Chili's Waiters Eat Food Off Guest Plates

I worked at chili's and yeah the whole fry snatching happens 24:7.
Seriously, at least 50 times a night. But at my chili's no one takes
it directly off the plate, just by the fry station. That experience
sounds so ridiculously terrible it sounds fake or exaggerated to me.
You seem to me to be one of those people who just like to save some
money on your bill. I could be completely wrong, but i'm just telling
it how I see it. I've seen customers banned from chili's because they
come in and complain every time because of the food and the server. I
agree with not eating off people's plates, thats just wrong and
indecent. But I'm sure that times here were highly exaggerated. One
time I had a customer ask for a beer, and the bar was backed up, so it
took about 5 minutes to get the beer out, and I let the customer know
this as well. Nonetheless, the customer got the managers attention and
said, "It took my beer 20 minutes to come out." And so my manager
apologizes and I do as well. But I show my manager the ticket on the
beer and when the customers sat down and it was 7 minutes after we had
that conversation with them. So 90% of the time people who complain,
exaggerate, just so they can get free stuff or just because they are
unhappy with themselves, or prejudice. Thanks for your feedback tho
Candace, just be more reasonable next time with your post.

Chilis is my favorite resturaunt, and now I'm terrified for eating
there. Haha, thanks a lot.

But really, sounds like you dealt with the situation correctly, and
I'm sure that you didn't talk to the manager about eating the food off
the plate because the bill and getting out of there was a little more
important at the time. Good for you!

The reply you received from Chili's is littered with grammatical
errors.

It gave me a good laugh.

Candace C. -

I am the area director who supervisors that location and would like to
talk to you about it. I am sorry that we providing such a poor dining
experience and unacceptable service. It is unacceptable that the
waiter ate off of the guest's plate.

Can you contact me at doug.comings@chilis.com or 404.702.1380.

Thank you for the feedback so I can address and resolve the
situation.

Regards,

Doug Comings
Area Director
Chili's Grill & Bar

Horrible experience but I give you lots of credit for stepping up and
notifying the manager on duty WHILE YOU WERE there! Too many people
leave without doing this do although their complaint may be legitimate
it has a lot more bearing if the manager gets involved while you are
there.

And I agree with Red...its not a health issue with taking food off a
customers plate...it is however not right because that customer is
paying for the CORRECT portion of food!

I hope that this manager dealt with these issues once you left. I am
sure knowing how his staff is not taking their job very seriously will
impact on his evaluation...once their stores rating goes down.

Although if doesn't make it right, it happens at most restaurants.
The restaurant I work at has an open kitchen, meaning the entire
restaurant can see what's going on back there.

During the holidays, I transferred to a different restaurant within
the chain so I could still work while I was visiting family. They had
a closed kitchen, and I was appalled when I saw employees CONSTANTLY
eating off of guest's plates. They would take pieces of chicken off
of the salads, a mozzarella stick from a sampler, a french fry that
was about to fall off of a plate. It isn't something I would ever do;
I wouldn't want someone else to touch my food so I don't touch someone
else's.

I do know that if it happened at my particular restaurant, my general
manager would fire the food stealer. If you're hungry and you have no
money, the manager will buy you something before your shift. Or,
often times, the manager will say, "I'll buy you lunch if you clear
the dish pit."

I think your issue need to be dealt with by Chili's corporate. If the
server was so bold as to steal food off of a plate as it was entering
the dining area, then it's safe to say the manager is well aware of
his employees' penchant for food thievery. In this situation, the
manager needs to be fired for not demonstrating proper standards for
food safety.

I did quite a search and found no evidence that a server grabbing a
fry or other morsel off of a diner's plate is in any way a violation
of health code. And it doesn't make sense to make it a violation of
health code. You have people with (presumably) clean hands in a
kitchen environment. Not much in violation there.

I can see a restaurant making rules against it, but I highly doubt
it's a health code violation.

A server eating off a plate after a patron has eaten from it is
violating health codes and is risking catching/spreading communicable
diseases. Any server eating off a plate about to be served is
stealing - and anyone who claims it is "quality control" is grasping
for a defense.

I completely agree that a server who does not know these rules and
thinks it is ok to pull such stunts as long as she doesn't get caught
IS dumb. (And by that I mean uninformed or lacking common sense.) The
management at that Chili's is obviously poor for its staff to even
think such things.

teens with no regard for rules, hep c, e-coli, who cares if mgmt isnt
controlling the situation

I worked at Olive Garden for 5 yrs and I saw MANY servers eat off
plates that were sitting in the "window" waiting to be served. I also
saw pasta dropped on the "line" (area where cooks stand, that is
always covered in nasty water to wash debris down the floor drains)
and pick it up and plate it!!!!! When I worked there I always cooked
my own food.

That's disgusting. They should not be eating off anyones plates,
before or after the meals.

In my opinion,you should have spoken to a manager about regards to
eating off the plate. The waitress could have not known the answer to
your question,thus giving you those replies.. But doesn't mean she is
dumb! Not everyone knows everyone else's business,nor is she
responsible for knowing what other adults choose to do,s he was only
walking by. Poor waitress.

I work at the IHOP and if my boss ever caught me eatin off a customers
plate hed fire me.

When I first saw this, I thought "they're eating off used plates?!"
Gross.

Then I see they sample the food before it leaves the kitchen. Now,
that's quality control. If they eat on the job, their breaks don't
need to be so long. Clever management.

Sound slike poor service and management all the way around.

I wish I could say I am surprised a server ate food off a plate, but I
cant.

When my sister was 16, she worked at a Ponderosa. It was standard
practice for employees to snatch fries off plates as they left the
kitchen. My sister and a few of her friends all lost their jobs once
the manager got wind of this behavior.

I guess I'm in a less cynical mood than others today -- I'm completely
on the OPs side on all of this stuff that went wrong.

But one question: If you ordered a half rack of ribs and a double
order of fries, and you got a full order of ribs and a regular order
of fries, I don't understand why they'd take the food away. WHy not
just let you keep the excess ribs (at no extra cost to you) and bring
you out some more fries?

As far as redipping the wings in the desired sauce, that's just
gross.

OK so you thought they were all dumb? I'm confused.

I would leave out interpreting what the waitress meant when she
responded to the original question. When I am asked an unexpected or
bizarre question, I am sometimes uncertain as to what the person
asking the question means (if they are joking, for example) or am so
surprised by the question that I have to take a moment. My answer, if
I do not fully understand the reason for the question, may not be
particularly eloquent.

The OP cannot know that the waitress meant that plates are routinely
eaten off of in the back.

As an aside, I would have spoken to the manager upon witnessing the
incident, not another employee. It's obviously against policy to eat
off of a guest's plate (as well as a health violation, I'm sure), so
leave out the question asking if it is and simply tell the manager
what was seen and identify the guilty party.