When restaurant patrons attempt to change their reservations last minute, it can really gum up work for service staff. There are only a limited number of seats at a restaurant, and many businesses in the food service industry make the majority of their cash at certain times, so if those tables are just sitting empty during these precious hours, that’s money just going out the window.
This is why there’s a certain etiquette attached to reserving a table at a restaurant: servers have expressed that customers should understand how to honor the time of their reservation and that adding party members to their reservation can make things even more chaotic.
However, one customer that a TikToker named Sami (@mildwestsami) interacted with didn’t get the first part of the aforementioned memo, as they showed up to the restaurant nearly two hours before their scheduled reservation and still expected to be seated.
Sami goes through all of the ways she tried to appease the customers while still explaining to them that they couldn’t be seated at their table prior to the reservation time, even offering them to hang tight for a little bit beforehand just in case something opens up.
However, it seems like the folks she was assisting wanted their table immediately and they couldn’t seem to understand why that was an issue.
@mildwestsami LOOOOOVE service industry🥰🥰🥰 #restaurantlife #serviceindustry #entitledcustomers #lovemylyfe ♬ original sound – Mild West Sami
Sami’s viral video on the subject has gained over 224,000 views and 10,000 likes since it was shared May 6.
“I work at a restaurant and this happened to me the other day,” she says, before launching into a skit recreating the events. Sami plays both parts in the skit, depicting both her and the customer.
“Hi, welcome in how can I help you?” Sami asks.
“We have a reservation for tonight,” the customer states.
“Perfect, what time is your reservation for?” Sami questions.
At this point, the customer says the reservation is at 6:45pm—though it was 5:00pm when they came in.
“It’s about 5 o’clock right now, so you’re more than welcome to have a seat at our bar down here, grab a drink beforehand and hang out for a little bit,” Sami says. “I’ll grab you closer to that 6:45 time slot and I’ll bring you up for your dinner.”
However, the customer insisted on being seated immediately.
“Oh no, we’re ready now,” they said.
“OK, well, um, your reservation is for about 2 hours out,” Sami reasons. “So you can have a seat down, and I can let you know if anything cancels or somebody doesn’t show up for their reservation, but we are unfortunately pretty booked out tonight, so it’s probably gonna be closer to that 6:45 time slot.”
“So you can’t just get us up for dinner now?” the customer urged.
Sami then explained that the kitchen doesn’t begin to serve dinner until 5:30pm, so the dining room upstairs is closed. She directed the customers to the bar menu that offers appetizers and other small bits.
“Again, I can let you know if something cancels but it is pretty booked tonight,” Sami says.
The customer asked if they could be served dinner at the bar.
“We don’t offer our full dinner service at the bar down here and like I said our kitchen isn’t even serving dinner for another half an hour,” Sami repeats. “So if you’d like to grab a snack down here and get something in your belly, I will let you know if anything opens up and if we can get you up any sooner than 6:45.”
The customer, getting hasty, asked Sami to simply cancel their reservation. “We’ll have bar food for dinner,” they said.
The clip ends with Sami looking into the camera and making a displeased face.
One commenter seemed to sympathize with Sami’s experience, intimating that they’re familiar with this particular type of customer. “Why don’t these people fully comprehend the concept of an appointment or reservation?” they asked.
“My ex used to do this. because it happened to work once because if a cancellation he thought he should just do it all the time. Ick,” another wrote.
Others couldn’t fathom the customer’s behavior. “I don’t work in a restaurant and these stories boggle my mind. I won’t even return food. Even if it’s completely wrong I say thank you and tip well,” they said.
Another user wrote, “It is so funny to me when people just give up whenever they hear something they don’t want to. ‘I don’t like this answer so CANCEL EVERYTHING.’”
However, some thought that the customers knew very well that they were being difficult, but wanted to try and make Sami feel bad before ultimately deciding to have their full dinner at the bar.
“They DO comprehend it. They just wanted to give you a hard time so that they can end up getting sat still knowing that they are way too early,” one TikToker argued.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Sami via TikTok comment for further information.
