‘Half of them are children’: Server says 15 people came into restaurant 20 minutes before they closed

22.01.2023 23:47

The Daily Dot

Dean Redmond (@deanredmonds) is known for his viral rants while working in the food service industry. The majority of his tirades are against rude customers who make unreasonable or inconsiderate demands, like one woman who demanded a frozen coffee from the cafe he worked at despite the fact that they don't serve such a beverage at their establishment.

Redmond shared another story about a party of 15 that asked to be seated at the restaurant right around closing time, which his manager agreed to do.

Many restaurateurs and food industry employees have stated it's probably best if diners try to arrive at least 30 minutes before closing. This gives them ample time to put in orders, serve food, and perform clean-up and any prep for the next day without having to stay too late past their original scheduled shift time.

Redmond says this group, half of which he says comprised children, was a nightmare to deal with and forced him and the entirety of the restaurant staff to stay well past closing.

@deanredmonds I am currently losing it #servertiktok #serverproblems #restaurantreview #restaurant #serverpov #povserver ♬ Spongebob Tomfoolery - Dante9k Remix - David Snell

By the time the group is ready for their order "it's literally 4:30 and we closed at 4 o'clock," he says in the clip.

He adds that after he put in the table's drink orders and brought them their beverages, three of the children immediately knock over their cups. In response, one of the women at the table said this is why they always get the children kiddie cups. However, Redmond says no one on the table requested them and remarked that the children all looked old enough to be able to drink from a glass with a straw without knocking them over.

To make matters even more frustrating, he says the table had zero comprehension of ordering decorum and that multiple people on the table rattled off questions simultaneously, which put him out of "full focus mode."

This meant that important questions about their meals, like a breakfast platter that the party ordered, remained unanswered, i.e. how they wanted their eggs cooked and what kind of meats they wanted on the platter.

Redmond had to go back to the table and get these specifics, he says, which prompted further questions from the table and requests to see the menu again. Meanwhile, the clock was ticking well past the restaurant's closing time while this was going on.

"This happens three times in a row to three of the different people sitting there," Redmond vents. "I have to go and grab the menus because they can't make a decision on the spot."

Compounding the hectic nature of the situation, the TikToker says two of the diners who ordered breakfast foods changed their minds to get chicken sandwiches instead, which befuddled him. He quips that he doesn't understand how someone could be craving breakfast food and then out of the blue decide that they want a chicken sandwich instead.

Redmond adds that when he finally was able to get their food and bring it to the table, he received no help or communication from the table. After asking who had the chicken sandwich, no one answered him even though he repeated himself multiple times. Eventually, one woman seated at the table said, "look at the help."

Redmond is shocked that someone would refer to him as "the help," but was even more shocked that the woman who ordered the chicken sandwich would screech that she's "being poisoned" after finding what she thought was a hair in her food.

After bringing the sandwich back to the kitchen, the cooks explained that it wasn't a hair but a piece of pulp from the avocado used in her meal, Redmond says. The customer allegedly didn't accept the response and retorted with, "I have made a million guacamole things in my life and I have never seen that."

When he told her that he didn't think the kitchen was lying, the woman said she thought the restaurant's staff was attempting to "save their butts" to which the server didn't know how to reply except with more apologies. The manager was brought into the situation and then the sandwich was ultimately removed from the bill, the server says.

Redmond concludes his clip by saying that once the party left the restaurant, they left a review that he says was the "worst" he's ever "witnessed" in his "entire life."

The Daily Dot has reached out to Redmond via TikTok comment for further information.

TikTokers who saw the post and said they worked in the food service industry remarked that they knew this type of customer all too well. Others said the problem began when the manager agreed to let them into the restaurant despite the fact that it was nearly closing time.

"Yeah that manager would be their server," one commenter said.

Another wrote, "I would’ve told the manager to take the table since they wanted it so bad and I would be out the door."

There were others who said they would've left the table the second someone on it referred to them as "the help."

"My anger issues could never I literally walked out of my serving job because a woman screamed at me about her desert when I wasn’t her server," @viklouisek said.

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