oh brother... if i'm at Denny's and i want a grilled cheese sandwich, w/o the slice of tomato that comes in a Denny's grilled cheese, i ought to be able to order that and get it that way... if i say i want the salad, but no croutons, i ought to be able to get it that way... on occasion when something is alread mixed in before it's plated, such as spaghetti sauce that has onions in it, it's understandable that they cannot leave out the onions, but other than that, a person should be able to order a burger and have something taken out or something added, like a peppercini, or extra cheese--something other than how it is listed on the menu... ask the owner what he or she thinks...
we eat out all of the time... high-end restaurants to coffee shops to take-out and fastfood... we typically receive very good service... we are kind, polite, friendly, waiters and waitresses always tell us how well-behaved our kids are... when we request something special, we tend to get it without incident... most even go out of their way for us w/o our asking... we tip generously... i have a hard time trying to come up with a ghastly eating-out experience... one time we received very slow service at a restaurant that was having a grand opening... that was understandable... the other one i can think of is when a new restaurant opened and the head chef walked off the job leaving the kitchen in disarray... poor service, poor food... we were not charged even though we didn't say anything about it...
Amen.