Then your kitchen was inadequately staffed, or your servers were too afraid to say “no”. It’s perfectly acceptable to say “no” to a special request that seems unreasonable. If you’re a steakhouse and someone comes in wanting spaghetti that just isn’t on the menu, the server says, “I’m sorry, we don’t currently have the ingredients to make that dish” and maybe the customer grumbles or whatever, but hey, you already despise customers anyway, so who cares?
On the other hand, is it unreasonable, after ordering a steak medium-rare, to send it back when it’s cooked so well that it’s practically charcoal? Am I a prima donna because I ask for the vaunted cooks to actually cook something to order correctly? Am I supposed to feel privileged that the high and mightly restaurant staff even chose to accept my money to honor me with their food? Wow, I imagine how easy my job would be if I had that attitude:
Client: “This is a very good image of a Tyrannosaurus, but I asked for an image of a chimp playing basketball.”
Me: “Tyrannosaurus is better. No chimps. Tyrannosaurus.”
Client: “But I wanted a chimp…”
Me: “I am better prepared to depict Tyrannosauruses. Depicting chimps would upset my routine.”
Client: “Well, I guess I’ll have to go elsewhere to get a chimp drawing…”
Me: “Good riddance! Damn picky customers! Didn’t I make it clear that I am best prepared to draw Tyrannosauruses??”
No, they sort of just prolong the agony for me. It became simpler to avoid eating non-cultured dairy… I can still have matured cheeses and yogurt just fine. In the case of that particular Italian restaurant, I don’t want to be a problem-child customer, so it’s definitely simpler not to eat somewhere where I’d have to pester about what has specifically which kind of dairy in it and spoil the chef’s evident love and joy at sharing his cooking. (Much of which is laden with beautiful fresh cheeses and cream.)
I’ve done it only when it was offered. Maybe there are restaurants that don’t mind, or actively encourage off-menu ordering, but my own experience as a waiter was exactly what **Cisco **described. It was almost always from “friends” of the owner/manager (or people who thought they were), frequently drunk and arrogant, and generally not very good tippers.
My kitchens were adequately prepped and staffed to cook the menus.
This is exactly the kind of thing we’re talking about, is it not? Ordering completely off the menu, not just asking for no onions or something.
No. This kind of thing has nothing to do with what I thought we were talking about. I’m talking about having a line set up for pasta specials and having someone come in and insist on the kitchen making them a pizza.
I can vouch for this. Being a former culinary student and restaurant worker I can tell you that the line is only set up for what’s on the menu. Furthermore, they generally keep only the ingredients they need on hand.
You’re right; the premise of the thread is ordering things that are not on the menu. However, I got the impression that many of the people who do order “off-menu” don’t do something like asking for spaghetti from a steakhouse; they ask if there are any “specials” that the cooks can make that would be a rare treat. That’s how I initially took it, because that’s been my experience.
My experience, however, is probably not representative of major restaurants in big cities. I mean, you have to use common sense; if it’s a Tuesday night and the restaurant is kind of slow, asking the cook to come up with something special is a lot different than demanding a specific “off-menu” item at 6 PM on a Friday night.
Well, technically it’s the kind of thing you’re talking about. Most of the other folks in the thread have been referring to more minor changes.
Heh. Of course, there was that time I was eating at the bar overlooking the open kitchen of this good French place. There I was, happily scarfing down my jellied pig’s face…watching one of the cooks chatting with other customers while cheerfully making a pizza.
Real-world example: Last Tuesday I was at my local Outback restaurant. They have a quesadilla on the menu. I know that many of the bussers and cooks are Mexican (not just “Latino”, they are definitely Mexican) and that they sometimes use ingredients on hand to make some Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes. I asked the server if the cooks would be able to make some variation of a fajita for me, and she said yes, in fact the cooks make fajitas for themselves fairly often. So I got a really tasty fajita and I made sure that the cooks knew I thought it was awesome. Only time I’ve ever asked for a fajita from them, and I probably never will again, but the fact that they not only complied but did an awesome job means that I’ll endorse them more than ever.
I worked as a line cook in an italian resteraunt and I only once remember being upset about an off menu item. Sure, if it was too busy, we would just tell the waiter/waitress no. No harm done and the customer is happy that the waiter/waitress asked rather than just got snotty. The one time I was pissed was 15 minutes from closing, I was a the only cook, I was a new cook and they ordered a dish I’d never heard of. Luckily, the waitress had seen it done before and she actually came back and did it. The thing that was most annoying was that it was 15 minutes before closing and they hung around for ever. No problem with cooking the dish once I knew what to do. Thanks to the waitress.
We also routinely took back steaks that werten’t done to the patrons expectations. No questions asked.
To use a real life example: We were in a restaurant that had a complicated salmon dish. Salmon is my favorite fish in the whole world, but I like it prepared very simply. They had other fish prepared just broiled. They obviously had salmon. I asked if they could just broil the salmon (and make it medium rare). The server said that was absolutely fine.
Broiled salmon wasn’t on the menu, so that was an off-menu request. If the server had said no, I would have gone with one of the other fish. In fact, I think when I ordered I said that if that would be a hassle with the salmon to go ahead and switch it to the other fish (no idea off the top of my head what the other fish was). They brought out salmon.
It was delicious.
Sadly, the restaurant isn’t there any longer. It was a family owned business and the dad died and none of the rest of the family wanted to go on.
The ingredient was already on the menu, though, and broiling is an easy preparation which they were already set up to do. I wouldn’t really consider that ordering off the menu.
We cooked a lot of steaks where I worked. The one thing about working in a kitchen is that it is largely an occupation of pride and love, which brings serious competition between coworkers. If your food gets sent back, everyone on the line will be checking to see if it’s you or the customer that’s clueless. If you sent a midrare steak out when they ordered midwell, you fucked up and all your coworkers who think they could have done better are going to notice. On the other hand, if you send out a perfect steak and the customer thinks beef should never have pink in it, all your coworkers will join in bitching out the jerk that likes their steak well done (aka “ruined”).
It’s one of the things that makes working in a kitchen so great. I miss it so bad. Too bad the hours are horrible.
I used to know a guy who many years ago had waited tables at one of the best restaurants in town (510 Groveland back in the day, as I recall). He said if someone ordered off menu, they were always happy to oblige - having Lund’s deliver brussell sprouts if necessary. But they would let you know it would take a while, and charge you an arm and a leg. Since they had decent margins on their food and were staffed for whim requests, whims could be met.
Ah, yes… I realize I can be one of those “difficult” people. I have food allergies, you see. Forgive me for trying to have a meal that will not result in you having to call 911 to haul my choking, blue-skinned butt to the ER. That is, after all, MUCH more disruptive than having to make a substitution, not to mention having people hauled away from your eating establishment in an ambulance is usually not considered good PR.
I try to order off the menu, really I do. I realize it’s a pain in the butt for you to have to ask what, exactly, is in a dish but it is vital for my health. If you can not answer, or can not provide me with food that is safe I will not rant and scream but nor will I order food I cannot eat. If your establishment can accommodate me I stand a good chance of being a frequent visitor who tips well and who brings my friends along, most of whom do not have my food worries, who will keep your restaurant in business.
Salmon was on the menu. Broiling is easy. It’s a simplified preparation of something that was already on the menu.
I’m not too interested in a prolonged semantic examination of what constitutes an item being “on or off” menu. Even if you want toa rgue that it’s off menu, all it means is that not every conceivable thing you can order off menu is necessarily inconvenient to make or disruptive to the line. So what?
I know many strict vegetarians and vegans that always order veggie substitutions and have never been disappointed. I always order salad dressing on the side and my baked potato plain. I’ll order the seafood pasta without the pasta. I’m not a PITA and If it’s a problem, I’ll say never mind and try to come up with something else, but most servers/chefs are quite gracious if you are.
The menu is mostly to give you a feel for the style of food they cook or if you have no clue what you want. You can pretty much ask for whatever you like as long as it seems like the restaurant would have the ingredients in stock. And if you’re unsure, you can just ask and the waiter will fill in the dish details for you. For instance:
Me: “We’ll have the sizzling rice soup. What (live) fish do you have?”
Waiter: “Sea bass, catfish, rock cod. How about sea bass? Steamed?”
Me: “Okay. We’ll also have the pea leaves.”
Waiter: “Garlic stir-fried pea leaves.”