Nothing can ruin a family meal faster than things going wrong.

So, what would you do if you booked a specific restaurant expecting the full menu, but upon arrival, found out that it’s not available? Would you make other plans? Or would you expect the kitchen to make special accommodations for you?

In the following story, one woman finds herself in this situation and wonders if she handled it wrong. Here’s what happened.

AIO Mother’s Day Meal Left Soured Because Of Rude Manager

I’d booked a restaurant for Mother’s Day without realizing they were offering a limited menu that evening (being lenient IMO, there was nothing obvious promoting this anywhere on their website/socials/etc) with very limited vegetarian/vegan options.

My entire immediate family follows some form of these dietary restrictions, and I had booked this restaurant because it had a variety of options for us.

We asked politely if there was a possibility that we could order off the main menu, and our waitress (who was lovely the entire evening) went to ask the manager/kitchen staff.

It all went downhill when the manager got rude.

Now to be clear, if that was out with what the kitchen staff could do due to additional prep work (on what I assume is a busy night for service) we would be totally fine with that and I’d accepted the faux pas on my part.

However, what’s really irked me is how passive-aggressive the manager was when addressing us about it.

If he’d politely explained that it wasn’t feasible to offer the other menu, then whatever, fine, but he was incredibly rude to my family and particularly my mother, who was the one who asked (on Mother’s Day, mind you).

Now, she’s not sure if she was in the wrong.

The kitchen staff kindly agreed to accommodate us, and we primarily ordered from the limited menu anyway. We just wanted some variety across 5 meals.

Just curious if I did anything explicitly wrong here.

Maybe I should have made more effort to find out if the menu was running (calling ahead)? Would it have been justified if we just walked out? Was asking in the first place rude, regardless of how polite I believe we were?

AIO?

Eek! It’s easy to see why the manager was frustrated, but that’s no way to treat a customer.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a barista whose keen eye uncovered a customer scheme for free coffee.

Let’s check out how the people over at Reddit feel about this whole thing.

According to this, the manager should’ve politely said no.

Here’s someone who ditched their favorite place after a bad experience.

For this person, politeness doesn’t matter in this situation.

This reader wants to know why she didn’t ask.

Sounds like she learned an important lesson. And next time, she needs to ask more questions.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a waitress who refused to return a tip after a party returned to the restaurant with a complaint.