Ordering something not on the menu?

I just wondered if any of you org fellars and gals have any experience in this?

A while back I watched Get Shorty on TV with my wife. There is a segment there about celebrities and movie stars never ordering from the menu when they went to a restaurant.

Well, my wife and I went out to eat on a finer restaurant on my birthday earlier this week and had a look at the menu. We wanted to go for a starter in addition to our main meal, but there were nothing that really inspired us (mostly seafood). So I remembered the segment in the movie and asked if they could make a bowl of French fries sprinkled with bacon cubes and with tasty melted cheese on top.
I was surprised that the waiter said; we will try. He came back with the most delicious starter I have ever had. Crispy large fries with bacon and I think it was a mild version of Jarlsberg cheese melted over the lot.

If none of you have tried to order a meal not on the menu, I’ll tell you it was a fun and delicious experience.

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Originally Posted by Sigurd Fafnesbane

I just wondered if any of you org fellars and gals have any experience in this?

A while back I watched Get Shorty on TV with my wife. There is a segment there about celebrities and movie stars never ordering from the menu when they went to a restaurant.

Well, my wife and I went out to eat on a finer restaurant on my birthday earlier this week and had a look at the menu. We wanted to go for a starter in addition to our main meal, but there were nothing that really inspired us (mostly seafood). So I remembered the segment in the movie and asked if they could make a bowl of French fries sprinkled with bacon cubes and with tasty melted cheese on top.
I was surprised that the waiter said; we will try. He came back with the most delicious starter I have ever had. Crispy large fries with bacon and I think it was a mild version of Jarlsberg cheese melted over the lot.

If none of you have tried to order a meal not on the menu, I’ll tell you it was a fun and delicious experience.

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Don't be too extravagantly different, don't expect things to be exactly as you want them, and expect to pay a premium for the privilege. Other than that, most decent restaurants should accommodate you to some extent.

What's with all the colour settings?

I think you can always ask, sometimes they can deliver, sometimes they can't. But especially in expensive places I would expect them to be able to come up with something.

I do it all the time, largely because Lady Ghost has a deep aversion to western-style salads - which she characterises as "grass".

When she wants a salad, she wants vegetables and pickles not mounds of lettuce.

Her ladyship is also picky about side dishes and their freshness, so we have quite a rigmarole getting it right. Almost all the restaurants we visit are quite happy to alter things as best they can (as Pannonian noted, one is unlikely to get a pasta al forno in a Thai place) and in most cases, appreciate the opportunity for the chef and waiters to show off their skills. Of course, I appreciate their efforts suitably at bill time.

Those that can't be bothered don't get custom a second time. It's always worth asking, as it gives an indication as to the standards of the establishment, IMO.

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Originally Posted by Pannonian

Don't be too extravagantly different, don't expect things to be exactly as you want them, and expect to pay a premium for the privilege. Other than that, most decent restaurants should accommodate you to some extent.

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Agreed...
You have to take a look at the menu to sort of get the idea of what raw materials they have. Then ask if they can make so and so.
The starter I suggested was one that we had in an Australian restaurant when visiting USA. I was supprised that it was better than I remembered.

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What's with all the colour settings?

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Sometimes I type stuff in Word, to utilize the power of the spell check as you type. I am not a native english writer.
Somehow it adds a lot of [COLOR] colour tags when pasting the text into the org editor.

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Originally Posted by Sigurd Fafnesbane

Sometimes I type stuff in Word, to utilize the power of the spell check as you type. I am not a native english writer.
Somehow it adds a lot of [COLOR] colour tags when pasting the text into the org editor.

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Use Firefox, you heathen!

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Originally Posted by HoreTore

Use Firefox, you heathen!

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Isn't it the firefox who burns? :eyebrows:

I occasionally ask for steak tartare... If I reckon the restaurant's a good 'un.

If you really want to go seriously off-menu, go into an Argentine restaurant and ask for the vegetarian option :yes:

I tried a couple of times, but after a while I was pretty much convinced that McDonalds didn't serve pizza.


Ah, allright then; never. Perhaps caused by not daring to. On the other hand I don't really see the need for telling what I want. Then I might just as well cook at home. I trust the chef that he balanced the tastes and I usually pick things that I do not/can not make at home.

Haven't really seen (or is noticed?) it happen either. Only the occasional "without ingredient X".

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But especially in expensive places I would expect them to be able to come up with something.

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Especially at expensive places I expect that their menu has dishes that far surpass with whatever I can come up with.

Hello Sigurd Fafnesbane,

I do, at times I also ask to just bring me something.

I don't have the imagination enough to think of ordering something not on the menu. I guess I go to a restaurant with the mindset to eat what they have, not what they don't have.

Yes. I wen to olive garden and made a very nice mx of thre different meals. It was only as much as the most expensive meal part. ($17)

It was good!

The chance of the chef spitting in your food grows exponentially with any extra option you make.

Thus ordering a completetly made up meal is for the bold ones indeed... or those with questionable hygeinic standards;)

EDIT: A "tell" is when the kitchen staff peeks out the kitchen door as you get the meal, and high fives when you take the first bite:)

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Originally Posted by TosaInu

Hello Sigurd Fafnesbane,

I do, at times I also ask to just bring me something.

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So what do they bring you if you ask for "something"?:inquisitive:
The most expensive dishes?:laugh4:

Still much safer then asking for 'something' in China ~;)

Actually they just respond "we don't have 'something'/'i don't care'" in Chinese.
Not like I didn't try that before :tongue:

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Originally Posted by Sigurd Fafnesbane

I just wondered if any of you org fellars and gals have any experience in this?

A while back I watched Get Shorty on TV with my wife. There is a segment there about celebrities and movie stars never ordering from the menu when they went to a restaurant.

Well, my wife and I went out to eat on a finer restaurant on my birthday earlier this week and had a look at the menu. We wanted to go for a starter in addition to our main meal, but there were nothing that really inspired us (mostly seafood). So I remembered the segment in the movie and asked if they could make a bowl of French fries sprinkled with bacon cubes and with tasty melted cheese on top.
I was surprised that the waiter said; we will try. He came back with the most delicious starter I have ever had. Crispy large fries with bacon and I think it was a mild version of Jarlsberg cheese melted over the lot.

If none of you have tried to order a meal not on the menu, I’ll tell you it was a fun and delicious experience.

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But totally depends on the restaurant.

I once went to a McDonalds and ordered a golden shower with a chocolate chaser, as a joke. The girl behind the register just looked at me with a blank face, obviously not knowing what they were. She went back to the cook and manager to ask if they were on the menu. By the time she returned, I had discreetly slipped away. :gring:

If you really want to have fun, bring your own bottle of wine and ask the restaurant to build a main course around it for you. (Well actually, if you really really want to have fun, ask for this and then hand them over a EUR. 3,99 bottle of Californian wine).

Any specific requests I have depend on the nature and quality of the restaurant I'm at. At a steaked grill house, I don't bother. My wishes are limited to 'medium please, no ketchup' and if they manage that I'll be quite happy. In a more upscale reastaurant, I might have more specific requests.

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Originally Posted by Kekvit Irae

I once went to a McDonalds and ordered a golden shower with a chocolate chaser, as a joke. The girl behind the register just looked at me with a blank face, obviously not knowing what they were. She went back to the cook and manager to ask if they were on the menu. By the time she returned, I had discreetly slipped away. :gring:

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~:eek: ...

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Originally Posted by macsen rufus

If you really want to go seriously off-menu, go into an Argentine restaurant and ask for the vegetarian option :yes:

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Rolf.

Good idea ever! But, you know, we do have another food than beef.

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Originally Posted by Sigurd Fafnesbane

The starter I suggested was one that we had in an Australian restaurant when visiting USA. I was supprised that it was better than I remembered.

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Since I cannot remember seeing fries covered with bacon and cheese at any Australia restaurant, I really wonder how 'authentic' this Australia restaurant was...

I decided to take my older brother/wife/Kids to a very classy little Italian Place when I was in Montana about a month ago. This place is a jewel, even the best rated (by friends) Italian Restaurant on this side of the Country pale in comparison. So we get there, we're all preparing to order, and my niece really didn't want anything they had, we kept asking her what she wanted for when we ordered. Well finally the Waiter arrives and we all take our Orders, and my Niece very politely looks at the Waiter and asks "Can I please have a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich." My sister in Law sort of turned a little pink in the face, but embarrassment aside; My Niece Maintains that it was the best PB&J she's ever had. :laugh4:

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Originally Posted by FactionHeir

So what do they bring you if you ask for "something"?:inquisitive:
The most expensive dishes?:laugh4:

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Food.

No, not the most expensive ones. I guess some restaurants would try that, including exclusive wines.

I've been in a foreign restaurant last year. It starts when you enter: do you want wine? To me that means offering a free drink, unusual it may be. It isn't free.

Then there's a fine print on the menu. The dishes look only expensive (a normal restaurant though), but everything is ex 12%. They throw some bread on your table and when you look at it you have to pay it too. The dishes are very small (so only expensive is absurd expensive). The cover was separately billed and didn't include a spoon (which I had to order). I do not mind the occasional fat bill and when it was good a 50% tip isn't impossible, but when it goes like that I go dutch. I waited for the 5 eurocents change.

Lemme guess, you went to Italy? :laugh4:
At least that's my experience when I went there.

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Originally Posted by FactionHeir

Lemme guess, you went to Italy? :laugh4:
At least that's my experience when I went there.

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I may experience difficulty to deny that.

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

Since I cannot remember seeing fries covered with bacon and cheese at any Australia restaurant, I really wonder how 'authentic' this Australia restaurant was...

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Do they serve prison food at the most "authentic" Australian restaurants?

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

Since I cannot remember seeing fries covered with bacon and cheese at any Australia restaurant, I really wonder how 'authentic' this Australia restaurant was...

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There's a chain in the US called Outback Steakhouse. It's about as Aussie as McDonald's is French. On the menu there are things like "Bloomin' Onion" which I'm pretty sure is a purely American side dish and in the radio commercials they play digeridoos and have voices that make the late Steve Irwin's accent sound posh in comparison. Not sure if that's where Sigurd went, but it sounds like it was or maybe a spin off sort of joint.

The bacon-cheese fries Siggy describes sounds like something you can get in almost any American restaurant, but I've never seen them in Australia either.

Ordering peanutbutter and jelly sandwich at a good restaurant?

On one hand, a good restuarant should always try and please the customer. On the other hand, it's VERY insulting to the chef.

What I guess I try to say is that if you just crawled out from under a rock mcdonalds is probably better suited to serve your needs.

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Originally Posted by Kadagar_AV

Ordering peanutbutter and jelly sandwich at a good restaurant?

On one hand, a good restuarant should always try and please the customer. On the other hand, it's VERY insulting to the chef.

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The way I understand it it was a kid.
If an adult does it that may be insulting but if a child does it that's just cute and funny. At least it should be.

Yes, I forgot to say my niece is 3.

ah, that's another matter then:)

I imagined a 20+ year old...

Instead of feeling insulted, the chef should be happy for the opportunity to test his basics.

It's also a compliment, because your client feels comfortable enough in your restaurant to order and eat something he would normally have at home.

I only order something not on the menu at a local restaurant, where I know the owners/chef/head waiter (they are family friends). Since it is a rather expensive restaurant, I only go there a few times a year. Since they change their menu seasonally, but keep ingredients on hand all year round, sometimes if I go in the spring I'll ask for something that they normally have in the winter, for example. They are more than happy to make it for the same price as it is advertised on the winter menu, and it is always just as good.

I'm sure I've asked for a waitress before...