30 Valentine’s Day Disasters As Seen By Waiters

This was relayed to me by a close friend

Older Woman, probably in her upper 90's with her teen-aged grandson at a semi classy restaurant. She was dressed to the nines and the grandson was in a nice button up and dress slacks. As they got seated at their table the grandson placed a framed photo of what my friend assumed was the boys grandfather and husband of the older women.

​ Found out it would have been their 70th wedding anniversary but he had passed suddenly but peacefully a few months back. The grandfather had always wanted to take her to a nice restaurant but never had the time or money to do it. So the grandson saved up his pay from the last couple of months and even got some donations from other relatives and took her to the restaurant. They ate dinner remembering all the good times with the man. They had my friend to take a picture and she did. They tipped my friend very well.

​ By happenstance my friend ran into the young man some weeks later to find out the grandmother passed away a few days after that night, peacefully in her sleep holding a photo of her beloved husband. He was so happy he could make that night special to her. Said it was the only day he saw her smile since his grandfather passed away. He got the picture they took at the restaurant printed in wallet sized and carried it around with him in his wallet.

I was the manager of a wings-and-pizza place with a full bar - definitely not the kind of place you'd take someone for a "romantic" Valentine's Day dinner, but it was still busy because some people aren't very tactful. We had a guy who had called ahead and asked if we could put a ring in a dessert for him and of course, we obliged. He dropped the ring off the day ahead and I put it in the safe in our office to keep it secure. Fast forward to Valentine's Day. The couple shows up, and they're so obviously in love that she didn't seem to notice or care about the fact that he had brought her to a middle-of-the road place with a sports-bar atmosphere on the most romantic day of the year. They ordered champagne (well, the local winery's best sparkling white), entrees, and it was almost time for dessert. I had used my Chef skills to whip up a special chocolate strawberry tart that wasn't on the menu, just for this occasion (because why not try to make their night at least a little fancy?) I went to the safe to get the ring, and... It wasn't there. I was freaking out big time. I asked everyone there if they knew what the f*** had happened to it. My assistant manager on-site had no idea, so I called my other assistant (who also had the safe code) and they didn't know, either. Finally, my bar manager mentioned that one of the owners had been in earlier, and spent a little time in the office. So, at my wit's end, I called the owner. It turns out that he had seen the ring in the safe, and thought it was something a customer had left behind. Figuring that he had come into an extremely lucky situation, he decided (like the scumbag he was) that he'd take it for himself and save money on a gift for his wife on Valentine's. So, I asked the server and bar manager to help stall the couple. The server told them that we were going to do something special for their big date, and to hold tight. I ran out, hopped in my car, and rushed to get the ring from the owner's house (because he was - as I had mentioned - a scumbag, and didn't want to be bothered with bringing the ring to the restaurant himself). The bar manager went over to the table, and did some complicated, table-side cocktail mix that had a bunch of flair bartending tricks and ended with a flaming shot that, once dropped into the rest, made it smoke (I was really disappointed when I heard about all of this because I would have loved to see it instead of breaking a ton of traffic laws on my quest to get the ring). Finally, I rushed back in after about 15 minutes of being on the brink of a heart attack, placed the ring on the dessert, and had their server take it out. At that point, just about the entire staff was watching the table, and when we saw the look on her face, my heart finally started beating again. She said "Yes." And, I started looking for someone else to work for the very next day.

I blew my cars tire and my friend came in to bail me out. Were both straight dudes and forgot it was valentines. Decided to have dinner and both were coming from important meeting so had suits on. We didnt catch on until the end on how the entire wait staff thought we were just the cutest gay couple.

There was a note in our reservations that it was an engagement, they wanted champagne, a specific seat, bunch of other stuff. The server comes up to the table with something like "so I read we're celebrating an engagement, congratulations". Confusion from the woman; glaring from the guy. He hadn't proposed yet. She ruined it.

It was like a movie. I was bartending at an italian restaurant (not a fancy one, but still) and it's pretty much full of valentines dates. A guy walks in and sits at the bar by himself, looking pretty down. He asked for a whiskey, so I poured it, told him it was on the house because he looked like he needed it. He proceeds to tell me his story: he had come to the city to surprise his girlfriend for Valentines (about a 5 hr bus trip between cities) and he sure surprised her. She was in her dorm room f***ing one of his friends from high school. He didn't know what to do, so he just walked into the first place that sold alcohol. I spilled as much whiskey as he wanted and watched the raptors with him. Never saw him again. It's cliche, but it happened.

I was working as a waitress in a Sushi restaurant and Valentine's Day was an all-hands-on-deck shift. This guy I had just started seeing wanted to go out, but I told him that working in food service, you never get Valentine's Day off and we'd just have to celebrate the day after or the weekend after.

Nope. He got so upset that he went and asked a different girl out, came to the restaurant I worked at on V-Day and sat in MY SECTION. He then proceeded to spend the entire evening making a fool out of himself and making his date uncomfortable as he tried to make me jealous.

Needless to say we didn't go out again. Ever.

I worked at a pretty high end Mediterranean Bistro, my second Valentine's there it was probably the busiest night I've ever worked as a server. We had reservations that booked basically the entire restaurant including the bar and patio from 4 P.M to 11:00 P.M. No walk-ins were to be seated unless a reservation was cancelled, or someone with a reservation didn't show up. Most of the customers were pretty understanding and either waited or simply left. One dude however kept pushing and pushing asking every 10 minutes how much longer until he is seated, constantly saying how he is a regular customer; and how his date is going to be there at 7 (he got there at 6). We insisted that once a table was available, and all the customers before him we're seated, he would get a table, but because the amount of reservations we couldn't guarantee he would even get a table at all. At about 6:50 the guy loses it, fast-walks up to the hostess stand where the reservation book is, grabs the reservation book and practically runs out the front door. Now everything is going to complete s**t because the only copy of the reservations for the night that is barely half over is gone. Two of the owners ran outside to follow the guy and try and get the book back, but by the time they got out he had already left the parking lot. Even better is, two hours later, chaos is still running rampant and the dude shows back up saying he has a reservation for two. Three of the five of the owners (all brothers) escorted the dude and his date out to the parking lot and banned him from the restaurant permanently. They even took a picture of him and posted it in the window saying "Do Not Serve This Man"

Bus boy on Las Vegas Strip,

An attempted proposal.

Dude tries to set up sign with gf's friends for her to show up and see the ring near a fountain. Duck stole the ring, they found it 2 hours later as he dropped in the fountain. She still said yes.

Free drinks where given.

I walked up to a table and was about to drop off the bill, caught the end of "it's over." Guy looked at me dead in the eye and said to "split that f***in check, right now."

Back when I served food at one of those super touristy seafood restaurants, I worked a Valentine’s Day double shift. For lunch, this younger couple came in celebrating their one year anniversary. I offer my congratulations and proceed to do my usual spiel before taking orders. The girl is looking more and more dismayed the longer I talk. Finally I get to the end and ask if there are any allergies. She looks directly at her boyfriend and states, “yes I’m allergic to fish and shellfish.” Then looks over at me very sad.

I made sure every aspect of her meal was fine for her. But It was that look of “we’ve been dating a year and he still takes me to a restaurant that could kill me” that really did it for me.

In college I waited tables and Valentine’s Day was always a good one in terms of tips.

I once saw a couple come in to eat, halfway through the dinner the mans wife shows up to surprise the couple. The wife took the wine bottle and poured the remnants on the husbands head, took off her ring and told the girlfriend she could have him.

He tipped me a $100

I have one from a different perspective. I was serving at The Melting Pot and a 4 top came in, two M/F couples that were sat in the section next to mine. About 10 minutes after them sitting down, I notice that they don’t have drinks yet, not even waters. We were backed up but they at least should’ve had water. I checked in with their server and he said he was totally backed up, so I offered to get their drink orders. I took them, put them in, and ran them for the server. By this point they should’ve been on their second course (salad), but hadn’t even had their cheese yet (first course), so I check in with their server again and end up offering to take the table because they’re so behind. They say sure and thank me. The table finishes drinks and dinner and give me a huge verbal tip, even asking me to get my manager so they can tell him how well I did. I was bracing for a 0%-10% tip... the one dude who paid left me a 400% tip ($1,000.00).

Happened to my poor co-worker;

A guy and his date came in for Valentines Day. They had a great time, ate a lot of food, drank a lot of wine, and got along really well with my co-worker who was their server.

About two months later they come back in and request my co-worker again, who happily says yes to serving them. He goes up and greets them, the guy introduces his wife to him, and my co-worker mentions something about how much he enjoyed serving them on Valentines Day. They go quiet. Wife gets up and leaves, guy just lowers his head.

Turns out he had brought his mistress in on Valentines Day, but my co-worker didn’t realize he was with a different woman this time around so didn’t think anything of it. We never saw the guy again.

I used to be a waiter in a 5 star restaurant it was my first week. One guy was about to propose it was obvious by how much he was sweating he was drenched. I tried to make them both relax. They went on to finish up their meal. As soon as the cake arrived he then went on one knee, she stood up suddenly he vomited right on her high heels. After the shock of what just happened she still ended up saying yes

Not a TOTAL disaster, but still not good.

Had a table of two people, probably in their mid 40s last year. Took 45 minutes for this couple to get their entrees due to our kitchen being way too slammed. When they were dropped at the table, they immediately asked for to-go boxes because they told their babysitter they’d be home by a certain time. I overheard the wife say “well I guess this is why we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day”. The worst part was that they weren’t angry, just... very sad.

My personal feelings about dining out on Valentine’s Day aside, I felt so horrible that this couple clearly had put in an effort to have a nice night with each other only to have it go that way. (We comp’d their meals, btw).

I was eating in a fine dining establishment (Chili's) several years ago. In the next booth was a really young guy who had a big bunch of roses on the seat next to him.

He kept looking at his watch, looking at the roses, and popping open a ring box for a peek at the ring.

He did this for a half hour or so, then began calling and texting someone (presumably his girlfriend) over and over.

As we were waiting for our check, he hands my wife the roses, mumbled something, and walked out.

Poor guy.

Depends on who you ask as to wether or not this is a disaster. Place I worked at in college was a pretty nice establishment and a romantic destination because our view overlooked the entire city. It was also located at the top of a five star hotel that had several projectors cycling through what was going on around the hotel in the lobby. There was no footage from the gym or pool so it was relatively tame and never a privacy issue. Best you’d ever get were people eating, walking around the lobby or drinking at the bar. Anyway guy walks in with his wife and asked to be seated in a secluded area. Well you can imagine since it’s busy and Valentine’s Day we didn’t have those, so he basically waited an extra hour to make sure he was seated in the back corner. It’s my section, I take their drink order and take care of them though the husband was gone when I returned and I didn’t see him go to the bathroom. Thinking nothing of it I go to the bar to get the drink and see ALL of my coworkers huddled around the monitor above the bar along with everyone else in there. Sure enough I found the husband as he was underneath the table going down on his wife. Only problem was the camera above their table had a clear view because it was situated in the corner. So now the entire hotel lobby can see as it cycles between us in the bar laughing, people checking in and our romantic couple dining on each other. More and more people start to notice and the bar fills up. This includes back of the house staff like dishwashers and the line cooks. Eventually it also brings out my manager who runs over to their table, tells them what happened and they both run out mortified. But before they do the husband tries to stand up too quickly and flips the table, ruining all the plates while also exposing that his fly was down and his d*** is out. He’s yelling at my manager, the hotel manager (who came up when he saw it in the lobby) and security unzipped as he’s escorted out. So yes disaster for them but man they made a lot of people laugh that night

Not waitstaff, but I used to work Front Desk at a hotel. One Valentine’s Day I was working the night shift, and this woman comes down with a cut above her eye looking like she just went a few rounds in the ring with a boxer. Woman starts sobbing and asks us to call the coos which we do immediately. Turns out this girl’s boyfriend just beat the s**t out of her during a fight, and from what I could tell this probably wasn’t the first time. So after the cops show up and haul the dude off, my manager offers her a different room on comp as we need to leave the guy’s stuff where it is for him to pick up the next day. She accepts, and I go up with the woman to help her collect her stuff and move to the new room. There were a bunch of bottles of alcohol in the room, and she donated them to the front desk staff. I got a bottle of Hypnotiq, and some vodka. Manager got a bottle of Patron. Cherry on top of everything, the dude’s wife called later that night saying someone had stolen his card as he was out of town on a business trip. Never one to defend an abuser, I told her where she could find her husband. Fun times.

A nice lady brought her kid in for dinner. Got seated at a table next to her husband and his mistress.

I was working for a higher end chain steakhouse in the North West corner of greater Los Angeles (in the valley). Valentines is obviously one of the top 5 busiest days of the year for us, we did about 500 covers between 5 and 10 PM. It’s also a restaurant with a very open concept floor plan. Booths along the 4 walls of the restaurant and an array of tables in the middle with no partitions or anything between them. A younger couple (maybe mid 20’s) dressed to the nines came in shortly after we opened and were seated in a table basically in the dead center of the dining room. They were very friendly and pleasant and I could tell that for them, dining at our restaurant was a really special treat so I did everything in my power to make it special for them. When they’re done, probably around 7, I brought their check which was around $300. When I came back to pick it up the guy had a super embarrassed look on his face and he said he thinks he left his wallet in the car and the woman, who is embarrassed for him, doesn’t have anything with her because her dress had no pockets and she didn’t bring a purse. So he goes out and 5 minutes later comes back in looking pale as a ghost. He has left his wallet at home and asks if he can call back later with payment info. My GM won’t let this fly because there’s no collateral of any sort he can leave, so the guy has to drive home TO BURBANK to get his wallet while the woman waits, with her hair done and her red lipstick and her pretty dress, In The middle of the dining room on Valentine’s Day. Now, on the best day with no traffic (never happens) it’s at least 40 minutes each way from our restaurant to Burbank. She was there for almost 2 hours waiting for this guy. We were all so embarrassed for her that the staff kept discreetly slipping her drinks and little amuse bouche bites from the kitchen. It was one of the most awkward things I’ve ever seen in a restaurant. When he finally got back he was super apologetic to us and to her, he paid the check and tipped like 30% and they left. It was pretty obvious it was an honest mistake but I still think about that couple from time to time and wonder how things worked out for them.