– like in the movies when the patron asks the waiter, “What’ve you got that’s not on the menu?”
How did it go? I’d think you’d have to be at a really swank place where a chef would even have something not on the menu, right? I’m not talking about advertised specials at Applebee’s or blue plate specials.
The finest establishment I ever dined in was Commander’s Palace in New Orleans, but I was just a high-schooler who wouldn’t have thought to ask.
When I lived in Banff one of the greasy spoon breakfast places had a “locals special” that wasn’t on the menu. After a good night of drinking we would head down to the diner and order a locals special and a milkshake.
Now that was a good breakfast.
Dude, I do this all the time, depending on the restaurant. There are two restaurants in Chicago that have “lissener menu.”
Not necessarily. If something used to be on the menu and someone still knows how to make it and they have the ingredients, lots of places will do things “off menu.”
Or if it’s just a substitution between ingredients that you know they have or an extensive modification of something on the menu.
I have a restaurant and I love having off menu items.
They even have special names. We love it. It is in a very touristy area and we carter to locals. This really helps alot.
But if some randomer just asks about it, it depends on the day and attitude if we will reveal them.
I have found at least one Italian restaurant in my area that will allow yu to order any of their specials - not on the standard menu - whether they are featuring them that night or not.
I also eat lunch fairly often at an individually owned '50’s style diner where I made up my own burger combo and they now just call it “the usual” when I come in. Often times, they start making it before I have placed my order.
That said, I wouldn’t try to order off-menu unless I was already fairly familiar with the restaurant and the staff and knew that they didn’t have a problem with it. I try not to be a difficult customer with people who are making and handling my food.
Ankimo, or Monkfish liver is the only thing I’ve ever ordered off menu. Tried it once in the fall, they didn’t have it. Tried it in December and I got to put some in my belly.
Also there’s this old runned down looking burger place that has a “special quesadilla” which I have ordered a few times. It’s basically a pound of tortilla, cheese, pastrami and a little bit of lettuce and tomato. Never been able to finish one though.
I think the reason I usually get a good response is I don’t go “I don’t like what you have on the menu, make me macaroni and cheese.” When I’ve gone to a restaurant enough times to become a “regular,” and I’ve tried pretty much every thing on the menu, there will be that one meal where you just can’t figure out what to order, and after consulting with the waiter and coming up dry, you say, “You know what? Ask the chef if he just wants to make me something, anything he feels like. Surprise me.”
Whatever you’re served then becomes the first item on the “lissener menu.”
If it is coming from the type of customer we want to keep we love doing this.
Yes! In fact, I have ordered “off menu” at a wedding.
I was six or seven years old at the time and a notoriously picky eater, to the point where there was a very short list of foods I would eat and would not even eat off the same plate as anything not on the list. At several restaurants and, yes, my second cousin’s wedding (where the set dinner was a chicken dish), I asked for pasta with butter. Everyone was generally able to provide it.
I’ve worked at a few restaurants - including 2 really nice ones - and people who do this are universally hated by everyone involved in catering to them, from the waitstaff, to the chefs, to the manager who has to approve it and figure out how to ring it up. It’s usually an egotistical/drunk too-frequent patron or “friend” of the owner. I personally don’t really have strong feelings about it but I’ve seen it enough to come to the conclusion that it’s almost always a “look at me, I’m special” dick move.
Well, I tend to only do it at restaurants where I feel like I’ve developed that type of relationship.
A lot of Asian restaurants will fix you off-the-menu food. It’s what they’re eating in the back.
In the one case where my husband consistently ordered off menu, it was an item he always got and he didn’t notice it wasn’t on the menu any longer until about two years after they took it off. He got a new server, the server said, “You want WHAT?” and we found out when the manager came over and explained. He said they’d still make it but they didn’t keep the ingredients any longer.
If that sort of thing makes us dicks, I can live with it.
One of the local bistros has a couple of off-menu items that they’re always able to whip up if you happen to ask.
My favourite is the Quack N’ Track, which is duck confit and a small horse steak. It’s not a particularly well-kept secret, mind you… the servers will mention it if you ask to hear the specials and don’t look like you’ll freak out at the thought of horse meat.
I’d only order off-menu if it’s a “secret” menu item like the above or an old favourite that they’ve decided to take off the menu, though. If I don’t like what they’re offering, then I’m probably better off going someplace else rather than demand that they make something I do like.
O . . . K . . . if you want to be offended, I certainly can’t stop you, but I don’t see how you could interpret what I said to apply to your situation. Free country and all, though.
I order off-menu if there’s no vegetarian option on the menu. I try to be really polite and explain the situation and it always works out. I’ve had some delicious dinners that way.
And then there’s the “secret menu” at In-n-Out.
With all that salad on it, no wonder 
When The Kiddo was younger, we used to order off-menu for him fairly often. We frequently go to restaurants that don’t have a Child’s Menu, so we would ask for “pasta with meat or marinara sauce”. We never had a problem.
If you don’t want to make blanket pronouncements, don’t make blanket pronouncements about the universality of things.
I’ve also asked for substitutions or additions or leaving things out. “Can X be made with Y?” “I used to get Z; can I still order Z?”
An example of the latter is the onion things at Ruby Tuesday. We’ve only been to Ruby Tuesday twice. The first time, they had onion petals. The second time they weren’t on the menu. My husband asked if he could still get them and the server said sure.