Let me start by saying, I was not surprised by the events that happened this night. Things like this happen to me so often I don’t even think twice about it anymore.
My girls were staying at my in-law’s, my son was at a pasta party with his team and my husband was at work. We had been getting Chinese restaurant menus in the mail for the past couple of weeks, now I really had a craving for some beef and broccoli.
That’s it, all I wanted was an order of beef and broccoli. Nothing fancy, nothing extra, just that.
I had to make a stop at a store and decided to stop at the Chinese restaurant in the same plaza. This one has about 50 “Voted BEST” signs all over the front of it. Personally, I prefer the one in town, but parking can be tricky especially on a Saturday night.
I go in to place my order. There is only one lady at the counter. I thought, “Wow, this should be quick.”
Boy was I wrong!!
One of the kitchen staff comes out of the bathroom, gets his coat, says good-bye and leaves for the night.
It turns out that this lady’s order was given away to someone else. This place uses the last four digits of your phone number as an identifier for pick up…more to come on that later.
For 10 minutes the older gentleman is trying to figure out the issue. Then walks in super pissed off lady in her pajamas (at 6 PM). Mind you by this time there is at least 10 people in line behind me waiting to pick up their food and I haven’t even ordered mine yet.
Pajama Lady got the wrong order, she got the lady in front of me’s order, but why Pajama Lady didn’t bring the receipt with her is beyond me. She’s not pleased.
Now that’s not even the good part.
As that debacle is going on (and I still haven’t ordered anything yet) the worker that left comes back with another Chinese guy and he is NOT HAPPY!!!!
Angry Guy starts yelling from the door (in Chinese) all the way over to the counter. Another kitchen guy comes out and starts yelling back (again in Chinese). The older counter gentleman stops everything he’s doing and gets involved.
The lady behind me leans to me and said, “I think we picked a bad night.”
I had to tell her that things like this happen to me all the time.
Kitchen Guy opens his wallet and throws all the money he had in it at Angry Guy. Angry Guy and Worker Guy leave as Angry Guy continues to yell all the way out the door.
Now, the food mix up still hasn’t been sorted out. Now that that kerfuffle was over the older gentleman can focus on the extremely long line that has formed behind me (out the door).
Pajama Lady gets the correct bag and now No Food Lady has to reorder (a lot of food) and wait.
YIPPEE!!!! It’s my turn to order.
I go up and tell him I want beef and broccoli, that’s it. Thankfully he didn’t use my phone number. He gave me a beat up index card cut in half with the number 22 written on it.
I sit and I wait and I observe.
About seven take out orders later, a guy comes in to pick up his order and gives his number. As the Older Gentleman goes to give him the bag, the customer notices that there’s another bag on the counter with the same number. (I told you I’d get back to this).
Now since the customer wasn’t positive of the order, he wanted to call his wife since she called it in. He actually said he didn’t want to have to come back…if he only knew.
Upon the customer’s further inquiry about the number situation we all find out that if two calls come in too close together than both orders get the same number. This lead me to think it’s time for a new system.
Why not use names like every other restaurant that has pick up?
After being at the restaurant for approximately 45 minutes, I got my order. This left me a whole whopping 20 minutes to get home, eat and then leave to pick up Teddy from the party.
When I told Teddy about this on the way home, he laughed and told me “This better be a blog post.”
Here it is, a typical outing for The Kraus House Mom.
I have never even heard of a place just taking the last 4 for pick up orders. The whole number sure, but I can totally see how the last 4 could get confusing. Maybe it’s time for THEM to give out numbers to the people who call in.
Oh man, what an event. Whenever I’m in a rush, I always get held up by things like this. Crazy. It seems everyone is moody these days. I was at the post office yesterday and nearly saw a fight break out.
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OH WOW! Thats insane. I saw a guy go completely nutty at the bank the other day. People need to chill!
That’s so crazy! Things like that always happen to me when I’m in a hurry. It’s nice when there’s no rush and you can just sit back and laugh. It definitely sounds like it’s time for a new system. Hope you enjoyed your food!
NOPPEEEEE! I can’t with this. Ha! I would have been SO PISSED. I probably would have just left before ordering and opted for something else…. And then attempted to get Chinese Food another day LOL!
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I would have probably been in someone’s face about having to wait that long and all the mix-ups. I just don’t do hangry well!
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Wow, that is so frustrating. Nothing like just wanting to get some food and having a comedy of errors happen. I have no clue why they don’t use a name system for take out, it seems like a might save a lot of trouble.
You have way more patience than I do. There is no way I would have waited that long to order. You must have REALLY wanted beef and broccoli! ☺ Drive through would have been my dinner that night or a bag of chips!
I would have left before I even ordered, just because of everything that was going on. Was there not another Chinese place nearby? We have them in just about every shopping center on our major road in town.
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Wow that’s so crazy! I admire your commitment to getting that takeout, I probably would have walked right out of there when I saw how disorganized it was. They definitely need a better system.
So I guess the use the phone number from caller id? If the numbers get messed up it seems that they would change it. I wonder what the money fight was over with the kitchen guy. So many unanswered questions.
Wow! That is insane. I would have been upset and left the place and went someplace else. Glad it worked out for you.
You got some show before even getting your dinner. This is something that would totally happen to my husband. Nice you could laugh and blog about your experience.
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That was a lot of confusion! Hopefully the establishment’s system of taking the last four numbers changes!
LOL!!! Sounds like something that would happen to me, though our Chinese carryout does a great job with orders. AND they usually throw in a pint of egg drop soup because they know my daughter loves it. Yep. We order Chinese takeout a lot. 🙂
That sounds like an adventure to get dinner! Hope the food was super yummy!
That seems quite the story and adventure for Chinese food! I really hope it was worth the wait. I used to order from restaurants, but since YouTube is here I just shop ingredients in an Asian market and cook some myself. Turns out, it’s not that hard!
Ha! It sounds like you have a good attitude about the whole ordeal, even if it is because you’re accustomed to the wild situations. Hope everyone ended up with something tasty.
I think we both buy our Chinese food from the same location. Every time we go in there is someone yelling at someone else!
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Oh my gosh, that is nuts! I hope they sort all that out soon. I love that you approached the situation with a good attitude and were able to get a good story out of the ordeal. 🙂
That’s such a long wait to order food that made your schedule a bit cramped up. It’s nice that you kept patient.
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I hate it when things like this happen. I love beef and broccoli. I have a craving for it now lol. I guess it will be Chinese food for lunch tomorrow.
What an eventful evening! It’s always when I want to get in and out that situations like this arise. At least you can say it was blog-worthy.
Yeah things happen and if it happens that you lost your patience, then you too is lose.
Its kind if interesting night you have. On the brighter side, you have a content to share, right? 🙂
Beef and broccoli is one of my Dad’s favorites. I have no idea why they’d use a number system for phone orders, or why two people would get the same number.
I love Chinese food. I usually order some dim sum and Beef with Broccoli. It’s my favorite comfort food.
What a crazy experience to have. We certainly have some of those moments here when we venture into some place new. I will have to share our stories of restuarant scenarios that didn’t go horribly wrong, but certainly went south slowly.
Oh wow. You’re much nicer than me! 45min for Chinese food!?! No way
Well aren’t you glad you got more than beef and broccoli to share:) Some misadventures offer great insight into human behaviour ….helps us learn what not to do….interesting read!
Well, there must be something wrong with how they are operating. I guess, they need to revisit it because if it will be continued, they will loose their customers.
This would have been a frustrating night for us if that happened. But keep thinking positive! At least you’ve got more food! Lol
I would be so frustrated if it took that long for Chinese food. So glad that you shared this crazy adventure.
Oh my word. I think they need a new system, that one is not working for them at all! What a story.
That Chinese food was very costly. I t came at the cost of patience and self control
That’s crazy experience.. It would have been so frustrating for you..
Oh no! That was quite the takeout food pick-up story. I don’t experience situations like these too often, thank goodness!
Oh sweet Jesus that sounds like a DISASTER. I don’t know if I would have had the patience to sit and wait, no matter how delicious the Chinese food is!
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Wow! What a confusing mess, they do need a new system. It is 2017 I need them to get it together. 45 minutes is way too long to wait for food.
Ouch! What a long tale. I just make my own Chinese take out style food anymore since takeout/delivery got too expensive for our big family. Beef (or chicken) with broccoli is one of my favs!
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I need to go back to this article to check the name of the restaurant so that I would no longer try to order here. Unless I have a lot of time allotted for waiting time.
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Thank you for posting this. First off you made me smile on a very difficult day. Secondly thank you cause you proved these things don’t just happen to me. All. The. Time.
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What a fun read. I imagine it was not so fun for you to wait for 45 minutes. We have been getting Chinese restaurant menus in the mail too a lot lately and it always makes me want to order something. So far we have always had the order right and hopefully, it continues.
HAHAH what a fun read! It definitely wasn’t the right night but you had a fun story to blog about. They should stick to taking names instead numbers, it gets too confusing.
How crazy was that! Sounds like they need a new method after all of this confusion.
Haha! Well, the food probably wasn’t worth the wait or hassle, but at least you got some good entertainment out of it!
That looks like a great event. I enjoyed it while reading, so the event must be much more funny there.
What a story! So crazy. I am sure you’ll never forget it. Sometimes all we need it to laugh hard at things happening!