did the guest just decide to order it later and we just need it asap”.

Normally when the food is dropped off the person in charge is supposed to ask if everything looks okay and if they can bring anything else.

Enter our guest Bob.

Bob has already been asking for his water and tea to be refilled when it was still above the threshold for us noticing it (when it was like 70-80% full), and would flag down multiple people until it got refilled. No big deal, one assistant would grab a pitcher and refill, while another assistant would grab another pitcher and see that the glass was full and just walk away. Same thing for lemons. This became annoying.

Bob sees his steak and fries which came with an aioli (as shown on the menu) but he wants ketchup. No big deal. Small request. He asks the person dropping off the food. It is communicated and noted and will be out shortly. Next, the assistant comes to offer beverage refills. Bob asks for ketchup. It is noted. Next, the server does a visual quality check and Bob asks for ketchup. You can see where this is going. This all happens in less than 2 minutes if that long. Bob ended up asking 4 separate people for ketchup, and given the urgency of bringing out a side after food has arrived, all 4 people end up congregating in the service area to put tiny little porcelain ketchup pour cups onto silver serving dishes. Now each one of those cups is designed to be shared by 2 people. So, the conversation begins,

• Food runner: hey, what are you guys up to? I’m grabbing that ketchup for Table 12 Seat 2
• Server Assistant: oh, that’s funny, I was also going to grab a ketchup for #12 seat 2
• Server: funny, they asked me for it too and I was running over here to grab it
• Another server: oh hey I got flagged down by Table 12 to grab a ketchup

so… enough is enough… the guy clearly wants ketchup…

We decided all of us would give the guest exactly he asked for. So, in all glory, all 4 of us come back out with our silver serving trays and everything, one at a time, each giant silver serving tray holding just a single side of ketchup, dropping off 4 separate ketchup dishes, 15 seconds apart. Bob realized what he did once he got enough ketchup for 8 people. We left all the ketchups just sitting there throughout the entree course. Of course this was not unnoticed by other guests who very humorously asked funny questions and if that’s how Bob eats his steak. We made sure that the ketchups were the very last things off the table before it was time for dessert. He barely used a single one.

At the end of the day Bob did not leave hungry, the guests were not un-entertained, and neither were we.

TLDR; guy asked 4 separate people for ketchup, all 4 people brought out a side of ketchup, one after another. Bob got 8 people’s worth of ketchup.

[edit] grammar, details