Changing your mind mid-order?

[Allyson]

When ordering at a place where they make your food where you can see it being made, is it considered acceptable to decide after they have already started your food or drink that you wanted something else?

At what point is it no longer all right to change your mind? Does the reason matter, if it's 'Item X looked better, and I didn't see it till now' or 'I didn't read the menu, but I see now you put Ingredient on it and I don't like that'?

[Amara]

I think it would be rude unless you told them you are planning to pay for both meals. Otherwise, you are asking them to swallow their own costs for your gain because they can't re-use the ingredients.

[snappylt]

My own personal opinion is that I would ordinarily not want to change my own order once they had actually started working on it.  I just have a sense that once the restaurant has started investing the ingredients and the chef's time into my meal, I'd feel like I was not keeping my part of the agreement if I cancelled my order in the middle of its preparation.

That's how I'd feel under ordinary circumstances.

[Rohanna]

I'd only do this is what I ordered was turning out not to match the menu description. I ordered Gyro's from the hospital caf, and they'd pre-sauced them with, of all things, sour-cream- which I can't eat. I was expecting the sauce to come on the side, or for them to ask me if wanted any- and it certainly never occurred to me that they'd put sour cream on them. I had to change order mid-way since there was no way to get one plain.

[sparksals]

Very rude to change it once it is starting to be made.  Before anything is done, fair game, but not after. 

[sweetonsno]

Depends a little bit. I think if it's one of those things where they make it right in front of you (like, one of those places where you tell the person what to put on your sandwich or the pizza you'll bake at home), it's okay to "customize" so long as there's no difference in price. For example, I don't think there's anything wrong with telling the builder to hold the mayo or use extra olives in lieu of anchovies.

However, if it's a massive change (like you decide you want to have shrimp instead of grilled chicken on your salad) or one that will change the cost, you can only change your mind up until they enter your order. Making big changes after can create confusion in the kitchen and result in wasted food.

[Quest_]

I'm not sure if it is rude or not but it is not something I'd be comfortable doing. I think it can also depend on the individual circumstance, factoring in things like whether or not they can easily reuse items for another order, is there is a long line of customers waiting to be served, and if you have already paid for the original order or not.

[Adelaide]

I'd say it's extremely rude if you server has already walked away to put your order in. I have, when ordering, said "I'll have X with this and that" and then said "Actually, never mind I'll have Y, sorry" to the server, which seems like a mild inconvenience at most.

My father is the worst about this though, and I consider what he does to be a tiny bit rude. He's one of those people who, midway through his order, will say "I'll have....uh...ah....the....ah....burrito...and uh....does that come with the pico on the side? Uh....okay and I'll have...uh...nevermind, that has cheese on it....I'll have the taco instead...hm....or do I want the salad?"

[WillyNilly]

Ordering food at a restaurant is entering into a verbal contract.  Changing your order once its been started is trying to renegotiate the contract midway through execution... and that's not really cool.  If you want to start a new contract (a new order in addition to the first) that's ok, but its not ok to expect the restaurant to take a loos due to your whims.

[Zilla]

I'd only do this is what I ordered was turning out not to match the menu description.

This.  Or it's a cheap/bad version.
 
I once ordered country fried steak smothered with milk gravy.  The menu describes the steak as a so tender you don't need a knife steak and what I got was a piece of pure gristle that was anything but tender.  I didn't order another one as I feared the cut would be equally bad. 
 
But other than those two scenarios, I would not change my order mid meal.

[Katana_Geldar]

Zilla, did you send it back to the kitchen? I would have, but the things I have sent back are rather few. Chicken with way too much gristle, quiche with uncooked pastry and pancakes that were too salty to eat.

[Winterlight]

Ordering food at a restaurant is entering into a verbal contract.  Changing your order once its been started is trying to renegotiate the contract midway through execution... and that's not really cool.  If you want to start a new contract (a new order in addition to the first) that's ok, but its not ok to expect the restaurant to take a loos due to your whims.

This. If you change your mind while the server is still theree, fine, but deciding 20 minutes later that you want the steak and not the salmon isn't cool.

[Mikayla]

I don't think it's necessarily rude if it's posed as a question.   I've done it myself, and I just inquired if it would mess them up for me to change my order.  The wording is important, because you want to make it easy for them to say "Yes, it does mess things up". 

What would be rude would be making an assumption that I get to break the "contract" because..well, just because.