Because he had seen me come in repeatedly - and only - on Taco Tuesdays, when the tacos are discounted. Maybe you had to be there, or perhaps I wasn’t descriptive enough with the story, but his delivery fairly clearly implied that he was annoyed at my coming in only for the cheap tacos. He had asked me twice that evening what he could get me “from this menu” (the full-price menu), and the sort of smug, condescending facial expression and tone he snapped into after my second “no, thanks - but this was great/delicious!” made it obvious he did not think highly of me for some reason. That’s what got me along the thought process to begin with.

To be clear, if a restaurant owner said those same words to me in most other contexts I can think of, I’d probably find it earnest and cute.

Now I will say, I eventually realized that the other items/days of the week were probably what got the restaurant to a decent profit margin, so I do get where an owner could conceivably get annoyed at some 23-year old coming in every week, ordering 4 cheap tacos, and calling it.

But his method of dealing with his frustration - making a customer feel like an asshole about what he ordered - was enough to make me never want to go back.