They meant “all you can eat” means “all that you’re allowed to eat.” Subtle…
[ul]
[li]During my honeymoon, I booked us at a Holiday Inn in Wilkes-Barre, PA, which listed a complimentary breakfast buffet in the AAA Hotel Guide, in their room service menu, and on a placard at the front desk. [/li]
In the morning, my new wife asked me to see what was on the buffet, as she eschews eggs. When I went to the dining room, there was a sign that stated “Breakfast Buffet $8.99”. I asked the hostess if I needed to show my room key to prove I was a guest and get the complimentary breakfast. She said the $8.99 buffet was the complimentary breakfast. :rolleyes: So instead, my wife and I checked out, making a point of telling the manager on duty that they needed to look up “complimentary” in the dictionary.
We ended up going to a diner just down the street, which had an excellent breakfast menu.
[li]A Wendy’s in Upper Marlboro, MD served a carton of rancid milk to my daughter. She was only about 3, and was avoiding drinking it as she must’ve smelled that it’d gone bad. But my wife and I insisted that she finish her milk; she obeyed, then promptly threw up the dinner she’d eaten. As we helped her clean up, I grabbed the milk carton and felt that it was warm, and that the contents were chunky.[/li]
I confronted the cashier, and pointed out that if one milk was bad, the rest were. Also, I’d like a refund.
He asked, “for the milk?”
“No, for her entire meal, which she vomited because of your bad milk.”
He didn’t think he could do that, so I asked for a manager. She offered just a refund on the milk. I then said I’d be calling the health department (on my new-fangled cell phone 
) and awaiting them so that I could point out that their milk was rancid (which must’ve been curdling over the course of several days) and that they were still serving it to customers. (My voice was getting louder and louder as I explained my plans.)
We got the refund.
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Oh, just remembered a Pizza Hut story:
A friend and I went to a Pizza Hut late one Saturday night for some beer and pizza. We were the only customers, and the waitress got our pitcher of beer right out to us. But just as we started our first glass, the manager-on-duty came out to tell us that he’d have to collect the beer, as it was almost midnight, and a city ordinance didn’t allow alcohol on tables on Sundays. (No “business Saturday” to 2 AM rules applied.)
We pointed out that it was still 11:50. We then started to pound down the beer, which took about 4 glasses each. (Big pitcher ) We were finished (and toasted) by 12:00.
Me and my wife went to a hotel for our honeymoon paid for by her mom, she insisted it was her gift to us.
We had to buy dinner, two spongey burgers barely identified as meat were $50 USD and to add insult to injury they put us in a side room because someone had rented the in hotel restaurant for a party.
We we out of cash at this point so we didn’t try to get anything else to eat or drink as we were sure a soda would be $20 USD. Although there were ice buckets in the rooms I couldn’t find the ice machine, employees acted baffled saying they were just decoration(WTF?) so I went to the kitchen and yelled when the emoployee who filled the bucket with ice asked what room so she could charge it(F you bitch!) and then when we tried to cash in the coupons we were given for free drinks at the bar they said it was not for alcoholic drinks, not for virgin mixed drinks, not for orange juice,…eventually they gave use what appeared to be luke warm kool aid.:mad:
To add insult to injury when I complained and my wife was mortified the manager said why did we buy burgers, our room came with free dinner AND breakfast buffet! But as it was 10am they were no longer serving breakfast and checkout was at noon.
There was not one bit of paper indicating free meals, and no one had mentioned it.
:smack:
I HATE places that try to scam you.
I worked at an middle to upscale restaurant that had the no hat policy, it was mostly aimed at men with ball caps. My time there I had to ask patrons on three occasions to remove their ball caps. One of the men wearing one sad he had a really nasty wound on his head that was healing, and showed me. I told him that’s fine sir you can keep it on.
Some bars have a no jeans policy, restaurants that have a no hats policy are basically doing the same thing. They want to retain the atmosphere of it being a high end restaurant. Their policy not mine, their private business not mine. If they refused they were not served.
Every time I go to a Ramada it seems their breakfasts have issues (I’ve ceased going to them, as Hampton Inn is quieter and has almost as good a breakfast for about the same money.) First there was hot tea that was free with the free continental breakfast but you paid for if the server brought it to you (I deducted it from the tip.) Then at the next one their sign said free continental breakfast but the front desk clerk didn’t know anything about it (magically remembering when I went outside to double check the sign.)
1 - I’ve really enjoyed reading this thread
2 - I felt there was a bit too much resistance when the European dopers were trying to explain that doggy-bagging wasn’t customary over there. I feel cheap when asking for a doggy-bag. I’m blown over by the number of people that say they’ve got 2 meals worth of leftovers in their to-go containers. Portions in America are bigger for sure but it’s not 3 meals worth of food on the plate (for me anyway)
3 - Definitely too much rage over the right to bear hats. Pro-hatters, your hat really is an equivalent of elbows on the table, chewing with your mouth open, or slurping your soup. Some of those around you will be sufficiently brazen to say something to you. Of course it’s within your “right” to blow them off and continue with your offending behavior, but know that your hat is offensive to some. That’s all the anti-hatters are saying. I see nothing to get overly righteously indignant about, or how wearing a hat whilst eating helps curb racism in any significant manner.
Maybe they’d arranged the food to spell out ‘You Look Great Today’?
I also found a few Australian restaurants who claimed it was illegal to give out doggy bags- I was told that people were suing restaurants because they got food poisoning from badly stored reheated leftovers. Checking on that now, apparently, this never actually happened, the possibility was merely spectulated on by the Queensland Food Standards authority, and it has never actually been illegal.
The guy who told me about it was at a pizza place- he told me they couldn’t give me a takeaway box for the pizza, as per company policy. Instead, he just left one on the table accidently, in an overly casual manner.
That is odd. Looking at the menu it seems more for western tastes, as there doesn’t look to be enough kimchi, sweetcorn or sweet potato. I could try ordering but it’d be cold by the time it got here 
Yep this seems to be standard operating procedure for hotels with “complimentary” anything, use lies, obfuscation and tricks to make sure you pay for the free food.
As I said trying to use coupons that said “one free drink” from the hotel bar with no other limitations listed on the front or back turned into a joke, finally once I made clear we were not going to pay for free drinks what they retrieved was “fruit punch” that tasted like kool aid, without ice because then it would not be free.
If they need to raise prices or cut out the free food to stay profitable, DO THAT! Don’t try to lie and cheat me.
If a restaurant chooses to have that as a policy, that is their right, just as if a restaurant chooses to have a jacket and tie policy. It is also my right as a customer to choose if I wish to eat there.
But one person’s bad manners do not excuse another person’s. So what if I’m wearing a hat at the table, and you think that is rude? You intruding on my meal to point out my bad manners is even more rude.
And no, I don’t wear hats.
It has nothing to do with bad manners on the restaurants part, it’s their policy. It’s a private business and they can run it how they see fit, your right to quell your hunger doesn’t trump that.
Well, just to be careful, and stylish, I am sitting here typing away in a black Shoei crash helmet. No social censure so far other than the wife laughing at me. Maybe I just don’t get hats.
On the other hand, I can corroborate brad_d’s experience of asking for a coke in Texas in the early 70’s. At any diner, when asked what you want to drink, if your response was “coke” you were asked what kind you wanted. 7-up would have been an acceptable response. This was becoming an extinct practice by the time I was learning what a tip was, so I imagine it probably stopped happening by '76 or so. Around that time, the area I was living in started to get a lot of transplants from the rest of the country moving in, and you began to hear new words. Before that time, I thought “pop” and “soda” were things only people on T.V. said.
My strange restaurant policy: My favorite Tex-Mex place in town has all of their 4-seat tables placed so they have their corners pointing toward the walls of the restaurant. Males are seated so they are facing the front of the restaurant, girls in the two seats facing the back. I’ve tried to sit facing the back of the restaurant, and have been politely ushered to the seats reserved for folks with XY chromosomes. I don’t have an explanation for the practice, and if your party is larger than four, you get to sit however you want, regardless of gender. Since the food is great, the service is even better, and the restaurant is inexpensive; I don’t question their wisdom.
so the guys can keep an eye on the door in case trouble comes a knockin? UVa has co-ed dorms but the 1st floor is a guy floor so they can better protect the womenfolk upstairs.
man, chivalry really is dead.
Or maybe the cooks really prefer to look at the girls. 
Pretty sure Irishman was distinguishing between a restaurant policy requesting that customers remove their hats, which is fine as he can then choose to eat at that restaurant or not, and another patron of the restaurant asking that the hat be removed, which is rude.
The sauce thickens! I discussed this with lady scab after I posted. She pointed out that seated this way, all the women are facing the 90 or so year old owner who stands by the register at the back, looking back at them. It’s a little creepy to her. But, like myself she’s willing to look past it to get to the food. I’m starting to wonder what my limits might be in order to get to this man’s melted cheese delights. If they served queso fundido or flameado, I might stab strangers for it. :eek:
I just said that. What I was pointing out was the difference between a restaurant policy and some random customer intruding on his neighbors to “be a gentleman”.
Yes, I recall this happening when I was a wee lad, back when you got a free water in a small glass just for sitting down and the table, and then if you ordered a water, you also got a large glass to go with it. That’s about the time Coca-cola started making a big stink out of “coke” being an abbreviation for their beverage, and restaurants having to treat it as such. No cites, just fuzzy memories.
I had forgotten about the glass of water that was filled while the drink order was being taken. I miss it now! I’m thirsty! Why did that go the way of the dodo?
Most of those glasses of water went to waste, so restaurants stopped giving them out as a matter of course. They’re conserving resources at the same time that they save money!