The waiter was not completely honest, was he?

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I think I am on to something...

I ate lunch at a Denny's restaurant earlier today and tried ordering a nacho burger of sorts.

I got some nachoes instead of a burger with nacho ingredients, and let the waiter know that 'he may have gotten my order wrong'. He said that there was not enough chili to make the burger, then was about to take me entree back. I told him 'no, that's fine' and enjoyed my nachoes.

So what could have happened most likely? I did not speak clearly enough or it's actually okay to change somebody's orders when it can't be fulfilled?

He could have given you the burger sans the chilli or with something else in it's place.

It's possoble he forgot to ask, or just didn't, because most people are okay with the substitute. He also might have been new and didn't know what to do except give you food.

As an ex-waitress, he SHOULD have told you and made sure the altered order was okay with you, but most likely it was humam error. It happens. A lot of mistakes that are made in restaraunts are actually kitchen's fault. Misinformation, not reading the ticket, etc.

Hoped he still got a tip, most servers make way below minimum wage ($2.13 per hour in my town)

It's possoble he forgot to ask, or just didn't, because most people are okay with the substitute. He also might have been new and didn't know what to do except give you food.

As an ex-waitress, he SHOULD have told you and made sure the altered order was okay with you, but most likely it was humam error. It happens. A lot of mistakes that are made in restaraunts are actually kitchen's fault. Misinformation, not reading the ticket, etc.

Hoped he still got a tip, most servers make way below minimum wage ($2.13 per hour in my town)

It sounds like either he was being honest (if it's a very rural place they may indeed have run out of chilli).
Or, perhaps the people working in the kitchen screwed up the order, then he was told to make up some sort of story to cover for them.

eh he should've told you before you had to ask him. Below average tip for him if I were you.

A tip is something that we have designed so restaurants can pay lower wages. It's a bunch of crap and people tip way too high for terrible service. If you serve me terribly I'll tip you accordingly. If you serve me great then I'll tip great. My tips average out to about 20% with some people getting much higher. One girl even got close to 100%.

In Canada, servers are paid the minimum wage or higher. If I don't like the service, I won't tip....If I am happy, I will give a good tip.

It is the waiter's obligation to discuss with you before altering your order. This will give you a chance to change your order completely or accept his alternative. Changing the meal like that was not professional nor was it polite. He basically made the decision for you and he is not being paid to do so.

So, yes, he was in the wrong. It was ok for you to accept it but next time, I would have commented on his lack of professionalism. I would have bargained on the bill since he made this error and even though you were flexible, it would then mean you would have to of waited longer for another meal.

Am I the only one who thinks that the 'we didn't have enough chili' remark was a poor attempt at a white lie given at a rather innapropriate situation? Pretty sure there's a reason why he was about to take the nachoes away from me. o__O

I don't think he was lying - at least, your post hasn't given me enough reason to believe he was. I've had this happen before too, when a restaurant runs out of a dish. Usually they tell you ahead of time though, or they tell you once you've tried ordering it. I've never had a waiter improvise "behind my back" like he did. That was unprofessional and he clearly didn't care enough to approach you about it ahead of time. Even if he was unaware when you ordered it - he should have come back to your table and said something then.. hence, the discount privilege.

I used to be a waitress but my boss at the restaurant was a grade-A beeyatch.
She wore really hideously ugly trousers (ghastly skinny red tartan ones) , but gave me hell unless I was wearing a skirt - even though they have no pockets.
So it was impossible to put tips into a pocket and they would be kept in a jar instead.
But, then she would just steal all of the tips to keep for herself.

She did this even though she only payed £3.26 an hour (really more like £2.50 an hour because she would get you to do overtime with no warning then weasel out of paying for it) , and even though it was like pulling teeth to try and get paid for work which you had already done for her.

We were the only two people who worked there and she was insufferable in so many other ways too (and kept trying to con the customers by lying and telling me to lie to them - even though I never did).
She always had the obnoxious "Mark and Lard" show on the radio in the kitchen - blaring really loudly, so she couldn't hear a thing which anybody said out in the restaurant part of the room.

So whenever customers looked pleased with my service, I would explain to them that my boss just kept all of the tips for herself... and would request that if they liked my service then please would they NOT tip me because frankly I'd rather they did that than tip her for my good service. They would often look quite shocked, but by her attitude... they would make it clear that it was good that I'd drawn that to their attention, while popping their purses away.

Sometimes I wouldn't catch them in time and a tip would be left.
Eventually I thought of taking some of the pound coins and storing them in my shoes.... but it was really uncomfortable and I felt like a thief just taking some of my own tips in that manner.... so I felt horribly guilty about it.

The woman was very abusive towards me - verbally, intellectually, professionally.
Long before I thought I was autistic she decided that I was, then used that as her excuse to call me a moron, a special case, ret*d etc.... Well, needless to say I was the most inept employee in the universe (to her, not the customers) once she started that nonsense up.

The reason I say all of this is because goodness knows what goes on behind the closed doors of other restaurants.
If the waiter was having to put up with his boss stealing all of his tips and giving him barely any pay even after a struggle to get it , then it's unlikely that he would care at all whether you tip him or not... and might even secretly be trying to put customers off from leaving any tips at all.

He really needed to tell you that they were out of what you wanted and asked what you wanted instead.

If that had happened to me I would have been mad and it would have had to have been sent back. It wasn't what I ordered. I don't like nachos. Even if I was willing to try a nacho burger that doesn't mean I'd eat just plain nachos.

Sounds like plain old bad customer service. If the kitchen didn't have the ingredients to make what you ordered, he should have said so, and asked you what you'd like instead. Not just changed your order on his own whim, and brought out something completely different. That's rude, and bad customer service.