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[PeskyToaster]

I would ask and if they say no because x and x I would say that's fine because I'm a reasonable person.

 

[HellforLeather]

Welcome to the restaurant industry where comps and free drinks are given out like candy and your own employees constantly steal from you.

I just dont understand the business sense here. Essentially that 1 egg cost the restaurant $71 that day.

Madness.

 

[Jaguar Victory]

$25 entry
$10 appetizer
$10 drink (note: this is a glass of cheap house wine)
$10 dessert
+ Tax and Tip gets you near $75.

This is a cheap order at a restaurant Yelp would give $$ (out of a maximum $$$$).

You mean entree right? Because I wouldn't pay a cover charge for a restaurant unless there's lewd activity.

 

[Stumpokapow]

You mean entree right? Because I wouldn't pay a cover charge for a restaurant unless there's lewd activity.

Hahaha, yes, that was a cell phone autocorrect situation.

 

[KHarvey16]

It's bad business and worse customer service over a request that so extremely easy, cheap, and simple. It's a burger, not foie gras. So I don't get the point of mentioning upscale given the item itself is extremely casual.

It's only bad business if your customers are unreasonable or unfamiliar with restaraunts other than Friday's. Many places do it and succeed just fine.

 

[Beth Cyra]

Would I stop going ?

Yes, I have very specific taste and won't deviate from that.

However I wouldn't say anything bad about the establishment and respect their policies. I'll just give my money to a place willing and wish the other place happy times.

 

[Aselith]

If it were me, as I mentioned earlier, I'd be more concerned about other people seeing the special order and then wanting to do it themselves. You risk alienating ever patron in the restaurant.

What's the downside to people seeing this and buying the waffle special to do it too?

 

[Calamari41]

It is odd that there doesn't appear to be any other sources on this aside from Todd and a Facebook post redirecting to Todd.

Wait, did this happen at the Fashion Island R&D? I believe it. They're huge dicks there and the wait staff seemingly enjoys screwing with the customers. I ordered a french dip there one day and the waitress said they were all out, but then a bunch of people who arrived and ordered very soon after I did all got french dips without issue.

 

[neorej]

Should've sold him the waffle so he can put the fried egg on his burger himself

 

[PrivateWHudson]

When you order a tea you don't get charged for the hot water in your cup.

Sure you do. You pay for the electricity to heat the water, the space to store the cup, the employee to assemble and deliver the tea, ect. To double charge for the whole experience of one tea because of the addition of a second tea bag is ridiculous. Maybe add $0.50, but if you offer free refills on coffee and soda, that makes it even worse.

 

[norm9]

Just because you frequent a restaurant a lot doesn't give you special right to order whatever you want. You're just the asshole customer that comes in a lot and has special rules to make your meal perfect. I'd resent having to serve that customer.

 

[tim.mbp]

Wait, did this happen at the Fashion Island R&D? I believe it. They're huge dicks there and the wait staff seemingly enjoys screwing with the customers. I ordered a french dip there one day and the waitress said they were all out, but then a bunch of people who arrived and ordered very soon after I did all got french dips without issue.

Are you a NYT best seller too?

 

[ThisGuy]

If chipotle didn't put my rice and beans on the side, I'd never go back.

 

[Risible]

It's not an issue of my reading comprehension. For the sake of argument if the teabag cost 10 cents and charges you accordingly then he loses a $2.90 in sales.

Since you waited tables for so long then you should know that you don't always get preferential treatment no matter how much you spend with them. They're not obligated to recognize you no matter how often you go.

I apologize for making an assumption but you can certainly be less condescending.

Do you mean I should make less condescending statements than things like "You can tell when someone never worked in the service business."? Glass houses and all that.

And as a waiter I pretty much always honored guest's simple requests. You'll notice that in each of my posts I carefully used that phrasing. Putting an egg on a burger? Simple request. Adding an extra teabag no charge? Simple request. There's no reason on earth not to accommodate stuff like this - it's so easy to lose customers and restaurants are a dicey business proposition as it is.

I used ten cents as an example, but out of curiosity I just and went and checked teabag prices. They go for three cents sold to consumers in bulk (Sams Club). Adding the item to my order for free would have reduced his profit margin by three cents.

 

[-x.Red.x-]

If the customer was a regular and in the "wine and dine your clients" industry, then I might have an idea what happened. Is it possible that the customer wanted to show his influence to his clients? This would apply if this was a highend restaurant.

Just a thought

 

[GoldenEye 007]

It's only bad business if your customers are unreasonable or unfamiliar with restaraunts other than Friday's. Many places do it and succeed just fine.

Nah, it's better to take the very simple request versus offering to comp a meal for $71 dollars to extract the egg from it.

This applies to this specific situation. Obviously if a request is something where the restaurant does not have the ingredient, would be complex, take extra time, etc. It makes sense. Other than that, it's just pretentious and snobby on part of the restaurant to worry about defiling a burger or going against the chef's vision.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

I mean they offered to comp his meal? Accept it and keep it movin.

 

[ReAxion]

i'm posting this video of an egg in the hole burger just cuz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eacCDGSMKSA

 

[Ominym]

He wanted a fried egg on his burger. Simple enough right?

... the bill was only 71 bucks. So the GM was willing to burn a bridge on loyal customer for an egg that only costs probably 10 cents with bulk pricing.

Where is anyone going that you're dropping $71, on a burger, that won't bend over backwards for you?

Why is anyone going to a restaurant and dropping $71 for, I assume, alcohol and a burger regularly? Not judging, but that has got to be an amazing atmosphere/burger combo.

If the customer was a regular and in the "wine and dine your clients" industry, then I might have an idea what happened. Is it possible that the customer wanted to show his influence to his clients? This would apply if this was a highend restaurant.

Just a thought

Why would you order a burger in that atmosphere though?

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

This. Most of my favorite places even have a "unfortunately we are unable to accept requests to change dishes".

In my experience this is usually for stupid shit like "I want chicken noodle soup, but can you make it without chicken stock " this is more like asking for a lemon with your Diet Coke and them saying "no special requests"

 

[nekkid]

Who spends $500 a month at the same restaurant?

Who gets their panties in such a twist over an egg that wasn't on the menu?

 

[captive]

Yeah. Sunny side up eggs work really well on burgers. The egg also is (one of) the reason McDicks breakfast burgers are better than their regular ones.

what is this McDicks place? it sounds like a great place to eat.

 

[KHarvey16]

Nah, it's better to take the very simple request versus offering to comp a meal for $71 dollars to extract the egg from it.

This applies to this specific situation. Obviously if a request is something where the restaurant does not have the ingredient, would be complex, take extra time, etc. It makes sense. Other than that, it's just pretentious and snobby on part of the restaurant to worry about defiling a burger or going against the chef's vision.

It's almost as if comping the meal was worth it to them if it meant not honoring a request. You can disagree with that if you want, but it's not uncommon or unique to this restaraunts and plenty of people are ok with it. Lots of other restaraunts for you.

 

[GoldenEye 007]

In my experience this is usually for stupid shit like "I want chicken noodle soup, but can you make it without chicken stock " this is more like asking for a lemon with your Diet Coke and them saying "no special requests"

Basically.

 

[cyress8]

I have nothing to say about the OP but this. I'm going to try a fried egg on a burger tonight. My curiosity has peaked and that shit sounds pretty damn good.

 

[theaface]

I've not gone back to a couple of restaurants who make a fuss over a simple request. For example, a local Turkish restaurant serves everything with rice. Sometimes I don't want rice, I want an equal or lesser alternative (e.g. salad) and that's been point blank refused for no discernible reason.

Ultimately if I'm going to a restaurant, I'm going for the service as much as for the food, especially with tip considered. If the management can't be reasonably accommodating, it's perfectly reasonable to take my custom elsewhere.

 

[Calamari41]

Are you a NYT best seller too?

I mean, I agree that he escalated the situation way too high, but as someone who has been there it's not unbelievable to me that this restaurant would adamantly refuse something as simple as this.

 

[Adam_Vania]

Who gets their panties in such a twist over an egg that wasn't on the menu?

who spends 71 dollars on a hamburger?

 

[HawksWinStanley]

He said it was a higher end local chain.

A higher end restaurant that has burgers and waffles on the menu?

 

[theapg]

I just don't get why they would rather give him $71 worth of food for free, over potentially not serving one additional $15 waffle entree.

 

[neorej]

what is this McDicks place? it sounds like a great place to eat.

Stay away from the cheese

 

[The Albatross]

I wouldn't stop going for this request. Egg + Burger is not on a lot of menus. It's a great burger no doubt, but I wouldn't specially order it. If you want it that bad and if it's so simple to make, then do it yourself at home.

But, I've been a number of places that refuse to change an order from how the chef prepares it. It's less common now for good restaurants, thankfully, because of the gravity of food allergies, but this was very common even just 10 years ago. The funniest one was this shitty fish/burger shack near the beach that we went to one day. Like a legit just a bar and fish/burger joint, not good, and they had rebranded and were trying to take themselves seriously... And I remember the server kept referring to the chef by his first name. A friend of mine ordered a burger but didn't want something on it, like no aoili or something, and the server was like "Ohhh... hmmm.. well... I'm not sure if Eric will do that..." And my friend looked at her crooked, like "Just... just don't put the aoili on the bun...?" She had to go to the back and ask, and "Eric" said that he couldn't do that. So we left. I get it for a fancy restaurant with very particular dishes, but... for a fucking cheese burger with aoili, nah.

Who spends $500 a month at the same restaurant?

Hmmmmmmmm........
The local bar and grill I go to......... I don't spend $500 there in a month, but during football season, it comes close some months.

 

[neorej]

A higher end restaurant that has burgers and waffles on the menu?

Haute cuisine burgers and waffles.

 

[Moppet13]

I just don't get why they would rather give him $71 worth of food for free, over potentially not serving one additional $15 waffle entree.

I don't get why the OP thinks the egg is worth more than a 71 dollar meal, both the OP and the restaurant are ridiculous. I would be over joyed if a restaurant offered to pay my $71 bill over something so trivial.

 

[kavanf1]

It's weird, I know - I was thinking that when putting myself in that situation. My best explanation would be that, as has been discussed above, the restaurant most likely buys to order assuming they will make X number of a certain special, so they cannot just randomly use up the ingredients on other dishes whenever someone feels like adding something on then menu.

However, and I used to work in a cocktail bar, the whole point of cocktails is to mix something new and interesting - we buy alcohol to create these cocktails that are on the menu, but also to experiment and find new and interesting creations. I guess for me, if I can see that the bar has all the ingredients for a certain drink and isn't busy (2-3+ people being served) then I would politely ask for a mix of X,Y and Z to create something I know tastes great.

In my experience it comes down to the capability of the staff. If they're good at mixing drinks and understand what flavours complement one another, they'll be able to deal with anything you request without complaint. If they're not, and they only know how to mix a few drinks by following a recipe, they tend to freak out if you ask for something off book, and tell you it's not possible.

 

[Calamari41]

A higher end restaurant that has burgers and waffles on the menu?

I would describe R&D Kitchen as basically a restaurant based on the bar area of Houston's. It's damn good, but as I said before, the people who work there are all the way up inside their own asses, so I believe this story.

 

[Peltz]

If that order was like my favorite thing ever and another competing restaurant in the area did it for me to my satisfaction, sure I'd stop going to the first place. Otherwise, no it's not enough of a reason to completely shun an entire restaurant that otherwise provides an enjoyable experience..

 

[GoldenEye 007]

It's almost as if comping the Neal was worth it to them if it meant not honoring a request. You can disagree with that if you want, but it's not uncommon or unique to this restaraunts and plenty of people are ok with it. Lots of other restaraunts for you.

It's not about disagreement. It's just bad business.

Spending $0.10+the upcharge to the customer is better than spending $71. The math doesn't lie here. I guess if this business operates on pride or something that they were able to deny an egg. But I'm not sure how often pride works in business versus math.

Probably why the business overall has such a high failure rate.

 

[valkillmore]

It's within the restaurant's right to deny a special request, and that actually seems like a legitimate reason to deny this request. It's also probably a bit obtuse of the guy to stop going there just because they don't honor that request.

 

[Spiral Insanity]

I would hope an egg costs less than 10 cents wholesale.

 

[Skellig Gra]

What's the downside to people seeing this and buying the waffle special to do it too?

They ask for different special orders and get mad if they can't be honored.

 

[TunaMarshmallow]

Guys, I just want to congratulate you all on making it to p.4 on a neoGAF restaurant thread without turning this into a debate about tipping.

 

[Hero]

Owning/running a restaurant is one of the riskiest businesses you can do these days so to increase risk from a loyal, consistent, and regular customer over one egg is a dumb decision. Either the chef is an asshole or the manager is retarded. Comping a 70 dollar bill over a .10 cent egg because you fear you might run out. When you have a business that changes daily you have to make decisions based on what you're about to sell. You're down one egg? Darn, one less customer gets your stupid special.

 

[God Dayumm]

I mean they offered to comp his meal? Accept it and keep it movin.

This sounds like a clash between two egomaniacs. That's upscale dining for you

 

[GoldenEye 007]

I would hope an egg costs less than 10 cents wholesale.

Can get a dozen for .99 at Trader Joe's. The .10 is just a nice round number. But wouldn't be shocked if they're closer to .5-.6 wholesale.

 

[KHarvey16]

It's not about disagreement. It's just bad business.

Spending $0.10+the upcharge to the customer is better than spending $71. The math doesn't lie here. I guess if this business operates on pride or something that they were able to deny an egg. But I'm not sure how often pride works in business versus math.

Probably why the business overall has such a high failure rate.

It's not a math problem. It doesn't make restaraunts fail.

Your feelings on this are subjective. If you don't want to go to restaraunts that won't honor the whims of every customer, don't. That's your right. But the decision to run the restaraunts that way is not objectively wrong or incorrect or bad business.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

The story makes NO sense whatsoever. Why on earth would they comp you a $71 meal over a ten cent egg? I call bullshit.

That being said, I would totally discontinue going to a place if I was regular and they refused a simple request. It's virtually no effort whatsoever to put an egg on a burger.

You are paying a premium to eat out, and your wishes should be accommodated.

When I was 19 or so I used to frequent a deli near my place of business every day. I spent at least $15 a day there for 6 months or so. One day I asked for an extra tea bag in my tea because I wanted some extra caffeine. The owner charged me double for the tea, so now instead of the already hugely marked-up $1.50 I usually paid he's asking for $3.00 just because he put another five cent teabag in there. When I mentioned it he acted like he was doing me a favor for even granting my request. I politely thanked him, took my food, and never stepped foot in the place again. He threw away a customer that had spent $75 a week at his place over a teabag worth pennies.

edit: finished looking at more replies and I'm astounded at how many people are defending the restaurant. It's not entitled to want your food a certain way especially when you are generally paying a huge premium for food when eating out.

Being a regular customer does not entitle you to discounts or freebies. You order a double, you get charged double or some other price >1 and <2.

 

[GoldenEye 007]

It's not a math problem. It doesn't make restaraunts fail.

Your feelings on this are subjective. If you don't want to go to restaraunts that won't honor the whims of every customer, don't. That's your right. But the decision to run the restaraunts that way is not objectively wrong or incorrect or bad business.

That's certainly your view. Which is subjective itself. So we'll have to disagree here.

 

[Bread]

The Duncan guy made the story up, he admit that in the comments. Why are people arguing over this dumb management exercise.

 

[superdeluxe]

If a guy spends 500$ a month at your restaurant, you give the damn man all the eggs he fucking wants.