Grown man gets mad because he doesn’t know what ordering a “plain” burger means

[u/50calTaco]

So I work at Five Guys and for those who don’t know, when you order a burger there you get to fully customize the toppings on it (helps justify the price tag a tiny bit i guess). And you choose between a little (single) or regular (double) burger.

I had a pleasant enough exchange with a customer while ringing up his food… and when it came to his cheeseburger I asked what toppings he wanted on it. He looked at me and said, “Oh you know… just a plain, regular cheeseburger.” Ok great, a cheeseburger with nothing on it, easy enough.

Well we make the food, and a minute after he gets it he comes back up to me, visibly annoyed and holding the burger.

“You made my food wrong. There’s nothing on it.”

“Oh I’m sorry sir, I thought you’d ordered a plain cheeseburger.”

“I did. Do you not know what that means? Like a McDonald’s burger.”

Ok first of all, “McDonald’s” is not a standard for how someone orders burger toppings and second of all, this guys in his late 40s to early 50s and has never once run into this issue ordering a plain burger?

“Ok I’m sorry about that sir, we’ll remake that for you. What exactly did you want on it?”

I shit you not, with an annoyed voice he ordered:
Ketchup. Lettuce. Pickles.
So notably NOT a McDonald’s cheeseburger???

He got what he wanted in the end and I apologized because customer service but like?? I’m in awe at the sheer level of misunderstanding and audacity.

[u/enthalpy01]

I was dating a Scottish guy in college and when he went to order a burger without lettuce and tomato on it, he did it by saying “no salad on the burger.” Which the American fast food attendant was completely confused about. “It doesn’t come with salad.” It makes sense when you think about it but I have never heard that phrasing here.

[u/bikemoto → u/enthalpy01]

Pretty common thing to say here, too.

I mean, everyone knows what salad ingredients are, right? It means the meat patty, cheese and sauces, but none of the healthy stuff.

[u/Hour-Hovercraft-3498 → u/bikemoto]

Don’t most salads have cheese, though? I would have understood that he was talking about burger ingredients and not, like, a side salad or whatever but I reckon it’s still ambiguous enough for clarification to be needed!

[u/bikemoto → u/Hour-Hovercraft-3498]

No, they don’t. Not by a long shot.

Ingredients was a bad choice of word, perhaps vegetables would have been better.

Here it’s not ambiguous, as we are a Commonwealth country and have a communal understanding of what salad means.

[u/Hour-Hovercraft-3498 → u/bikemoto]

Well, as a fellow person from a Commonwealth country, I would say we clearly don’t have a communal understanding!

[u/Akumetsu33 → u/enthalpy01]

But lettuce and tomato exists in Scotland and fast food restaurants has been there for many decades. I don't think cultural difference is the issue here...

[u/enthalpy01 → u/Akumetsu33]

It was apparently a turn of phrase “no salad on the burger” meant “no lettuce and tomato on the burger”. Not clear on how regional it was. He was from a suburb of Glasgow.

[u/Akumetsu33 → u/enthalpy01]

Oh I get you now, countless different odd phrasing all around the world that speaks english stands out here.

[u/Professional_Face_97 → u/enthalpy01]

It's not a regional thing it's an efficiency thing, salad is one word so if the amount of things to be asked to be removed is more than one you just say salad. If it was just lettuce you'd say lettuce. Obviously that only applies to the salad-type items though.