I worked as a head chef in a small family restaurant back in the late 80's. Unfortunately I did see such behavior from the owners. Not loads of it but some of it was pretty bad.
The place was basically the whole family: the dad owned it, the mom was host, son helped with cooking, daughter waitresses, step sister of father waitresses etc.
A few incidents:
A woman ordered a Belgian waffle which came with whipped cream. I did it as expected and she returned it asking for more whipped cream. I added more, she returned it again. Joe, the owner took the plate from me and spit on it and literally emptied the whipped cream container on it.
Another situation was a woman ordered a sandwich. I sent it out and time passes and the waitress comes back with with their finished plates. The woman only ate half the sandwich but since there was no request for a doggie bag, I cleaned the plates off and threw them in the sink (it was a small place so we all helped doing a little of everything). A few minutes passed and the waitress comes in and asks for the half a sandwich to go. I asked joe should I make another one and give her half and I'll eat the other half (or someone else if they wanted it). He calmly walked to the trash, pulled out the half a sandwich, and put it in a container to go.
Another was a piece of cake. There came an order for a piece of cake and since Joe was going downstairs to the walk-in anyway. he got it. He served it and it was send out. It was returned as the woman said it had cigarette ashes on it (which it did). Joe tried to pass it off as "wall nuts" but it clearly wasn'the has been smoking downstairs. He told the waitress he would get another piece, but instead, wiped off the ashes and re-served it.
The step sister was not liked by the family, I don't know why as I didn't know their history. But there was a regular occurrence of Joe and the son spitting in her coffee.
Eventually I ended up quitting over thing such as these. Another thing they did was to make rumors of people they didn't like I became one of those things when they tried to get me fired from my next job.
There are many of these types of things that happened. Including more returned food which was "altered" in some way.
The lesson I learned from this I rarely return food unless there is something very wrong with it.

That was disgusting.

I wasn't a waiter but I was a jail guard for 20 years. One of my duties was to pass out the chow to the inmates. Now, there are some people who would say messing with an inmate's food is OK because they deserve it but we still have to be professional and leave judgments to the courts. Having said that, I will say that in 20 years of dealing with inmates throwing piss, beep blood, and sperm at us, I only messed with their food 3 times in 20 years. It happens but it's a rare occurrence.

I worked in restaurants for years and only saw this happen a couple of times, both at an ice cream shop where I worked in high school and college.
The first was this guy who ordered a shake. He wanted it thick, extra thick. He made sure to remind me he wanted it thick after every person in his party ordered, and there had to be like eight people in the group. Well, I made his shake super thick, and when I brought it to the table, he wasn't happy and sent it back. No problem. I made him another one so thick that it wouldn't even let go of the blender. He still wasn't happy and proceeded to yell, calling me stupid and a moron at the top of his lungs. My friend came and took over. Scooped ice cream into the cup, hocked a good one in there, and smashed it with a kitchen knife No milk, no blender. He told her it was the best shake he'd ever had and how much better she was than "that other stupid waitress." No guilt there.
The other one was this old lady that used to come in on Saturday mornings. Who used to call her Gert the Bagel B*tch. She wanted the freshest pot of decaf every Saturday. The pot could still be dripping, but she would say it wasn't fresh. She just wanted someone to make a pot special for her. I used to just walk around behind the counter and pretend that I was making her coffee, and give her the oldest pot of decaf we had, or I would brew her regular instead and smile when she told me how wonderful it was. The cooks used to screw with her bad, though. She ordered a lightly toasted bagel every Saturday, too, but it was never toasted to her approval, and she sent it back at least once every week. Her bagel commonly got rubbed on peoples butts or kicked around the floor before it made it to her plate. I don't feel bad for this one either.
These people were unbelievably rotten, and that's why they were messed with.
There are other ways to get even other than messing with people's food. I used to like to fart near obnoxious customers tables and walk away and leave it there. I used to be cheap with the booze in someone's drink if they were rude at the bar. I also wasn't past stealing some fries off a mean customers plate. Or give them the smallest piece of pie in the fridge when they ordered dessert.
Is this some sort of funhouse "Why, having fun?"

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I was working at TGIF's and some dudes came in, COMPLETELY high off their asses. Their eyes were half closed, and they were so mumbly, you could barely understand a single word out of their mouths. Rude has hell too. I handed them their menus, and they threw them on the table without looking at them (probably because they were too high to read) and were like, "Gimme a Chimichanga". Which was not even remotely an item on the menu at TGIF. One of my coworkers spit in, and wiggled their fingers in, their 7-Up. The dude took a sip and was like, "Something's up with this Sprite", so I had to bring him a new one.

I remember back in 2009 when I used to work for Hooters Channelside
of Tampa, FL. One of the cooks had finished cooking a grilled
cheese sandwich and I bumped into him sending it onto the dirty
tile floor of the kitchen. I asked him what he was going to do
with the sandwich and he replied he would toss it into the trash.
Well I asked, "would he care if I ate it" and he said no, he
did not care. So I picked it up and it went onto a plate and I
gobbled up the sandwich and enjoyed it! Who said there's no
such thing as a free lunch!? LOL, HAAH!
Lorenzo Sunny Arizona
Call me a sailor or a swabby just don't call me a squid!

I've worked in bars, cafes, restaurants and tea rooms. Never known it to happen. Everyone would be too scared of getting caught - losing your job isn't fun when you rely on it to pay rent.
You get back at horrible customers in other, more subtle ways. One of my favourites was saving my farts for when I'd be walking past a table with some rude customers. As I passed, I'd let out a silent killer and carry on going. They never figure out where it came from, and suspect each other of being the one who let one go. It always made me feel better about having to smile and apologise for every little complaint and bitchy comment that was thrown at me.

This seems like an appropriate place for me to share this story. I always treat wait staff with respect because i'm not a douchebag.
Anyway, my and three of my friends traveled to the city for the weekend. We went to a restaurant on a Friday night when there was a pretty large number of patrons (so i assume the staff were quite busy). Our waitress was a really nice, polite girl who treated us very well and was great at her job. Unfortunately for her another customer whose table she was waiting was a real jerk. Something minor and completely out of her control was wrong and he felt it right to scream at her and make some pretty derogatory comments. After me and my group were finished with our meal i said too one of my friends 'make a distraction for me'. While the jerk was preoccupied with my friend pretending to be a long lost nephew i walked by the other side of the table, picked up the jerks drink, spat in it and set it back down. He never noticed, but a very grateful number of the staff did.
"I would give my life to be dead" Francesco Dellamorte

I worked in a coffee shop/cafe for three months when I was a teenager. Never had a problem with the customers, but my boss was a sexist, xenophobic nightmare.
I spat in his tea a couple of times & 'got confused' between decaff & regular. Watching him try to make a moccha latte afterwards with the jitters was hilarious.
I got fired eventually, but that was because I didn't turn up for work.

I was the assistant manager of a _______ Delivery back in the early ninties and I had sent my driver out to an address twice. He was an experienced guy who knew the area, but no one had answered the door. The customer whom I was on the phone with was a complete jerk. With his NY accent he was insisting on a free pizza which would not have been so bad, it was that he was really rude about it, and saying things like "I'm the customer, you are supposed to stroke me, stroke me." So apologized profusely like Monte and offered to send him out a free six pack of Pepsi. The pizza of course got some complimentary floor spices and I believe an extra helping of gravy. I also made sure that the six pack was clean by washing it with my underarms. That is the only time I have ever done anything like that, but I must admit that it felt good.
I would say that it does not happen that often, but like they said, never beep with the guy who brings you your food.
The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. Samuel Beckett

I also worked at a Chain restaraunt almost exactly like Shenaniganz, we used to play pranks on eachother. On the main chef we would hide kitchen timers all over, go on break and watch him through the window go crazy as the entire kitchen was beeping.
I never saw anyones food intentionally get messed with there, BUT I have seen stuff dropped on the floor and put back on the plate, this one fryer used to drop it on the floor, re fry it for a second and put it back, but i've also see him do it without re frying it. Both nasty

My bf used to work in a restaurant chain almost exactly like Shenaniganz. Tacky crap on the walls etc There was a douchy employee every one disliked for good reasons.
After his shift which was very near the time the kitchen would close, he goes and orders a burger knowing very well how long it takes and the trouble associated with it at that time of night.
My bf didn't hesitate to rub the hamburger buns all over his sweaty balls
Some people deserve it, sone don't. Point being, don't beep with people who handle your food.
We've met before, haven't we?

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When i get bad service, I go to the bathroom before I pay the bill and rub all the money bills on my butt-hole, and then gladly give a tip to the sucky waiter.

Back in the day I worked at a great movie theater. There was this one lady that complained that our popcorn wasn't fresh enough so I went in the back and made her a new batch of popcorn. I put it straight from the popper bin into the bag and brought it to her. She took one bite of the popcorn and exclaimed that it was too cold for her liking and I must have just gotten it out of the bag. Sure enough, I went into the back room, got some more popcorn, Hawked a gigantic spitwad into it (Followed by some additions from a few coworkers) and then microwaved it. The lady seemed to give me no problem when I gave it to her and she walked away. Point is simple. There are a lot of customers waiting in line to get concessions. Don't try to make an employee look bad for no reason and not expect to get your food messed with.

I'd agree that purposefully messing with food doesn't happen a lot. But things that most people don't wanna know about (touching with bare hands, picking stuff up off the floor, etc.) happens all the time. It all goes back to the same thingas long as it's edible, I'm going to do whatever I can to not have to cook it again.
"If I'm not gonna be part of the greatest, I gotta be the greatest myself."- Busta Rhymes

Nah, it's pretty uncommon. I've never seen it happen. I'll admit I've touched people's food with my bare hands but I've never in my life, at three different restaurants, seen anyone spit, etc in someone's food. I've had people yell at me like that lady did in the film (I had a crazy lady last week actually) but I treat their food like anybody else's.
Instead we just trash talk them in the kitchen.

"On another note, if there is a problem with the food and it is sent back, I don't see why anybody needs to mess with it if the person is polite about it. Mistakes happen whether its from the customer, the wait staff, or the kitchen. I've had customers afraid of this, but I don't see any reason why their food should be messed with in this case
As I've said before, I used to cook, so I can speak to why food gets messed with. First off, I've never seen a server mess with food. It's always been cooks in my experience. As for why. First off, cooks have enough to do without having to make a meal over again. Getting stuff out in a timely fashion the first time is enough of a challenge without having to cook your steak again because it's not pink enough for you. Unless it's comepletly wrong or dangerous for you to eatdeal. Second, in my experience, the first time its sent back, it's ok. It's the second or (especially)third time that you might as well up and leave because you won't want to eat what is set in front of you. And politeness, well, doesn't really matter. Cooks don't have to deal with customers (thank God), so we don't care how rude they are. We just care that they're making our lives harder by asking us to cook the same meal more than once.
"If I'm not gonna be part of the greatest, I gotta be the greatest myself."- Busta Rhymes

I used to see this in the Navy all the time. Every low ranking enlisted person has to do a 3 month stint in the galley. Some are lucky enough to get assigned to the ward room, which is where the officers dine. Or the "goat locker", where chiefs, higher ranking enlisted, dine. There's less work, and the added bonus of eating better food than the rest of the crew is given. I actually worked in both at different times.
The chiefs and officers that were hard asses always got their food spat in, or chocolate pie might have a little fecal matter inserted. I once saw a guy piss in an officer's soup! I never did this stuff myself, mainly because I didn't have to, there was always somebody that was more than happy to jerk off into an assh*le officer's ice cream. If a petty officer got a harsh chewing out he/she felt they didn't deserve, they just made a call to a friend on their galley tour, and at the next meal, that chief or officer was dining on a meal that was at least half snot, or worse.
Those with higher rank do have a lot of power, but the mess hall is the great equalizer.

Personally, if my order was wrong, unless it's life threatening I will accept it and eat it anyways. Call me paranoid, but a friend and me were discussing this sort of stuff the other day and she said that a cook at one of the local restaurants was known for messing with people's food, even if the customer was polite, and it was only returned one time. =/
I guess you take a chance even if you are polite and such, as some people have said that if they dropped food on the floor they'd put it back on the plate and give it to the customerbut you never know when you'll have an beep for a cook/waiter who messes with your food even if you're being politeand they can do a lot worse than just dropping your food on the floor.

I've never done anything too nasty to anybody, even if they were a huge ass hole. I might make sure they get charged for EVERY SINGLE THING they ordered, where I can cut corners for people who treat me like a human being. Little things like that. Most people can get another free order of bread if they want it, but ass holes get to pay for another side. Oops! That was regular, not decaf. You wanted that? Sorry, we're out. Those little things give me some satisfaction. If I did anything disgusting, I'd honestly feel bad. I heard of another server rubbing bread in questionable areas before serving it to a table, and that's the worst I've heard from my restaurant.
On another note, if there is a problem with the food and it is sent back, I don't see why anybody needs to mess with it if the person is polite about it. Mistakes happen whether its from the customer, the wait staff, or the kitchen. I've had customers afraid of this, but I don't see any reason why their food should be messed with in this case.
Bottom linetreat the wait staff like human beings. Do not talk down to them. Maybe we don't have the ideal job in your eyes, but you don't know the circumstances in which we live.

I've always tried to show the utmost respect to those who handle my food, whether it's at Taco Bell or IHOP or Marabella's (a local Italian place) or anywhere in between. Not because they have that "over me" but because, they're people too, and it's just not cool to treat someone like crap.
Though I do have two relevant stories
Once when we were traveling, we stopped in a Denny's of all places, and my mother ordered extra hash browns. We got our order, and she got twice the usual amount, but she wanted more, and really tore the waitress a new one. I was glad I'd already gotten my food, but she got more hash browns, and we all advised her not to eat it, but she thought she'd intimidated that poor waitress. My mom looks like a trucker (so skip the usual mama jokes) and is mean as hell, but I doubt that saved her from getting her food messed with, if they were the type to do it to start with.
Second case, I have a cousin who worked for a Carl's Jr. (Hardee's on the East Coast) and he was carrying a box of the hamburger patties out of the freezer and into the kitchen. Well, they were mopping and they had that nasty floor cleaner stuff down he slipped and fell, and many of the burgers fell out. He started throwing them away, when the manager told him he was throwing away profits and demanded that he put them all back in the box. They ended up serving them the ones that stayed in the box, the ones that had hit the floor and mixed with the floor cleaning chemicals, and the ones he'd thrown in the trash. He quit and none of us have eaten there since.

• Dark Reality

@Jack2979
I feel you. When you have no responsibilities other than maybe a little rent, working in a restaurant is about the best job you can have. I was a cook in a casual dining place similar to the one in "Waiting" and, just like in the movie, there was plenty of beer to drink, weed to smoke and waitresses to bang. that's why I like this movie. It's not particularly funny or insightful and the plotwell, there is no plot. But it's sooooo true, and I lived it, so I can relate.
"If I'm not gonna be part of the greatest, I gotta be the greatest myself."- Busta Rhymes