Woman Says NYC Dating Scene Is So Bad Women Are “Stealing” Men’s Salads — “Please Step Up”

TikTok creator @nicoleeorrr posted a video discussing several unusual ways women are attempting to meet men in New York City. The video has received more than 617,000 views and 2,200 comments.

Nicole said she began thinking about the trend after watching TikTok videos of women who allegedly go to Midtown Manhattan and “accidentally” take the salad orders of certain men, particularly men who work in finance.

According to Nicole, the women then use the names on the salad orders to search for the men on LinkedIn and message them directly. She said they apologize for taking the order and offer to buy the men a replacement meal, turning the interaction into a potential first date.

Nicole urged men to approach women, arguing that the dating scene should not become so difficult that women feel the need to resort to tactics such as taking someone else’s lunch.

“Men, just please step up or . . . your lunch is gonna get taken every week,” she said.

Nicole also described other methods she said women are using to introduce themselves to men. She said some women make bracelets displaying their phone numbers and give them to men they find attractive at bars.

She also described a tactic in which women covertly photograph men at bars and set the photos as their phone backgrounds. They then ask the men to take their photos using the phone, allowing the men to see their own image on the screen and potentially realize the woman is interested in them.

Woman Says NYC Women Are Getting Creative to Meet Potential Dates

Nicole said the examples she mentioned were only some of the ways women are attempting to make connections. She attributed the trend to what she described as a lack of men approaching women in New York City.

Commenters had mixed reactions to the video. Several criticized the salad-order tactic and described it as stalking.

“The Salad thing is called STALKING,” one commenter wrote. Another commenter asked, “How’s this not considered stalking?” A separate commenter said they had tried approaching women at bars in New York but had not had a positive experience.

“But have you been a man in NYC who tries to talk to a girl at a bar? I’ve had several conversations with friends who say they just stopped trying because they are treated SO poorly if they try to respectfully talk to a girl at a bar,” they wrote.

The discussion highlights differing views among commenters about how people should approach potential romantic partners, particularly in a city where Nicole said traditional approaches have become less common.

The TikTok from @nicoleeorrr does not establish how widespread these dating tactics are. The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the claims made in the video or determine how commonly these approaches are used in New York City.