Oh yes, you are known by the staff… just not for the reasons you think. Of course they seem happy to oblige, that is their job.
You guys are the ones that Cisco is talking about… The primadonnas and the anal retentive that make life difficult for Restaurant staff. The substituters and the food neurotic. Generally, I’ve found that you people have extremely unhealthy relationships to food and numerous neuroses.
Personally, as a waiter I didn’t really have a problem with it, but I’ve found with you people, that you give an inch, inevitably you will take a mile. A mile that I and my chef had to go out of the way, to satisfy your precious, special, little selves.
What he says… remember this people.
I generally had no problem with the substitutions and specials as a server, but as the middle man and messenger between the kitchen and customer I dreaded it. It interrupts the flow of everyone involved, takes away very precious time from other customers considrations, and especially pisses off chefs.
One guy used to come in and always wanted cappellini aglio olio… no problem, but only because it wasn’t a problem for the chef to toss some pasta in olive oil and garlic. Otherwise it was the chefs call and I was stuck in a precarious situation handling the chef and the customers wrath and trying to be an arbiter of customer satisfaction.
Someone a few days ago said a similar thing. Was it you? It was one of those “You people have an unhealthy relationship to food” comments in a recipe thread. If so, you’ve got some issues of your own.
As for who Cisco is talking about, you’ll have to take that up with him.
I used to work grill and food prep at Hardee’s and, as long as it wasn’t a busy period like a lunch rush, everyone in back loved to make off-menu items; it was an interesting change of pace and allowed us to try to be creative instead of robotically producing identical burgers all day. Three-egg omelets, Big Boy/Big Mac dopplegangers, burgers steam-grilled like White Castle, patty melts, reubens, clubs, doughnuts and fruit-filled turnovers, beef Manhattans, Chicago-style dogs. The big hurdle was finding a cashier who knew how to ring up special orders that go beyond “standard menu item +/- standard toppings,” which isn’t an easy task on the standard fast-food register. We’d even brainstorm with customers who came inside (at least during slow periods). For regular customers, we’d go above and beyond-- we were in the parking lot of a grocery store, and would run over to get special ingredients.
One of my favorite Italian places in the Village has a sometimes special that I love, called Chicken Princess. It’s possible the name makes me like it even more. Sometimes when we go to eat there, I will start off with “I love the chef’s Chicken Princess, is it by chance one of the specials tonight?”
The waiter says “She wants the Chicken Princess!”
The maitre’d says “The Chicken Princess! She wants the Chicken Princess!”
The chef comes out of the kitchen and says “The Chicken Princess! I will make the Chicken Princess!”
It all seems vaguely like a skit from the Muppet Show, now that I think about. The chef seems flattered enough that I like his Chicken Princess enough to ask for it, but I suppose it could all be an act.
You guys are hi-larious. The picky food primadonna that can’t eat what’s given to her, thinks I have an unhealthy relationship to food. And the woman that thinks I am a primadonna waiter. It’s to laugh. Whatever misconceptions you are belaboring under are much heavier than mine.
The only “off-menu” items I generally order are not really off-menu. There’s a few ethnic restaurants here that have separate menus for American diners and for “ethnic” diners (Chinese or Thai being the most common.) If you dig around, you can sometimes find the translations of the ethnic menus and order off that, if you wish.
Once, I asked nicely if it would possible to get spaghetti puttanesca, which wasn’t on the menu, because I really had a hankering for it, and the request was honored without any hesitation. But that’s the only time I remember ever truly ordering off-menu.
What I will do, more often, but still not commonly, is upon going to a restaurant for the first time, just ask the waitstaff if there’s anything in particular the chef would recommend for that day. I tell them there’s nothing I don’t like–I like the places that know exactly what they’re good at, and have no hesitation at offering me those items. It’s quite often the best way for me to get to know a restaurant, because I don’t know what’s good that day, and what’s not. I don’t know what their strengths and weaknesses are. I would much rather have the chef pick out his favorite dishes for me, if possible.
When I go to Chinese places with actual Chinese people in the dining party, they never order from the menu. It seems to be almost expected. It’s as if the menu is there purely for non-Chinese patrons. I would rush to add that everything they order seems to be on hand, not some exotic item that the kitchen might not have.
Ten01 here in Portland used to have beef tartare on their menu (we saw it on the web site’s menu before we ever went in). So, when we got there, and saw that it was no longer on the menu, we sadly asked the server if they still made it. She went back and checked with the chef, who said, no problem–she loved making it, even though it wasn’t on the menu right now. She whipped some up for us, and it’s still, in our opinion, the best in town. We’ve called ahead twice since then to ask if they would be able to make it for us (if they had the ingredients, time, inclination), and they have. Though if we just stop by, we don’t ask for it (and, really, who just pops in for a quick tartare? you kind of need to be in the right mood); we just go with some of the other amazing stuff on the menu.
No, not quoting from another thread not dragging anything over. From their statements, and my experience, I know exactly what kind of customers they are.
We ordered omakase (chef’s choice) once at a sushi restaurant we eat at quite frequently. We had two or three dishes that weren’t on the menu and that were spectacular. The chef then apologized and said the restaurant was too busy for omakase, and would we mind ordering off the menu? We haven’t had a chance to try again, but definitely intend to.
There are a few things I will order off menu but that’s at small places where I know the folks. The best one is the garlic marinated deep fried ribs at Sun Wah in Chicago. Not on the menu, the chef made them for the staff as his interview piece and they loved it. You have to order it 24 hours in advance so they can marinate it properly.
They are small 1-2" chunks of bone in ribs with crispy coating; sinfully rich and garlicky.
Well, bear in mind that devilsknew’s schtick is “reverse snob who by-gum is gonna prove he still knows more about food than you do, ya goddam yuppie.” This is the guy who bitched about Microplane graters, after all.
Back on topic: I have issues with gluten, so I’ll occasionally ask for substitutions along the lines of “can I have the potatoes instead of the farro?” Aside from that, I’m generally pretty easy, though if the proprietor of a Chinese restaurant I’m a regular at says something like “You no get that fish! We make you what we have for dinner today!”…well, I’m not about to say no.
That being said, I’ll goddamn gleefully order off the menu at bars I go to–my first order of the evening is typically “Surprise me.” Because the bartenders at the places I’m a regular at are generally working on new recipes and eager for feedback.