Behind the bar, things look very different from what you’d expect. You’ve got maybe two seconds to read the room, manage a crowd, and keep everyone happy – all while your hands are already on the next order. Most customers never think about what actually happens on the other side of the counter.
Honestly, after five years of slinging drinks at everything from dive bars to craft cocktail lounges, I can tell you there are certain orders that make any experienced bartender quietly sigh. It’s not about being difficult or judgmental. It’s about time, effort, context, and sometimes just pure respect. Let’s dive in.
1. The Mojito: The Classic Workflow Killer
Mojitos are widely considered one of the least popular drinks for bartenders to make. The primary reason, as industry voices have pointed out for years, is the time it takes to prepare one properly. You’ve got to muddle fresh mint, squeeze lime, measure rum, add sugar, top with soda. On a quiet Tuesday? Sure, no problem.
On a busy night with patrons four-deep at the bar, professionals simply do not want to spend five minutes muddling mint leaves. Think about it like being asked to fold an origami crane while ten people are yelling your name. A lot of bartenders will tell you they dislike making mojitos and other labor-intensive drinks that require heavy muddling, because these orders slow down their workflow considerably.
2. The Espresso Martini: A Trendy Nightmare
Despite the popularity of the espresso martini, making one can be a huge pain, especially on busy nights that don’t allow time for pulling fresh espresso shots. Some bartenders have even suggested that customers should have to pay separately just for the espresso portion. The drink exploded in popularity over recent years, and that surge in demand has worn thin on many professionals.
Espresso martinis are surprisingly unpopular with bartenders, and there’s nothing more annoying than a group coming in thirty minutes before closing, post-coffee machine clean, ordering a round of bean-based drinks. The coffee machine is already cleaned, packed away, and no one wants to restart the whole process for three cocktails at 1:45 AM. I’ve been there. It stings every time.
3. The Long Island Iced Tea: Five Spirits, One Bad Idea
The Long Island iced tea is widely considered a poor choice for both the guest and the bartender. The drink contains a puzzling number of ingredients, and the official recipe according to the International Bartenders Association calls for gin, vodka, white rum, tequila, and triple sec, with lemon juice, simple syrup, and a splash of cola. That’s eight ingredients for what is essentially a get-drunk-fast beverage.
As Lauren Lenihan, director of operations for Paris Café and Common Ground Bar in New York City with over 20 years of bartending experience, bluntly puts it: “No bartenders ever order a Long Island iced tea.” Part of the reason bartenders dislike the drink is because it’s typically ordered by those who don’t really care what their drink tastes like. That combination of complexity and low craft intention is a frustrating mix.
4. The Ramos Gin Fizz: A Chemistry Experiment in a Glass
Perhaps the most universally loathed cocktail among bartenders, the Ramos Gin Fizz not only requires many ingredients including gin, lemon, lime, cream, egg white, orange blossom water, sugar, and soda, but it takes a massive amount of time and physical effort to make correctly. This is less of a drink order and more of a test of endurance.
The process requires the bartender to dry shake all of the ingredients for at least five minutes, then shake again with ice, and then let the drink settle in the glass before pouring about an ounce of soda over the top very delicately so the froth raises about an inch above the glass without sagging. As one experienced bartender put it, it is a huge pain for a busy bartender, and they’d only accept one at a bar if it was a high quality cocktail bar, with hardly anyone else in the building. You’ve been warned.
5. The Dirty Martini: A Precision Nightmare
The dirty martini, especially ordered “up” with precise specs, is a problem because tiny differences matter hugely – dilution, temperature, olive-to-brine ratio. Patrons will argue about the “correct” technique, making it a high-expectation, low-tolerance order where a single mis-pour prompts complaints. It’s exhausting in the most specific way possible.
Some bartenders have simply had enough of martini orders, especially when the drinks are requested dirty. Redditors who bartend regularly cite the annoyance of guests’ highly particular specifications around brine levels and olive counts. Here’s the thing: a small detail disagreement over a martini has ruined the vibe of more shifts than I can count. Order it, sure. Just be kind about the specs.
6. The Appletini: The Drink That Silently Judges You Back
A survey of more than 260 bartenders by Alcohol.org revealed the drinks bartenders are most likely to judge customers for ordering. Topping the list were frozen drinks, Jagerbombs, and Appletinis. Honestly, the appletini is in a category of its own when it comes to earning side-eye behind the bar.
According to that same survey, a whopping nearly half of all bartenders said they have a negative opinion of guests who ask for the appletini. That’s a staggering number. An anonymous survey of 260 bar staff found that the drink most likely to negatively affect a bartender’s opinion of a customer is, in fact, the appletini. It’s not about being snobbish. It’s about the fact that very few bars in 2026 can even make a proper one.
7. The Bloody Mary: A Build That Never Ends
The biggest gripe bartenders have with a Bloody Mary is all the ingredients it takes to make one, including vodka, tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, celery salt, Tabasco, and lemon juice. On top of that, there are so many different riffs on this cocktail today that bartenders never know which version a guest actually wants. It’s like asking someone to draw a portrait but refusing to describe what you look like.
Drinks like the Bloody Mary that involve heavy muddling, specialty garnishes, and multiple ingredients create extra cleanup work that seriously disrupts service flow. I’ve watched a single Bloody Mary order backed up a queue of six other customers on a Sunday brunch shift. It always happens at the worst possible moment, and the garnish situation alone can take two full minutes to assemble.
8. Frozen Blended Drinks: The Blender You Didn’t Ask For
Roughly two in five bartenders think negatively of customers who order most frozen cocktails, because these drinks bear little resemblance to their original unfrozen forms. The blender is loud, it interrupts conversations, and it eats up precious counter space. At a packed bar on a Saturday night, firing up a blender is basically announcing a five-second noise emergency to everyone nearby.
High-volume pubs especially dislike frozen margaritas and anything that breaks the rhythm of service. They aren’t considered cool anymore, and anything blended is generally a pain to make. There’s also the cleanup factor. A blender covered in frozen daiquiri residue, at 11 PM with a full house, is nobody’s idea of a good time. Trust me on this one.
9. “Surprise Me!”: The Order That Isn’t an Order
Among the most dreaded requests on a busy night is simply “surprise me!” – leaving too much up in the air for a bartender with a limited supply of fresh ingredients and dozens of other tickets to manage. I get it. It feels casual and fun. From the customer’s side, it seems like a compliment to the bartender’s creativity. From behind the bar, it feels like being handed a blank canvas and a five-second deadline.
While some bartenders don’t always mind a creative request, whether someone is annoyed by such an order depends entirely on how busy they are at that moment. When a bar is slammed, they’re unlikely to have the mental bandwidth required to concoct a special and surprising beverage. Asking a bartender to “surprise you” or to “make it strong” rank among the most annoying customer behaviors, right alongside asking for a free drink. Give a direction. Say you like tequila. Say you hate gin. That’s all it takes.
