35 Dating Disasters Restaurant Staff Had No Choice But To Witness

1.

This happened when I was around 18 or so. I am mostly Native American. (This is an important factor to the story) A guy and his date get sat in my section and he immediately asked to speak to my manager. This was before I even took their drink order so I was perplexed but went and grabbed him right away.

The dude then asked my manager for a “nice white server instead.” Right in front of me. While giving me a rather disgusted scowl.

His date was so horrified she stood up and said “Oh heck no. That r*cist s**t don’t work with me honey. You can sit me at the bar sweetheart this date is over.”

The manager made the man leave and comped his date’s food. She left the manager $100 tip for me with a note that said “You are beautiful and worthy of respect. Always remember that.”

Her date was a disaster but she made my night.

2.

Not a disaster but it could have been.

Guy hires private room in the very fine dining establishment i’m working in.

Dinner for 2, champagne, proposal dinner.

Gives us instructions to bring the champagne when she says yes.

I jump the gun and poke my head into the room holding the champagne, just to check i havent missed it.

Guy sees me, has a panic fit and throws up, all over the table.

Woman is very concerned goes over to see if he’s ok.

He hits “f**k-it” and pulls out the ring, drops to 1 knee and proposes, with vom still on him and the table.

She bursts out laughing, says yes and kisses him (on the head)

Get them a new table in a different room and serve the champagne.

MFW i hope i find love like that one day.

3.

Guy1 and GF are fondling each other at my bar. Guy2 joins them at the bar and they quickly separate and behave. The three go off into the casino but stop back for drinks a few times.

Early AM Guy2 does a shot and walks away; I can tell he isn’t happy. He comes back and says he has a couple of hours to k**l before his plane leaves. We get to chatting and he tells me he just broke up with his GF as suspects she snuck up to the room and nailed his best friend when he couldn’t find either of them for an hour. I ask if it was Guy1 and GF, he confirms it and I let him know he is making the right choice as they were making out at the bar before he came down.

He thanks me for confirming, leaves a huge tip, and lets me know what is happening in case there is any confusion with the hotel.

An hour or so later Guy1 and GF are at the bar whispering and arguing. I casually ask if everything is okay, they say they are locked out of their room and can’t find their friend who paid for the room. They tried to charge the bill to the room too but my computer showed the room was empty. I told them Guy2 had been in earlier but checked out and his flight was already in the air. Then I watched the meltdown.

Guy2 had paid for his bff and GF to spend a week in Vegas with him. They cheated and got caught. He checked out and flew home and they had no where to stay for the week and no money for even basic food. Their luggage had been packed and left in the baggage hold. They did everything they could to get out of paying for their drinks as they were pretty expensive, left no tip, and didn’t have a place to sleep or even change clothing at 5AM.

TLDR; Don’t cheat on the person paying your way if you can’t pay your own way.

4.

I was a waiter at a very famous, upscale restaurant and a gentleman approached the maitre’d requesting someone take pictures of him proposing to his girlfriend. Since I was the closest a*****e to the maitre’d I was tasked with performing this duty.

After stalking the table for a solid hour the moment was inevitably approaching. I set up at an angle she couldn’t see me and when he busted out the ring I started taking as many pictures as I could. Anyone who has tried to capture a once in a lifetime moment on camera knows that you’re not really watching what’s going on, you’re just trying to frame the moment. After about 20-30 pictures I slowly realized that she was declining the proposal and the scene was quickly degenerating into a Five Alarm dumpster fire. However I was far enough away that I couldn’t hear what was being said and couldn’t be sure of what was transpiring so I continued taking pictures just in case. Finally I stepped back and watched the scene unfold in reality as she stormed out of the restaurant in embarrassment and he scrambled to pay the bill and chase after her.

He’d requested that I use my phone and send the best pictures to him. Needless to say he never approached us for the pictures and I have about 100+ pictures of a wedding proposal gone wrong somewhere deep in my iCloud photo bank…

5.

My favorite was a couple who asked to be seated on the patio, and chose the furthest table from other guests. I go over to greet them with a smile and some good energy, and the woman locks eyes with me and says “This is not going to be a fun evening.” The guy with her then tries to order a margarita and she said “You can have a coke,” and proceeds to order a cosmo for herself, and they both get burgers. I go in to tell the hosts not to seat anyone near them, and for the next hour this woman lays into the guy while he sat there and took it. Clearly he had f****d up in a major way, from the snippets I heard, and she was explaining to him in great detail the way he had f****d up, lost her trust, and it was over. She was incredibly civil, unflinchingly polite, and so confident. She finished, handed me her card, and walked away with him still at the table after she left me a solid 30% tip.

She was awesome. I want to be her when I grow up.

6.

This happened to a friend of my wife…

She met a guy on a dating site, they agreed to meet at a strip mall parking lot and go to dinner together from there. He asks if he can drive her car, because it’s a Camero and he’s never driven one. So they go together in her car, to a restaurant a couple miles away.

Dinner goes ok, nothing too crazy. Then he gets up to go to the bathroom and never comes back. after 10 minutes, she gets up to check on him, and her car is gone. He’s dashed on the bill and stolen her car.

She pays the bill, and gets an Uber home, and calls the police to report her car stolen. Turns out the guy just left it in the parking lot where they originally met, and seems to think he did nothing wrong. Last I heard he’s still being charged with auto theft.

7.

I (22m at the time) was bus boy at a 200 seat restaurant that was part of a sporting club. I’d been there for long enough to have a feel for the personalities of the customers.

On this particular night one of my tables was a first date. The girl was lovely, all smiles and very pleasant. The guy was sort of normal, seemed a bit quiet. He put off some fairly clear signals that he would prefer to be left alone though. That’s OK, some prefer minimal service.

What I did notice though, was that the guy was talking to her quietly, but forcefully, and almost non-stop, sometimes gripping her arm firmly, in a way that suggested that she wouldn’t be able to pull away easily. I couldn’t hear a word that was said, but the lady was looking more and more terrified all the time. Like, nearly about to wet herself terrified. A complete change from her pleasant nature when they had walked in.

I told the waitress on the adjacent section that I wasn’t sure about what was going on and asked if she wouldn’t mind checking on the table to let me know her thoughts.

Waitress went to the table, said a few quick words and came back to me. Out of earshot, she said “Yeah, I think we have to get her out of here.”

We let the manageress know what was going on. The guy had booked his table. Good. We had his name.

Outside at the taxi rank, by some miracle, there was a female cabbie in the line. I ignored the protests of the other drivers. I hopped in and told the cabbie the situation, and offered her $20 to wait around the back of the restaurant. I said, “Please don’t wait for a destination, just drive, something’s really wrong with her date.”

The cabbie didn’t need the 20 bucks.

We had the front desk call the guy over the PA for an ‘urgent call’. This would delay him while they tried to figure what the ‘call’ was, and then ‘realize’ in that he had actually won a meat tray – they were raffled off at various intervals through the night. (“Just wait here while we fetch it for you!!”)

As soon as creepy guy was out of sight, I asked his date if she needed to get out of here. She just trembled and nodded. Figuring that she probably wasn’t in the mood to trust a male at that point, my waitress friend escorted her though the kitchen and out to the waiting cab where she slipped away quick as you please.

The guy came back to an empty table, and staff seeming to be oblivious to where his lady friend had gone.

We didn’t get much of the story, other than the the lady was set up on a blind date by a mutual friend who told her that this guy was OK.

8.

Not my story, but my partner just told about this happening at his work.

We live in a pretty large university college and one time a guy came in with a plant for a date. He sat with it at the table, ordered it food, drinks, and dessert. He was a total gentleman to the plant.

Turns out he lost a bet with his frat brothers.

9.

I worked briefly as a waiter at a semi-nice place near me. I had a couple come in for a date who we’ve seen there a few times before (I think it was their regular dating place). She was very clearly sad, and was talking about how her uncle was really sick and was probably going to pass away soon. He decided to pull out the ring and pop the question anyway.

Seriously, dude? Read the room.

11.

This was probably about 4 years ago, in a joint called the Esquire Tavern on the Riverwalk.

We had a street entrance as well as a river entrance, but from the river you had to walk up a really narrow metal staircase to our balcony. It barely had enough room for 5 small tables, including one that was tucked in a corner that made it hard to see from below.

Anyways, it was a slow summer lunch so I was doubling as a hostess, and this guy comes up from the river entrance and asks for a spot on the patio, specifically the hidden cramped one. No problem sir, I say, and I get him set up. We chat for a bit, I take his order, bring it out and go about my business – which was to passively watch him through the window because he was my only table and I wanted to keep an eye on him. I started to notice him suddenly ducking his head, as if he’s trying not to be seen from the river level by someone. I remember pointing it out to another co-worker, who was just as curious as I was.

Then we heard a woman scream “THERE YOU ARE MARCOS, YOU PIECE OF S**T!” I could hear the staircase shuddering as someone was clearly stomping their way up it, and my coworker astutely dipped out to find the manager. The lady started laying into this dude, and all I could make out was something about ditching her; all the while he’s just ignoring her and calmly eating his buffalo burger (lol), which made her snap.

She slapped *the s**t* out of this dude, telling him to *”f*****g acknowledge me”*, and he simply got up, walked around her and came inside to sit at the bar. She then sits down and starts eating this poor man’s meal like nothing is wrong! By this point though the manager is here and he goes outside and starts trying to kick her off the premises while I go talk to Marcos and figure out what’s what.

The TL;DR is that the woman was his wife, and they had come downtown for lunch; she had a nasty habit of getting super f****d up and belligerent which always ended up ruining their plans, including a wedding reception a few months prior. She refused to go get help, insisting that she’d keep her drinking to a minimum, and this was their first daycation since that incident.

They had stopped at a brunch place around the corner and she proceeded to have 4 old fashioned’s back to back. When she was ordering her 4th drink, he told her that she was already out of control, and that if she kept drinking he was going to close the tab and go eat lunch somewhere else, and that he’d meet her back at the hotel. She told him he was chicken s**t and that he wasn’t going anywhere.

So he got up, paid their bill, and walked out. I guess she thought he was putting up a front and was actually waiting outside for her, then realized he wasn’t. She started running up and down the river looking for him; he just wanted to finish his burger in peace before dealing with her craziness. In the end, we had her ejected from the premises and my manager made him another burger on the house.

A year or so later, we saw him at the bar with a different woman. He divorced his wife and couldn’t look happier.

EDIT: A few folks have been asking if we called the cops, this is from another comment buried in the thread:

*”The police are the ones who removed her from the premises, but her husband declined to press charges. I don’t know what exactly B (my manager) said/did for Marcos, but they spent the better part of two hours together that day talking at the bar. B gave him his number, and I didn’t feel like it was my place to inquire any further.*

*When we saw him a year later he definitely spoke to B as if they were familiar with one another. Take from that what you will.*

*…This is their procedure for any suspected victim of violence, regardless of gender.”*.

12.

I worked at a bar in a hotel for 5 years. I had a table come down from their hotel room and sit at one of my pub tables for dinner. From the moment they sat down, you could tell the wife was furious about something. She was unbelievably pleasant toward me, but did not say a single word to the man at the table. I get their drinks and then their orders- he ordered steak and she ordered the sauciest pasta dish we had on the menu.

About 20 minutes later (the wife still hadn’t said a word to the man since they sat down) their food was done and my food runner set it on the table. Right as I was about to walk over to see if they needed anything else, I saw the woman stand up, say “Go f**k yourself, John” as she picked up the plate of pasta and dumped it all over his head and down into his lap. Then she very calmly walked out of the bar and back up to her hotel room.

I spent a few minutes helping the man clean up and got my manager to come handle the situation from there as it was way above my pay grade at that point.

Later in the night, the woman came back to the bar without the man and we talked for a while. Turns out he admitted to cheating on her right before their dinner reservation. I never saw either of them again.

13.

I was a waiter at a pretty high end hotel restaurant. It was about 3pm and I was the only one on the floor as it was normally very slow at that time. There was only one party seated and it was a middle aged man and woman. You could tell they weren’t married.

I went over and asked if they wanted anything to drink and they both got mimosas I think. I went back with their drinks and asked if they were also planning on ordering food. They said yes but that they’re in no rush and will let me know when they were ready to order.

About 15 minutes goes by when this man shows up at the front desk, starts looking around, yells “I F*****G KNEW IT, YOU B***H!”, and starts walking towards the couple sitting down. The woman stands up and the guy remains seated. It became clear that the woman was having an affair with another man, and the husband came in to confront them. He grabbed her hand and walked her out but not before telling the man to “stay the f**k away from my wife!”.

The man remains seated at the table, turns to me and waves me over. I go over and he says in a perfectly calm tone “Cobb salad please”.

14.

I used to bartend at a yard house in the before times

Yard house is a corporate place that’s basically a nicer sports bar with a ton of beer on tap with stupid, giant novelty glasses. I had a couple at the bar during happy hour drinking from one of the big glasses and they ordered some onion rings that were half price, he jokingly proposed with an onion ring and she started laughing and jokingly said yes

Then he busted out an actual ring…..she wasn’t laughing anymore.

15.

Ok, here’s a great story that I’ve been wanting to share.

I work at a small bakery in my town. I am general kitchen staff, and not a waiter, but I was there when this all went down.

It was around 2 in the afternoon, the day had been normal, but suddenly I saw the retail staff in a huddle and took my first opportunity to go see what was happening.

Apparently a couple had come in on this summer day, ordered two bowls of soup and sat down. The girl that took their order went to the back and prepared their soup for them, then brought it back out.

In the time it took for her to get the soup, the woman had taken off her flip flop, put her leg across the table, and the guy was going to town sucking on this lady’s toes IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RESTAURANT.
The waitress didn’t notice until she went to place the soup on the table. She stood there in shock, and the couple was oblivious to her presence. This guy is going all in, and the lady is starting to moan by the time they realize their soup is ready.

The waitress was in complete shock for the rest of her shift, and that couple is no longer allowed on the premises.

This place has even more weird stories, from someone forcing open the back door to ask for a hamburger to a complete stranger coming out of the basement and acting like he’s supposed to be there. Not to mention the time I watched a bird fly out of a hole in the ceiling. Kentucky can be a weird place.

16.

Not really a disaster, but definitely hard to watch.

Used to wait tables at a Buffalo Wild Wings. Had a couple who would come in regularly, her with cat ear headbands and tails stuck to her skirts, him with a fedora and cane. Classic stuff you’d see on r/cringe.

I was unlucky enough to basically witness their entire relationship. First date, lots of meowing and m’ladying. Fast forward a few months (yes months) and he picks BWW to propose. She says yes, lots of celebrating, and at this point I’m just trying to make a buck and they tip well so I celebrate with them a bit.

Five or six months later, they come in in full wedding garb. I assume they’re coming for an afterparty of some sort, but nope, a JP walks in behind them. They said their vows in “their” booth and finished it off with two large orders of wings and some fried pickles.

I just… I cannot imagine being at a point in my life where I would be this dedicated to celebrating my love life in a chain sports bar with mediocre food.

18.

I used to work as a hostess at a “Thank Deity it’s the Weekend already”.

Guy makes a reservation at the most booked table. It’s by the window, all romantic etc. Also super visible from any other part of the restaurant.
Comes in, all dressed up and with a suitcase. Strange, but okay. A few minutes later, his date arrives. They laugh, flirt, we actually thought it’s an anniversary or he’s going to propose or something the way it was going.
NOPE

Half way through the evening she starts screaming at him.
He broke up with her and actually packed her suitcase. Then paid and left her there sobbing at the table alone.

We got her a brownie on the house, because just watching that we felt f*****g awful.

20.

A guy had his own dj company with a friend and the club I worked at was his only client, the other guy had other clients.

Anyway, one night while he was working, it was his birthday, his friends and girlfriend came to the place. They shared drinks and shots and it went too far. He got so drunk that evening. He flirted with other women to the point that his girlfriend dumped him. He also was so distasteful that evening that he got fired from the venue, and his friends didnt want to speak to him again. His partner didnt want to continue working with him either. He lost everything that evening.

No idea what happened to him afterwards, I know he never worked at that place again though.

He was a nice guy. Just had a big problem with alcohol.

This sounds made up, I assure you it is not. It made an imprint on me that I avoided alcohol since then. I was only 18 at the time and am now 40+.

21.

A couple of friends and I went to the Mexican restaurant where another friend was waiting tables. There was a couple kind of catty-cornered from us that had a bit of an “off” vibe. We could see them, but not really hear them, so we asked our server friend what was up. She said it seemed to be a first or second date that was a bit awkward. The girl had ordered one of those enormous margaritas, and was not sharing it.

I had to go make a phone call (back in the pay phone days) and when I came back, I ended up sitting with my back to the couple. Maybe 10 minutes later, I hear our friend the server say, “No, noooo nooooo….” and the sound of a full punch bowl being emptied from a great height.

Giant Margarita Girl had stood up, swayed a bit, and vomited all over their meals, table, and the surrounding floor. The restaurant comped everyone sitting nearby, and the girl’s date abandoned her in the ensuing chaos.

23.

Bartender for a couple on a Tinder date. They talk for about an hour, he goes to the bathroom but left his jacket on the back of his chair with his wallet and keys in.

She stole them, stole his car, and went shopping. That poor schmuck refused to call the cops for an hour because “it was going so well.” I felt bad for him.

25.

I’m not a waiter etc. but years ago the week after we got married my husband and I went to a really lovely, cosy steakhouse for dinner. We used to love that place! A couple came in and were seated next to us, very obviously on a first date. The woman looks over the menu, quietly closes and reminds the man that she is vegetarian.

(Now since going veggie ourselves, we haven’t been back there because the menu is very much built for carnivores, which I think is fine given it’s a STEAK RESTAURANT.)
He responds with “yes but the macaroni here is so, so good, you can have that.”

Her face falls, she is dresses to the 9s and was very much more attractive physically than he was, and clearly did not expect to be eating a bowl of macaroni. In solidarity he also orders the mac because “honestly it’s the best mac you’ll ever have”.
They barely spoke all night and my husband and I spent our whole meal trying not to giggle.

Incidentally the macaroni comes with meat in it so she had to ask for a modification.

26.

Saw a proposal take a turn when the guy put the ring in her champagne, she drank the champagne quickly unknowingly and started to choke. Guy performs a heimlich maneuver and the ring pops out only to fly into someone else’s food. Guy had what appeared to be two heart attacks but in the end the lady did say yes

Side note because of the almost death they got free dessert and they laughed about the whole evening saying “till death do us part for real” and they wanted no beverages at all unless it was super clear and if the guy didnt order it.

27.

Couples fight in restaurants a lot. That or maybe they argue everywhere. I couldn’t say. I worked as a waiter for years and I could not begin to count the number of arguments I saw.

But one guy comes to mind above all of them. This guy must have been 50-60 years old and got angry with his lady. He actually threw a snit and stomped off and was wandering around the restaurant and looking back at her and scowling. It was like a child throwing a temper tantrum, but most children aren’t even this dramatic usually. It was nauseating to watch.

30.

This couple came into this bar that I worked at and it was business as usual; took their order, brought out drinks and food, including dessert. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

However, this couple began to argue as they work through their dessert about the guy didn’t bring a battery pack to charge their phones. Homegirl is straight up screaming at this dude. Luckily, it was a really slow night and they were only ones in the restaurant.

I offer to charge their phone if they have their cable. I NEVER offer to charge anybody’s phones because I don’t like dealing with the hassle. But I felt for the guy because I was that guy at one point.

This is the point where I feel like I should’ve thought something was up. The guy hands me what looks like a busted up prepaid phone you get from the supermarket and what looked like a chewed up charger cable. I run to the back and go to charge it only to find out the cable wasn’t compatible with the phone. I go back to them and notice they left without paying. I was more impressed than I was upset.

TLDR; Couple pretended to get into argument over charging phone, then dine and dashed after I go in an attempt to help.

31.

Not a waiter, but I went on a date once to a dark, hipster restaurant in Silver Lake where I witnessed a horrendous date right next to me. It was a man and a woman, and the guy was just… something else. These are some of the topics he chose to discuss with his date: why the H*******t wasn’t that bad (he’s allowed to say that since his mother is Jewish), a very long-winded story of how he does NOT have herpes (he only mentioned that detail at the very end, his mother was somehow mentioned in the story), why she should sit in a seat with lumbar support and that it’s dumb not to (she was sitting on the same bench as me yet he took the seat with a back), and a few more equally ridiculous stories. He then asked her to pay for dinner and he will Venmo her. I think they ended up splitting it.

Our tables were practically touching and the man was so loud it was impossible not to hear him. My date and I were just listening to him go on because it was truly unbelievable.

When he said the H*******t thing we both intervened and told him we were listening. I felt so bad for that girl she seemed miserable. I also accidentally broke a glass just by picking it up, maybe I was p****d off for her.

32.

I worked in a bar while I was in college and I had a guy come in before his date and told me that when ever he ordered a scotch what he really wanted was chardonnay. I must have given him an off look because then he got embarrassed and confided in me that he was really in love with the woman meeting him there for the date. He told me how she usually dated guys that were more macho and he didn’t want to order wine in front of her, but if he ordered anything else he would make a face because he didn’t like the taste. I felt pretty bad for the guy so I agreed. He seemed like a genuinely nice man and I wanted to help him out. Well the woman this nice man was in love with was a total b***h. She came in with two other women to their date, he mumbled something to me about maybe not being clear, and plastered a smile on his face.

The woman was extremely charismatic she was one of those life of the party women and the guy was very quiet… Anyways later in the evening he ordered another “scotch”, he had been doing this all night, only this time when I brought it to the table she insisted she wanted to try it. She said that she had never ha scotch before etc etc. It was like watching a train wreck, he tried to stop her saying things like “here let me buy you a glass” etc. well she took one sip and knew it was wine… I tried to help him going over and apologizing pretending it was my mistake, but she guessed the truth and started teasing him. Her friends joined in laughing as well… I felt awful and I could tell he was really embarrassed, even though he was laughing along etc. After a while he asked for the bill, I brought him the tab with his and the woman’s portion and he told me he was paying for everyone. I felt so awful, the woman and her friends had all had so many drinks the tab was over 100 dollars, but I brought it and he tipped me 50 making me feel if possible more awful.

They were my last table so I closed out with my manager and went back into the bar to have a drink with another girl that worked there. The group was still there so I decided to go over and ask to buy him a drink. I just wanted to I don’t know help him or something. Make him look good and possibly make that woman jealous. Well I went over there and asked if I could buy him a drink. He smiled at me, got up from his chair, and took me aside. He told me I was very beautiful, but I was too young to be hitting on men old enough to be my father. I almost explained to him that I was just trying to help him, but decided not to. I figured that he could use the ego boost after that “date”.

**6 years ago this question was asked and I wrote this all then too so I just copy and pasted my old comment.

33.

I used to work at a bar where 70% of the customers were on tinder dates. There was a line of two person booths along the wall when you first walk in. There were two dudes sitting by themselves in two different booths. Both of them were facing the door, one was in the first booth one was in the last booth. This girl comes in and walks up to the first booth, says hi to the guy, and sits down. They are chatting for about five minutes when the other guy who is sitting by himself comes up to her and says hey I’m so-and-so… aren’t you so-and-so..? They all talk for like 30 seconds and she gets up and goes and sits with the other guy at the last booth. Eventually a different girl shows up for a date with the guy at the first booth.

I don’t know exactly what happened, but I almost died watching it unfold. She was definitely embarrassed.

34.

Not waiter, but I used to be a banquet cook for large corporate events/weddings. Had your very typical bridezilla one weekend. She ended getting hammered at the reception and slept with a groomsman in the honeymoon suite. Needless to say, husband left her immediately. At least I got a lot of compliments on my crab cakes.

Edit:: Since people have asked, Crab Cakes. Simple. Good.
Backfin crab meat. Dont f**k with lump. Not worth it. Cake falls apart. Make sure it maryland blue crab or you’re not an American.
Raw eggs
Mustard powder
Juice and zest of a lemon
Parsley if you’re fancy. None if you’re not. I dont judge
Old bay seasoning(can you tell where I’m from yet?)
Just enough breadcrumbs and mayo to form a solid patty
That’s it. Any more ruins the cake. DM me if you want more coherent instructions.

Edit:: More to the story. A couple guests heard arguing in the suite next to them. Groomsman already bounced. Wife was screaming. Husband came down and explained the situation to management. We gave him a free room for the night considering the circumstances. Not sure what provoked anything, but from what the bartender that served him told me, he suspected something was going on, but the other two had been friends for years. Just thought they were close. Didn’t realize how close.