30 Valentine’s Day Disasters As Seen By Waiters

mid1980s: A couple enjoyed a meal at a 2 top that I waited on. All was well, but midway through dinner the area began to smell like someone farted. It did not go away. The man complained, and I apologized, noting that it wasn't the restaurant and there was little I could do. The woman tried to calm the man down, but he asked for the check early, demanded a discount [which we gave him] and stiffed me on the tip. They left. The woman left a skid mark of s**t on her chair.

Not a waiter but I was a pastry chef at this big resort in cape cod. We got a special order from this guy who was coming in for his anniversary ( Valentine's day). He wanted his desert to have "Will you marry me?" written on it so he could pop the question when it came out. He called ahead to the front and back kitchen, even came in himself that morning to make sure it was good to go. The whole crew was behind him. We had cooks all night coming in the ask if it had happened yet. I wrote the inscription on the plate and dressed it to the nines with gold leaf and expensive chocolate. I'm taking a picture of the plate just before it's set to go out and notice our head waiter come in with a weird look on his face. He says plainly "They don't need it"

She broke up with him before the entrees hit the table.

I saw a couple have a full blown argument in the middle of the restaurant. The woman stood up, took her ring off, threw it at him and walked out. The man continued his meal, had dessert and then paid the bill, left a pretty big tip for the inconvenience and left!

A guy proposed to his girlfriend and she said "no". The guy threw his arms up and ran out of the building.. Later, while waiting for someone to pick her up, she told us it was completely out of the blue, because they'd only been dating for a few months...

Another V-Day, a guy raised a HUGE fuss over the fact that we wouldn't serve liquor to his under-aged girlfriend.

They came in at lunch the day after, so it was pretty empty but it was still for a Valentine’s Day date. They were both pretty nice at the beginning, the guy asked for a picture and whatnot. As the meal went on, the dude got progressively drunker and by the time I brought the check out, the woman was gone. When the dude gave me his card, he said “I’ll give you a bit of advice. If you’re taking a girl out to break up with her, do it at a McDonald’s and not an expensive restaurant”.

I'm not a server, but I work in the kitchen and see what happens in the dinning area plus I speak to the servers every few minutes as they take out food etc.

Had a couple come in on valentine's Day, our restaurant sits about 50 people and we were booked for the night, so much so that we had tables capped at 1 hour before asking them to leave. About 2 and a half hours before closing the couple comes in. Everything seems normal and they act like any other customers, they order food have their starters and then mains. However, half way through their main they start having an argument and causing a scene, one of the waiters asked them if they could be a little bit more respectful towards other customers. They relax for a bit and honestly seemed embarrassed about the whole situation. This is where it gets interesting. About 5 minutes later the guy just gets up and in complete silence walks out the front entrance. The woman stays there and completes her meal. This is about 1:45 minutes before closing time. After about 20 minutes of staring at an empty chair the woman asks for the bill. The guy who left never came back. The problem was, the woman didn't have her wallet or her phone and the guy drove her there so no car either. After not being able to pay, she asked us to wait until her partner returns, we waited about 30 minutes before we had no other choice but to call the police. The police came and after about 10 minutes they escorted her out of the restaurant. Our manager felt awful about the situation and told the woman that she could return and pay the next day. I assume the police drove her home. And as promised she returned the next day, paid the bill, apologised about the situation and left.

Honestly, don't really know what happened between the two or why they were arguing but that guy pulled a really scumbag move and absolutely humiliated the poor woman.

Not a waitress, but my family and I witnessed a couple argue with one another in a "Carrabbas" some years ago when Valentines was on a weekend day. When the waiter asked for their order, the woman snaps at him "Go away mf!" The husband apologizes quickly and demanded that his wife apologize, but she refuses. The argument was over the wife's gambling debts or something of that nature. My father went over to them, yells at them for being "idiotic and disturbing everyone else." Now, you do not want to irritate my father when he wants a nice dinner with his family.

Needless to say, we heard the husband say "I want a divorce." The wife again goes berserk and the husband pulls her outside and the argument continues. Once the wife is gone, the husband goes back in, apologizes to everyone and says that his wife is a lunatic and that they will separate, although he wants a divorce because she is draining their bank account. Some people told him, "You deserve better." Some others pitched in for the bill and the waiter got a nice tip. It was the talk of the restaurant for quite some time.

I used to be a waitress in a small hotel. A couple were eating in the restaurant and they had quite a lot to drink. The guy was really nice and funny when they had initially arrived. However, I could tell their conversation had soured by the time I was bringing out their desserts. They then went up to their room and had a massive bust up. He was screaming at her, she was wailing and I could hear him knocking her around. I was an 18 year old girl at the time, I was bloody terrified. I ran and got the spare key and screamed for the owner (only male member of staff) to come and help me. I immediately unlocked the door and she was on the floor with her head bleeding. I reached for her and he grabbed her out of my arms and chucked her across the bedroom, her head hitting the side table. He then threatened to kill both of us. He barged passed me and ran out of the hotel. It certainly wasn’t my best Valentines shift.

A couple came in to my hibachi restaurant since it was the "fanciest" place in town. Young woman was all decked out in a spangly, light blue satin cocktail gown, he was in a suit and tie. They wanted to sit at the grill for the show but still ordered a ton of sushi and drinks so their section of table was extremely full of dishes. I'm talking multiple mixed drinks and waters for both of them, soup and salad bowls for both of them, appetizer plates, sushi plates, soy sauce trays, and their entree plates. The hibachi seats 12 and it's basically a bar ledge around the grill for a table, and we were slammed so there was no extra room. I barely managed to talk them into letting me take the empty dishes as they finished with them, but it hardly helped. The chef starts his show and dude is super into it, demanding to be included. So the chef flicks a shrimp at him. In his effort to show off and catch it in his mouth, he manages to miss it completely and crashes into the table sending food, drinks, and a full bottle of soy sauce on a plate right into his date's pale blue satin covered lap and everywhere else. It was a complete s**t show. She was screaming and crying, the other couples that had their meals ruined were all upset, he's blaming me(?!) The bus boys and I were just trying to clean up and salvage what we could of the service... it was awful.

16 years in hospitality gives you some good stories. The most awkward: My first job as a waitress a guy wanted to propose to his girlfriend. He came in 2 months before to book and had everything figured out. He planned to pop the question during dessert. We had champagne, balloons and sparklers prepped for the big moment. The time comes, he drops to one knee gives a speech about his love for her. He asks, she says no, puts the ring in her bag, finishes her dessert and leaves. Quite possibly the most awkward thing I have had to witness (alongside around 200 other people.) The manager gave him everything for free he felt that bad for him. Cringed inside every time I saw him after that. The most f***ed up: I was working as a duty manager and one of the tills kept dropping off the network. As I was trying to fix it I could clearly hear the conversation of the table by the waiters station. It started out sweet enough with her excitedly telling him she was pregnant. He went quiet and didn't say anything for a bit and then asked her what the plan was. She said she was keeping the baby. He said he didn't want kids and had told her this. She got upset and said she thought he'd be happy and change his mind when he found out. (By this point I've fixed the till, but am unable to step away from this car crash.) Turns out she stopped taking the pill without telling him thinking she could turn him around. He said he knew she could be a little nuts sometimes but this was next level. He told her it was over and she could send someone to collect her things as he wanted nothing more to do with her. He called me over to pay the bill and just left. The guy never even shouted, he just calmly went f*** this and noped out of there. I couldn't even look her in the eye, just left her to leave in her own time. The funniest: Managing hotel room service where there was a valentines package that included getting each course of the special menu delivered to your room. More than a few couples thought it was a good idea to call for the next course and then start having sex. Having to help with deliveries as reception f***ed up the bookings; I had the 'privilege' of people answering the door naked, seeing sex toys strewn around and one where the other members of the threesome were carrying on in the background. After complaints of similar instances from my team I had to take action. I ended up having to call the offending guests and tell them if they could not respect my team by answering the door in at least a closed dressing gown they could come down and collect the rest of their meal from the restaurant. Bonus from the same night: had to call an ambulance for a woman with a dislocated shoulder. The guy admitted that they were trying to recreate a bukkake type scene in the shower using conditioner as the 'cum.' He slipped in the conditioner and fell on her.

Someone showing up for a date and you both realize about 30 minutes in she ain’t coming. “Drinks on me buddy”.

not really a disaster but this guy came in and said he was waiting for his date, he stayed for 5 hours waiting and she never showed, he eventually ordered for for himself and asked that I remove the other glass of water from the table, he said it was their first date

I had a section one V-day that had a marriage proposal, a 40th anniversary, and a break up all at the same time. The break up was the worst. The guy brought his high class date a gift; a mini ceramic bear holding balloons. He presented it when I was at the table and she looked at it like it was a hot turd. I just knew this was not going to end well. She left at the end of the meal and must have said something because he stayed at the table for another 40 minutes, head down and crying. I felt bad, he saw the celebrations going on at the other tables.

A couple sitting at the bar were enjoying their night out. The man got up from his barstool and left for the bathroom. As his girlfriend was alone (and absolutely wasted) at the bar, a random woman approached and revealed that she recently matched with the woman’s boyfriend on Tinder and had hooked up a week earlier. The drunk girlfriend refused to believe this story, so the woman showed her his Tinder profile and their conversation. The boyfriend returned to a drunk, sobbing and screaming girlfriend.

I felt like I was watching a reality tv show, it was incredible. The poor girl was basically carried out of the bar by her boyfriend of 3 years whom she just discovered has been cheating on her for who knows how long. It was the most dramatic moment I have ever experienced and it was absolutely none of my business.

EDIT: I was a bar-back at the time and this couple sat directly in front of the place I spend most of my time, the glass washing station.

This story is my wife's, not my own, but I've heard it so many times I feel like I was there. We both waited tables in college and she happened to work for a very nice, romantic Asian/Southern fusion place in town. Valentine's day was overbooked, of course, and one table, a guy and his date, had to wait about 20 minutes to be seated. He's b***hing already as they are seated so she knows this will be extra fun on one of the busiest evenings of the year. They order and he insists he wants his filet mignon WELL DONE. Person of good taste, right? Anyway, she places the order as asked and continues on her way. Food comes out. Guy is very upset that filet is still slightly pink in the middle. My wife pulls the plate and assures him the kitchen will correct the error. She takes it back and Chef says, ok, we can handle that. Hands it off to grill who re-fires it. Plate comes back out 5 minutes later. Guy is even more irate. HE CAN STILL SEE PINK!!! Sends it back once more. Chef is done with this guy and has grill turn the damn thing into a charcoal briquette. Expo runs plate out to the table ASAP. As it's being dropped, my wife is talking to another table on the other side of the room, reviewing the wine list. Guy takes burnt steak in his hand, stands up, and THROWS IT ACROSS THE ROOM at my wife while yelling about how terrible the service and the chefs are. Dead silence in the room. All eyes are on guy. Guy's date is starting to tear up. He yells again about not paying, grabs his date's arm and leads her out of the building. I hope the date made it home safely. Guy had serious issues.

Probably not the kind of story you're looking for, but one Valentine's day at my restaurant we got totally slammed and the kitchen started melting down. In the middle of dinner service the head Chef freaked out, threw a side of salmon at one of the line cooks and walked out.

Was a server at a popular seafood chain that isn’t very fancy- but when you live in a town like the one I worked in, that sort of place is the nicest place to go for Valentines Day. Well, the night was incredibly busy when a couple came in. They were upset after waiting 45 minutes for a table, and they were complaining quite a lot. The woman was decked out in a super nice dress and faux fur coat that was actually very realistic. Well, she was sat and served her frozen drink. She goes to lift the glass to her mouth, and inexplicably, the bottom of the cup simply breaks and the drink is spilled ALL OVER her dress and nice coat. Was unfortunate.

Saw a couple have a full on argument at a restaurant. I wasn’t their server but the table was directly in the center of the restaurant and they were certainly loud enough for everyone to hear. My manager kindly asked them to leave and the guys response was to yell “I’ve been wanting to do that s**t for 2 years now” and stormed out

I was working at a corporate sports bar that specialized in chicken wings. V-day (like most days) was INSANELY busy! As the evening winds down, someone calls in saying they're a professional food critic and demanded to speak to the manager. After a 15-minute call, the manager tells us the "critic" rated us a B- and said the food was good, but the service sucked. He said he would leave that last part out of his review if we comped his meal and gave him vouchers for free meals in the future...but he refused over and over to say where he worked. Confused, the manager talked to the server...who confirmed that the guy ate alone, ran her around ragged while shamelessly hitting on her, and left zero tip (he wrote his phone number on the tip line). Thirsty b***h wanted free food because the server didn't call him immediately for a date.

I was a waitress many moons ago, and two couples spring to mind. The first were an older couple who were dressed nicely. They were polite and cordial to me, but not overly enthusiastic or friendly. They were at the table for a little over an hour and a half, and we didn’t see them say one word to each other during that time. Every time I went over to their table, the atmosphere felt like I’d walked straight into an argument, but they weren’t speaking, or looking at each other or anything. It very quickly became awkward as f***. The second couple was meant to be having a proposal dinner. The guy had rung to book a table, and had let us know he was going to propose during dessert. He’d given the ring to kitchen staff so we could bring it out with a cake, and he’d got some balloons and streamers too. Anyway, he walks in a couple of steps behind his partner - everyone has big grins for them both - but he grits his teeth and shakes his head, surreptitiously dragging his finger across his throat pantomime style. Great. Oh, and lucky me, they’re seated in my section. It’s obvious she was bloody furious with him about something; she spends the first half of the meal seething quietly, and the second having a constant pop at him. While she was in the loo, the manager made me double check he didn’t want us to bring the ring out or anything. “F***, no!” was his response. I felt really bad for him, she really was mean!