(My family and I are at a popular restaurant on Mother’s Day — a Sunday — so the restaurant is quite busy, and there is a thirty-minute wait. Finally, we are seated, and then we see why there is such a long wait. There is a family who is taking up four tables. There are six kids, and five adults, but they do not need four tables. As we sit down, we hear them order. They are ordering the biggest and most time-consuming meals in the restaurant, with a ridiculous amount of sides. [Waitress #1] is already overwhelmed by the amount of people. She eventually brings all their food out and tries to get our drink order. Before she can finish, the mother from the other table calls her over.)
Mother: “Excuse me, all of our orders are wrong! I want you to take them all back and remake them the right way, and get us the right food this time!”
Waitress #1: “What is wrong with your food?”
Mother: “They all are cold, half are wrong, this one is undercooked, this one is burnt, and that one just looks plain nasty. It’s all just wrong!”
(She goes on for about five more minutes before she demands ALL of their meals are taken back and remade. At this point, half of their food is already eaten. It’s clear what they are doing now. The waitress is stressing even more and begins tearing up.)
Waitress #1: “Ma’am, you already have eaten half of your meals; I can’t possible take them back now—”
Mother: “Shut up. Take them back. We are not paying and waiting this long to get s***ty food! Take. It. All. Back. NOW!”
Waitress #1: “I’ll see what I can do.”
(A few minutes later, she comes back with will their orders remade. Because of this, we still have yet to get our drinks. As soon as the food is placed on the table, there is another problem.)
Mother: “Umm, no. My son ordered the strawberry banana pancakes. Those are not strawberry banana. I don’t know what those… things are.”
Waitress #1: “Those are definitely strawberry ban—”
Father: “Stop. If my wife says they are wrong, then they are wrong. Go get the right pancakes, now!”
(She sighs and takes another half-eaten meal to bring a new one back. We have ordered our food, but have not gotten it yet because the family next to us keeps sending more and more food back. Soon, the manager comes out and tells them they can’t order any more food. They get irritated and complain, but it does nothing. [Waitress #1] comes out again. It’s obvious she has been crying.)
Mother: “Hey, you! Our drinks are wrong, too. Bring us back all new ones. Oh, and you got my son’s pancakes wrong again.”
([Waitress #1] has had enough of their s*** like everyone else has.)
Waitress #1: “I already brought you your pancakes!”
(She walks off without listening to anything else and rubs her head. A tear rolls down her face. We have our food now, and they finish theirs soon after. We think it is over, but it’s not even close. At this point, their brat kids have destroyed the table and gotten food all over the floor. They are also being extremely loud and obnoxious. Everyone has asked countless times for the kids to calm down, but it is either ignored or a rude remark is said and nothing is done. Soon, the manager comes out again and hands them their check. This just makes the mother even angrier.)
Mother: “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! ONLY $25 OFF?! AFTER GETTING ALL THE WRONG FOOD AND DRINKS, AND THE WORLD’S S***TIEST SERVICE EVER?! I DEMAND YOU TAKE OFF MORE. NOW!”
Manager: “I can’t do that! You got the right foo—”
Father: “Just listen to her!”
(The manager storms off and sends [Waitress #2] to give them their new check. They get four meals and all their drinks off the check. It still isn’t good enough.)
Father: “Of course, you forgot the military discount. Incompetence.”
(He tosses the check onto the table into the smeared mess. [Waitress #1] comes back and takes the check. Their final price is $80.32. They all scoff, pay, and leave in a rush. They don’t leave a tip, but they leave a huge mess. Both waitresses come to our table and look somewhat relieved.)
Waitress #1: “I would like to thank you guys for not being like that last family.”
Waitress #2: “I can’t believe people actually do stuff like that! They just took so much food and money from us. I don’t know why my boss didn’t just kick them out…”
Waitress #1: “I am so sorry for that and the huge inconvenience.”
My Mother: “You don’t have to apologize for anything. It’s not your fault a**holes like that are allowed in restaurants.”
My Father: “I would like to apologize on behalf of all military men like that. They give us all a bad name, and we’re not all like that f****** d**k.”
(The waitress started to cry again and my mother got up and hugged her. She thanked my dad for his service and thanked us all for being so kind. We paid and left a $30 tip for what that woman had to go through. Later, we found out the family had quite the bad reputation in our town for trying to screw restaurants out of money and food, then leaving huge messes and never tipping. People like that should not be allowed in restaurants.)
