Thatās so amusing. Itās sad that so much of what passes for ānot politically correctā is just another way of saying assholeā¦ but these folks manage to do it while not offending anybody. Probably. Almost.
Man, if there is one thing in this world I cannot stand, itās a picky eater. Nothing like a 50 year old with a palate of a 2nd graderā¦
So irritating.
I miss the old House of Nanking.
omg me too, that was the best. Even though a friend of mine actually from Nanking said the food had nothing to do with Nanking, let alone Chinaā¦
Is House of Nanking not still there? Or have they become less bonkers?
Iāll never forget going there when I lived in SF. We sat on shipping crates jammed together with other diners. The waiter brought menus that were so dingy and torn up that they were absolutely useless, but nobody used those anyway. He just came out and said āOK, what you want? Pork? Beef? Chicken? Shrimp?ā and we said sure, one of each, and they brought amazing Chinese food of some variety.
Honesty is the best policy. My experience in food service has taught me a great deal about picky eaters, and itās that many should just eat at home. There are people with allergies and other issues, and I understand that, but oftentimes, the answer to whether or not you can be successfully accommodated is, āNo.ā Itās nothing personal, but thereās just no way to control for every possible allergy out there, unless itās hospital food service (which Iāve also worked.)
Hospital food service is its own special animal, but restaurants are not equipped the same way for a ton of very good reasons. It was there I learned about gluten intolerance, and it was also there that I learned that most people āintolerantā of gluten, are actually gluten-tolerant. People who are gluten-intolerant cannot consume even trace amounts without adverse effect. Gluten sensitivity does not require the same level of fastidiousness in food preparation. You canāt prepare food for a gluten-intolerant person on a surface that has come into contact with gluten, someone with a gluten sensitivity wonāt notice. Iām not even questioning whether gluten sensitivity exists, but they perpetuate a dangerous idea among the vast majority of food service workers who do not work in hospitals that something āgluten-freeā can be stuck in the same toaster or on the same pan you used for wheat bagels two seconds ago.
I like that sign! However, I propose some edits:
Note: I am aware of the irony of suggesting edits to a sign such as this 
Iām not sure what this has to do with picky eatersā¦ seems more like a standard ādonāt be an asshole to the staffā warning than anything else.
Iām a picky eater, myself, and wish more than anything that I wasnātāitās a hugely embarrassing social handicap in a food-oriented world, and I canāt do anything about it. But I would never, ever make complaints about food offered to me or ordered in a restaurant, or refuse to pay for something I didnāt like. Assuming I received what I ordered as described, it can stay on my plate without any fuss on my part if I turn out to not like it.
But right there youāve already established youāre not going to make a fuss.
I had an acquaintance once upon a time who was an absolute terror to dine out with. More than once I watched them send scrambled eggs back to the kitchen twice at the same meal. I think the sign was addressed to people like that.
Comic sans? Now I think theyāre just fucking with people.
Though Iām not a picky eater myself, and donāt have food allergies (thanks be to luck!) this is my approach when things donāt work out right. But if anything my friends have accused me of being too accommodating of legitimate problems (I donāt even always send back wrong orders) so I canāt advocate for people to be doormats either.
I really think (I mean this as a statement of fact, not as as judgement) that this is partly a cultural phenomenon: people in different towns/cities seem to have very different thresholds for ābad enough to complainā. And I can appreciate if you operated a restaurant in a ālow complaint thresholdā community, you might be frustrated by that.
I was the chef at a place where the owner forced us to bend over backwards to make people happy. Basically I was pretty much the personal chef of every idiot that walked into the place. An order for a salad would ended up being 12 inches long with basically everything removed and everything substituted.
They expanded 
Much more room, cleaner, the dishes just arenāt the same.
Itās not that itās ābadā now, itās just not as goodā¦really bummerā¦
Restaurants need to do something to increase customer turnover.People waste much more time than they used to - they have no restaurant etiquette anymore, and at least one study proved it. A Chinese restaurant is likely a low margin-high volume equation, so weeding out problem diners seems like a very good idea to me.
I resent picky eaters for making it harder on the rest of us. I almost got into an argument with a waiter at a Vietnamese restaurant. Iād ordered the jellyfish salad and he insisted I didnāt want it. I gave in because I was sure heād dealt with at least one and possibly more customers whoād ordered it and then sent it back, and there was no way I could assure him I wouldnāt do that. The same thing happened at a Korean restaurant.
And I donāt order something and then give so many instructions Iām basically asking for something entirely different. This is the customer I never want to be:
When I went, my utensils were dingy, I had to ask three times for a glass of water and when I got it something was floating in itā¦ and it was still the best Chinese I had in all of SF easily!
This reminds me of a party of 12 of us visiting a Chinese restaurant in Greek Street in the 1970s. One of our party had just returned from a stint in Hong Kong.
He looked at the menu, then said something to the waiter in Cantonese. There was a Chinese jaw drop followed by the waiter returning with a Chinese menu. Our friend then proceeded to order and have an argument with the waiter, as was very obvious from the body language.
The waiter went off and we said āOK what did you say.ā He said āYour round-eye friends donāt want this. So I told him that yes they did, and I had to argue a bit, and Iāve ordered the special banquet. And Iāve told him weāre going to pay Chinese prices.ā
Four hours later we staggered out of the restaurantā¦wonderful times.
If I was Harry the name of the movie would have been āWhen Harry Never Spoke To Sally After Watching Her Order For The First Time.ā
Adults who are picky eaters ā celiacs, etc aside ā drive me nuts. Oddly enough I am a vegetarian but Iāll eat anything that never had a face.
EXACTLY!!
My mom was telling me about a friend of hers - they go out to eat and she basically ignores everything on the menu - āIād like to have this sandwich, but without this and with that, and a side of such and such instead, etcā¦ā FUCKING EAT AT HOME, THEN!
