There are some unwritten rules of restaurant dining: if the place is about to close, then you probably shouldn’t try to sneak in and get a table: just let the staff finish cleaning up and find a place that’s open later or grab yourself a some fast food instead.
And if you’re having so much fun with your friends that you lose track of time and realize you somehow stayed past closing, but wait staff can’t exactly tell you to leave, then you make sure to throw a few extra bucks as a courtesy—because it’s not like they can go anywhere until you’ve hit the road.
What you probably shouldn’t do, is stay late and then ditch the restaurant without paying your tab. That seems like a big no, no, but it’s exactly what Olive Garden server and TikTok user Estrella (@_estrellaa) says happened to her while she was on shift.
@_estrellaa sorry for switching so much. I’m really stressed and anxious right now.😭 but yeah if you’re broke, just say that #servertok #olivegarden #fyp #dineandditch ♬ original sound – Estrella💫
In a clip that she recently uploaded to her page, she said that while working a relatively slow Monday shift at the restaurant, which was fine because her tables left her good tips and she made “enough” money, her overall “chill” day was torpedoed right at closing.
She was left with only two tables, both of them, by her account, were “high as f*ck.” One of the tables, which was a party of two women who kept ordering appetizer after appetizer, and then finally dessert, caught Estrella’s attention.
The server says that while she wasn’t trying to have preconceived notions about people, she did think it was odd that one of the guests walked out into the parking lot to get the car, start it, and just sit inside while the other diner sat at their table.
Estrella kept watching them and thinking to herself the entire time that there was no way they were going to try and walk out on the bill, especially because they had ordered so much food. After a while, the woman who started the vehicle walked back into the restaurant and stood over her friend who was waiting by the self-checkout screen at their table, but still hadn’t paid yet.
As they spoke with one another, Estrella continued to watch them, wondering what was going to happen, adding that she swiped her card to log into the payment “terminal” to see if their bill had been “paid,” but no dice.
Not wanting to take any chances, Estrella told her co-worker to ensure that when they walked past the customers’ table, to see if the bill was paid, because she didn’t want to approach the guests about the issue and “accuse” them of not paying if they weren’t trying to pull anything shady.
Before either Estrella or her co-worker could do anything, however, it was too late—the women were in motion, they got up from their table and were outside of the restaurant, in the car, and then gone before they paid their bill.
“It was the most grimy sh*t ever,” Estrella says into the camera, still in disbelief at the way the diners handled themselves.
“If y’all didn’t have any money go to McDonald’s. Like if you’re broke just say that.” Things, unfortunately, got even worse after that for Estrella, because after her shift was over and she got into her vehicle to try and leave work, it wouldn’t start.
What also angered the server was that she couldn’t understand how “picky” the customers were being about their orders, too. If they knew they weren’t going to pay from the beginning, Estrella wonders, then why would they “correct” her on an appetizer she brought out, instead of just taking it? It’s not like they were going to fork over the cash for it anyway.
She was also upset that they seemed to prioritize their spending habits in a way that made no sense to her. “You have money for weed but not money for food?” she asks.
It seems like things could’ve been even worse for Estrella, if she worked for one commenter’s Olive Garden manager. “My manager at og gives write ups for walkouts,” they wrote.
Another user on the platform said that walkouts are typical at Olive Garden: “I work at og so many ppl do this.”
“Had sun ppl do this to me on her whole birthday party lmaooo like fr if u broke just say that some ppl are a waste of space fr,” a further user said, echoing this sentiment.
Estrella couldn’t understand why folks would dine and dash at Olive Garden stating that it’s a very cheap option. “Like literally get a life it’s so cheap to eat here, especially because of the never ending stuff,” she added in a comment.
Although it doesn’t seem like Estrella gets write-ups for walkouts judging by her response to the aforementioned TikToker, she did say in the comments that it looks bad on her part. “Yeah and it’s my responsibility to make sure payment is done before guests leave so it looks bad on my part especially because I’m fairly new here,” she wrote.
