Last night I went out to eat and the only thing on the menu I could order on plan was the garden salad (lettuce, tomato, carrots, cucumber). The waitress said that they didn't have any fat free dressings, or vinegar... what the heck?!!!

I ordered the salad anyway and when it came I took some worcestershire sauce that was on the table and used that as a "dressing" it was actually pretty good! Much better than the salad dry. I'm not sure I would use it if I had other options but it was perfect for ths situation.

Does anyone else have some great "in a pinch" substitutes for dressing and/or other sauces?

Lemon juice! Or fruit in salad - I never need dressing when I have fruit

you could have put lemon juice with salt and pepper

you could use the full fat dressing and use the fork dip method that way you only use like half of it .

you could use salsa if the resturaunt had any dishes on the menu that would require that then they should be able to give you a little side of that so you could use that as a dressing

next time you know your going to eat out you could take your dressing with you sounds odd i know but when ever i go out to eat and they give me those little condiment cup thingys on the side i save them to use for things like this .. wash em and reuse them 2 or 3 times and toss hopefully youll get newones else where

maybe you could ask for some grated parmesean cheese on there and kind of forget about the dressing all together ....

ive dressed salads with plain yogurt salt and pepper before sounds odd but its not to diffrent from raita ... so i guess its okay lol

To me it sounds like the waitress was an idiot or was lazy. I would have asked to talk to the owner or manager, because I would need a very good reason to return to a restaurant that ran out of a kitchen staple like vinegar. If they never have any, I'd want to know why - because the most likely answer would be that the restaurant actually is making none of it's own food, and is actually just reheating ready-made stuff that they're getting in frozen (another good reason not to return to that restaurant).

As for salad dressings in a pinch. Salsa and sour cream also make a great salad dressing, but any restaurant that doesn't have vinegar, couldn't be counted on to have salsa and sour cream, either.

Yikes, I know I'm ranting, but I can't imagine a restaurant runnning out of vinegar.

Literally, though I do suspect the waitress was just new and doesn't understand special requests. When, I've made special requests, I've often had waitresses tell me "no, we can't do that." I (sweetly) ask them to get the owner or manager, or who ever's in change (sometimes it even ends up just being a more experienced waitress) and then ask that person - who always says "Of, course we can do that."

Then I usually hear the new waitress being told that they should ask someone if they're not sure whether or not a special request can be accomodated.

I understand the waitress not feeling she has the authority to approve a special request, but usually she'll then say, "I'll check with the ____ (manager, owner, cook....).

Sorry, I know the topic isn't restaurant service, that's just a peeve of mine.

Agree with those who have already said it...salsa works wonders in those situations!

Kaplods - I know, I think she was just really lazy! It was more of a bar than a restaurant. Fried foods, ribs, burgers and the garden salad and a ceasar salad on the menu. I did think about asking a manager or another waitress, but I didn't want to make a big deal out of it (I was with a group of people).

In the end it worked out okay and you all have given some great suggestions should this ever happen again!

I probably would cut a bar a little more slack, because they do tend to have a more limited kitchen.

I really like the idea of the salsa. I actally use a the sour cream and salsa dressing quite a bit!

You think with it being a bar they might have had a lemon on hand and suggested squeezing it on the salad. Huh.

Hot Sauce!!!!!

I also love using left overs as a salad dressing/topper combo!