What’s considered an appropriate time to place an order for food before a restaurant closes shop for the day? One hour? Fifteen minutes? A minute before because technically the restaurant is still open?
People have differing opinions on order timing etiquette, and TikToker Taylor Peterson (@paylorteterson) believes that she rightfully followed what she considers a decent amount of time to put in an order for cream cheese wontons: 40 minutes.
The woman details that despite placing an order at 9:20pm, when the restaurant clearly states that it closes at 10pm, she received some back sass from an employee—back sass that she did not appreciate, leaving her “fuming.”
As she headed to the restaurant to pick up her order, she was planning a verbal diatribe she was going to unload on the workers for their rude mannerisms on the phone. To make matters even worse, she says, when she rolled up to the restaurant to pick her wontons up, the doors to the establishment were locked.
@paylorteterson Im a door mat #foryoupage ♬ original sound – Taylor Peterson
“The workers are sitting at the bar rolling silverware,” she says. “And they had already given me sh*t on the phone for ordering an appetizer at 9:20 so I was fuming.”
She says she planned to tell them off, perhaps something along the lines of, “Sorry for bothering you during your business hours. Or sorry the sign on the door says 10.”
However, after 10 minutes she says a worker came out and apologized to her before handing her her food.
Several viewers hopped into the comments section to defend Peterson’s ordering protocols.
“40 minutes before close is NOT late,” someone said.
“Everyone’s acting like she ordered 2 minutes before close,” another commented. “It was 40 mins before close.”
Someone else who works in the food service industry stated that all of this confusion about food ordering times could be better clarified and handled by the restaurants themselves.
“I work in food service and do cleaning & food prep,” they said. “I’ve literally never understood why restaurants don’t list their closing time as 30 minutes before they actually close or turn off online ordering.”
Another individual who said they worked in the food service industry supported Peterson, writing, “Yeah as a server it’s kinda our jobs so I don’t really get bothered. But if it’s like five min before closing… that’s when it’s a problem.”
Several others added that Peterson’s order wasn’t exactly a difficult one to make, either.
“What’s crazy is wontons are prepped in advance and they literally just drop them in the fryer lol,” one said.
Another echoed, “Fried appetizers are actually the easiest too.”
St. Louis Magazine delved into appropriate ordering protocols before restaurants officially closed for the day. It enlisted opinions from various food industry business owners and restaurateurs regarding when it’s OK for someone to put in meal orders.
The outlet stated while opinions on the practice varied, there seemed to be a prevailing thought most folks agreed with: “Restaurateurs disagree on the answer, but most say they appreciate if the party arrives 15 to 30 minutes before the posted closing time, as final cleanup hasn’t been completed and (at least a few) staffers are still on the clock.”
Others, when debating this very same issue in a Quora forum post, added that certain concessions for takeout orders should be considered as well and that folks have more leeway for ordering closer to closing since they aren’t going to be hanging out in the establishment afterward.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Peterson via TikTok comment for further information.
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