Might as well stay at home and order delivery, instead of encountering these nightmare dates! How do people function in life acting like violent babies? They certainly shouldn't be dating. The worst part? Most of the wait staff in these stories probably got lousy tips. Content has been edited for clarity.
Could The Wait Staff Save Her In Time?
“I was a young bus boy at a two hundred seat restaurant that was part of a sporting club. I had been there for long enough to have a feel for the personalities of all of our customers. On this particular night, one of my tables was on a first date. The girl was lovely, all smiles and quite pleasant. The guy was sort of ordinary, he seemed a bit quiet. He put off some fairly clear signals that he would prefer to be left alone with his date. That’s alright, some people prefer minimal service. What I did notice was that this guy was talking to his date quietly but forcefully, 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 she was nearly about to pee herself in fright. This was a complete change from her pleasant nature when they both had walked in.
I told the waitress on the adjacent section that I wasn’t sure about what was going on, and I asked if she wouldn’t mind checking on the table to let me know her thoughts. The waitress went to the table, said a few quick words, and then came back to me. Out of earshot from the couple, she told me, ‘Yeah, I think we have to get her out of here.’
We let our managers know what was going on. The guy had reserved the table, so we had his name. Outside at the taxi rank, but some miracle, there was a female cab driver in the line. I ignored the protests of the other drivers. I hopped in and told the cab driver this situation. I gave her twenty dollars to wait around the back of the restaurant. I told her, ‘Please don’t wait for a destination, just drive, something is seriously wrong with this woman’s date.’
The cab driver didn’t even need the twenty bucks. We had the front desk person call the guy over the PA for an ‘urgent call’. This would delay him while the staff tried to figure out what the ‘call’ really was. They would ‘realize’ that he had actually won a meat tray. These were raffled off at various intervals throughout the night. We would tell him to wait right there while we got it for him. As soon as this creepy guy was out of sight, I asked his date if she needed to get out of there. She just trembled and nodded at us. I figured that she probably wasn’t in the mood to trust a man at that point, so I had my waitress friend took her through the kitchen and out to the waiting cab, where she slipped away quickly into the night. This guy came back to an empty table, and the staff seemed to be totally oblivious as to where his lady friend had gone. We didn’t get much of the story itself, other than that this lady was set up on a blind date by a mutual friend, who incorrectly assured her that this guy was okay.”
She Caught Him Red-Handed!
“I worked at a bar while I was in college. One night, this guy came in before his date and told me that whenever he ordered something on the rocks, what he really wanted was a chardonnay. I must have given him an of look, because then he grew embarrassed and confided in me that he was madly in love with the woman meeting him there for the date. He said how she usually dated guys who were more macho, and he didn’t want to order chardonnay in front of her. But if he ordered anything else, he would make a face because he couldn’t stand 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 monster. She arrived with two other women to the date. He sheepishly looked at her and plastered a smile onto his face.
This woman was extremely charismatic, but the guy was super quiet. Later on in the evening, he ordered another drink ‘on the rocks’. He had been doing this all night, only this time when I brought it to the table, she insisted that she wanted to try it. She said that she had never had this sort of drink before. It was like watching a train wreck. He tried to stop her, saying things like, ‘Here, let me buy you a glass,’ and similar stuff. Well, she took one sip and knew it was chardonnay. I tried to help him by going over and apologizing, pretending that this was my mistake. She quickly guessed the truth and started to tease him. Her friends, who had been there the entire time, joined in and laughed at him as well. I felt awful, and I could tell that he was really embarrassed, even though he was politely laughing along. After a while, he asked me for the bill. I brought him the tab with everyone’s portions, and he told me that he was paying for everyone. I felt so awful. The woman and her friends had so many drinks that the tab was well over one hundred dollars. I brought it and he tipped me fifty dollars, making me feel somehow more awful.
They were my last table for the night, so I closed out with the manager and went back into the bar to have a drink with another girl that worked there. The group was still there, so I wandered over and asked to buy this guy a drink. I just wanted to help him however I could. Maybe I could make him look good and make that woman jealous. Well I went over there and asked him if I can buy him a drink. He smiled at me, got up form his chair, and took me aside. He told me that 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 I decided not to. I figured that he could have used that ego boost after that supposed ‘date’.”
This Man Clearly Has No Brain
“I remember Valentine’s Day 2019 like it was yesterday because of one particular couple. The background is that I’m a bartender/waitress at a chain pub in the UK. So basically we serve pub grub, and our main clientele is our regulars who usually only want pints of drinks. Also, important to note, that out of fifty tables, we only have one booth and everyone wants to use it. So Valentine’s Day 2019, we have quite a few bookings, including some for the booth, so that table is booked pretty much solidly all night. It would be a case of couples finishing food, the table gets cleaned, and then next couple is immediately seated. So it gets to about eight or nine at night, and this couple walks in. He asks to be seated in the booth and is told that its booked all night. He gets a bit irate about that and asks for a nice table, and if they can have table service. Dude, this is a chain pub, there aren’t any nice tables.
His date says she’s going to the toilet and walks off. He then proceeds to explain that he’s planning on proposing and wants it to be special. Again, this dude is expecting big things from this place, but we don’t say anything except we can set him up a table in a closed off area, and one of my coworkers manages to find a really tacky tablecloth, fills an empty bottle with fake flowers, and sets them out some cutlery. This is already above and beyond what normally happens, since you get your own reusable cutlery at this place. We don’t usually do table service, but the boss wanted to make a good impression, so guess who gets that task for the night? Yours truly. So I go over to take their order and she says she’d like a sirloin steak. Before I can ask her how she’d like it cooked, he interrupts and asks her to get something off of the value menu. She looks angry. Clearly this is strike two for this guy, and it’s going terribly. She asks why he didn’t tell her that before she looked at the menu, and he said that she knows that he likes to save money, so why would tonight be any different? She looks like she’s about to walk out, so I offer to give them a few minutes and take my leave, honestly just kind of glad to be out of there.
I go back over after a few more minutes and they order off of the value menu. Food comes out quickly, they eat and then he orders a bottle of prosecco. Now is probably a good time to mention that at certain points during the night, most of the staff have been standing in the kitchen, listening to me tell them about this couples’ disaster of a date, and we’re all just waiting to see how this train wreck is gonna end. Then comes the big moment. I’m just going over to see if they would like dessert and I see him going to get down on one knee, so I grab another waitress on shift and we’re watching from the corner. This is where he makes his FINAL mistake. He pulls out the cheapest engagement ring. Not only did he leave the ring box in the plastic box it came in, but he left the giant price tag on it that said £1.
The woman asked him if he was serious. He said yes. She then asked him if the ring seriously cost that much. he said yes. She asked him if this was a placeholder ring, so that she could choose her own later. He said no. She asked him why he would propose with such a terrible ring. He said that she knows how he likes to save money. She picked up her glass and simply walked out of the pub. I did not stop her from taking the glass.”
Who Would Want These Keepsakes?
“I was a waiter at this very famous, upscale restaurant, where a gentleman approached the maitre’d, requesting that someone take a photo of him proposing to his girlfriend. Since I was the closest 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 twenty to thirty 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 had 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 over one hundred pictures of a wedding proposal gone wrong somewhere deep in my phone’s photo collection.”
Finally Hit Her Breaking Point
“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 twenty 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 and say, ‘Go get lost, 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. My guess has always been that this wasn’t the first time he did something awful in their relationship. The pure look of ‘I have no emotion left to give at all’ in her face made me believe that it had happened multiple times, and she just finally hit her breaking point.”
Dinner Date Gets Graphic
“So I work at a small bakery in my town. I am part of the general kitchen staff, and not a waiter, but I was there when this all went down. It was around two in the afternoon, the day had been fairly 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. Living in Kentucky, there is nothing else like it.”
Forced To Witness Their Madness
“I worked in a fancy hotel that was almost on the beach in southern California. This area is also somewhat of a ‘party town’, but it still was an incredibly rich and nice place to live. That day, I was the hostess for the outside restaurant and had just sat three older guests in their 70s, including one man and two women. The guy had a huge mustache and was wearing bright colors and very obliviously trying to show off his gold jewelry. One woman was wearing orange lipstick and a short white skirt. The other a dress with huge hat. They were the only table there. It was super slow and I was there almost alone, aside from the server and bartender who were mostly inside. The first twenty minutes they were there, it was pretty normal, then one of the women stood up and asked me where the bathroom was. I told her where it was then went back to my crossword puzzle. The hostess stand was super close to their table, and I kept hearing quiet giggling behind me. I turn around and the guy has half his hand up her dress and the two of them are intensely flirting a few inches away from each other’s face. I immediately turn around and soon after, the first woman comes back from the bathroom. After a few minutes the other woman gets up and goes to use the bathroom. And again, I start to hear quiet giggling behind me. I turn around and he has has hand up this other woman’s skirt was and flirting super intensely.
The other woman comes back and I try to mind my own business but they were getting more wasted and more loud. This goes on for another five minutes when they all become super quiet out of nowhere. I turn around and am met with the skirt lady’s orange lips barreling in toward my face with her arms outstretched toward my head. I had no time as I try to turn my head as fast as I can, but her orange kiss lands on the corner of my lips and face, leaving her mark. Seeing my stunned face, she recoils quickly and says, ‘Don’t worry, it’s okay! It was a dare! You have soft skin though!’
Then she runs back to her table and the friends laughing hysterically. She then proceeded to flash the bartender underneath her skirt, and there was no underwear under that skirt, in the lounge by climbing the furniture. They then went to the sports bar across the street and proceed to get more hammered.”
The Whole Staff Got In On The Madness
“A guy and a girl are having dinner and I’m their waiter. She is tall, gorgeous, and quite flirtatious. The guy was a very short redhead who looked a few years younger than her. She kept flirting with me, which was confusing because I assumed that the two of them were on a date. This guy didn’t seem to mind, he was just happy to be there. The restaurant was empty, and it was about to close. I am trying to figure out how to hit on the girl and not get fired if I’m misjudging this situation. Unfortunately, my coworkers solved my dilemma. Every single busser or waiter would openly ogle her as they walked by. Half of them would make some awful comment about her with a full voice in an empty restaurant. I would see a coworker approaching me with a big grin, and I would whisper to them, ‘Don’t say it, don’t say it!’ but they would still blurt out, ‘Do you think she and I can do it in the back of this place?! Hehehe! Don’t say what?’
This woman hers these comments every single time and is getting more and more upset about this. She calls me over and tells me that she can hear us talking, and I profusely apologize and promise to talk to my manager about that. I see the manager passing by, and I stop him and say that we are going to get complains from all of this disgusting stuff the other employees are saying. Before I can get another word out, my manager states, ‘Man, look at her chest! How do you think she got into that dress? It barely covers her!’
I pull him in the back and say that he just made the problem much worse. He simply laughs at me and just walks away. Instead of taking this woman out for drinks after work, I am desperately trying to convince her not to file a formal complaint, as I am the only employee who would get fired for it. This was my table, so the complaint was on me. I did not do anything wrong, and I have told half a dozen coworkers by now to shut up, but this woman is disgusted with all of us. I can’t imagine that it was a very good night for her date either.”
Remain Cool During An Epic Meltdown
“I was a waiter at a pretty high-end hotel restaurant. It was about 3 p.m., 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 fifteen minutes goes by when this random man shows up at the front desk, starts looking around, and yells, ‘I TOTALLY KNEW IT, YOU WITCH!’ 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 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.'”
A Foolproof Plan
“This couple came into this bar that I worked at, and it was business as usual. I took their order and 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 how the guy didn’t bring a battery pack to charge their phones. This woman 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 that 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 for any of the food that they had eaten. I was more impressed than I was upset.”
Hiding Out From The Demon Wife
“For context, we have a street entrance and a river entrance to our restaurant. From the river, you have to walk up a really narrow metal staircase to our balcony. There was barely enough room on the balcony for five small tables, including one tucked in way in the back that was hard to recognize. It was a very slow summer lunchtime, so I was doubling as the hostess and waitress. This guy comes up from the river entrance and asks for a spot on the patio, specifically the hidden and cramped one. I tell him that won’t be a problem, and I get him all set up. We chat for a bit, and I take his order, bring it out, and continue on about my business. I started to notice him suddenly ducking his head, as if he was trying not to be seen from the river level by someone. I remember point this out to another coworker, who was just as curious as I was.
Then we suddenly hear a woman scream, ‘THERE YOU ARE MARCOS, YOU PIECE OF GARBAGE!’
I could hear the staircase shuddering as someone was clearly stomping their way up it, and my coworker astutely dipped out in order to find the manager. This lady started laying into this dude, and all that I could make out was something about ditching her. All the while, this guy is just ignoring her, and he is calmly eating his buffalo burger. This made her really snap. She slapped this guy hard, telling him to, ‘ACKNOWLEDGE ME NOW!’
This guy simply got up, walked around her, and went inside the restaurant to sit inside the bar. She then sat down and started to eat this man’s meal as if nothing was wrong! BY this point though, the manager is here and he goes outside to try and kick her off of the premises, while I go to talk to Marcos and figure out what is going on. Apparently, this woman is his wife, and they had come downtown for lunch. This woman had a nasty habit of getting super messed up and belligerent, which always ended up ruining their plans, including the wedding reception a few months prior. She refused to get help for herself, insisting that she could keep her drinking to a minimum, and that this was her first slip up since that incident. They had stopped at this brunch place around the corner, and she proceeded to drink four old-fashioneds back to back. When she was ordering her fourth 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. He would meet her back at the hotel. She told him that he was nonsense and that he wasn’t going anywhere. So this guy gets up, pays their bill, and he simply walks out. I guess that she thought that he was putting up a front and was actually waiting outside for her. She quickly realized that 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 madness. In the end, we had her ejected form the premises, and my manager made this guy another burger on the house. A year or so later, we saw him at the bar with a different woman. He had divorced his wife, and he couldn’t look happier.”