TikToker Jen (@jen_in_chicago16) took to the platform to ask restaurant workers for their thoughts and opinions on a perplexing situation she encountered during a recent dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It started when a Texas Roadhouse server brought her the wrong order.
“If you work or you ever have worked in the restaurant industry, can you please tell me if this is normal?” she asks viewers.
She continues, “My boyfriend and I went out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner tonight. … I ordered the Road Kill, which is basically a chopped steak with sides.”
“It comes with mushrooms and onions on it, which I don’t like. I asked the server, ‘Can I please get it just totally plain, no mushrooms, no onions, anything, clearly, just the meat?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, no problem,’” she explains.
When the entree arrived, the Road Kill was not plain. It still had mushrooms and onions, despite Jen’s request for them to be removed, she recalls. She also notes that the person bringing the food out is not her original waiter.
Jen shares that the guy was very nice. And she says she told him there was a mistake but assured him that it was OK.
She says he insisted they make her a new one with the requested modifications.
“I don’t wanna waste it. I’ll just eat this. This is totally fine,” she says.
Ten minutes later, she says her waiter returned.
A surprising turn of events
“He brings out another one, but, like, made correctly. … I was like, ‘Oh. I already had it.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, you don’t want it?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, well… I didn’t need it to be remade.’ And he’s like, ‘Well, you don’t want it now?’”
Then, she says, her boyfriend chimed in, saying they would just take the new dish to go and asked for a box.
Jen shares, “As the guy is, like, putting it on the table, then he takes it back!”
She says the waiter informed the couple that it’s “against policy if you’re gonna take it home” and said he had to check with the manager first.
Jen notes that she was confused and felt that the situation was getting odd.
When the waiter returned, Jen says he told her the manager said she couldn’t get a “free” meal since she already ate the original entree, arguing that it’s policy.
The policy and manager’s involvement
There is much debate online around this policy, especially when a customer should be granted a “free meal” if their original entree was messed up. On Quora, folks argued that “yes, if you eat a messed up order at a restaurant without notifying the server about the issue before you start eating, it is very likely they will not replace it, as they may assume you are satisfied with the meal since you began consuming it.”
Yet, Jen never asked for the extra dish.
“Mind you, this is like a $14.99 meal. Like, this is not an expensive meal. I promise you, I was not trying to get a free meal. You know, the whole reason I kept the original one is because I didn’t want to waste the food,” she exclaims.
She concludes the video with another request: “If you work in the restaurant industry, have you ever heard of that? Like, is that normal?”
The viral video has 88,000 views and thousands of comments. Many working in the restaurant industry shared perspectives on the situation.
Restaurant workers weigh in with mixed reactions
“I was a server (short-lived), and even if it is ‘policy,’ he already offered it, so that should have been followed through on,” one viewer shared.
Many commenters blamed management for the miscommunication and confusion.
“As a restaurant owner, that’s unacceptable. The manager should have come and spoken to you and apologized. That would’ve been the end of it—going home with you, end of story,” one owner remarked.
“I’m a former GM! The policy itself is standard, but it was explained poorly and should have come directly from the manager. Sorry, this happened to you,” one commenter wrote.
Another manager shared, “As a restaurant manager, the manager should have come out themselves and spoken with you. No, they should not have made you a new one if you insisted, but even if they did, I would be offering it to you free.”
“I used to be a corporate trainer for them. Please call and talk to the manager. That sounds like a confusing issue. No manager would have agreed to that without coming out and talking to you,” another viewer suggested.
@jen_in_chicago16 I’m sure I’m being overly sensitive, but if you work in a restaurant how would you have handled this as the waiter or manager? #texasroadhouse #insulted #restaurantindustry ♬ original sound – Jen_in_Chicago16
The Daily Dot reached out to Jen via TikTok comment and Texas Roadhouse via email.
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