One server shares how customers try to take advantage of deals like Italian chain restaurant Olive Garden‘s unlimited soup and salad in a now-viral TikTok skit.
In a video with over 167,000 views, TikToker Saydie (@realslimsaydie) pretends to talk to a table at the unnamed restaurant where she works. She asks her “table” what they would like to drink.
Pretending to be the customer, Saydie says, “Yeah, yeah, I don’t care about the spiel. We’ll have eight waters, a bowl of lemons, and at least thirty packs of sugar.”
Saydie, as a server, accepts the request and tells the customer she’ll be right back. When she returns, she pretends to ask for the table’s orders.
A not-so-subtle ‘hack’
“To eat, we’re going to do one order of the unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks. But I’m really hungry, so you can go ahead and bring my next seven refills of soup all at once,” Saydie says, acting as the customer.
Server Saydie quickly catches on to the customers’ motives. She clarifies that the unlimited deal is charged per person and only one refill can be brought to the table at a time.
While Saydie doesn’t say where she works in the video, she notes in the comments that she used to work at Olive Garden. She also wrote in her caption, “Olive Garden ptsd.” The Italian chain offers unlimited deals on pasta as part of limited-time promotions and a permanent “Never-Ending Soup or Salad” deal.
“No, I’m the only one eating. But I told you I’m hungry, so go ahead and bring out seven refills of my soup,” she says, acting as the customer again.
Saydie reiterates the restaurant’s policy but agrees to bring the customer their first bowl of soup.
Immediately upon returning with the first bowl of soup, customer Saydie demands a second “refill” of the soup.
The pattern repeats until server Saydie brings all eight soup bowls to the table.
Saydie clarifies that she told her manager about the situation. She says they agreed to charge each of the eight guests for the unlimited deal.
But when she brings the check to the table, the customer asks for the manager, baffled that they charged them eight times.
Servers react to the skit
While Saydie’s TikTok is just a reenactment of an interaction she had on the job, other servers back up that there is a lot of truth to the skit.
“We do $16 bottomless mimosas with the purchase of an entree and people CONSTANTLY try to not order food after like 2 hours of mimosas….” one shares.
“Refillable fries at Applebee’s is HELL right now,” another says.
“Reminds me of when I first got hired and let a table of four split one nepb four ways before I knew not to and they tipped me 2 dollars,” a third adds.
“Serving endless shrimp at red lobster almost drove me mad,” a fourth writes.
What do restaurant guests think?
Despite some customers boldly taking advantage of unlimited deals, others say they’re nervous to ask for refills.
“When restaurants have unlimited things, I’m sometimes scared to ask for another. I feel bad,” one writes. Saydie responds, “Don’t be scared! It’s more about people trying to share the unlimited deals when it’s supposed to be charged per person!”
@realslimsaydie Olive Garden ptsd #serverstories #serverskits ♬ Club Penguin Pizza Parlor – Cozy Penguin
The Daily Dot reached out to Saydie via TikTok direct message and comment. We also contacted Olive Garden via email.
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