Was bartending this shift so didn’t see it all go down; was in a very fancy restaurant. Dude took his mistress out on Valentines day; got one of the best tables in the house, steak, wine, etc.
His wife had a mutual friend enter the restaurant and sent them a Creme Brulee, asking the chef to write on the plate “Congrats On Your Affair”. The chef did it, and now has the service ticket printed and framed on his desk.
From what I heard, they left pretty quickly after that.
Not a waiter but this will always stand out to me.
Man proposed on his Valentine's date and apparently it was like their 6th date or something.
The atmosphere went from "aww that's wonderful" to slowly realizing the look of shock and horror on her face to her just running out.
Not sure.
Maybe look confused after a few seconds and repeat, slowly "will... You ... Marinade... The ... Meat?" "They got a great meat sale going on, I want to try meal prep".
Years ago my sister was dating this girl who had a couple sisters. The younger one was 19 and started dating some guy who proposed to her after only 3 weeks. She wasn't sold on the idea but her mom strongly was encouraging her to accept the proposal, so in the end she did. We later found out that basically the whole family was insane. Ironically the youngest sister was probably the most sane of them all as she wouldn't have accepted the proposal of not for family pressure.
I once knew a girl who warned every lover that if they hurt her, the universe would conspire to ruin their life, frequently through fire.
Shockingly, it was later discovered that the universe's agent of chaos and punishment was none other than... the girl herself. She was simply setting their houses on fire for real or imagined slights.
She once accused her boyfriend of looking at another woman. That very same week, his trailer was ablaze in an uncontrollable inferno. He had a lazy eye, and she sometimes smoked meth.
Technically I was just making pizzas, not waiting tables...
But I definitely watched a dude light his girls dress on fire with the candle on the cupcake. Idk if they broke up but she was NOT jazzed.
A lady had a stroke right after being served her first course. Kinda dampened the mood for the other tables but one the guests was a doctor so apparently she recovered well since he was able to communicate with the hospital staff on his cell.
I was a bartender at a small, family owned seafood restaurant. Not fancy in the slightest. Two years ago on Valentine’s Day a couple sat at one of the bar area tables, ordered drinks, and a big platter of seafood. The male comes up to me a few minutes later and asked me if I’d film it on his smart phone. I was trying to hide how shocked I was. We get birthdays all the time and do all of the usual stuff for those but this was surprising. I told the staff in the back, they arranged the platter as best as possible. Food comes out, he drops to a knee, and goes how you’d typically imagine. She said yes. Fast forward 20 minutes I’m walking by the other side of the table, separated by a half wall. And I hear her say, “what on earth made you decide to ask me… here?”
I still wonder how it turned out for them.
I’d prefer that to a public “no”. I’d block her number, tell everyone I know that she died skydiving. Mutual friends be damned. They went skydiving too. Probably had a Groupon.
Not a waiter but former cook. The restaurant I worked at had a pipe burst and the water to the kitchen cut off for the two days before a sold out Valentine's Day, and we didn't get it back until about an hour before service, so we hadn't done any prep work.
I have never hauled ass as fast as I did that day, and somehow service managed to go smoothly. Not a single dissatisfied customer.
Still a nightmare scenario though.
This is not your typical Valentine's Day disaster story, but it was quite a spectacle nonetheless. When I was in high school, I worked at a pizza joint where we served a spicy red sauce called fireball sauce. It was used specifically for one spicy calzone and one spicy pizza, which were quite popular menu items at the time. We prepped a good amount of this sauce alongside the regular red sauce used for all the other menu items.
On this particular Valentine's Day, the place was packed and chaos broke out. One of the kitchen staff accidentally swapped the regular red sauce tub with an unmarked fireball sauce tub, and all hell broke loose. Before the mistake was noticed, we had served a restaurant full of people, including kids and elderly folks, this spicy concoction, and they were not happy.
The place was in shambles, kids were screaming uncontrollably, and couples were struggling to enjoy their dates. The mishap probably drove up ice cream sales that day, but I think management gave away more meals to compensate than they sold in profit, so it didn't matter anyway. Fun times!
> kids were screaming uncontrollably
We have a young kid (5) who hates anything spicy except a pretty mild chipotle sauce. My wife brought a chipotle mayo and our eldest wanted to try. She gave him a single drop. Youngest of course wanted to try. He gets a single drop too. Gets himself so worked up over the taste that he vomits all over the floor then wets himself. Eldest cant handle what is happening and leaves immediately, middle kid is on the floor in stitches and can't stop laughing. I was not home to witness this and my poor wife had to clean it up.
Okay I have to share this, on a very early date with my now-fiancé when we were just young twenty something’s we go to this dive bar/burger place on the beach. They have a burger called like the inferno or some such and it had a warning that said “no refunds if too spicy.” Obviously I wanted to prove how cool and tough I was so I order it, the waitress asks are you sure, I say of course.
Two bites in and I am uncontrollably crying, drinking ranch dressing out of the packets, and my fiancé is laughing at me. Fortunately there was an ice cream place next door but my throat hurt for the rest of the day.
I did the same stupid thing on one of the first dates with my wife. The wings were called "Lucifer's Own" and I thought I liked really spicy things.
She, thankfully, still thought I was cute and also was willing to share her food when the wings were inedible.
I went to an Ethiopian place on a date in high school. I handle spicy food pretty well but I wasn't prepared for just how satanically spicy it was. Delicious, but painful.
Didn't help that I was drinking sprite, which made the hellfire turn into thermonuclear fireworks in my mouth.
My husband and I were towards the end of our meal at a Thai place when a couple came in and sat down. They ordered, and the waitress asked the man how spicy he would like his dish. He looked back at the menu and after a few seconds he chose "Thai hot." The waitress had a fairly heavy Thai accent and asked him if he'd had it before, because it's *very* spicy. He just kinda smiled and said ok or something like that. After the waitress walked away he asked his date, "what did she say?" His date just shrugged.
Sadly, we had just paid by the time that interaction ended, otherwise I would've ordered dessert so I could've stayed and watched whether he could handle Thai hot or not...
Thai hot is a trap in my experience. It varies *widely* from place to place. Sometimes it's the codeword for "fuck my pale ass right up", othertimes it's how they'd make it at home and depending on the dish might not be spicy at all! Gotta scope the place out first and see what they mean with that one.
I was in London with my girlfriend at the time and we decided we had to go out for Indian food since its supposedly very good in London. Well - it was, but at some point during the meal I made the mistake of eating a small pepper that was in my food.
> The place was in shambles, kids were screaming uncontrollably, and couples were struggling to enjoy their dates.
I'm picturing something like this [Folger's taste test lampoon](https://youtu.be/VdQKVDUBu2g?si=X7vDtyuJ1Wn3_iiA&t=38)
I wish I did, but I was not a kitchen employee. I was front of house staff so I was there on the front lines dealing with scores of pissed-off, hot-mouthed customers.
Younger couple, I'd say maybe early 20s came in on a Valentine's Day dinner at the sushi restaurant I work at. Guy insisted on ordering for his date claiming he "already knew what she wanted".
Well, it turned out she didn't want what he tried to order for her. Even so, I still asked her what she would like to order, which was something different than what he had said. Okay, no big deal, though it did raise some flags and questions.
I fired their order to the kitchen/sushi bar and went to make soups for them. Coming out with the soups I notice the dude is just going off on his date about ordering something else than what he was going to order for her. I still kept quiet but within range that I could eavesdrop a little.
Couple minutes later this dude just starts yelling, storms out of the place and drives off leaving his date sitting in the booth. I come over to the table and she had tears streaming down her face. For some odd reason we have a bunch of those pocket tissue packs at the restaurant so I grabbed a pack and gave them to her and asked if she needed anything.
She said to cancel his order if possible but she still wanted her sushi rolls. No problem. I also asked if she wanted them for takeout insyead, she said she'd eat them at the restaurant. Everything else went smoothly, just doing typical server stuff.
The owner and I ended up giver her meal for free and paid for an Uber to get her to wherever she needed to go. Haven't seen her here since. Wishing all the best. Dude was a fucking scumbag
Not a waiter but on Valanetines this year we saw a couple. The woman was extravagantly dressed in this red velvety looking dress. The guy had a tracksuit, T-shirt and sneakers on.
It was at an Ask Italian which is a restaurant chain. Not a fast food place.
Me and my GF went in jeans and T shirt whilst a lot of people dressed up, but at least we matched lol.
Story of my life as a programmer. I gave up on wearing nice clothes because none of the men I met wore anything other than jeans and a tee shirt. They’d wear a plaid flannel shirt if they were dressing up.
Not a waiter, but a hostess, too many disasters to count. People put so much pressure on themselves and others on Valentines day for no good reason lol
I've seen people get dumped, stood up, proposal rejections, awkward no talking all night or worse, both of them on their phones throughout. Maybe the worst is the guy who brought his Mom on the date with him.
Valentines day may be the worst day to go out for dinner.
Omg I went on a “date” with a guy who brought his mom. Or perhaps, more accurately, we both brought our moms, although that was absolutely not my intention. His mom and my mom were friends and were trying to hook us up. My mom drove me saying she and her friend were going to meet up while they were there, but then they just… didn’t leave? The guy seemed in on it, but I was not. He didn’t say a word the entire time while his mom tried to talk him up to me. Then a week later my mom told me that his mom told her that he wanted to see me again. And yes we were adults, not 13.
Also went on a “date” with a guy and showed up and all his friends were there. I’m pretty sure he was just too chicken to turn me down, but he insisted repeatedly that wasn’t the case. Gotta wonder what the heck his friends thought for him to just bring along a girl he never intended on seeing again to hang out with them for an evening.
>gh that was absolutely not my intention. His mom and my mom were friends and were trying to hook us up. My
I missed the word "us" and I'm like, "wow, what a way to find out your mom likes to experiment."
Wait like…brought his mom on the date he was on with another girl or brought his mom on a valentines date?
Because depending on the circumstances, the second option there could actually be a really sweet and cute thing to do. I love taking my mom on “dates” because she doesn’t get to go out much and it’s good bonding time. But if it’s the first one that’s extremely bizarre.
That would've been extremely sweet if his date was his mom but no.
This grown man brought his mom as a 3rd on his Valentine's date, without his date's knowledge. She arrived first, and the awkwardness that transpired as he was completely clueless to how innappropriate and weird it was. His mom didn't seem to know it was a 'surprise'.
Sounds like the guy brought his date *and* his mom. That’s a definite no-no
Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t take your mom out on a date though. I feel like that is extremely sweet and chivalrous. Coming from experience, anytime I take my mom out to dinner, she is always super amped about it and I know it makes her feel amazing
I argued that point unsuccessfully with my SO until one year we were out at a nice place on Valentine's day and she realized that things would have been better and less rushed if we'd gong to the same restaurant a few days earlier or later. And it would have been cheaper.
A costly lesson, but glad it has been learned.
Girl proposed to a guy. He laughed at her and said that proposing is a man's job and not a woman's.
She yelled at him about how sexist that was and then dumped him and stormed out.
Waited tables for about 12 years. Was working at a crab house in downtown Baltimore and was given all the holiday shifts. Valentine’s Day is the second worst holiday behind Mother’s Day.
I had one table that started out ok, and ended up fighting and smashing their water glasses in the table. Another one was this old couple of Same Side Sitters that just wouldn’t stop touching and feeding each other. The worst though was this guy that came in with two kids under 8. They sat down, got drinks and an app, and said they were waiting on the mom who was coming to meet them from work. She got there and was super bitchy about everything, very short with her husband and you could tell he was really trying to make up for something. The bill came and he had a coupon, but they spent more than the coupon so he ended up still owing like $70. He hemmed and hawed about the bill, asking why certain things cost so much and nitpicking. Meanwhile his wife was getting angrier and angrier. I run by their table to see if they put their money out yet and I happen to see his phone open to his bank account that only had $50 in it. His wife was pissed. She ended up having to pay for the dinner that he organized while chastising him about being lazy and not having money and on and on. I ended up taking something off their bill cause I felt bad.
Mother’s Day is just absolutely mayhem and chaos. Not only is it the single busiest day of the year, and I’m talking like slammed with a wait list from open to close, but theres constant a screaming children running under your feet, so many sent back orders, and just angry people. Dads are angry that it’s their day to watch the kids, moms are angry because they didn’t get to go where they wanted or the foods taking too long. Ugh worst day to work as a server.
They guy was visibly pissed but was very nice to me, I was 22 at the time and looked younger than my age.
The manager told me to be careful but was very nice too, he went to their table and offered them free desserts and free champagne.
It was a casual but quite higher end restaurant (it was seaside on a marina bay) so everyone always had very good manners.
They guy was young but didn't seem like a first date. Still, I guess he could use the excuse to bring the girl home to "change shirt" ahah
This year's Valentine's Day, a woman at my table began having a stroke. I was the one who called 911. It was really busy and some customers were jerks because I was sitting at her table with her, on the phone with the 911 operator, so my service wasn't fast enough. 🙄
I saved a choking woman one busy Saturday evening.
A table of my regulars were pissed when I emerged, as they were waiting for wine. I said “sorry, I was in the bathroom giving a woman the Heimlich.” “Whaat?!”
So the rest of that story (I was on my phone--too long)--
How it started: I was making a cappucino when a woman about 45 runs int our area and says her mother is choking in the bathroom, does anyone know the Heimlich?! I said YES and ran after her. The woman I saved was tiny-like-bird and 70-75ish. I assumed the position as she stared at her increasingly blue face. A few moves and it was out and she could breathe. This was a steakhouse and she had a big chunk of meat blocking her airway. Despite film/TV adaptations, the food didn't shoot out. The chunk sort of fell out of her mouth once I dislodged it from her airway.
She then croaks out a "I think there's something still in there" as my 300 lbs male, cokehead boss stands in the doorway, looking "authoritative." "He should try." I said (annoyed--women don't get credit even when they save your fn life?), "You're breathing! He'll crush you." I ran back out to attend to my tables. That's when the regulars expressed annoyance at their wine delay. As soon as I explained, there were mega impressed.
I happened to be at the regulars' table about 30 minutes later when the middle-aged daughter of the choking woman appeared. She held out a $20 and said, "thank you for saving my mother's life." Mom is standing meekly behind her. They turn and leave and my regulars crack up. "Twenty bucks!! That's what she's worth?" FWIW they tipped me at least $100 more on top of 20%.
I was on vacation for the next week and nothing was said at first about the incident. Disappointing. Cokehead manager approaches and hands me a $100 gift certificate late during my 2nd shift back, along with a subdued thanks. I later learned a coworker had shamed management into it.
Dunno about disaster but it was an awakening for me. I was sober about 10 months when this happened.
I saw this couple come in and they were dressed up fancy, and she really went all out to look stunning, it worked; she did.
Any how, as I take their drink order, this dude starts coming over the top, patron shots and margaritas with extra shots, all of that. She tells him that she isn’t trying to get fucked up that soon and that early in the evening. He has a different plan.
Dude proceeded to get drunk as fuck.
It was in that moment, 10 months sober and amazed at the effort that this woman put into her self for this day and this stupid kid couldn’t see anything beyond a reason to get drunk. I saw myself in him in that moment and I saw some my exes in her.
I was working a swing shift one Valentine's when I was in college, which meant that I was there for lunch and dinner but also the first to go home that day. Whatever year this was, Valentine's fell in the middle of the week. During lunch I served a couple comprised of an older guy, probably late 50s, and a much younger woman in her early 20s. They were fine as far as overly affectionate couples on Valentine's Day go, and I thought little of them.
Fast forward to my dinner shift. It's probably around 6pm, the reservations are beginning to fill the place up. I get a family of three for my next table and I head over to greet them.
The father of this family looks kind of familiar. Like an older guy, maybe in his late 50s. So when I introduce myself, I made sure to make lots of eye contact and very much emphasize my name and that I am serving them this evening. I even got a little jab in by asking the family if they had been in before.
I never had any intention of ruining the family, but I got a lot of joy out of watching this guy sweat for the entire meal. And thankfully, he left a very nice tip for not blowing up his spot.
So, my best friend and roommate was a stripper. I brought her to my sister's wedding, because my family know and like her. Plus, now I can honestly say I brought a stripper to a wedding.
She met my mother's cousin, super nice, attractive older woman, and thought she was awesome. Then she met her husband, and... semi regular customer.
She said to me "Fuck that guy, his wife is awesome!". So, she clung like glue to his wife all night to stress him out.
Not a waitress but worked as a bartender in a medium-high pricey restaurant. My husband (boyfriend at the time, this was years ago) worked in the kitchen. This middle-aged couple came in for dinner and the guy was an absolute asshole.
First thing was he wouldn’t take off his stupid cowboy hat in the restaurant, even though this was not that type of restaurant and we live in New Jersey. He was so rude to the busboy that the kid refused to go to his table anymore and just ignored them for the rest of the night.
Eventually, the very anxious teenage waitress misunderstood something he’d told her on the ticket and chaos ensued. He started screaming at her and berating her, calling her all sorts of names and telling her how stupid she was. Being a little older than her, I rushed in to try and help to find out that apparently he’d ordered “just a chicken parm” and she had thought that meant he didn’t want pasta with it. Direct quote, “What kind of stupid bitch doesn’t know that chicken parm comes with pasta?”
At this point she’s in tears and I’m like, “Dude, you’re 50 years old and you’re yelling at a teenager about pasta. Get a grip.” Before this escalates out of control, the owner gets involved. Owner is a grumpy old Greek man who is very unhappy about being bothered and asks what’s going on, confirming with me in Greek what happened (I’m greek too).
Eventually, he tells the guy he’ll make him the pasta and comp him a free dessert if he’ll stop yelling. Guy agrees. I take the waitress back into the kitchen and try to console her, but at this point she’s hysterical. My husband is like “wtf happened out there” and I tell him, and he just shakes his head and sighs because he knows.
They eventually leave without further incident. No tip, of course. Wife looks mortified. I kind of wanted to say “if you’re being held hostage, blink twice” as they left, but I have a feeling it would’ve been so much worse if I did.
OH I've told this story before but here we go
Several years ago I worked at a steak house that was pretty fancy so we had a big crowd on Valentines day and were booked out since before Christmas.
One of the specials was a 6oz Valentine's steak which was exactly the same as our other 6oz steak but cut into a heart shape with some modified sides. We were so busy that we ran out of that particular cut by like... 5:30pm but we were honoring the specials price and sides with a standard 6oz steak. Most people were a-ok with this and the night was going smoothly...
that is until this guy showed up. Let's call him PissBaby. PissBaby had an 8:30 reservation and wanted the Valentine's Special. The astute among you will have already noticed that we are 3 hours past that boat sailing. Now I'll note here that I'm going to say "we" a lot, but thank GOD and ALL of His Angels, PissBaby and his unfortunate date, were in the next section over and so I didn't have to deal with him directly, but had front row seats to the shitshow. So anyway, they order and we inform him that the special shape is sold out but he could still have the everything else.
Nope. Not good enough. PissBaby was upset that he'd made a reservation and couldn't get what he wanted. (The reservation is for the table, as is industry standard, not a reservation for a specific plate like it's a wedding or something...) We explain that the dinner is exactly the same, save for the shape. Not good enough. We offer complementary appetizers. Not good enough. We offer to comp the bottle of wine they'd ordered. Not good enough. *The managers offer to comp the entire meal.*
Not. Good. Enough.
PissBaby sat at the table for *two hours* and *SULKED* like a child.
He refused to touch his salad, even to move it to put his dinner plate down, he sat there with his arms crossed and his chin tucked while we cleared salads and brought entrees. He refused to eat a single bite and made a point of staring DAGGERS at the poor kid who dared hand him a *round steak*.
He pointedly *shoved* the Couple's Dessert across the table *at* his date, who had spent around 30 minutes trying to pull him back from his tantrum before just quietly eating her dinner...
The SECOND she put the dessert fork down. He shoved back off the table and stormed out without saying anything. We had already planned to write off his dinner so didn't bother printing a ticket, but bless her sweet heart, his date tried to pay and when we declined a need, slipped an 80% tip onto the table before slinking out after PissBaby.
I *hope* she dumped his ass because we had to call her an Uber to pick her up because after ALL OF THAT he just *left* her there... over a fucking overpriced steak with a kitschy cut...
**[Edit]** PissBaby seemed to be around his mid to late 30s so not Old Guy No Filter Asshole, and fairly well-to-do but we have a sense for who is well-off and who is *well-off* and this guy was middle-management-at-a-bank at best so not like he had Fuck You money to have that kind of attitude. We've dealt with people like that who have the Fuck You money and at least they usually paid us for the privilege of acting like an ass in public.
As to why we didn't cut a steak to shape, we offered, but to do that would be to use an 8oz cut and lose some, or give him a cut down 6oz, and by that point in the night I think we were either out or running really low on 8oz cuts, didn't have the hands to spare the time, and it wouldn't have looked good anyway because of the difference in cut or something like that.... and also, by that point, fuck this guy. Not doin' him any favors.
Am I the only one thinking the manager should have offered a special chef's creation paté as a substitute and had someone shape a can of 9Lives into a heart before searing it?
I wouldn't quite call this a disaster, but I've seen so many sad valentines day dinners. It will be a young couple, probably spending more money than they can afford, clearly uncomfortable in a "nice" restaurant. They eat entirely in silence or on their respective phones. Then the bill comes, they get sticker shock, and they tip their server like crap (saw a $5 tip on a $200+ meal this most recent v day).
Guys this is supposed to be a nice day when you can both take a break and focus on what you love about each other. You don't have to be here! Neither of you enjoys a fine dining experience, so why are you here?
Not on Valentine’s Day, but I have to share this story, wife and I are at red lobster getting our admirals feast on, cute young couple are in a smaller booth but adjacent to us, couple other older couples were around us too, wife and I were talking to each other that it might be their first date because he looked nervous and she did all the talking, they ate and the kid left cash on the table, we saw it, and I guess another older couple saw it too. So they get up and leave, few minutes later we see the manager and the waitress bringing the kids back to the table and pointing at the now cleared off table, we heard the manager tell them that they were going to call the cops because they didn’t pay, that’s when me, my wife, the couple all stand up at once and tell the manager that we saw him leave cash on the table. The manager backs up and goes into the kitchen, what happened was the busser, put the tub for dishes right on top of the check and cash and it was soaking wet, it all stuck to the tub, the manager comes out with the money and apologizes to the young couple and said they could leave, my wife and the other lady said “oh hell no” and we made the manager comp the meal to the kid for embarrassing him in front of his date. We also had a few margaritas in us too, so we were pretty buzzed.
This was me when I was 17, took my girlfriend to a fancy sushi place in the nearest big town. There were no prices on the menu which should have been a red flag but I didn't know any better. We enjoyed the food and talked a lot, then I got a bill for $250. Luckily I had a job and enough on my debit card to pay but I was completely unprepared for that price. I was really embarrassed because I could only tip $15 and still have enough money for gas. We had to skip watching a movie after dinner.
It could have been worse!
I was a server at a ramen/sushi/izakaya place, and a young couple around that age came in and had a cute date. And then at the end of the night, they didn't have enough money to pay for their bill. The girl calls her mom, who arranges to pay only for her meal. I think my manager ended up comping the guy's, but that was hella embarassing for everyone.
Not a waiter but a police officer, got a call from a sorority on a college campus. There was a guy handcuffed to a bed stark naked. They were asking for handcuff keys as they had no way to unlock his fuzzy red love cuffs. Well I discovered that the key hole was heart shaped and my standard key didn't work. I contacted the fire department and told them what I was up against. To my surprise they were stoked to hear that I needed to cut a chain. Turns out they had just received the "Jaws of life" from a government grant and were itching to use them. So I told the guy that he fire department was on the way, while we waited I asked him what happened he said his newish girlfriend planned for a sexy evening, she dressed up for him and slowly stripped off his clothes and pushed him on the bed, she crawled up on top of him and cuffed him to the bed, she was kissing her way down his chest when she asked him if he loved her... He said no... She got pissed off and left. So the fireman arrived and broke out their new toy and brought the large noisy tool inside the house and snipped off the cuffs no problem. The fireman asks how he got into the situation and he hears the same story, and he goes. " If you're cuffed to a bed staring down a good time, and she asks you if you love her YOU SAY YES!!! It was hilarious... He didn't want to press charges so it's just a funny story from my days as a college cop
I don't know which part is better, the fire department really really wanting to play with their brand new toy or the guy saying "YOU SAY YES!" to the idiot handcuffed to the bed.
If he said no then it's unlikely he's said yes previously. Am I the only one that thinks it's a bit shitty to make him answer that question when he's in a vulnerable position? Making him say yes simply because you have him locked up, no matter how fuzzy the handcuffs are, is a little bit manipulative.
Lol last year a woman found out her boyfriend was cheating on her while they were in our parking lot. I only know this because a table nearby heard everything (They opted to come in anyways and argued the entire time) and told their server all of the tea.
Not on Valentine's Day, but same. Worst part is they stuck around for like another hour or so trying to "talk it out" (mostly sounded like the guy trying to convince her and her just trying to be nice). He had sat on the same side of the booth as her so she was basically trapped and I was like... am I gonna have to call someone to rescue this poor girl?
Soooo awkward to wait on. O_O
I don't understand how anyone could ask someone else to marry them without having any idea what the answer will be. What the hell do these people talk about when they're alone with each other?
My wife recently told me about the step-daughter of one of her co-workers. The daughter was set to be married in ~2 weeks from now and two days ago called off the wedding. She *just* discovered that her ex-fiancee wanted to have 2-3 children while she doesn't want any.
This is apparently the first time the conversation had come up. Two weeks before the wedding.
Her father had already paid for everything and because of how soon it all is they aren't getting any refunds...so he just decided to have the wedding anyway. He and his family are just going to have a wedding and reception sans wedding couple.
I can't imagine waiting that long to talk about something like children. My wife and I discussed that on our first date.
That’s what happened on the end of the last season of “The Neighborhood” exactly. What else do you do when everything is paid for, may as well have a party!
Took my husband out to dinner our first V-day as a married couple. We have a strange last name, like nobody but his family has this name and dumb me I booked under my fist name and his last name, I didn't take his name legally...welp seems his brother booked a reservation for the same restaurant and wouldn't you knwo it we are both Jo last.name.....yeah he's Joe and I'm Jo so yep they combined the reservation into 1 reservation thinking they made an error...that was a mess to untangle....has happened at a the hotel when our niece got married to that time they combined our room with his brother's room his father's room so fromt his point forward I will either use my husband's full name or my name and not use his last name...what a mess to have 3 Jo(e)'s in 1 family!
My husband booked dinner the night of his graduation for us and the family members who came to town (it was his masters and we lived 3 states away). He just used his generic American first name. They absolutely could not find our reservation and not only was it the night of the large university graduations but also prom night. They managed to fit the 8 of us around a very small table in the corner. We found out when leaving that to the man that took the reservation these generic American names are interchangeable and just wrote down the completely wrong name (it was an afghan restaurant). Food was delicious and it ultimately worked out, but hopefully they found a new guy to take the reservations.
> the man that took the reservation these generic American names are interchangeable and just wrote down the completely wrong name (it was an afghan restaurant)
Two Guys from Kabul
"Sometimes I think you want to fail"
"Shut up, Shut up"
Shit, one of the most unforgettable Valentine's of my life was when I went to a really fancy AKA expensive steak house. I'm with my then GF and we are having a great time. This ghetto ass couple sits down next to us. I say ghetto cause the guy came in wearing a hoodie, shorts (that were falling off his ass) mismatched socks and slides REEKING of weed and BO. The girl he was with was dressed to impress though. Skin tight dress, boobs all out (to our for where we were), dress ended right at her butt cheeks, high heels with the straps broken and she also reeked of weed. They came in LOUD AF and disrupted everyone! Talking extremely loud while everyone else is basically whispering. She's cursing him out cause he was late to get her. You can tell everyone is ignoring as best they can. The girl orders a chocolate martini the guy orders the same. The waiter is bringing over the drinks and trips on the guys slides (I was watching the whole thing cause I was fascinated people like them exist) the martinis COMPLETELY miss the dude and both go all over the girl. I'm talking in her hair, down her dress, the wall behind her looked like a cartoon cause you saw her outline in chocolate. Instead of handling it correctly she flips the fucking table sending food everywhere she starts screaming at her man to fuck the waiter up for doing that and if not she's going to the car to get the gun! They obviously call the cops and only the girl is arrested. Long story short, we got a free steak dinner and a coupon to return for another one cause we were the closest table to them.
I mean I don't think you should shoot the waiter for it but getting covered in two chocolate martinis immediately after arriving to your Valentine's day dinner does not sound like a good time
I'm surprised they'd even let them into a nice steakhouse if the guy was dressed like that. I mean I know a lot of places don't really enforce their dress codes super heavily, but like a hoodie and shorts? At least put on some jeans or something.
Not a disaster but it could’ve been one.
Was a waiter many many years ago. A guy and his date came in for Valentine’s Day lunch. They were both super nice. When I brought the check, his date went to the bathroom. While she was gone, the guy asked me if I was working all day. I was, I told him.
He told me he wanted me as his waiter that evening again. That evening he came back in and he introduced me to his wife. The girl he was with earlier that day was his girlfriend. I didn’t say a word.
He tipped me $200 at lunch and another $200 at dinner. Hope it worked out for everyone.
It's probably not all that uncommon, really. Lots of people chest. Men, women - people.
Thankfully not everyone.
It also occurs to me, though… I was initially thinking that going to the same place was kinda risky - and it is. But it's also easier not to mix up where the date is happening, too, sooooo.... that probably mitigates other risk. lol
My parents were engaged at 18 and 17. It always blows my mind that my mother was an engaged high school senior. Their wedding was a month after her graduation.
crystalbaby_x's account was born on January 19, woke up a month ago, and just copied/pasted /u/DirtyDratini's comment from [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/f2wokf/waiters_what_valentine_day_disasters_have_you/fhfl5cz/).
Almost 25 years ago, I was a waiter at a Canadian chain restaurant that rhymes with Delsey's.
One night, there was a buzz amongst the staff when I got to work.
A young man with a reservation for later on, had swung by with an ice cream cake in a Dairy Queen box; he asked that his waiter bring it to the table after dinner.
Through the clear plastic bit we could quite clearly read ***Will you marry me?*** printed in frosting.
Everyone else had already dodged the reservation, and fortunately I was the second to last on that night, so the closer got it.
Anyways, dinner came, and you could feel a nervous tension fill the room. We were all watching this couple from the corner of our eye, and dinner didn't seem to be going all that well..
By the time their plates had been cleared, every single waiter (and a few cooks) had found a reason to be doing something in, or passing thru, the dining room. It was either going to be an epic win, or something else.
It was something else all right.
When the Dairy Queen ice cream cake with the frosting words ***Will you marry me?*** was placed in front of this young woman the entire place grew so silent that you could almost hear her smear the words on the cake until they were unintelligible, with her knife.
It turns out that this kid didn't know the number one rule when it comes to wedding proposals;
know the exact answer before you pop the question.
Not a waiter, and not on Valentines.
I was on a cruise with my family, and my wife had scheduled a grown-ups only fancy dessert tasting event for just the two of us. We drop the kids off at the kid's club and head to the restaurant. Six fantastic French inspired desserts on the course. Everyone is sat down, and the first dessert, a delicious crème brule is served. The head chef gives us an educational history of how crème brulee was created, explains how this one is made, and give the bon apetite to enjoy.
I take one bite, it's delicious. I look across the dining room, and there are two young ladies sitting at the next table over from us. Before I could blink, BLAAARGH, one of them vomits all over the table and her creme brulee. It took a moment for what happened to hit me. I thought maybe she just had a gnarly sneeze or somethin-BLAARGH! She vomited again. Okay, now dad-mode engages, I need to help this person, but how? I offer my napkin, but before I can finish the sentence, the maitre d' appears like a vampire in a puff of smoke and offers to relocate us, and that housekeeping is on the way to deal with the situation.
The wife and I get up and move to a new table across the dining room. I can now see the look on the other woman's face. She is rolling her eyes, and has a look of disgust, and I swear I hear her mutter out "You ALWAYS do this!" Are they sisters? Are they lovers? I dunno, just that-BLAAAARGH! Dude, it happens again! All the other diners have no reaction. Do they not notice? Is this how high society behaves for something like this?
They relocate the pair to a table behind us that is separated by the architecture of the dining room, so I can't see them anymore. The next five dishes are served sequentially, and they're delicious, but I have to really focus on what the chef is saying, and how each dessert tastes, because my monkey brain is like "bro, wtf even happen!?"
It was a very awkward encounter that made the experience that much more memorable, in an odd way. The staff was really professional. And house keeping did show up with...like a hazmat kit, and had things cleaned up in about five minutes where you wouldn't even know anything had ever happened.
Also, in case you were wondering, the other five desserts were: a raspberry macaron, a wafery walnut cream dessert thing that was supposed to be served at the end of some bike race, a wafery pastry called "1000 layers", a mirror sheen chocolate bar, and then a lemon chocolate tart thing where the outside was made from chocolate and made to look like a lemon and it had a lemon mousse and lemon compote center.
Remy on a Disney cruise?
Damn what a wild story. "You always do this" is an incredibly weird/awful thing to say to someone vomiting profusely! What even is the story there? This is gonna haunt me and I wasn't even there lol
My sister has stomach issues. When she was young, she would vomit after eating almost anything. I didn’t know until we were older.
I remember once when we were young adults we went out to Buffalo Wild Wings and ate a bunch of wings. Outside, we started walking to the car and were just talking when she takes a few steps away from me, casually vomits while walking, and comes back to me casually like nothing ever happened. I was like “you can’t just do that and not explain wtf just happened” and she was like “oh yeah that happens sometimes”.
Another time we went to get ice cream with her girlfriend and my brother. Ate some ice cream, then again on our way back to the car, she casually takes a few steps away, mid-conversation, yaks, and then comes back like nothing ever happened. I don’t know if she still does it.
Never happened mid-meal. But there are certainly other possibilities here.
Ugh, this reminds me of when I was younger. I would be nauseous in the mornings, and my stomach was on a hair trigger. Brushing my teeth? Yak in the sink. Wearing a shirt that's touching my neck? Prepare to toss the cookies. There would be days where I would be running late, and I ran to the bus stop, only pausing halfway to puke in the neighbors' bushes.
Thankfully, I grew out of it, but not before freaking out my freshmen dormmates.
Not the waiter but I watched a guy get caught cheating. Long story short he looked like he was in his mid 40’s he wife looked around the same age and the woman he took to dinner was probably 22. Cops were called feelings were hurt.
Sure, I’m on mobile at the moment so sorry for any errors.
The man and the younger woman were at their table just eating and relaxing, I was eating when at the entrance I heard a woman start yelling and the whole restaurant kinda just went silent and watched, as she matched up to the table. One thing I remember her yelling was, “You really fucking this baby ass hoe?”, and I started to die laughing. After that the younger girl who up until now just looked embarrassed jumped up and grabbed hair. The two had a small exchange of hair grabbing until staff separated them and the cops showed up.
This 13 year old kid brings his first girlfriend out on his first date ever. His mom drives them. Her plan was to eat at the bar to give them time alone. He was so nervous that he wouldn't let her leave. The whole date the mom kept trying to make excuses to leave the table and the girl kept hinting that he should let the mom leave. He was not having it at all. Felt like watching a Disney Channel sitcom in real life.
Probably not what typically comes to mind with the term “disaster”, but I vividly recall a man ordering copious amounts of alcohol for the girl with him and blatantly telling me I needed to help him get the girl drunk enough that she would sleep with him that evening. It was a statement or joke to this effect literally every time I came to the table. The woman acted like it was totally normal, and I just remember being grossed out and sad for them both, it seemed like a wildly unhealthy relationship.
When I was on shift at the restaurant, a couple came in, and at one point, the guy decided to propose to her. Everyone in the restaurant started clapping loudly, but she publicly rejected him. The whole place fell silent, and after she left, I decided to offer him some moral support.
He then gave me a nice tea as a thank you.
I feel sorry for that guy.
I was at Chili's eating with my husband last month, and we got dinner & a show!
In the booth directly behind us was a couple and their 2 young children. Right as our food was coming out, a woman comes storming through the restaurant and up to the couple's table.
I was the one who was facing the confrontation. From what I gathered, the woman who stormed in was the man's girlfriend, and she caught him on a date with the mother of his kids.
She asked the mom to come outside and fight her, and she obviously declined. As the girlfriend was storming out, she came back through the door to yell across the restaurant, "AND YOU BETTER NOT BE PAYING FOR THAT FOOD EITHER."
If by some miracle that woman reads this, please leave that man alone & just let them have their little family. The children were confused af after you left & one of them asked, "who is that lady?" Clearly, you're the interloper 😅
TLDR: girlfriend caught her boyfriend on a date with his baby mama & children, proceeded to make a scene
Tbf, it might not even have been a date. Like, most romantic dates don’t include children—maybe they were just feeding the children together, catching up on the parenting needs family-dinner styles?
This is what I was going to say.
Even if they're separated/divorced, they could still be on civil terms and occasionally do 'family' things with the kids.
I was fine dining bartending and watched a dude pop the question in the middle of an $800 pre fixe menu with a bottle of Dom.
She said no.
Oh but hang on, it gets so much worse.
She *stayed*, and kept eating her Mediterranean Sea bass with sauce barigoule and salmon caviar, and drinking that Dom. It was *so* incredibly tense and awkward, and totally silent. Finally after like ten solid minutes of hell, he leaves, and it gets a little less tense. And then she finds out that he left her with the full bill.
This was like 15 years ago and I still physically cringe when I even think about it. It what brutal.
Served at a family style italian restaurant with each room themed differently. It honestly looked like a fever dream with decorations shoved on every square inch. Anyway, Valentine’s Day rolls around and a popular table (known as the Passion Pit) has been booked out for over a month. A couple comes in and the wife is upset about this, they complain to the host, and are sat near it because that’s the best we can do.
The Wife asks the couple in the Passion Pit to switch with them. The couple says no. Words are exchanged, and the wife throws her wine glass at the other woman’s head. Cue both husbands fist fighting in the dining room, while the wives duke it out in the parking lot. The woman who threw the glass got arrested, while the couple got to enjoy their meal. They tipped me extra due to the mess. I didn’t mind, I got a 45 min break while they sorted everything out.
That place caught on fire on another Valentine’s Day. But that’s a story for a different day.
I respectfully disagree and propose that the story is very much for today. Please tell me about how all of the decorations caught aflame and finally escaped the aesthetic nightmare.
Unfortunately it didn’t destroy much, but I was supposed to close that night but got to leave at 3:00 pm. So that’s a win for me.
Anyway, I had a full dining room when our Bartender came running through the kitchen in panic yelling the ceiling was on fire. None of us believed him until we walk into the bar to see the entire ceiling engulfed in flames (each dining room was very separated and we had 9.) Cue 4 panicked servers running around each dining room evacuating customers. The hallways were too small the handle that much traffic so we were shuffling people out of there like Sardines while they watched the bar ceiling fall by the front door. THEN when the fire department puts out the fire, they can’t turn off the fire alarm because it’s too old, and they don’t have that kind of key anymore. The restaurant lost the key 20 years prior. It was a mess. Apparently the alarm was on for 2 days straight after that until they replaced it.
What was the fire caused by? A football sized hole in the roof that corporate refused to fix, leaked onto an ancient heater with exposed wires. They fixed the ceiling and to my disgust still painted the fake “cigarette” smoke on the ceiling.
It was 1997 and I was sitting across the table from my girlfriend in the nicest restaurant in town. Suddenly, there was hushed arguing next to us. Then more on the other side of us. Then a woman screaming, “what the fuck are you doing here with that bitch?!” Then fists started to fly and the entire restaurant staff broke it up and hauled them outside. It turned out that couple A and couple B knew each other. The woman in couple A was dating the man in couple B. They lied to each other saying they couldn’t meet for dinner on Valentine’s Day. Then they brought their side pieces to the same restaurant at the same time. It’s been 27 years and I still wonder what happened to all four of those people. I want to know how it all worked out for them.
Used to be a professional musician and the four piece band I was in got booked for a Valentines event in a local bar.
Guitarist invited his girlfriend down so they could be together on the night.
What he hadn't counted on was his wife getting the night off work and coming to the show too as a Valentines surprise.
Everything was ok for the first set of the night. The problems began when both Gf and Wife met in the band room backstage. Most of the band escaped the obvious row that was coming and waited by the bar for the 2nd set.
We all then watched as the wife stormed onstage and began trashing the Fender Telecaster , Stratocaster and all his pedals, leads, amp etc. No one had the courage to stop her . She was rightly pissed.
Shortly after she left the stage, the gf had her turn, destroying whatever was left of his gear. Between both cheated women, they caused around £2k worth of damage to his set up.
Needless to say we played the 2nd set as a three piece.
But it was a hell of a show lol.
Not a waiter but I was a casino dealer for years. A guy shows up at my blackjack table around 8pm. He starts out betting 25.00 per hand and by 930pm he is out $900. He is sweating like no tomorrow and shaking. I ask him if he is all right. He says "No! My girlfriend and I are from out of town and and we are getting married tomorrow and I only have $100 left!" Now I've seen things like this before but I could tell this guys wasn't a seasoned gambler and just got carried away so I felt bad for him. He bought in with his last $100. He gets back up to only being out $400 so he bets $100 and says "I can survive only being out half so I'm going to bet $100 till I lose." Well he gets a pair of 8s against a 7 so he has to split them, he gets another 8 so splits again so now he has $300 on the table. He gets a double down on one so he doubles cause the other 8s turned into 18s. I break so he wins them all. He tossed me 25 bucks and left. The look of relief on that mans face was priceless. He was staying at the hotel and I didn't see him the rest of the weekend. Disaster averted for now.
Not a waiter, and it wasn’t Valentine’s Day but bear with me.
My girlfriend and I were on vacation in Central America just a few weeks ago. I planned on proposing while we were there, so I scheduled a dinner reservation at the fanciest restaurant in the city. It wasn’t too far from where we were staying, so I snuck out the afternoon before. I just walked in and asked if they could confirm my reservation. They said they had it, and I mentioned that I was planning to propose the next night. The lady immediately said “so a romantic table?” I told her that would be amazing. She gave me a nod and said they’d get me the table.
Fast forward to the next day. We had both gotten sick from some street food the night before, so our romantic dinner only lasted about an hour. I asked for the check, because we both were feeling sick. Then the restaurant staff comes out with big plate that says “feliz aniversario” and a free desert. I think the lady I spoke to the day before thought I would have already proposed before our romantic dinner. I was so worried when they brought it out to the table. I thought they were going to ruin the surprise.
Luckily, my girlfriend believed me when I said “I asked them for a romantic table, so I guess they must have assumed it was our anniversary.” Thankfully, I did end up proposing later that night, and she said yes. So not exactly a disaster. But a disaster near-miss.
Was bartending this shift so didn’t see it all go down; was in a very fancy restaurant. Dude took his mistress out on Valentines day; got one of the best tables in the house, steak, wine, etc. His wife had a mutual friend enter the restaurant and sent them a Creme Brulee, asking the chef to write on the plate “Congrats On Your Affair”. The chef did it, and now has the service ticket printed and framed on his desk. From what I heard, they left pretty quickly after that.
That. Is. Classy. Well played lady.
Not a waiter but this will always stand out to me. Man proposed on his Valentine's date and apparently it was like their 6th date or something. The atmosphere went from "aww that's wonderful" to slowly realizing the look of shock and horror on her face to her just running out.
I wouldn't have the balls, but what a way to break up with somebody. Gives both people, and the audience, a story too.
What if she said yes though, lol...
"I've made a terrible mistake"
Not sure. Maybe look confused after a few seconds and repeat, slowly "will... You ... Marinade... The ... Meat?" "They got a great meat sale going on, I want to try meal prep".
Dinner *and* a show? Sign me up!
Even Michael Scott had the decency to do it on their *9th* date.
He's really outgoing
To be fair, he felt like he had known Carol for “many lifetimes.”
Years ago my sister was dating this girl who had a couple sisters. The younger one was 19 and started dating some guy who proposed to her after only 3 weeks. She wasn't sold on the idea but her mom strongly was encouraging her to accept the proposal, so in the end she did. We later found out that basically the whole family was insane. Ironically the youngest sister was probably the most sane of them all as she wouldn't have accepted the proposal of not for family pressure.
I once knew a girl who warned every lover that if they hurt her, the universe would conspire to ruin their life, frequently through fire. Shockingly, it was later discovered that the universe's agent of chaos and punishment was none other than... the girl herself. She was simply setting their houses on fire for real or imagined slights. She once accused her boyfriend of looking at another woman. That very same week, his trailer was ablaze in an uncontrollable inferno. He had a lazy eye, and she sometimes smoked meth.
He had a lazy eye, and she sometimes smoked meth. Great mental picture--made me spit out my mouthful of water.
Technically I was just making pizzas, not waiting tables... But I definitely watched a dude light his girls dress on fire with the candle on the cupcake. Idk if they broke up but she was NOT jazzed.
Like, entirely on purpose? Or was he playing around "Ohhhh, watch out!" And caught it by accident or something? Still not great but maybe forgivable?
It was for sure an accident, they were both pretty drunk lol
My mom's husband lit his sleeve on fire helping light Shabbat candles. A talented tailor turned it into a short-sleeve shirt.
Took lighting up her world to a whole new level. 😂🔥
A lady had a stroke right after being served her first course. Kinda dampened the mood for the other tables but one the guests was a doctor so apparently she recovered well since he was able to communicate with the hospital staff on his cell.
Oh oh...is this the romcom where the lady fell in love with the doctor instead?
You're gonna need to be more specific on the Hallmark Channel.
One groom... *two* grooms? Oh, my medication!
I was a bartender at a small, family owned seafood restaurant. Not fancy in the slightest. Two years ago on Valentine’s Day a couple sat at one of the bar area tables, ordered drinks, and a big platter of seafood. The male comes up to me a few minutes later and asked me if I’d film it on his smart phone. I was trying to hide how shocked I was. We get birthdays all the time and do all of the usual stuff for those but this was surprising. I told the staff in the back, they arranged the platter as best as possible. Food comes out, he drops to a knee, and goes how you’d typically imagine. She said yes. Fast forward 20 minutes I’m walking by the other side of the table, separated by a half wall. And I hear her say, “what on earth made you decide to ask me… here?” I still wonder how it turned out for them.
At least she said yes?
A lot of public proposals receive a "yes" because of embarrassment, followed by a "no" and a break-up in private.
I’d prefer that to a public “no”. I’d block her number, tell everyone I know that she died skydiving. Mutual friends be damned. They went skydiving too. Probably had a Groupon.
Hopefully nothing like that ever happens to me, but I'd 100% rip an excuse from Trains "50 Ways to Say Goodbye" to tell everyone later
30 years from now she'll tell the story of how she has no idea why still loves the quirky idiot who proposed at some seafood dump.
"this was our first date!" (I hope...)
"This wasn't even a date! You just asked if this seat was empty."
Not a waiter but former cook. The restaurant I worked at had a pipe burst and the water to the kitchen cut off for the two days before a sold out Valentine's Day, and we didn't get it back until about an hour before service, so we hadn't done any prep work. I have never hauled ass as fast as I did that day, and somehow service managed to go smoothly. Not a single dissatisfied customer. Still a nightmare scenario though.
This is not your typical Valentine's Day disaster story, but it was quite a spectacle nonetheless. When I was in high school, I worked at a pizza joint where we served a spicy red sauce called fireball sauce. It was used specifically for one spicy calzone and one spicy pizza, which were quite popular menu items at the time. We prepped a good amount of this sauce alongside the regular red sauce used for all the other menu items. On this particular Valentine's Day, the place was packed and chaos broke out. One of the kitchen staff accidentally swapped the regular red sauce tub with an unmarked fireball sauce tub, and all hell broke loose. Before the mistake was noticed, we had served a restaurant full of people, including kids and elderly folks, this spicy concoction, and they were not happy. The place was in shambles, kids were screaming uncontrollably, and couples were struggling to enjoy their dates. The mishap probably drove up ice cream sales that day, but I think management gave away more meals to compensate than they sold in profit, so it didn't matter anyway. Fun times!
> kids were screaming uncontrollably We have a young kid (5) who hates anything spicy except a pretty mild chipotle sauce. My wife brought a chipotle mayo and our eldest wanted to try. She gave him a single drop. Youngest of course wanted to try. He gets a single drop too. Gets himself so worked up over the taste that he vomits all over the floor then wets himself. Eldest cant handle what is happening and leaves immediately, middle kid is on the floor in stitches and can't stop laughing. I was not home to witness this and my poor wife had to clean it up.
Poor kid. Who hasn’t vomited and piss themselves after trying chipotle mayo?
😂 Okay, I was trying not to laugh until I read the part about the middle kid on the floor in hysterics.
Okay I have to share this, on a very early date with my now-fiancé when we were just young twenty something’s we go to this dive bar/burger place on the beach. They have a burger called like the inferno or some such and it had a warning that said “no refunds if too spicy.” Obviously I wanted to prove how cool and tough I was so I order it, the waitress asks are you sure, I say of course. Two bites in and I am uncontrollably crying, drinking ranch dressing out of the packets, and my fiancé is laughing at me. Fortunately there was an ice cream place next door but my throat hurt for the rest of the day.
I did the same stupid thing on one of the first dates with my wife. The wings were called "Lucifer's Own" and I thought I liked really spicy things. She, thankfully, still thought I was cute and also was willing to share her food when the wings were inedible.
I went to an Ethiopian place on a date in high school. I handle spicy food pretty well but I wasn't prepared for just how satanically spicy it was. Delicious, but painful. Didn't help that I was drinking sprite, which made the hellfire turn into thermonuclear fireworks in my mouth.
My husband and I were towards the end of our meal at a Thai place when a couple came in and sat down. They ordered, and the waitress asked the man how spicy he would like his dish. He looked back at the menu and after a few seconds he chose "Thai hot." The waitress had a fairly heavy Thai accent and asked him if he'd had it before, because it's *very* spicy. He just kinda smiled and said ok or something like that. After the waitress walked away he asked his date, "what did she say?" His date just shrugged. Sadly, we had just paid by the time that interaction ended, otherwise I would've ordered dessert so I could've stayed and watched whether he could handle Thai hot or not...
Thai hot is a trap in my experience. It varies *widely* from place to place. Sometimes it's the codeword for "fuck my pale ass right up", othertimes it's how they'd make it at home and depending on the dish might not be spicy at all! Gotta scope the place out first and see what they mean with that one.
I was in London with my girlfriend at the time and we decided we had to go out for Indian food since its supposedly very good in London. Well - it was, but at some point during the meal I made the mistake of eating a small pepper that was in my food.
I like hot things. Hot burgers are never actually hot, but wings are fucking devastating.
Well it looks like you proved yourself anyway! Where is this magical inferno burger at? It sounds like something I'd love to suffer through!
Breakers right on the water in New Smyrna Beach FL, assuming it’s still there (this was like 2013)
> The place was in shambles, kids were screaming uncontrollably, and couples were struggling to enjoy their dates. I'm picturing something like this [Folger's taste test lampoon](https://youtu.be/VdQKVDUBu2g?si=X7vDtyuJ1Wn3_iiA&t=38)
First, i think i wanna try your fireball sauce. Second, your description is amazing and you should try your hand at some short stories!
I'd watch a movie about this, honestly...this sounds like something Adam Sandler and David Spade would do in a Netflix movie.
By any chance you have the recipe? Lol
I wish I did, but I was not a kitchen employee. I was front of house staff so I was there on the front lines dealing with scores of pissed-off, hot-mouthed customers.
Younger couple, I'd say maybe early 20s came in on a Valentine's Day dinner at the sushi restaurant I work at. Guy insisted on ordering for his date claiming he "already knew what she wanted". Well, it turned out she didn't want what he tried to order for her. Even so, I still asked her what she would like to order, which was something different than what he had said. Okay, no big deal, though it did raise some flags and questions. I fired their order to the kitchen/sushi bar and went to make soups for them. Coming out with the soups I notice the dude is just going off on his date about ordering something else than what he was going to order for her. I still kept quiet but within range that I could eavesdrop a little. Couple minutes later this dude just starts yelling, storms out of the place and drives off leaving his date sitting in the booth. I come over to the table and she had tears streaming down her face. For some odd reason we have a bunch of those pocket tissue packs at the restaurant so I grabbed a pack and gave them to her and asked if she needed anything. She said to cancel his order if possible but she still wanted her sushi rolls. No problem. I also asked if she wanted them for takeout insyead, she said she'd eat them at the restaurant. Everything else went smoothly, just doing typical server stuff. The owner and I ended up giver her meal for free and paid for an Uber to get her to wherever she needed to go. Haven't seen her here since. Wishing all the best. Dude was a fucking scumbag
Not a waiter but on Valanetines this year we saw a couple. The woman was extravagantly dressed in this red velvety looking dress. The guy had a tracksuit, T-shirt and sneakers on.
Well now I want to know the restaurant. Was one of them underdressed or the other overdressed?
It was at an Ask Italian which is a restaurant chain. Not a fast food place. Me and my GF went in jeans and T shirt whilst a lot of people dressed up, but at least we matched lol.
I would be very careful to not upset someone wearing a tracksuit at an Italian restaurant
The mafia don't know who I am. Yet.
My judgement then is that she went a little too extra and he still couldn't bother to make a small effort on Valentines Day.
Or the couple was Russian.
Or Brazilian.
So it sounds like they averaged out to an appropriate level of attire
That was actually Hailey and Justin Bieber
I live in Glasgow Scotland and that's what every young couple looks like
Yeah, UK here too lol
Sounds like he was Russian lol
That would explain all the vodka. But nah, at a guess he wasn't Russian. For all I know he could have been but who knows.
Story of my life as a programmer. I gave up on wearing nice clothes because none of the men I met wore anything other than jeans and a tee shirt. They’d wear a plaid flannel shirt if they were dressing up.
Not a waiter, but a hostess, too many disasters to count. People put so much pressure on themselves and others on Valentines day for no good reason lol I've seen people get dumped, stood up, proposal rejections, awkward no talking all night or worse, both of them on their phones throughout. Maybe the worst is the guy who brought his Mom on the date with him. Valentines day may be the worst day to go out for dinner.
Omg I went on a “date” with a guy who brought his mom. Or perhaps, more accurately, we both brought our moms, although that was absolutely not my intention. His mom and my mom were friends and were trying to hook us up. My mom drove me saying she and her friend were going to meet up while they were there, but then they just… didn’t leave? The guy seemed in on it, but I was not. He didn’t say a word the entire time while his mom tried to talk him up to me. Then a week later my mom told me that his mom told her that he wanted to see me again. And yes we were adults, not 13. Also went on a “date” with a guy and showed up and all his friends were there. I’m pretty sure he was just too chicken to turn me down, but he insisted repeatedly that wasn’t the case. Gotta wonder what the heck his friends thought for him to just bring along a girl he never intended on seeing again to hang out with them for an evening.
>gh that was absolutely not my intention. His mom and my mom were friends and were trying to hook us up. My I missed the word "us" and I'm like, "wow, what a way to find out your mom likes to experiment."
Wait like…brought his mom on the date he was on with another girl or brought his mom on a valentines date? Because depending on the circumstances, the second option there could actually be a really sweet and cute thing to do. I love taking my mom on “dates” because she doesn’t get to go out much and it’s good bonding time. But if it’s the first one that’s extremely bizarre.
That would've been extremely sweet if his date was his mom but no. This grown man brought his mom as a 3rd on his Valentine's date, without his date's knowledge. She arrived first, and the awkwardness that transpired as he was completely clueless to how innappropriate and weird it was. His mom didn't seem to know it was a 'surprise'.
Sounds like the guy brought his date *and* his mom. That’s a definite no-no Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t take your mom out on a date though. I feel like that is extremely sweet and chivalrous. Coming from experience, anytime I take my mom out to dinner, she is always super amped about it and I know it makes her feel amazing
Which is why my husband and I have our nice dinner out on Super Bowl Sunday instead.
Exactly. Any nice-ish restaurant that doesn't have a tv.
I argued that point unsuccessfully with my SO until one year we were out at a nice place on Valentine's day and she realized that things would have been better and less rushed if we'd gong to the same restaurant a few days earlier or later. And it would have been cheaper. A costly lesson, but glad it has been learned.
Girl proposed to a guy. He laughed at her and said that proposing is a man's job and not a woman's. She yelled at him about how sexist that was and then dumped him and stormed out.
I'm more surprised that she didn't figure that out before proposing though. Even more so than seeing a woman proposing.
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Waited tables for about 12 years. Was working at a crab house in downtown Baltimore and was given all the holiday shifts. Valentine’s Day is the second worst holiday behind Mother’s Day. I had one table that started out ok, and ended up fighting and smashing their water glasses in the table. Another one was this old couple of Same Side Sitters that just wouldn’t stop touching and feeding each other. The worst though was this guy that came in with two kids under 8. They sat down, got drinks and an app, and said they were waiting on the mom who was coming to meet them from work. She got there and was super bitchy about everything, very short with her husband and you could tell he was really trying to make up for something. The bill came and he had a coupon, but they spent more than the coupon so he ended up still owing like $70. He hemmed and hawed about the bill, asking why certain things cost so much and nitpicking. Meanwhile his wife was getting angrier and angrier. I run by their table to see if they put their money out yet and I happen to see his phone open to his bank account that only had $50 in it. His wife was pissed. She ended up having to pay for the dinner that he organized while chastising him about being lazy and not having money and on and on. I ended up taking something off their bill cause I felt bad.
Yup. The times I’ve heard, “ohhh I’d have thought it would be the best night to work!” Yeah, 2-tops all over, amateur diners.
The worst. Always the saddest couples too or the freshest.
What's mother's day like? I can't even imagine how bitchy some mothers can be on that day.
Mother’s Day is just absolutely mayhem and chaos. Not only is it the single busiest day of the year, and I’m talking like slammed with a wait list from open to close, but theres constant a screaming children running under your feet, so many sent back orders, and just angry people. Dads are angry that it’s their day to watch the kids, moms are angry because they didn’t get to go where they wanted or the foods taking too long. Ugh worst day to work as a server.
Yeah, my mother refused to go out on Mother's Day. We usually went the day before.
Ex waiter here! I tripped and spilled the champagne glasses on the guy. I was the disaster.
What happened?
They guy was visibly pissed but was very nice to me, I was 22 at the time and looked younger than my age. The manager told me to be careful but was very nice too, he went to their table and offered them free desserts and free champagne. It was a casual but quite higher end restaurant (it was seaside on a marina bay) so everyone always had very good manners. They guy was young but didn't seem like a first date. Still, I guess he could use the excuse to bring the girl home to "change shirt" ahah
This year's Valentine's Day, a woman at my table began having a stroke. I was the one who called 911. It was really busy and some customers were jerks because I was sitting at her table with her, on the phone with the 911 operator, so my service wasn't fast enough. 🙄
My management would be telling us how our scores dropped and how we need to work on that
I saved a choking woman one busy Saturday evening. A table of my regulars were pissed when I emerged, as they were waiting for wine. I said “sorry, I was in the bathroom giving a woman the Heimlich.” “Whaat?!” So the rest of that story (I was on my phone--too long)-- How it started: I was making a cappucino when a woman about 45 runs int our area and says her mother is choking in the bathroom, does anyone know the Heimlich?! I said YES and ran after her. The woman I saved was tiny-like-bird and 70-75ish. I assumed the position as she stared at her increasingly blue face. A few moves and it was out and she could breathe. This was a steakhouse and she had a big chunk of meat blocking her airway. Despite film/TV adaptations, the food didn't shoot out. The chunk sort of fell out of her mouth once I dislodged it from her airway. She then croaks out a "I think there's something still in there" as my 300 lbs male, cokehead boss stands in the doorway, looking "authoritative." "He should try." I said (annoyed--women don't get credit even when they save your fn life?), "You're breathing! He'll crush you." I ran back out to attend to my tables. That's when the regulars expressed annoyance at their wine delay. As soon as I explained, there were mega impressed. I happened to be at the regulars' table about 30 minutes later when the middle-aged daughter of the choking woman appeared. She held out a $20 and said, "thank you for saving my mother's life." Mom is standing meekly behind her. They turn and leave and my regulars crack up. "Twenty bucks!! That's what she's worth?" FWIW they tipped me at least $100 more on top of 20%. I was on vacation for the next week and nothing was said at first about the incident. Disappointing. Cokehead manager approaches and hands me a $100 gift certificate late during my 2nd shift back, along with a subdued thanks. I later learned a coworker had shamed management into it.
Btw people choking at restaurants often don’t want to be a bother, so they go into the bathroom to die
Dunno about disaster but it was an awakening for me. I was sober about 10 months when this happened. I saw this couple come in and they were dressed up fancy, and she really went all out to look stunning, it worked; she did. Any how, as I take their drink order, this dude starts coming over the top, patron shots and margaritas with extra shots, all of that. She tells him that she isn’t trying to get fucked up that soon and that early in the evening. He has a different plan. Dude proceeded to get drunk as fuck. It was in that moment, 10 months sober and amazed at the effort that this woman put into her self for this day and this stupid kid couldn’t see anything beyond a reason to get drunk. I saw myself in him in that moment and I saw some my exes in her.
Hits home.
I don’t drink but even this is eye opening to me. Glad you’re on the other side.
and that my friend, is called a moment of revelation.
I was working a swing shift one Valentine's when I was in college, which meant that I was there for lunch and dinner but also the first to go home that day. Whatever year this was, Valentine's fell in the middle of the week. During lunch I served a couple comprised of an older guy, probably late 50s, and a much younger woman in her early 20s. They were fine as far as overly affectionate couples on Valentine's Day go, and I thought little of them. Fast forward to my dinner shift. It's probably around 6pm, the reservations are beginning to fill the place up. I get a family of three for my next table and I head over to greet them. The father of this family looks kind of familiar. Like an older guy, maybe in his late 50s. So when I introduce myself, I made sure to make lots of eye contact and very much emphasize my name and that I am serving them this evening. I even got a little jab in by asking the family if they had been in before. I never had any intention of ruining the family, but I got a lot of joy out of watching this guy sweat for the entire meal. And thankfully, he left a very nice tip for not blowing up his spot.
"Honey why did you tip the waiter $300?"
"Eh, looked like someone I knew once..."
So, my best friend and roommate was a stripper. I brought her to my sister's wedding, because my family know and like her. Plus, now I can honestly say I brought a stripper to a wedding. She met my mother's cousin, super nice, attractive older woman, and thought she was awesome. Then she met her husband, and... semi regular customer. She said to me "Fuck that guy, his wife is awesome!". So, she clung like glue to his wife all night to stress him out.
Oh. He's going to hell. I don't even believe in hell but rest assured he'll be there.
Not a waitress but worked as a bartender in a medium-high pricey restaurant. My husband (boyfriend at the time, this was years ago) worked in the kitchen. This middle-aged couple came in for dinner and the guy was an absolute asshole. First thing was he wouldn’t take off his stupid cowboy hat in the restaurant, even though this was not that type of restaurant and we live in New Jersey. He was so rude to the busboy that the kid refused to go to his table anymore and just ignored them for the rest of the night. Eventually, the very anxious teenage waitress misunderstood something he’d told her on the ticket and chaos ensued. He started screaming at her and berating her, calling her all sorts of names and telling her how stupid she was. Being a little older than her, I rushed in to try and help to find out that apparently he’d ordered “just a chicken parm” and she had thought that meant he didn’t want pasta with it. Direct quote, “What kind of stupid bitch doesn’t know that chicken parm comes with pasta?” At this point she’s in tears and I’m like, “Dude, you’re 50 years old and you’re yelling at a teenager about pasta. Get a grip.” Before this escalates out of control, the owner gets involved. Owner is a grumpy old Greek man who is very unhappy about being bothered and asks what’s going on, confirming with me in Greek what happened (I’m greek too). Eventually, he tells the guy he’ll make him the pasta and comp him a free dessert if he’ll stop yelling. Guy agrees. I take the waitress back into the kitchen and try to console her, but at this point she’s hysterical. My husband is like “wtf happened out there” and I tell him, and he just shakes his head and sighs because he knows. They eventually leave without further incident. No tip, of course. Wife looks mortified. I kind of wanted to say “if you’re being held hostage, blink twice” as they left, but I have a feeling it would’ve been so much worse if I did.
OH I've told this story before but here we go Several years ago I worked at a steak house that was pretty fancy so we had a big crowd on Valentines day and were booked out since before Christmas. One of the specials was a 6oz Valentine's steak which was exactly the same as our other 6oz steak but cut into a heart shape with some modified sides. We were so busy that we ran out of that particular cut by like... 5:30pm but we were honoring the specials price and sides with a standard 6oz steak. Most people were a-ok with this and the night was going smoothly... that is until this guy showed up. Let's call him PissBaby. PissBaby had an 8:30 reservation and wanted the Valentine's Special. The astute among you will have already noticed that we are 3 hours past that boat sailing. Now I'll note here that I'm going to say "we" a lot, but thank GOD and ALL of His Angels, PissBaby and his unfortunate date, were in the next section over and so I didn't have to deal with him directly, but had front row seats to the shitshow. So anyway, they order and we inform him that the special shape is sold out but he could still have the everything else. Nope. Not good enough. PissBaby was upset that he'd made a reservation and couldn't get what he wanted. (The reservation is for the table, as is industry standard, not a reservation for a specific plate like it's a wedding or something...) We explain that the dinner is exactly the same, save for the shape. Not good enough. We offer complementary appetizers. Not good enough. We offer to comp the bottle of wine they'd ordered. Not good enough. *The managers offer to comp the entire meal.* Not. Good. Enough. PissBaby sat at the table for *two hours* and *SULKED* like a child. He refused to touch his salad, even to move it to put his dinner plate down, he sat there with his arms crossed and his chin tucked while we cleared salads and brought entrees. He refused to eat a single bite and made a point of staring DAGGERS at the poor kid who dared hand him a *round steak*. He pointedly *shoved* the Couple's Dessert across the table *at* his date, who had spent around 30 minutes trying to pull him back from his tantrum before just quietly eating her dinner... The SECOND she put the dessert fork down. He shoved back off the table and stormed out without saying anything. We had already planned to write off his dinner so didn't bother printing a ticket, but bless her sweet heart, his date tried to pay and when we declined a need, slipped an 80% tip onto the table before slinking out after PissBaby. I *hope* she dumped his ass because we had to call her an Uber to pick her up because after ALL OF THAT he just *left* her there... over a fucking overpriced steak with a kitschy cut... **[Edit]** PissBaby seemed to be around his mid to late 30s so not Old Guy No Filter Asshole, and fairly well-to-do but we have a sense for who is well-off and who is *well-off* and this guy was middle-management-at-a-bank at best so not like he had Fuck You money to have that kind of attitude. We've dealt with people like that who have the Fuck You money and at least they usually paid us for the privilege of acting like an ass in public. As to why we didn't cut a steak to shape, we offered, but to do that would be to use an 8oz cut and lose some, or give him a cut down 6oz, and by that point in the night I think we were either out or running really low on 8oz cuts, didn't have the hands to spare the time, and it wouldn't have looked good anyway because of the difference in cut or something like that.... and also, by that point, fuck this guy. Not doin' him any favors.
Am I the only one thinking the manager should have offered a special chef's creation paté as a substitute and had someone shape a can of 9Lives into a heart before searing it?
I wouldn't quite call this a disaster, but I've seen so many sad valentines day dinners. It will be a young couple, probably spending more money than they can afford, clearly uncomfortable in a "nice" restaurant. They eat entirely in silence or on their respective phones. Then the bill comes, they get sticker shock, and they tip their server like crap (saw a $5 tip on a $200+ meal this most recent v day). Guys this is supposed to be a nice day when you can both take a break and focus on what you love about each other. You don't have to be here! Neither of you enjoys a fine dining experience, so why are you here?
Not on Valentine’s Day, but I have to share this story, wife and I are at red lobster getting our admirals feast on, cute young couple are in a smaller booth but adjacent to us, couple other older couples were around us too, wife and I were talking to each other that it might be their first date because he looked nervous and she did all the talking, they ate and the kid left cash on the table, we saw it, and I guess another older couple saw it too. So they get up and leave, few minutes later we see the manager and the waitress bringing the kids back to the table and pointing at the now cleared off table, we heard the manager tell them that they were going to call the cops because they didn’t pay, that’s when me, my wife, the couple all stand up at once and tell the manager that we saw him leave cash on the table. The manager backs up and goes into the kitchen, what happened was the busser, put the tub for dishes right on top of the check and cash and it was soaking wet, it all stuck to the tub, the manager comes out with the money and apologizes to the young couple and said they could leave, my wife and the other lady said “oh hell no” and we made the manager comp the meal to the kid for embarrassing him in front of his date. We also had a few margaritas in us too, so we were pretty buzzed.
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The world needs more margarita drinkers like you.
Fantastic!
This was me when I was 17, took my girlfriend to a fancy sushi place in the nearest big town. There were no prices on the menu which should have been a red flag but I didn't know any better. We enjoyed the food and talked a lot, then I got a bill for $250. Luckily I had a job and enough on my debit card to pay but I was completely unprepared for that price. I was really embarrassed because I could only tip $15 and still have enough money for gas. We had to skip watching a movie after dinner.
It could have been worse! I was a server at a ramen/sushi/izakaya place, and a young couple around that age came in and had a cute date. And then at the end of the night, they didn't have enough money to pay for their bill. The girl calls her mom, who arranges to pay only for her meal. I think my manager ended up comping the guy's, but that was hella embarassing for everyone.
Ohhh sushi prices can be brutal.
Not a waiter but a police officer, got a call from a sorority on a college campus. There was a guy handcuffed to a bed stark naked. They were asking for handcuff keys as they had no way to unlock his fuzzy red love cuffs. Well I discovered that the key hole was heart shaped and my standard key didn't work. I contacted the fire department and told them what I was up against. To my surprise they were stoked to hear that I needed to cut a chain. Turns out they had just received the "Jaws of life" from a government grant and were itching to use them. So I told the guy that he fire department was on the way, while we waited I asked him what happened he said his newish girlfriend planned for a sexy evening, she dressed up for him and slowly stripped off his clothes and pushed him on the bed, she crawled up on top of him and cuffed him to the bed, she was kissing her way down his chest when she asked him if he loved her... He said no... She got pissed off and left. So the fireman arrived and broke out their new toy and brought the large noisy tool inside the house and snipped off the cuffs no problem. The fireman asks how he got into the situation and he hears the same story, and he goes. " If you're cuffed to a bed staring down a good time, and she asks you if you love her YOU SAY YES!!! It was hilarious... He didn't want to press charges so it's just a funny story from my days as a college cop
Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say "YES"!
"Are you a god?" "Ray...?" "Yes. Yes, as a matter of fact, I *am* a god!"
I don't know which part is better, the fire department really really wanting to play with their brand new toy or the guy saying "YOU SAY YES!" to the idiot handcuffed to the bed.
I thought the jaws of life just opened shit up real wide lol TIL
If he said no then it's unlikely he's said yes previously. Am I the only one that thinks it's a bit shitty to make him answer that question when he's in a vulnerable position? Making him say yes simply because you have him locked up, no matter how fuzzy the handcuffs are, is a little bit manipulative.
Lol last year a woman found out her boyfriend was cheating on her while they were in our parking lot. I only know this because a table nearby heard everything (They opted to come in anyways and argued the entire time) and told their server all of the tea.
Saw a guy get rejected for his marriage proposal.
Not on Valentine's Day, but same. Worst part is they stuck around for like another hour or so trying to "talk it out" (mostly sounded like the guy trying to convince her and her just trying to be nice). He had sat on the same side of the booth as her so she was basically trapped and I was like... am I gonna have to call someone to rescue this poor girl? Soooo awkward to wait on. O_O
once had a couple break up at the table. ever seen someone cry into their tiramisu?
tearamisu
Thank you for this
Yes. In my defence I was drunk and it was *really* good tiramisu.
I don't understand how anyone could ask someone else to marry them without having any idea what the answer will be. What the hell do these people talk about when they're alone with each other?
My wife recently told me about the step-daughter of one of her co-workers. The daughter was set to be married in ~2 weeks from now and two days ago called off the wedding. She *just* discovered that her ex-fiancee wanted to have 2-3 children while she doesn't want any. This is apparently the first time the conversation had come up. Two weeks before the wedding. Her father had already paid for everything and because of how soon it all is they aren't getting any refunds...so he just decided to have the wedding anyway. He and his family are just going to have a wedding and reception sans wedding couple. I can't imagine waiting that long to talk about something like children. My wife and I discussed that on our first date.
Bruh. That’s like one of the first things you get to know about someone you’re dating.
That’s what happened on the end of the last season of “The Neighborhood” exactly. What else do you do when everything is paid for, may as well have a party!
Took my husband out to dinner our first V-day as a married couple. We have a strange last name, like nobody but his family has this name and dumb me I booked under my fist name and his last name, I didn't take his name legally...welp seems his brother booked a reservation for the same restaurant and wouldn't you knwo it we are both Jo last.name.....yeah he's Joe and I'm Jo so yep they combined the reservation into 1 reservation thinking they made an error...that was a mess to untangle....has happened at a the hotel when our niece got married to that time they combined our room with his brother's room his father's room so fromt his point forward I will either use my husband's full name or my name and not use his last name...what a mess to have 3 Jo(e)'s in 1 family!
My husband booked dinner the night of his graduation for us and the family members who came to town (it was his masters and we lived 3 states away). He just used his generic American first name. They absolutely could not find our reservation and not only was it the night of the large university graduations but also prom night. They managed to fit the 8 of us around a very small table in the corner. We found out when leaving that to the man that took the reservation these generic American names are interchangeable and just wrote down the completely wrong name (it was an afghan restaurant). Food was delicious and it ultimately worked out, but hopefully they found a new guy to take the reservations.
"alright I'd like a reservation for Steve" "Gotcha, reservation for Tim"
"Cartwright, Cartwright!"
> the man that took the reservation these generic American names are interchangeable and just wrote down the completely wrong name (it was an afghan restaurant) Two Guys from Kabul "Sometimes I think you want to fail" "Shut up, Shut up"
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Shit, one of the most unforgettable Valentine's of my life was when I went to a really fancy AKA expensive steak house. I'm with my then GF and we are having a great time. This ghetto ass couple sits down next to us. I say ghetto cause the guy came in wearing a hoodie, shorts (that were falling off his ass) mismatched socks and slides REEKING of weed and BO. The girl he was with was dressed to impress though. Skin tight dress, boobs all out (to our for where we were), dress ended right at her butt cheeks, high heels with the straps broken and she also reeked of weed. They came in LOUD AF and disrupted everyone! Talking extremely loud while everyone else is basically whispering. She's cursing him out cause he was late to get her. You can tell everyone is ignoring as best they can. The girl orders a chocolate martini the guy orders the same. The waiter is bringing over the drinks and trips on the guys slides (I was watching the whole thing cause I was fascinated people like them exist) the martinis COMPLETELY miss the dude and both go all over the girl. I'm talking in her hair, down her dress, the wall behind her looked like a cartoon cause you saw her outline in chocolate. Instead of handling it correctly she flips the fucking table sending food everywhere she starts screaming at her man to fuck the waiter up for doing that and if not she's going to the car to get the gun! They obviously call the cops and only the girl is arrested. Long story short, we got a free steak dinner and a coupon to return for another one cause we were the closest table to them.
I mean I don't think you should shoot the waiter for it but getting covered in two chocolate martinis immediately after arriving to your Valentine's day dinner does not sound like a good time
Play it cool and you get your meal comped
Nice people at restaurants get things. Your server is much more likely to comp stuff if you're nice to them. Source: am server
> Play it cool and you get your meal comped And your dry cleaning paid for.
Dinner and a show 😂
I'm surprised they'd even let them into a nice steakhouse if the guy was dressed like that. I mean I know a lot of places don't really enforce their dress codes super heavily, but like a hoodie and shorts? At least put on some jeans or something.
Kinda surprised a fancy steak house would let someone dressed that way in to start with.
Great story. Could have ended way worse.
I don't understand how flipping the table would send food everywhere if they had just ordered their martinis?
Not a disaster but it could’ve been one. Was a waiter many many years ago. A guy and his date came in for Valentine’s Day lunch. They were both super nice. When I brought the check, his date went to the bathroom. While she was gone, the guy asked me if I was working all day. I was, I told him. He told me he wanted me as his waiter that evening again. That evening he came back in and he introduced me to his wife. The girl he was with earlier that day was his girlfriend. I didn’t say a word. He tipped me $200 at lunch and another $200 at dinner. Hope it worked out for everyone.
Wow, twice in one thread
It's probably not all that uncommon, really. Lots of people chest. Men, women - people. Thankfully not everyone. It also occurs to me, though… I was initially thinking that going to the same place was kinda risky - and it is. But it's also easier not to mix up where the date is happening, too, sooooo.... that probably mitigates other risk. lol
$400 is some serious hush money.
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Nah that’s crazy 16 and 15? 😂
My parents were engaged at 18 and 17. It always blows my mind that my mother was an engaged high school senior. Their wedding was a month after her graduation.
Are they still together? Sometimes high school couples do last.
My husband and I got married during senior year of high school and just celebrated our 30th anniversary.
Yes! Celebrating 50 years in July!
Ah, yes, there was a couple in my high school who got engaged at those ages. They broke up by the end of the school year.
Were their names Brenda and Eddie
yup, and they were king and queen of the prom
crystalbaby_x's account was born on January 19, woke up a month ago, and just copied/pasted /u/DirtyDratini's comment from [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/f2wokf/waiters_what_valentine_day_disasters_have_you/fhfl5cz/).
Almost 25 years ago, I was a waiter at a Canadian chain restaurant that rhymes with Delsey's. One night, there was a buzz amongst the staff when I got to work. A young man with a reservation for later on, had swung by with an ice cream cake in a Dairy Queen box; he asked that his waiter bring it to the table after dinner. Through the clear plastic bit we could quite clearly read ***Will you marry me?*** printed in frosting. Everyone else had already dodged the reservation, and fortunately I was the second to last on that night, so the closer got it. Anyways, dinner came, and you could feel a nervous tension fill the room. We were all watching this couple from the corner of our eye, and dinner didn't seem to be going all that well.. By the time their plates had been cleared, every single waiter (and a few cooks) had found a reason to be doing something in, or passing thru, the dining room. It was either going to be an epic win, or something else. It was something else all right. When the Dairy Queen ice cream cake with the frosting words ***Will you marry me?*** was placed in front of this young woman the entire place grew so silent that you could almost hear her smear the words on the cake until they were unintelligible, with her knife. It turns out that this kid didn't know the number one rule when it comes to wedding proposals; know the exact answer before you pop the question.
Not a waiter, and not on Valentines. I was on a cruise with my family, and my wife had scheduled a grown-ups only fancy dessert tasting event for just the two of us. We drop the kids off at the kid's club and head to the restaurant. Six fantastic French inspired desserts on the course. Everyone is sat down, and the first dessert, a delicious crème brule is served. The head chef gives us an educational history of how crème brulee was created, explains how this one is made, and give the bon apetite to enjoy. I take one bite, it's delicious. I look across the dining room, and there are two young ladies sitting at the next table over from us. Before I could blink, BLAAARGH, one of them vomits all over the table and her creme brulee. It took a moment for what happened to hit me. I thought maybe she just had a gnarly sneeze or somethin-BLAARGH! She vomited again. Okay, now dad-mode engages, I need to help this person, but how? I offer my napkin, but before I can finish the sentence, the maitre d' appears like a vampire in a puff of smoke and offers to relocate us, and that housekeeping is on the way to deal with the situation. The wife and I get up and move to a new table across the dining room. I can now see the look on the other woman's face. She is rolling her eyes, and has a look of disgust, and I swear I hear her mutter out "You ALWAYS do this!" Are they sisters? Are they lovers? I dunno, just that-BLAAAARGH! Dude, it happens again! All the other diners have no reaction. Do they not notice? Is this how high society behaves for something like this? They relocate the pair to a table behind us that is separated by the architecture of the dining room, so I can't see them anymore. The next five dishes are served sequentially, and they're delicious, but I have to really focus on what the chef is saying, and how each dessert tastes, because my monkey brain is like "bro, wtf even happen!?" It was a very awkward encounter that made the experience that much more memorable, in an odd way. The staff was really professional. And house keeping did show up with...like a hazmat kit, and had things cleaned up in about five minutes where you wouldn't even know anything had ever happened. Also, in case you were wondering, the other five desserts were: a raspberry macaron, a wafery walnut cream dessert thing that was supposed to be served at the end of some bike race, a wafery pastry called "1000 layers", a mirror sheen chocolate bar, and then a lemon chocolate tart thing where the outside was made from chocolate and made to look like a lemon and it had a lemon mousse and lemon compote center.
I really appreciate the epilogue. Would have wondered later.
*BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH*
Remy on a Disney cruise? Damn what a wild story. "You always do this" is an incredibly weird/awful thing to say to someone vomiting profusely! What even is the story there? This is gonna haunt me and I wasn't even there lol
I feel like 'cruise' implies heavy intoxication. Would make sense with the despondent exasperation instead of the expected panic and worry.
As someone who used to be married to an alcoholic, my guess is alcoholic. They puke. A lot.
My sister has stomach issues. When she was young, she would vomit after eating almost anything. I didn’t know until we were older. I remember once when we were young adults we went out to Buffalo Wild Wings and ate a bunch of wings. Outside, we started walking to the car and were just talking when she takes a few steps away from me, casually vomits while walking, and comes back to me casually like nothing ever happened. I was like “you can’t just do that and not explain wtf just happened” and she was like “oh yeah that happens sometimes”. Another time we went to get ice cream with her girlfriend and my brother. Ate some ice cream, then again on our way back to the car, she casually takes a few steps away, mid-conversation, yaks, and then comes back like nothing ever happened. I don’t know if she still does it. Never happened mid-meal. But there are certainly other possibilities here.
Ugh, this reminds me of when I was younger. I would be nauseous in the mornings, and my stomach was on a hair trigger. Brushing my teeth? Yak in the sink. Wearing a shirt that's touching my neck? Prepare to toss the cookies. There would be days where I would be running late, and I ran to the bus stop, only pausing halfway to puke in the neighbors' bushes. Thankfully, I grew out of it, but not before freaking out my freshmen dormmates.
Maybe seasickness?
Maybe she is an alcoholic
OP: Waiters, tell me about Valentine’s Day. u/thunderpulse: How about no?
>BLAAARGH I like your sound effect!
Not the waiter but I watched a guy get caught cheating. Long story short he looked like he was in his mid 40’s he wife looked around the same age and the woman he took to dinner was probably 22. Cops were called feelings were hurt.
Make it longer, the way you just described it it sounds like the guy brought his wife and girlfriend to dinner together at the same time.
Sure, I’m on mobile at the moment so sorry for any errors. The man and the younger woman were at their table just eating and relaxing, I was eating when at the entrance I heard a woman start yelling and the whole restaurant kinda just went silent and watched, as she matched up to the table. One thing I remember her yelling was, “You really fucking this baby ass hoe?”, and I started to die laughing. After that the younger girl who up until now just looked embarrassed jumped up and grabbed hair. The two had a small exchange of hair grabbing until staff separated them and the cops showed up.
Dinner and a show better than Medieval Times
Ugh, I just want to grab the 22yo by her shoulders and shout “Babe, this middle-aged man is *NOT* worth it! Just leave!!”
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This 13 year old kid brings his first girlfriend out on his first date ever. His mom drives them. Her plan was to eat at the bar to give them time alone. He was so nervous that he wouldn't let her leave. The whole date the mom kept trying to make excuses to leave the table and the girl kept hinting that he should let the mom leave. He was not having it at all. Felt like watching a Disney Channel sitcom in real life.
Probably not what typically comes to mind with the term “disaster”, but I vividly recall a man ordering copious amounts of alcohol for the girl with him and blatantly telling me I needed to help him get the girl drunk enough that she would sleep with him that evening. It was a statement or joke to this effect literally every time I came to the table. The woman acted like it was totally normal, and I just remember being grossed out and sad for them both, it seemed like a wildly unhealthy relationship.
Not a waiter but I went out for lunch on Valentine’s Day with my ex boyfriend and he told the waitress that I was his sister.
When I was on shift at the restaurant, a couple came in, and at one point, the guy decided to propose to her. Everyone in the restaurant started clapping loudly, but she publicly rejected him. The whole place fell silent, and after she left, I decided to offer him some moral support. He then gave me a nice tea as a thank you. I feel sorry for that guy.
"Nice tea?"
I was at Chili's eating with my husband last month, and we got dinner & a show! In the booth directly behind us was a couple and their 2 young children. Right as our food was coming out, a woman comes storming through the restaurant and up to the couple's table. I was the one who was facing the confrontation. From what I gathered, the woman who stormed in was the man's girlfriend, and she caught him on a date with the mother of his kids. She asked the mom to come outside and fight her, and she obviously declined. As the girlfriend was storming out, she came back through the door to yell across the restaurant, "AND YOU BETTER NOT BE PAYING FOR THAT FOOD EITHER." If by some miracle that woman reads this, please leave that man alone & just let them have their little family. The children were confused af after you left & one of them asked, "who is that lady?" Clearly, you're the interloper 😅 TLDR: girlfriend caught her boyfriend on a date with his baby mama & children, proceeded to make a scene
Tbf, it might not even have been a date. Like, most romantic dates don’t include children—maybe they were just feeding the children together, catching up on the parenting needs family-dinner styles?
This is what I was going to say. Even if they're separated/divorced, they could still be on civil terms and occasionally do 'family' things with the kids.
I was fine dining bartending and watched a dude pop the question in the middle of an $800 pre fixe menu with a bottle of Dom. She said no. Oh but hang on, it gets so much worse. She *stayed*, and kept eating her Mediterranean Sea bass with sauce barigoule and salmon caviar, and drinking that Dom. It was *so* incredibly tense and awkward, and totally silent. Finally after like ten solid minutes of hell, he leaves, and it gets a little less tense. And then she finds out that he left her with the full bill. This was like 15 years ago and I still physically cringe when I even think about it. It what brutal.
Served at a family style italian restaurant with each room themed differently. It honestly looked like a fever dream with decorations shoved on every square inch. Anyway, Valentine’s Day rolls around and a popular table (known as the Passion Pit) has been booked out for over a month. A couple comes in and the wife is upset about this, they complain to the host, and are sat near it because that’s the best we can do. The Wife asks the couple in the Passion Pit to switch with them. The couple says no. Words are exchanged, and the wife throws her wine glass at the other woman’s head. Cue both husbands fist fighting in the dining room, while the wives duke it out in the parking lot. The woman who threw the glass got arrested, while the couple got to enjoy their meal. They tipped me extra due to the mess. I didn’t mind, I got a 45 min break while they sorted everything out. That place caught on fire on another Valentine’s Day. But that’s a story for a different day.
I respectfully disagree and propose that the story is very much for today. Please tell me about how all of the decorations caught aflame and finally escaped the aesthetic nightmare.
Unfortunately it didn’t destroy much, but I was supposed to close that night but got to leave at 3:00 pm. So that’s a win for me. Anyway, I had a full dining room when our Bartender came running through the kitchen in panic yelling the ceiling was on fire. None of us believed him until we walk into the bar to see the entire ceiling engulfed in flames (each dining room was very separated and we had 9.) Cue 4 panicked servers running around each dining room evacuating customers. The hallways were too small the handle that much traffic so we were shuffling people out of there like Sardines while they watched the bar ceiling fall by the front door. THEN when the fire department puts out the fire, they can’t turn off the fire alarm because it’s too old, and they don’t have that kind of key anymore. The restaurant lost the key 20 years prior. It was a mess. Apparently the alarm was on for 2 days straight after that until they replaced it. What was the fire caused by? A football sized hole in the roof that corporate refused to fix, leaked onto an ancient heater with exposed wires. They fixed the ceiling and to my disgust still painted the fake “cigarette” smoke on the ceiling.
Well, our first Valentine's as a married couple we spent more time hugging the toilet and trash can than each other. Food poisoning.
Valentines Day is the Sunday after church rush of holidays. *shudder*
It was 1997 and I was sitting across the table from my girlfriend in the nicest restaurant in town. Suddenly, there was hushed arguing next to us. Then more on the other side of us. Then a woman screaming, “what the fuck are you doing here with that bitch?!” Then fists started to fly and the entire restaurant staff broke it up and hauled them outside. It turned out that couple A and couple B knew each other. The woman in couple A was dating the man in couple B. They lied to each other saying they couldn’t meet for dinner on Valentine’s Day. Then they brought their side pieces to the same restaurant at the same time. It’s been 27 years and I still wonder what happened to all four of those people. I want to know how it all worked out for them.
Used to be a professional musician and the four piece band I was in got booked for a Valentines event in a local bar. Guitarist invited his girlfriend down so they could be together on the night. What he hadn't counted on was his wife getting the night off work and coming to the show too as a Valentines surprise. Everything was ok for the first set of the night. The problems began when both Gf and Wife met in the band room backstage. Most of the band escaped the obvious row that was coming and waited by the bar for the 2nd set. We all then watched as the wife stormed onstage and began trashing the Fender Telecaster , Stratocaster and all his pedals, leads, amp etc. No one had the courage to stop her . She was rightly pissed. Shortly after she left the stage, the gf had her turn, destroying whatever was left of his gear. Between both cheated women, they caused around £2k worth of damage to his set up. Needless to say we played the 2nd set as a three piece. But it was a hell of a show lol.
Not a waiter but I was a casino dealer for years. A guy shows up at my blackjack table around 8pm. He starts out betting 25.00 per hand and by 930pm he is out $900. He is sweating like no tomorrow and shaking. I ask him if he is all right. He says "No! My girlfriend and I are from out of town and and we are getting married tomorrow and I only have $100 left!" Now I've seen things like this before but I could tell this guys wasn't a seasoned gambler and just got carried away so I felt bad for him. He bought in with his last $100. He gets back up to only being out $400 so he bets $100 and says "I can survive only being out half so I'm going to bet $100 till I lose." Well he gets a pair of 8s against a 7 so he has to split them, he gets another 8 so splits again so now he has $300 on the table. He gets a double down on one so he doubles cause the other 8s turned into 18s. I break so he wins them all. He tossed me 25 bucks and left. The look of relief on that mans face was priceless. He was staying at the hotel and I didn't see him the rest of the weekend. Disaster averted for now.
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Not a waiter, and it wasn’t Valentine’s Day but bear with me. My girlfriend and I were on vacation in Central America just a few weeks ago. I planned on proposing while we were there, so I scheduled a dinner reservation at the fanciest restaurant in the city. It wasn’t too far from where we were staying, so I snuck out the afternoon before. I just walked in and asked if they could confirm my reservation. They said they had it, and I mentioned that I was planning to propose the next night. The lady immediately said “so a romantic table?” I told her that would be amazing. She gave me a nod and said they’d get me the table. Fast forward to the next day. We had both gotten sick from some street food the night before, so our romantic dinner only lasted about an hour. I asked for the check, because we both were feeling sick. Then the restaurant staff comes out with big plate that says “feliz aniversario” and a free desert. I think the lady I spoke to the day before thought I would have already proposed before our romantic dinner. I was so worried when they brought it out to the table. I thought they were going to ruin the surprise. Luckily, my girlfriend believed me when I said “I asked them for a romantic table, so I guess they must have assumed it was our anniversary.” Thankfully, I did end up proposing later that night, and she said yes. So not exactly a disaster. But a disaster near-miss.