Last summer I ate at a place like that called WhichWich, though the rack was inside, not outside. I quite liked that system, saves me from having to talk to the “sandwich artist” and also lets me know exactly what my options are (sometimes, I’m not sure what exactly is “allowed” on a sandwich without an upcharge of some sort). I hope the place is still there next summer when I’m back in town.
Are you being sarcastic?
http://www.fiveguys.com/menu.aspx
Much simpler than that cheeburger menu linked to.
I don’t know how you’d get a burger place with a less complicated menu than 5 guys without flat out eliminating all choices altogether.
The Cheeburger menu looked pretty simple, too. Five numbered steps. Do them in order. The hardest part would be step 5, the toppings, just because they have so many options. What’s so hard about that?
I wasn’t being sarcastic. Five Guys is simpler merely by being smaller.
Eh, as I said, I encountered the same. Now I’m not going to litigate every trip everyone ever made to a Starbucks since there’s been enough locations hiring enough people over the past umpteen years for everyone’s experience to be true without making anyone else’s untrue. I do think that, even when exaggerated for comedic effect, the reason it worked as a joke was because it was widely relatable to enough people to get an “Ain’t THAT the truth!” just like not every cable guy is eight hours late and not every doctor’s office has magazines from the Eisenhower era. There’s enough of it going around that people get where the joke is coming from.
Alternatively, I think a lot of “regular Joe” types felt intimidated by Starbucks and assumed everyone was snooty and would judge them harshly. That’s where much of the humor comes from, in my opinion- people’s insecurity. Hell, we recently had a thread asking how her husband is supposed to order at Starbucks since he got a gift card as a holiday card and there was concern he’d go in and do it wrong. Some of the impressions are self fulfilling.
yeah, agreed. doesn’t seem difficult.
you didn’t specify if you got mix ins, but if you just want a scoop of ice cream there’s no point in going to coldstone’s. the whole idea is to add all the goodies to the ice cream. they have their own concoctions, or you can get yours custom made. i’d bet they charge the same for just plain ice cream as for the standard mix ins, too.
i agree the singing thing is annoying. i wouldn’t be surprised if that actually hurts their tips because some people don’t want to hear it.
I don’t remember what I got, it was probably 10 years ago, I just remember that there was enough sticker shock that I never went again, I just stuck to Baskin Robbins. But the place is still around and according to wiki has 1100 locations so clearly not everyone feels the way I do.
Last summer I went to a Cherry Berry and, other then looking like a row or urinals, was much more reasonable. Get all the ice cream you want, mix in whatever you want, buffet style and toss it on a scale. I got more ice cream then I could eat and paid like two bucks for it, maybe two fifty.
It definitely was a warm day…we haven’t had a cold one here in a long time. (That’ll end Monday evening. But it’s all relative.)
I learned a long time ago to be nice to the employees, unless they go WAY over the top to be mean. I give them a lot of leeway. In this case, once I got their attention, I said something like “Sorry…I meant a hot tea. I didn’t even know you served iced green tea.” They accepted the comment and remade it.
Even though I have been to each about a half dozen times, I still really have no idea how to properly order at Chipotle or Qdoba.
Then there’s In 'n Out Burger where they have a secret menu. I am absolutely not making this up. Really shitty food unless you know what’s on the secret menu. That’s one fucked up way to run a business and I’ll never go back.
Just one of many reasons to never go to Casa Bonita.
What?!!
I am on record here on the Dope blasting In-N-Out burger, a virtual sacrilege for a native Southern Californian. Over rated, bland, boring burgers and fries that while they may be fresh cut, are also nothing special. However, that secret menu is part of the charm.
The rare times I do go to In-N-Out, I’ll get a 4X4 Animal Style, hold the lettuce.
I’ve been in a few Jack in the Boxes with automated ordering terminals. That everybody just ignores and orders with the human behind the counter.
Disney has also played with them in there parks. They’re kind of like automated check out at the grocery store. I like them since I’m not an idiot and understand computers and the logic of things and so it always goes smoothly.
However, most other people aren’t like that and so getting stuck in such a thing with any kind of line is torture.
I totally didn’t (and barely do now) understand Chipotle’s system. There are no quantities on the menu. Yes, I’d like taco(s). How many taco(s)? One? Two? Three? The big sign over your head, Ms. Chipotleworker, has no information on that subject. How many come in a single order? I ordered two tacos and they looked at me like I was speaking in broken English.
WhichWich is the bomb! And the only thing they’ll up charge you on is extra meat, cheese, avocado and egg. Each thing is a dollar a pop. But yeah, I don’t understand the big deal about menus with large options. Sure, they may be annoying to some (I’m looking at you, Cheesecake Factory), but as others have pointed out, if you go in order, it shouldn’t be any big deal.
When we were in Shanghai we stopped by this food court-like place that had a bunch of stalls selling different stuff (mostly street food - dumplings and fried skewers and the like). I can’t remember the exact ordering process but it was something like this - you went to the stall and ordered, the chef gave you a token, then you had to go to a cashier stall (there was one cashier for the entire food court) and give him your token so he can ring you up. Then you go back to the stall and collect your food. It wasn’t THAT complicated I suppose, but since none of us spoke Chinese and the place had no English signage whatsoever it took us some time to figure out the system. And then at one stall the guy had forgotten that he’d given us a token so we stood there for like 15 minutes before realizing he’d forgotten about us. THEN we had to try to explain to him that we had already paid and were waiting for our food - which is difficult to act out using body language.
A standard order of tacos is always three tacos, regardless of venue. I think it’s part of the metric system or something.
Unless you have no idea that it exists, so you’re stuck with their normal crappy food, which is far worse than their better grade crappy food. I made a point of trying this crapfest after hearing people here raving about the food. THEN I found out that “oh, there’s this other menu that nobody outside of fucking California knows about, heeheehee.” Well, screw them with a soggy French fry.
Different strokes. In n Out is by far the best fast food available on the west coast, and second only to Shake Shack on a national scale.