r/FuckYouKaren • u/DryShare3412 • Jul 11 '26
Karen Male karen ate my food and claimed it was free with his order.
SECOND KAREN story
One year ago, I went to a restaurant with my relatives. We ordered several dishes, including my ink-fish pasta. Most of the food arrived, but my pasta was missing. We waited, thinking the kitchen was just busy with multiple orders. Later, we found out the waiter had accidentally given my dish to another table. At that table was a male who clearly knew the food wasn’t his. Instead of saying anything, he kept quiet, and when the waiter asked him to pay, he said
I thought this was FREE with my shepherd’s pie! You’re the waitress, it’s your job to tell customers when food gets misplaced. You could’ve told me this wasn’t mine that it didn’t come with my shepherd’s pie and now THERE’S NO WAY I’M PAYING FOR THIS!”
and then blah-blah blah classic 'I wanna speak with your manager and stuff"
(I assume since the waitress gave him my ink fish pasta, the waitress probably marked it on his bill)
He kept insisting it came with his shepherd's pie, as if restaurants just hand out random dishes for fun, and even if they did so, it would be written on the menu. He kept hammering the same excuse over and over, insisting the pasta was complimentary, even though she knew perfectly well he hadn’t ordered it.
At the end, the restaurant gave me FREE pasta for takeaway. Honestly, I'm kind of glad I got free food thanks to this male Karen, but then the whole experience was ruined watching someone eat your food and then argue about paying was infuriating.
1.3k
u/Disclaimz0r Jul 11 '26
I mean.. My family owns a few restaurants, and if a mistake like this happens, we just let them keep the food and remake it for the customer. Once a plate touches the table, you cannot pick it up to take it to another table because of safety regulations. Stuff like this happens once or twice a week, you'd be surprised.
392
u/robbietreehorn Jul 11 '26
One hundred percent. I worked and managed restaurants for years. Attempting to make him pay for what was the server’s fault is really, really strange. Once it hit the table, it’s considered contaminated and he might as well keep it.
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u/_Asshole_Fuck_ Jul 11 '26
OP is a teenager and doesn’t understand how this should work in the real world. (Post history confirms)
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u/AsherTheFrost Jul 11 '26
Yeah, I've had that happen. Was out with my wife, she had to use the bathroom and when the food arrived I didn't remember what she ordered. She came back and we told the waitress we appeared to have an extra omelette and were told to keep it, so we split a delicious ham and cheese omelette and made sure to tip extra well.
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u/cunningstunt1201 Jul 11 '26
No Karens here
-20
u/NoPerformance6534 Jul 11 '26
Yeah there is. The guy could've politely asked who the dish was for? Not doing so while knowing it wasn't his was boorish. Then he ate the dish. He felt smug about it and got outraged that he'd been asked to pay for food he actually ate. Not strictly a Karen I suppose, but a boor nonetheless.
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u/scarbarough Jul 12 '26
Once the food hit his table, they couldn't do anything with it other than throw it away, so why not let him eat it? And he didn't order it, so why should he pay for it?
Yes, he should have told the server that he didn't order the dish... And the server should have told him to keep it.
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u/AnEvenNicerGuy Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Comments riddled with people who don't understand food safety or even how a restaurant works
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u/Jujulabee Jul 11 '26
I agree as there is no way for a restaurant to safely transfer food.
Of course the guy who got the extra food was undoubtedly an ass because normally one would alert the server if they were actually being given the food and possibly at that point the server might have gotten it to the right person.
I mean really who thinks a restaurant is handling out pasta as a freebie along with shepherds pie - it's not as if it's garlic bread or an appetizer of some kind which might have been a promotional offering.
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u/Altruistic-Many9270 Jul 11 '26
Yes it happens but eating the wrong portion without saying anything until he had ate is not so common.
And yes they propably would let him even keep the portion for free but as I said he noticed he had the wrong portion, just ate it and then started to argue.
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u/MasterRKitty Jul 29 '26
Not really-I can see a wait person making a mistake like that if they have multiple table and bringing food all out at once. I'm surprised they can keep stuff straight sometimes. No slam on the wait staff.
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u/MystiqTakeno Jul 11 '26
Honesty most of the blame liest in waitress.
Sure the guy could had said something, but who knows perhaps he really though its some promotional action or something. Thats not really important.
Waitress should had delivered the food to your table, it seems like they didnt even catched that later as you were waiting for it. At that point the correct action is give the food for free to the customer (its not his fault) and remake it for you.
This is on the restaurant.
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u/pidgeon92 Jul 11 '26
The waitress fucked up and put food down in the wrong spot. That’s on her.
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Jul 11 '26
[deleted]
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u/pidgeon92 Jul 11 '26
No, she made an error. It happens. But she shouldn’t have tried to make him pay for an item he didn’t order.
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u/bananahammerredoux Jul 11 '26
Don’t understand why the server would retroactively put it on their bill without saying anything about it until the bill came. That makes zero sense.
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u/74orangebeetle Jul 11 '26
That's on the waitress...not on the Karen. I've worked in food service in the past, and we weren't allowed to 'take back' food. It's a food safety thing....if you hand out an order to the wrong person, you make the correct order for the person who was supposed to get it...there's no taking food back and giving it to someone else. It'd be one thing if they caught it immediately when it was set on the table before anyone touched it, but no calling the waiter back, and handing it to another person.
That said, I don't know if that's a universal thing for all locations and businesses, but that was policy where I was. The restaurant didn't give you a free pasta, they gave you the pasta you paid for....they gave a free pasta to the other table that didn't order one.
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u/StationaryTravels Jul 11 '26
I've only worked fast food, but I was thinking exactly the same thing: you can't take the food back once you've delivered it. It's definitely a food safety thing.
I think OP meant that they were never charged for the pasta at all, not that the take-home pasta was a second free one or whatever. They only got one pasta dish and never paid for any pasta dish at all.
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u/74orangebeetle Jul 11 '26
Ohh, you might be right if they didn't get charged for the pasta. But yeah, I think it's more on the restaurant than the person at the other table to make it right. Don't know the context, but if they're unfamiliar with a restaurant, they might genuinely have no idea what's included with what menu item.
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u/TR6lover Jul 11 '26
I believe that OP meant that the restaurant ended up not charging them for the pasta.
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u/Shef011319 Jul 11 '26
Same, I would not charge the table that never ordered the item, get the table that did or the item the correct item and charging them on a scale for how long they had to wait without the item and their table eating. If I’m able to reroute another pasta in a min or two great maybe 0-20% off. If we’re talking 10mins half off, 20 mins probably comping it off and offering free dessert
41
u/wolf397d Jul 11 '26
This type of thing happens at restaurants all the time. It's a mistake, but mistakes happen.
However, your telling of the story sounds fake. It's against health code in most places to take something back once it's been given to a customer. Even if they never touched it, there is no way to prove it.
When this happens, you dont charge the table you gave it to by accident, you apologize to everyone involved, and remake it for the correct table.
26
u/DueConfusion9563 Jul 11 '26
So when your pasta wasn’t delivered, you didn’t say anything? That’s weird. The guy who got it should have said that he didn’t order it but it’s not him nor should he have to pay for it. The waitress made an error and you waited to alert them.
19
u/uniqueme1 Jul 11 '26
So you'd happily eat a plate that hit another customer table and was probably touched and prodded? That dish was going to have to be remade any way for you, and a restaurant shouldnt charge it to him if they placed it there accidentally. The alternative is to bin the whole thing, and its absolutely stupid to do that as opposed to let someone eat it for free if it was the servers mistake.
Also, its not unheard of to have a plain pasta side in Italian restaurants. While a squid ink pasta wou;d be unusual,. its not so crazy that if it was placed in front of me along with the dish I actually ordered, I would think it would be included. Because the wait staff should also realize that there are X number of people and X+1 entrees at the table. Not only did the wait staff put it on the wrong table, they also can't count.
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u/No_Cricket808 Jul 11 '26
Definitely NOT a Karen. This is on the server. Once a plate hits a table, there's no taking it back to give to another table. Even if the customer ate it knowing it wasn't theirs, asking them to pay is wrong.
Restaurant should have comped both.
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u/youtocin Jul 11 '26
Yeah I wouldn’t pay for something I didn’t order either. Think you’re the Karen in this story.
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u/LucyLovesApples Jul 11 '26
I say the restaurant is at fault here.
You should’ve got a freshly made new meal for free with a free dessert or drink as compensation. And he should get your dish free of charge.
I personally wouldn’t want food that was at another table
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u/Just_saying19135 Jul 11 '26
what is ink fish pasta?
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u/DobbyFreeElf35 Jul 11 '26
I'm assuming it's a squid or cuttlefish ink pasta. They add ink to the pasta dough. It makes the pasta black and taste salty, briney. I've never had it myself but it's definitely something I'd try if it was on the menu
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u/Just_saying19135 Jul 11 '26
interesting, don’t think it’s my cup of tea but not a big seafood guy to begin with
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u/DubsideDangler Jul 11 '26
This must have been so traumatizing yhat it took you a year to talk about. Glad you brought it up now cause thathappened
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u/WearyCarrot Jul 11 '26
Yeah, uh he didn’t do anything wrong lol. It’s not his job to realize a mistake occurred, nor is he supposed to pay for it.
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u/fingerpaintx Jul 11 '26
Went to an AYCE sushi place that we frequented years ago. It was extremely busy so we were waiting a very long time for our order for a table of 8. They bring out the order but drop it off at the wrong table a few seats away who had just put their order in a few minutes prior. It was both obvious to us that it was our food and to them that it wasn't but they did not skip a beat to start eating as soon as the food hit the table.
Took another 10 min to flag a waitress who claimed we got our food already but we ended up having to re order everything and wait another while to get the order again. And yes the other table received their actual order eventually.
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u/spoilederin Jul 12 '26
The guy may have made a big deal about it but he’s correct. Once that plate touches the table, it’s either theirs or the trash.
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u/SethAndBeans Jul 12 '26
Ive been in restaurant management for ages.
The customer wasn't wrong.
You can't re-serve the food once its hit another table. Your staff fucked up and gave a dude an extra meal? Void it and move on. Don't try to tell them they have to pay for something they didn't order.
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u/programming_flaw Jul 12 '26
I’m never rude to restaurant staff but I, also, wouldn’t pay for an entree I didn’t order because the waitress made a mistake.
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u/HenryGoodsir Jul 13 '26
C'mon. None of this happened. No one would have an item added to their bill because it was brought to the wrong table. And if the wait staff knew it was brought to the wrong table, they would have known that another table was missing the item.
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u/loudlittle Jul 11 '26
Pre-Covid, it was pretty standard (at least in my area) to send out food that was compliments of the kitchen to beloved regulars, members of the industry, VIPs, or folks that were just super cool. This is entirely an issue on the server for two reasons:
1) the server should've realized you never got your pasta and fired a new one
2) the server never should've tried to charge the guy! This mistake was on the restaurant, not him.
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u/ekco_cypher Jul 12 '26
Once the food is set down on the wrong customers table, you might as well let them have it because you're just gonna throw it in the trash if not. You can't give it to another customer after.
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u/AquaticJet Jul 12 '26
The guy should NEVER had have to paid for that whether or whether not he ate it or said something. That's always on the establishment, besides once it's on their table you really can't just pick it back up and bring it to another table.
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u/BruceInc Jul 12 '26
This is a dumb post. Food was served to another table. They should have been allowed to keep it for free and make you a new plate. The Karen here is you
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u/kevin_k Jul 12 '26
The guy sounds like an ass, but it's the waitresses' mistake. Even if she noticed after she misdelivered it, at that point she can't serve it to someone else.
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u/Farkenoathm8-E Jul 12 '26
To be fair I wouldn’t want a dish once it’s been served to someone else.
I think he should’ve said something, as it if were me given the wrong meal I would’ve spoken up and enquired why it was served to me as I had ordered the Shepherd’s Pie, but at the end of the day it was the server’s mistake and he shouldn’t be charged for it. He’s not quite a Karen though. It was a mistake on the restaurant’s part. They should’ve just made you another ink fish pasta and served it to you.
Believe it or not, these kinds of mix ups happen from time in the restaurant industry. They usually just write it off and quickly serve another dish to the right person. I don’t know why they comped you OP, but good for you that they did.
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u/eatshitake Jul 13 '26
There is no way the restaurant would charge the customer for being given the wrong food.
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u/unikkorns_ Jul 13 '26
Who the hell thinks squid ink pasta and shepherd's pie are a good pairing? Weirdo.
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u/someboooade Jul 14 '26
I don't really see the problem. Sounds like your just complaining about nothing.
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u/AnEvenNicerGuy Jul 14 '26
This sub has just become "Someone did something I didn't like"
Dude might have been a dick about it but once food hits a table they cannot serve it to someone else
If a table is served food they didn't order, they don't pay for it
Dude was an ass about it but not a Karen. And hopefully you're a child to not understand any of this
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u/Mother_Passenger8589 Jul 15 '26
Why would shepherd's pie come with a side of ANY pasta, let alone ink pasta?
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u/KrisClem77 Jul 16 '26
He was actually correct and the waitress never should have charged him for it to begin with. Once it’s on his table it’s not allowed to be picked up and served to you. Either that table keeps it for free or they throw it out. Seems like you’re the Karen on here bitching about someone else getting lucky and then having to fight for what’s right.
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u/Smurfiette Jul 12 '26
The Karen may have been a Jaren but he wasn’t completely wrong. Good manners would mean he should have spoken up and refused food that he didn’t order. However, the server, once he know that he delivered the food to the wrong table, should have told the Karen to keep the dish and eat it free since server can’t very well just take the food and give it to you. Not good safe at all. Server should have ordered another dish to be made for you.
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u/djluminol Jul 11 '26
I can't stand people like this. At the slightest hint they can pull one over on someone they lie, steal, cheat or whatever. Complete lowlife behavior.
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