And you thought the soup Nazi was bad…
A restaurant encounter so bizarre you’ll think it’s made up.
Todd Hirsh recounted a very bizarre dining etiquette encounter in the Edmonton Journal. He and three friends went to a highly recommended tapas restaurant. When a fancy pretzel bun sandwich arrived, they requested cutlery to cut it up to share. That’s when the fun started.
“No cutlery for you!”
The server replied, “We don’t have any cutlery at this restaurant.” Why not? “That’s not the vision of the chef. All the food here is meant for sharing so there’s no cutlery.” (Why would cutlery prevent sharing/) The waiter refused to bring them any cutlery.
No knives in the kitchen?
As polite Canadians, they asked if the sandwich could be taken to the kitchen and cut by one of the chefs. That brought the head chef out, who told them that it was not possible to do that. “Can you imagine how busy it would be in the kitchen if everyone wanted their food cut? (What a table manners concept!)
Not much customer service here
They managed to mash the sandwich apart with an olive pick and left feeling very disgruntled. At least the writer Todd Hirsh was able to translate it into a very amusing Op Ed commentary on the global economy. Click here to read the amusing Edmonton Journal article.
MacGyver Time
Let’s hope this isn’t a new restaurant trend. Note to self – always carry a Swiss Army knife so you can MacGyver the food at a cutlery-free restaurant.
If you want to know the proper etiquette for cutting a sandwich with an olive pick or a swiss army knife, take one of our upcoming Complete Professional workshops or our online dining training.