A viral TikTok video with 2.3 million views has restaurant hosts across the internet commiserating about restaurant over-seating.
@inknivygvl They be doing the most🤦♀️ #fypシ #inknivy #host ♬ original sound – Jdawg
The TikTok from Greenville, South Carolina, restaurant Ink N Ivy (inknivygvl) shows staff hurrying to get an order out and a bartender shaking a cocktail. The host team on duty is less stressed out. One takes selfies up front as another skips into the dining area.
Predictably, people had much to say about the sentiment. One commenter wrote, “I promise you last thing hosts wanna do is seat people wrong. It rlly be the customers that make it difficult.” Another responded: “This cause they complain that the table is [too] small or [too] big like bruh.”
Another user suggested the business needed to put more responsibility on the hosts: “Y’all’s Hosts Fr just stand there the entire time?! I be having to make soups, salads, drinks, refills, bus tables, & run food… no tips either.”
Other commenters argued over the restaurant chain of command. Do hosts do what the servers ask? Should hosts follow the manager’s original instructions no matter what?
“My manager says no wait till the kitchen is backed up,” said one commenter. “He pays me not the servers that don’t even pre bus their tables so ima do what my manager says.”
“Over-seating” in a restaurant refers to seating more customers than the kitchen or service staff can handle. This issue can lead to potential delays, mistakes, and diminished service quality. It can arise from miscommunication, expecting quick table turnovers, or the pressure to maximize revenue, but it may risk harming the restaurant’s long-term reputation.
One comment—likely the most accurate statement about hosts seating customers—summed it up this way: “As a host it’s impossible to please all three: managers, servers, and customers. Someone is always mad lol.”
Hosts and their duties are often a source of contention on TikTok. Commenters called out one host who complained servers are “greedy” for asking for additional tables. Another host posted a GRWM video while waiting to see if she would be fired from her job. And an Olive Garden host attempted to clear up confusion regarding reservations vs. the “call ahead” list.
The Daily Dot contacted geminigemini1982 via TikTok for comment.
