Mandatory:
I’ll have what she’s having.
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If someone is a picky eater – as in, they have ridiculous, arbitrary requirements about the food (“I can’t eat things with certain textures”) or has such a limited range of tastes that they manage to order chicken fingers and mac & cheese no matter where they go, I avoid that person. Going out for a meal is a social occasion. When someone spoils it for everyone by causing unneeded tension with the waitstaff (“I can’t eat this chicken, it’s still got bones in it!”), they aren’t invited any more.
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When I went Peter was still in charge, service was quick, but curt. Menus were handed out as a test for newcomers. The right response was to just hand them back. If you tried to order off of them, you were vetoed. If you tried to argue, or pretend that you knew anything about Chinese cuisine, you were humiliated. When I’ve been lately I’m mortified that I’m expected to select a dish.
Good, pass me the MSG please!
… but here’s the changes I want for it…
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Aside from clearly having no self-awareness, this person was also obviously a dipshit. Sending food back to a kitchen for trivial shit is asking to basically ingest someone else’s bodily fluids at some point.
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Everyplace should have a “Please don’t be an asshole” sign. They could then get rid of most of the rules everywhere. A classic is “no alcohol” in parks. It’s not that they care whether you drink, they simply don’t want you to be a drunken asshole. I prefer camping in State Parks where they have the rule, and drinking mine discreetly out of a coffee mug rather than listen to a bunch of drunken assholes and their boomboxes in a private campground.
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I had an Uncle who was a foodie back in the 60’s. One night he said something to a waiter at the local chop suey place my family would frequent and all sorts of strange and wonderful things came out of the kitchen that were not on the menu.
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Also the picky eater thing is just going to get worse. Every kid in the US is raised on diet of nothing but chicken fingers. Parents are forcing restaurants to cater to picky kids an add childrens menu full of bland pre-made crap. Nothing like going to an Italian restaurant that has cheese burgers and chicken fingers on the menu. When I mention this to parents they all swear they have no choice the kids won’t eat anything. However when I go out to dinner with my foodie friends I notice none of their kids suffer from the picky eater plaque.
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In theory, the entire federal criminal code could be replaced with just that one line. Of course then you’d have assholes determining what qualified as ‘being an asshole’.
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Send the kids to my house, they’ll eat what we’re having or have nothing. That was what my mom did when we were kids.
Buddy of mine with two youngsters was giving his visiting brother shit for cooking special food for his kids, the brother started to say “you don’t know what it’s like” and caught himself.
My nephew was eating sushi, stinky cheese and all kinds of stuff by the time he was 4…
Though, being a true southern Californian, he does loves him a taco shop bean burrito at 10. 
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This is how lawyers are made.
Well, and no offense intended to the many SF’rs here, but SF does stand out as a place where there are a lot of picky eaters and restaurants (and bars and local laws and regulations).
Though some of my family members are extremely picky eaters. Some kind of personality quirk. And have known a few people who eat only gluten free and because they have to or they will throw up and have other serious digestion problems.
Contrast, with, say, Chicago. Pretty much go anywhere, do anything.
My impression is that they have had a string of very disagreeable customers.
Indeed. Just this morning Scott Greenfield @ Simple Justice had a post on this very concept.
Agreed. Made me think the sign was shooped.
People, it’s supposed to be Papyrus. You’re writing a menu-- you need to adhere to established standards of whimsy.
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I would argue that you can do something about it. You can slowly learn to like certain thing through exposure. Pick one thing at a time. Try them repeatedly, in different configurations, cooked different ways, different varieties of that thing. Don’t force yourself to eat a lot of it, don’t force yourself to eat preparations that gross you out. Go with some one who does like those things as a guide (and so they can eat what you don’t). Or do so at home with small volumes, trying different dishes and cooking techniques. And don’t expect it to be fast. If you can find one example of a food you dislike that you can tolerate or even sort of like, you can grow accustomed to that food/ingredient. Figure out what you dislike about it, work around or learn to like those aspects. Then expand from there.
I’m not a picky eater for sure. But there are definitely ingredients and dishes I just dislike. But I always make sure to try them on occasion. Following this method I’ve learned to love formerly hated things like mushrooms (it was shiitakes, king oyster, and enoki mushrooms in Asian dishes that was my in) and oysters (just kept trying them once a year until I could keep them down) have become some of my absolute favorite foods. Mushrooms took months, oysters took damn near a decade. I’m working on raw tomatoes now. Hated them, now find them tolerable.
It won’t make you not a picky eater, it’ll just make you less picky. And the willingness to repeatedly try things you know you dislike to test the waters will tend to make people thing of you as being not picky. If not adventurous.
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I suspect this sign is the result of a Restaurant vs. Yelp war.
I subscribe to a feed from Hot Sauce and Panko just to read their cranky, cranky takedowns of clueless customers and pissy Yelp reviewers. It doesn’t seem to hurt their business and builds an inclusive “Us vs. Idiots” relationship with the happier patrons.
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I am a non-picky eater as well. If I get something at a restaurant that I didn’t order? Its a fun surprise! There are things I don’t much care for (sea urchin, olives, Norwegian brown cheese) but they are few and far between.
The last decade or so I’ve worked for and traveled to companies all across the world. Some of my favorite memories are when my coworkers just order from the local, non-western menu. The fish heads I had in Taiwan last year were incredible.
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