"Check please!" Waitresses and waiters were asked: "What's the worst date you've ever waited on?" These are some of the best answers.
“I messed up real bad…”
“A couple came into the chain restaurant I worked at. Both looked like they were mid 30’s. I go to take the order and the guys says ‘Hold on, let me call my mom. She can tell me what I would like better.’ The lady just looked at him like ‘I messed up… I messed up real bad'” (source).
GAME ON
“A couple on a date, sitting having a meal and chatting, just a normal date. A guy comes in who turns out to be the woman’s soon-to-be ex-husband and, at first, just asks to talk to her. She refuses. He asks louder and she refuses louder. Lather, rinse, repeat, getting louder. The man on the date stands up and tries to calm the ex-husband down. He starts screeching at him and her and everyone around. The ex-husband sweeps all the food and drinks off the table on to the floor and wants to fight the male date. A nearby waiter steps forward to try to calm the ex-husband down. He takes a swing at the waiter. GAME ON! All the other waiters surround the guy, drag him to the ground and drag him out of the restaurant. Ex-husband is screaming profanities as he’s being dragged out, woman on date is sitting in silence. All is calm after the ex-husband is dragged out. After a few seconds of stunned silence the woman on the date smiles nicely to her date and says, ‘So… Do you like movies? Have you seen any good ones lately?’ (source).
Onset of Dementia
“We had an older lady come in on a Saturday morning. She happily informed the server that she was waiting for a date, and ordered a mimosa to drink. About three mimosas and forty-five minutes later, we start to think maybe her date is a no show. The waitress sits down and starts talking with the lady, trying to assess the situation, see if she still wants to order and what not. That’s when it gets strange. The lady says that her date was going to pay for the meal so she didn’t have any money, and she wanted a fourth mimosa. Meanwhile she’s cheerily looking out the window for her date, obviously nervous / excited to meet him, and very talkative. The server asks the manager what to do, so he sits down at the booth with the lady to talk with her. Turns out, her date was ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd’ and she had dementia” (source).
A Free Meal…?
“The favorite date I ever got to see was a super hot chick and a pretty good looking guy. They ordered tons of drinks, several apps, two steak dinners and a lobster, then dessert. At this point the guy excuses himself to go to the bathroom. The dessert shows up and the girl waits for him to comeback from the bathroom. 10 minutes go by and she asks one of the busboys to check the restroom. The guy had bailed on her and left the check for her. All of that was about $150. She started crying, it was awful. Most of the waitstaff tossed in to cover the bill and one of the waitresses gave her a ride home. The guy was banned from the place and we got to toss him out 2 times trying to come back with other dates” (source).
Chocolate Milk
“I used to wait on this guy and a woman who would come in and sit in the bar area every now and then. A great couple, always very sweet to each other like they were newly in love. They always ordered the same drinks, split an app and tipped very well. One day I saw him in the restaurant on a very busy Friday night and I immediately start in with a friendly, ‘HEY!’ and see that he’s not eagerly smiling back. He’s in the booth with a woman that I’ve never seen before who is looking over the menu leisurely, sitting across from 2 energetic kids asking their dad if they can have chocolate milk. It was beyond awkward. I have no idea why he’d bring his family to he and his mistress’s favorite restaurant, but I didn’t feel comfortable waiting on them and transferred the table” (source).
Proposal on Second Date
“My shift began at 7pm and when I arrived at the bar at 6, my manager told me there’s a guy who wanted to propose to his girlfriend at this bar and he wanted me to help him with it. I said ‘Sweet, no probs.’ so the manager gave me a ring and told me to put it on top of her drink. Fast forward to the date, the girl was wearing normal thing you would see at the bar, low cut top, black skirt and heels and shit. The bar was pretty busy. She ordered a Long Island, so I put the ring on the straw and hand it to him. She had the ‘What the fuck mate?’ look and then he dropped on his knees. Our manager put on some romantic songs. To my surprise she threw the drink at the poor bloke and ran out of the bar. Later I came to know that it was their second date” (source).
Red Robin
“So I’m a server at Red Robin and I once served a teenage couple probably around 17 or 18 (easily seniors in high school). They had obviously been dating for a while since they already knew what they wanted and ordered for each other. The ‘date night’ seemed to go pretty well; they ordered their drinks, ordered an appetizer, then ordered their food. Only their drinks had come out yet when finally after holding hands for a long while the guy looks into the girl’s eyes and apparently broke up with her. I had been standing from a distance keeping an eye on my tables when suddenly I see this happening and watch the girl’s face just turn from happiness to just absolute horror. Tears well up and she started banging her fists on the table screaming out at him that he’s an asshole and what not. Everyone in the restaurant can hear it and everything just stops. As she’s becoming more and more volatile, he’s trying to calm her down. I’m not sure what to do at this point. Even my manager had come out and looked at me as if we both didn’t know how to handle this. Finally, the guy yells, ‘FINE. FINE. IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE CIVIL THEN I’LL GO.’ She begs him to stay, but he pries himself away and beelines for the door. She doesn’t follow him. He passes me on the way to the door, stops, and walks back towards me. He hands me 50 dollars and says, ‘You can already obviously see why I did what I did. I just apologize that you had to deal with this here and now. Take care of her, and make sure she’s okay.’ He then leaves. She sat for the next three hours, not crying, but just staring blankly into the wall. She ate both of their meals AND the tower of onion rings” (source).
Rejected the Worst Way Possible
“A guy made a reservation saying he was going to propose. He asked for a special table and for dessert to come with a sparkler candle and ‘Will you marry me?’ written on it. I bring out the cake, the manager follows me with two glasses of champagne, my co-workers are cheering. We set everything down and walk away. They end up having a serious, quiet discussion and it is very obvious that she is rejecting the proposal. Then three of their friends show up and sit at the table, all excited thinking their friends just got engaged. But it quickly became apparent to them that it was not the case. It’s very quiet and awkward at the table. The woman who was being proposed to left, and the reject and his friends got wasted. He gave me a 20% tip too, which was nice considering how shitty his night had been” (source).
“He never said it, but I knew she had died…”
“I used to wait tables at a Bob Evans that was located across the street from a nursing home. Whoever chose that location was a genius because old people love the shit out of Bob Evans. I had an elderly couple who came in every day for lunch and ordered the same thing. It got to the point that they I would have their meal on the table by the time I saw them crossing the street from the window. (They usually only got applesauce/banana bread/mashed potatoes.) One day the old man came in alone after a week of absence. He never said it, but I knew she had died. He still ordered for her, and let the food sit on her side of the table. Every. Day. I cried more than one time delivering it. I hope one day my future husband loves me that much” (source).
150+ Selection of Hot Sauce
“I worked in a restaurant that had a huge selection (150+) of hot sauces. We sold them by the bottle but customers could sample any of them and use them on their food. A couple came in, the guy started bragging about how much he loved hot sauce and how he never found one that was too hot. He asked for the hottest one we have. I brought the bottle to his table, he filled a spoon with the sauce and made a big production of how he was going to eat it. I told him not to, the hostess told him not to, the waitress serving the next table told him not to… he put it in his mouth, started choking and gagging, puked on the table then passed out and did a faceplant right into the puke!! We called 911. He woke up right away and kept gagging for a while. He refused treatment when the paramedics showed up. They left without even ordering a meal! The girl told one of the restaurant staff that it was their first date” (source).
The Hammer Drops
“I used to be a waitress in a diner. One day a young man comes in and sits down. He’s smiling nervously. I go over and ask him what he wants to drink. He says water, and I go get it. When I drop it off and try to take his order, he tells me he’s not ready to order because he’s waiting for someone. Ok, I say, and wait for his joiner. After about 10 minutes, he confesses to me that he was meeting a girl there. So he could break up with her. He was the only customer in the place at the time, and I immediately thought ‘Oh no!’ And wondered how this girl would take it. A few minutes later, here she comes. She’s smiling, SUPER happy to see him, and comes and sits down as if its her best day ever. I felt awful. I knew in just a few minutes, her whole day is going to shit. It was awful. She orders him a sandwich, and something for herself. He didn’t want the food, but she was kind of insistent. The boyfriend ended up eating his whole meal. So, right after I drop off the food, the hammer drops. She’s upset, crying, etc. She tried very hard to keep it together in light of what was being told to her. After about 30 minutes, he gets up and leaves. She spends a minute collecting herself, and then comes to the register to pay. FOR BOTH MEALS. Yep, he broke up with her, and left her with the bill. I looked at her teary red eyes and told her to forget it. I paid for it. I just couldn’t bear to watch her pay for his meal” (source).
Meeting the Parents Gone Wrong
“One night one of the servers I was working for (I was a busser) points out this table to me and just says ‘Listen in on this table, it’s going to be a long night with them.’ The table had what looked like it was a pair of cousins out to dinner with both sets of parents, so I was originally confused why they were going to be such trouble. I went over to bring them bread, and I could immediately tell what he had been talking about. No one was talking, but they weren’t even looking at their phones, everyone was just tensely staring at each other. It was so palpably awkward I left instantly. I went about my menial duties for about another fifteen minutes when a conversation at the table finally came up, from the bits and pieces I put together, the two kids we thought were cousin were actually dating, and their parents were meeting each other for the first time. So basically, nightmare situation for both kids (who looked about 14). At some point in the night the daughter decides she’s comfortable with jokingly calling her boyfriend a ‘dumb jock,’ and, to this day, I refuse to believe that that girl has ever made a bigger mistake. Immediately after the words left her mouth, the boyfriend’s mother loses her shit completely and starts driving into the girl, cussing her out, calling her a whore, a slut, and pretty much every single awful thing you can possibly say to a teenage girl. I was pouring water at the next table over at the time and I managed to spill it all over the table because of how loud her outburst was.The girl and her parents left pretty quickly, seeing as the girl was crying her eyes out and looked absolutely terrified. And, wouldn’t you know it, as soon as they left, the boy and the father turned on the mother and released a near identical stream of vitriol on her. It was so bad I wouldn’t be surprised if they got a divorce” (source).
“Only if you call me daddy…”
“Working at a big chain restaurant I’ve encountered several of these but the one that sticks out the most is one where there was this old overweight man and a younger woman probably half the mans age. Right from the get go the woman orders a Long Island and I could tell something was up with these two but didn’t really think much of it at the time. It was when she proceeded to order not one but two more long islands (at this point I was regretting getting her that last one). They finished their meals, she was pretty intoxicated but not belligerent. I bring menus for dessert and as I’m presenting them the woman asks if they can order dessert to which the old man replies, ‘only if you call me daddy,’ as I’m standing there. He then gives her the I’m gonna fuck you eyes she starts this half hearted giggle and I decided that I stayed at the table probably 2 minutes too long and told them I’d be back. They ordered dessert so I’m assuming she called him daddy. Fast forward about two weeks later the old man shows up with some other girl half his age so I’m assuming he has a lot of daughters he likes to take out to eat, or you know, hookers” (source).
“Son, you’re a f–cking disgrace…”
“Used to wait/tend bar at a chain restaurant where after a few weeks you would get to know the regulars. There was an elderly couple that would come in every Tuesday and Friday. After they arrive and order their usual, a couple seat themselves at the table next to theirs and begin their small talk. They were both twenty somethings and from their mannerisms it was clear that it was still early days for them. The guy is talking just a little too loudly and the conversation was all about him. ‘Oh yeah, I used to make loads of money playing poker at casinos, I made so much that I’m now banned from all the ones in town’ or ‘I can totally bench press like 300 lbs.’ Basically the guy kept bragging about about shit the entire time and wouldn’t shut up. The main thing he kept talking about was how much he could drink, since the girl ordered a beer as well and he latched onto it talking about how he could outdrink all his mates and he f–cking LOVED beer. The elderly guy at the table next to his kept rolling his eyes at me every time I passed by, when I took their plates away his wife whispered ‘This is torture!’ Eventually the guy has started to get quite drunk from trying to drink pint after pint in the space of an hour or so. When I come over to clear their plates and ask if they want anything else the girl begins to ask for the bill before he cuts her of asking for another pint. She quietly reminds him that he’s had five or so already and he tries to jokingly reply with ‘B–tch I can drink as much as I want.’ Without a word the girl immediately storms off leaving the guy looking shocked as hell. The elderly couple leave their money on the table but before they leave the man turns to the dumbfounded braggart and just says ‘Son, you’re a f–cking disgrace.'” (source)
The Most Utterly Destroyed First Date
“This younger lady comes in by herself, comes up to the bar, and says shed like a table in the back, alone. Its a slow night, I was working alone, so I sat her, brought her a drink, etc. She’s there for about an hour, has a couple of drinks, and keeps checking her phone. I finally asked her if she was expecting someone, and her response was a sad smile, and a nod. Almost immediately after that, this guy, early 30’s comes in, asks for a table for 2. This guy reeks of douche canoe. On his arm is this slightly trashy, very early 20’s girl who’s already drunk, loud, and f–cking obnoxious. She keeps talking about how lucky she is to finally get this guy out with her, how it’s been the first best date ever. I get them their food order, and they can barely keep their hands off of each other. I also noticed that the lady sitting by herself has gone white as a ghost, and is shaking a little bit. She takes out her cell phone, and takes a few pictures. At this point I know what’s going on, and I just try to avoid it. Lady number one walks up, puts some papers down on the table, and says, ‘We’re getting divorced.’ She then looks at the lady, who turns out to be her little sister, and tells her to never talk to her again. She then comes up, pays for her meal, and walks out, leaving the most utterly destroyed first date I have ever seen. It was phenomenal” (source).