'AITA for asking a restaurant to make a meal that wasn't on the menu?'

"AITA for asking a restaurant to make a meal that 'wasn't on the menu'???"

I went out to dinner with work colleagues last week. We went to this Italian joint. It was more a 'fancy' type. I like a few Italian foods, but I mean like pizza, eggplant parm, a sub sandwich, etc. This place had none of those. It was all sort of fancy stuff instead.

But I noticed they had ingredients for a meal I would like, namely mac & cheese. They had different pasta dishes, and I know mac&cheese can work with different pasta types including penne pasta which they had. Of course they also had butter and such and I saw several ingredients with cheese.

I assumed they had a good chef back there, who would know how to use their ingredients to make a mac & cheese. When it got my turn to order I asked them make me a mac & cheese.

The waiter said it wasn't on the menu. I said I knew, but they had the ingredients. The waiter seemed annoyed (bad customer service) and said they couldn't do that. I asked them to ask the chef.

My co-workers looked at me like I was a bird/baby. I asked what was wrong and they said I was being inappropriate and embarrassing, childish. This astounded me. The waiter came back and said they could not make mac & cheese.

Well color me astounded again. I asked why not since they had all the ingredients. My one co-worker APOLOGIZED to the waiter and just told me to order something else.

I feel I was about to cry from being treated rudely so I told them I had business to attend elsewhere and left. Everyone has treated me oddly and coldly this week. My cousin Jonag (false name for this story) told me I was wrong and should apologize.

But I don't get it. THEY HAD THE INGREDIENTS. They easily could have made a mac & cheese. Was it really so crazy to demand? AITA?

Let's see what people had to say.

nodiscount7 writes:

YTA - why do you feel so entitled? What's on the menu is on the menu - they are not back there making meals for everyone's whim and then worrying about how to price it up. Their line cooks and chefs are in sync and have the ingredients ready and on hand to make what is on the menu in a timely manner for their customers, its the reason they have a menu.

Asking for something off it is completely unreasonable and rude as you knew because of how you colleagues reacted. Then getting up and leaving - its dumbfounding you'd behave this way and this is exactly why they are treating you oddly and coldly because you acted inappropriate and entitled.

loveit24 writes:

That was hard to read. I cringed with embarrassment through the whole entire thing. It's one thing to ask for mac and cheese at an upscale restaurant that does not serve mac and cheese, but to not be able to pick up on the crazy amount of social cues being thrown OP's way is what's really so 'astounding'.

Time to look for a new job. There's no coming back from that one. YTA and always be to everyone that watched this whole thing go down.

katecrime says:

YTA. Restaurant kitchens are set up to cook the dishes on their menu. You can’t suck it up and eat Fettuccine Alfredo? As others have pointed out, the restaurant cooks aren’t your personal chefs. If you are that picky, don’t go out to a restaurant and embarrass the people you’re with.