McLovin’ It
Many people’s guilty pleasure in this world is fast food and eating out. They know the McDonald’s menu like the back of their hand. Maybe they always feel a little guilty if they ask for extra barbecue sauce because they’re afraid that the fast food workers are going to be upset.
Thankfully, after reading this list, you’ll realize that fast food workers hear and see much worse than “can I get a couple extra barbecues with that?” And that’s not even considering other service jobs that don’t have to do with food! If you work in service, you’ve probably had to put up with a lot of nonsense. Compared to what some of these fast food and service industry workers have had to deal with, don’t feel too bad about asking for extra dip next time.
Beef Smoothie?
I worked at a McDonald’s many years ago. The woman said she wanted three bags of uncooked chicken nuggets. I started to tell her no, but my manager took over on the drive-thru microphone and told her we could do that and told her to pull up to the window.
I chatted with her and my manager about it. Apparently, she had an extremely picky son, and McDonald’s chicken nuggets were basically the only thing he’d willingly eat. I’m still surprised we did that, with all the potential liability. Reddit User: Klogwich
Only Taco Bell Cheese
I worked at Taco Bell for 4 years. Once I turned 18, I had the privilege of being scheduled for closing shifts. One night after the bars closed, a group came through the drive-thru drunk as heck. They ordered a bunch of $1 burritos and 3 Strawberry Frutista Freezes.
One of the guys yelled into the speaker that he wanted a scoop of beef in his Frutista Freeze. I was already over this shift and this job at that point, and I just said, “Whatever, sounds good, your total is $X, please pull ahead.” Reddit User: shadowswillscream
The Munchies
We had a lady come through at Taco Bell once who wanted a cheesy fiesta potatoes container filled with shredded cheese because her son would ONLY eat cheese from Taco Bell. My manager walked me through pricing the transaction and then laughingly gave the woman some good advice.
He said that she should keep the container and just refill it with store brand cheese once it was empty. I think her kid just wanted Taco Bell or something like that? Anyway, he wouldn’t know the difference between store-bought cheese and the cheese we sold anyway. Reddit User: ladyrockess
Plain Big Mac
I worked at Culver’s while I was an undergraduate student. This guy walked in while he was high. He said, “I want a triple with everything.” A single patty is three ounces of beef. “I want a piece of each kind of cheese between each patty.” We had American, Swiss, and cheddar.
“I want everything on it, but make sure you give me like this much mayo.” He held his fingers about half an inch apart. Then he ordered a large cheese curd – which alone is like 1,000 calories – and a drink. Good luck, my dude. Reddit User: [redacted]
Eight Cheeseburgers
The weirdest order I get is a regular that orders a double Big Mac, plain, extra cheese. He’s paying $6.90 for a bun, two pieces of meat, and two pieces of cheese. I don’t know why it bothers me so much, but it does. You can order a McDouble at our location for 2 dollars, which has the same meat patties.
There’s an easy solution here. Just buy two of them ($4.20 with tax), take the bottom bun off of one of them, and stick the one McDouble without the bottom bun on the other one. There’s a double Big Mac and you save some money. Reddit User: MissMay2002
Bun-Dog
When I worked at McDonald’s, this guy ordered eight cheeseburgers. I scoffed at him, claiming there’s no way he’d eat them all. He took his cheeseburgers, sat at a table where I could see him and stared at me nonstop as he ate every freaking cheeseburger.
There’s something unnerving about watching someone leer at you while they slowly eat. He brought the tray up to me when he was done, nothing but empty yellow wrappers on it. He placed it on the counter in front of me without saying a word and left. Reddit User: [redacted]
The Olive Sandwich
I was the one to order, or more specifically my mom ordered for me. We used to go out as a family every Sunday night and get hot dogs. I was 7 and an extremely picky eater, and I made my mom order me a hot dog with everything, minus the actual hot dog.
So just bread, sauce, and chips. The fast-food worker had to ask my mom to repeat herself three different times because he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. I called it a bun-dog, and to this day, I still like them. Reddit User: _StereotypicalPK_
Put Them All in Separate Bags
I used to work at Subway. Dude would come in and order an “olive sandwich.” Footlong on Italian Herbs and Cheese bread, provolone cheese, no meat, not toasted, lettuce and ungodly amounts of olives topped with ranch. We were only supposed to put 4 olives on each side (or something like that).
He ended up ordering so many olives that my manager would end up charging him an extra four bucks for it. Do you know how many olives that you have to order to do that? He ate the sandwich in the store and I gagged every time he did this. Reddit User: JessiTexas
Half-Cut Fries
I worked night shifts, and there was this strange guy. He was just looking not normal; you know what kind of person I mean. He came up to me and said, “Hey. I need 15 cheeseburgers and eight sweet and sour sauces.” As I was putting them into the bag, he had very specific instructions.
He said,”Put each cheeseburger into a single bag and do the same with the sauce.” I asked the manager if it was okay to do that. He told me to do it. Guy walked out with 23 McDonald’s bags. I’m still confused, because it’s not like he was drunk. Reddit User: LayingSnow
Three-Piece Quarter Packs
I work at McDonald’s, and I had a woman one time order a McChicken but with the bun and the chicken separate. She then ordered her fries…half-cut. As in, take a knife, cut them in half. My friend just went to cook up the order while I rang the lady up.
It was lucky for my friend that she only wanted a small fries but still. I actually did find her trying to cut the chicken in half with this plastic knife that she brought from home. She then went on it to go and eat it without the bun. Reddit User:[redacted]
Dog Treats
I once had a guy come in drunk to KFC with his dog, and I kind of looked at him with this look of are you serious? He goes, “Oh, I should probably leave her outside?” He takes the dog out and starts yelling at some teenagers out there, then comes back in.
He then says to me, “I want two meals, one for me and one for the dog.” When I offered him a three-piece quarter pack for him and a snack box for the dog, he insisted on getting two three-piece quarter packs. Whatever man, it’s your choice. Reddit User: [redacted]
Burnt Stuff and Pickles
I worked at Chick-Fil-A in high school. One day, I was working in the drive-thru window when a guy came through with his dog. As I was handing him his order, he asked if he could get a dog treat for his dog (we kept a jar of dog treats by the window).
So we hand the guy one of the dog treats. He promptly goes and puts it in his mouth, bites it in half, gives half to the dog, and then starts chewing on the other half of it. He then drives away without saying another word to me. Reddit User: carpet54
Do You Sell Pizza?
I worked at a sub sandwich shop when I was in high school. There was a guy who would have you scrape the flat top grill off and put the burnt cheese and meat crust on his steak and cheese. Just the thought of the words “meat crust” still makes me cringe to this day.
That was a regular order. Then there was another regular who would get pastrami and cheese with the most pickles I’ve ever seen on one person’s meal. Literally about half to three-quarters of a jar you’d get in the supermarket. So. Many. Pickles. Reddit User: Peter_of_RS
Onions
Technically fast-casual, but I work at a burrito place and once had a guy straight up come up to me and ask if we sell pizza. “Like with pepperoni,” he clarified. This was in broad daylight, he was clearly not blind, and he didn’t appear to be drunk.
My only viable working theory was that he was trying to buy weed or something. Still, the pepperoni clarification makes that unlikely unless he was trying to save face after realizing I don’t deal. That said, a pizza burrito would be sick. Reddit User: SpoonResistance
Charged for Cheese
I was working at Papa John’s as a driver, but I also took orders and made pizzas too. A guy calls asking what the maximum amount of onions I can put on a pizza is. He’s unsatisfied when I tell him that 3x is the max, then asks for a hookup and promises a big tip to the driver.
Since I’ll be making and delivering it, I promise I’ll “drown it with onions.” There were so many onions on that pizza it was honestly absurd and gross. Dude was ecstatic when he opened the box and ended up tipping me $15. Reddit User: RagingStallion
Arby’s Sandwiches
A guy called up and asked for a large cheese pizza on the triple cheese crust with extra cheese. Couldn’t give me a voucher code on the phone so I said bring it when you pick it up. He comes in without any voucher. He gets really upset that I won’t give him the discount.
I couldn’t do it myself since the computer needed the code. The pizza was $15. He goes to me, “You’re charging me 15 dollars for CHEESE?” Dude, I don’t set the prices. Also, I didn’t force him to buy that pizza. He just didn’t bring in a voucher. Reddit User: sophiespo
Only Round Nuggets
I work at an Arby’s, and the list of strange orders that I’ve received since working there is pretty endless. But here are a few that I remember offhand: pizza slider, which has pepperoni, salami, provolone, and marinara on it, but the lady decides to add mayo as well.
Another guest adds sauerkraut to whatever sandwich he orders (Gyro, Italian, beef ‘n cheddar, you name it). French dips with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, and liquid cheese added on to what is already there. Yeah, people’s appetites are gross. Some people just think they can put anything on bread and call it a sandwich. Reddit User: rclarice89
Mustard
Former McDonald’s employee here. Some weird orders that stand out would be the customer who ONLY wanted round nuggets. I guess she had a bad experience with the other shaped nuggets? Another person became a regular everyday customer with their Big Mac and TARTAR SAUCE. It was always gross to make.
Ah, and lastly, this lady who’d order a happy meal for her kid, but he was allergic to almost everything, so all he’d get was literally a hamburger patty and apple slices. I always felt sad putting together that “happy meal.” Reddit User: chrissolita
Made Mush
I worked at Burger King. And a guy once came through drive-thru and ordered a Whopper with extra mustard. A Whopper doesn’t usually come with mustard, so we just put a little on it. Then we heard him say that he actually wanted tons of mustard on top.
By the end, the sandwich was dropping mustard out of the sides and it was a total mess before we even wrapped it up. It was a disgustingly large amount of mustard to be honest. He came inside and ate it inside for everyone to watch. Reddit User: Fibrox
No Cheese on the Quesadillas
This kid once came up and ordered two biscuits to go along with two teas. I proceeded to watch him break up the biscuits and then pour tea over them to making some sort of mushy-looking slop before dousing it in mayonnaise and ketchup and then eating all of it.
He had his father with him, and he just ate his normal food like nothing at all weird was happening. I turned and looked at my coworker with a “are you seeing this?” expression; she just muttered to me that she’d seen it all now. Reddit User: N64crusader4
The Pou-Ring and Slop
No longer someone who works there, but in college, I was a grill chef at Chipotle. Standouts that I remember include four scoops of sour cream, or a “Chicken Vegetarian burrito.” It was definitely a funny way for someone to ask for fajitas on a chicken item.
But the best was a woman who came in and ordered three chicken quesadillas without the cheese. We wondered if maybe we misheard her. Nope. We put a scoop of chicken in a tortilla, put it under the warmer for a bit, and then wrapped it up. It was just a boring, albeit quite warm, chicken taco. Reddit User: SitDownRando
Bacon Bits and Mustard
Where I used to work, we had staff that liked to order poutine, but instead of fries, they would use onion rings. We dubbed it “The Pou-Ring.” There was also one woman who would come in and order a Mushroom Swiss Burger. They are normally pretty sloppy burgers, with swiss cheese, mushrooms, a garlic mushroom sauce, and mayo.
This lady once made it a real pain in the rear though, because she wanted that burger to be cut into eight different slices. So it went out looking like eight small pieces of bread and beef swimming in a gooey, mushroom soupiness. Reddit User: MacBeef
The End
I worked at a pizza place many years ago, and these dudes came in one night and said that they wanted a pepperoni pizza with bacon bits. Not even real bacon, but actually that fake bright red textured soy bacon bits from the salad bar. And it was a lot of them.
I obliged, knowing they were just a group of happy stoners wanting a pepperoni and bacon bit pizza. We also had a lady that worked there, and she’d put yellow mustard on her crust instead of pizza sauce. Not terrible tasting actually, but definitely different. Reddit User: morphius501
Frozen Meat
This group of kids comes into Arby’s, and the lady that’s running the show has had this one kid by the hand the whole time. She ends up getting distracted by one of the other kids and leaves him unattended in front of my register for just one moment.
He looks me in the eye and starts talking about space and time and how they correlate with one another. We’re talking some Stephen Hawking stuff, then he starts talking about “the end.” She sees him talking to me and grabs his hand, and he stops talking. She pays and tells me not to worry about what he said. I still worry about it. Reddit User: [redacted]
Special Birthday Request
This one man comes into McDonald’s. I have been working there for around a year now, so I’ve heard some truly weird orders for sure, but this one I will definitely remember forever. He comes in and honestly looks completely normal. He ordered a Big Mac, but he wanted one of the patties frozen.
He was curious about what the crunch would feel like and wanted the mix between juicy and crunch. I obviously had to tell him we couldn’t do that, and then he said that we could substitute the patty with frozen fries. We still said no. Reddit User: FredNumber11232
Love Birds Go for Lunch
I worked at a pizza place with a drive-thru. This one family came through to place an order to pick up later that evening for a birthday party. They wanted four large pizzas with extra cheese, raspberries, and whipped cream. By far the weirdest thing anyone has requested.
They said that the birthday girl wanted to combine her birthday dessert with dinner. Okay, but why would they agree? If you’re wondering, we just told them we didn’t have raspberries or whipped cream to put on top. They sighed and said they could just pick some up. Reddit User: lilianarosemonkeyhat
Shamrock Shake Green
This couple came into Subway; they both were completely in love. I mean, they just kept on baby-talking each other and it was, to say the least, a little bit unsettling. They stood in line and mushed over each other for about 5 minutes before ordering.
Once they did order, they wanted to get a footlong, but they wanted to have half for her and half for him. It wouldn’t normally be that weird, but just how lovey-dovey they were was weird to me. Their sandwich was relatively normal. Reddit User: yourinmyworld
Nuggets Instead of Beef
Around St. Patrick’s Day, McDonald’s gets the Shamrock Shake. If you haven’t seen it, they’re green. This guy came through the drive-thru one time, ordered a couple of happy meals, a couple of other things, and then ordered a twenty-piece chicken nugget.
Then comes the request. The guy asked if we could use the green dye we use for the Shamrock Shakes to make the nuggets green. I said no, and when he pulled up, I made small talk about how large his order was, and he got really offended because it was all for him. Reddit User: fernjius890
McDonald’s Creamed Corn
At Wendy’s, I had someone come in and order a cheeseburger, but instead of beef, she wanted chicken nuggets on the buns instead. The only thing she had to do was order a four-piece chicken nugget and then replace the meat once she got her sandwich, but no, that wouldn’t do.
My manager actually okayed it. When I had to get my manager, she gave me some really nasty looks, and after my manager fixed it and I served the order to her, she just turns to me and says, “Thanks, next time you’ll know better.” Reddit User: [redacted]
I Want One for Free
I worked at McDonald’s as a summer job just before my first semester of college. I had to work on the 4th of July, and I was working the back cash register, so I took the orders in the drive-thru. It was so calm until after the town fireworks finished, then it got busy.
All of a sudden, everyone in my county wanted to come and get their McDonald’s fix for the evening. This one person came across the speaker and said, “Can I get pork chops and creamed corn?” I asked them to pull up. It ended up being my dad. Reddit User: BarnaClip
Chicken Nuggets, No Meat
When you work in fast food and someone comes in and complains about the food, more often than not, you end up getting the customer a new thing and they exchange what they had for the new item. For example, you asked for no cheese, it has cheese, you get another burger instead, no cheese, and we take back the wrong one.
Well, this woman came up, found a hair in her ice cream cone (pretty gross, I agree), and said, “I want to keep this one, but I want another one for free.” We did because we would throw the other one away anyway, but definitely gross. Reddit User: stoneglass432
Everything Burnt Except the Patty
My friend works at McDonald’s and said that this one time, this dude wanted chicken nuggets but said that he didn’t want the chicken inside. He wanted them to actually scoop the chicken out of them and just give him the crunchy skin or whatever it’s called.
Her boss made her do it for all 20 nuggets. I agree that the crunchy stuff on the outside is kind of the best part, but that is some next-level stuff. I can’t imagine having the confidence to ask for something so weird like that. Reddit User: Loves_Me_Tacos125
100 Pizzas
“Hi, let me get a Big Mac. I want you to burn the lettuce, burn the pickles, burn the tomatoes, heck, burn the soda. Burn everything except the patty; that needs to be frozen. I want the sauces to be splashed everywhere except inside the actual sandwich.”
“Melt the cheese to the bun in a manner that makes it so annoyingly difficult to push the misplaced patty back into the center. What? You’re saying that you can’t do this? Sure you can, this is exactly what you gave me last time!” Reddit User: fallenKING
A Chik-fil-A Hamburger
When I once worked at a pizza place, one time someone called 5 minutes before we closed at one o’clock in the morning, asking if they could have 100 pizzas ready for 8 am the following morning. They were 25 sausage, 25 cheese, and 50 pepperoni pizzas.
Knowing this was a prank, my boss agreed, and the “customer” was going to pay in person. Then my boss jokingly told the owner about that, and then the owner made us stay until 5 am to make sure the order was ready just in case. No, they didn’t show up. Reddit User: binder673
Only Soft Nuggets
This one time, while I was working at Chik-fil-A, this guy ordered a hamburger. If you are from Mars, you may not know that Chik-fil-A only sells chicken. This guy argued with me over the intercom for a good solid five minutes because he didn’t believe that we only sold chicken.
His argument was that our mascot wouldn’t be a cow if that was really the case. He ended up driving off, but not before he said to us, “I want a hamburger happy meal” one last time. Fine, next time just go to McDonald’s, pal. Reddit User: livvylouwho
Everyone Loves the Skin
There was this one lady named Phyllis, and she was a regular at my Chik-fil-A. She would come every single night. She would order a 4-count nugget for her dog. I never saw the dog. I worked there for 6 years, and she ran through 3 dogs but would fill them up with nuggets before they would pass.
She always wanted the nuggets to be the “soft” nuggets and would check all the nuggets every time before she left. If there were one or two nuggets that had crispy parts, she would hand them back and ask for soft ones instead. Reddit User: livvylouwho
Blend It Up
I worked at KFC for a few months as a teenager. Dude asked for the chicken and the skin to be separated and served separately. He ordered a family bucket for himself. Curiously, the staff watched as he sat down alone and began eating the skin by itself and then the chicken separately.
I mean, it’s common to eat the skin by itself; people love it, and it is pretty nice, but the manner in which this man ASKED for us to separate it for him and then the way in which he conducted himself as he ate just screamed: “I’m a weirdo.” Reddit User: That-nz-guy
No Donuts
Not exactly fast food, but I worked at Long John Silvers. I hated that job. I would come home smelling like fish every day. It was awful, but the things some people wanted were really gross. A woman came in with her husband fighting. Already a wonderful thing to witness, right?
Well, what made it even better was that when she ordered, she decided to get baked cod and asked if it could be blended with ketchup and put in a to-go cup. She then went on to drink it and left, still fighting with her husband. Reddit User: kuitargioo
Bring It to the Bathroom
Someone called in asking if we had donuts on our menu. I work at Burger King. No, we do not sell donuts. When I said this to the woman, she started screaming at me. She basically just kept saying that she was sure that she saw a commercial that said that Burger King was now selling donuts.
She then later came into our restaurant and argued with my manager for a while over whether or not we actually sell donuts. You can argue all you want but it’s not going to suddenly make donuts appear at a hamburger restaurant. Reddit User: score-keeper-jfo
This wasn’t so much a strange food order that was the weird request, but what to do with the food that was odd. I took an order from this guy. He said that he wanted a cheeseburger and fries. Okay, so far pretty normal. He also asked for his cup so he could get some water.
He then came back up to the register about two minutes later (it was a really busy day). He then asked for us to take his food to him in the bathroom because he was going to pee himself if he didn’t go now. We didn’t do it. Reddit User: nlliaos1993