A woman is taking to TikTok to ask about restaurant wait times after she and her husband waited 50 minutes for their order at Texas Roadhouse.
Content creator Niki D (@nikollasaachli) shared a video that has garnered over 487,000 views recounting her experiences at a restaurant “which has the word roadhouse at the end and the first name of the restaurant is a state.”
When she first walked into the restaurant, Niki says the host said there was no wait time, which was “unusual” for that location.
Niki says the host sat her and her husband and the couple ordered a salad with salmon and a steak respectively. Two other couples were sat after them.
“Both couples got their food, ate their food, and we still hadn’t gotten ours,” Niki reveals.
More time passed and the couple remained unserved aside from two teas, she says. “45 minutes later, we still hadn’t got our food.”
Niki says she then decided to find the manager. “I waved down what we thought was the manager and said, ‘Can you check and see if the cow is eating my salad that is gonna end up being my husband’s steak?’”
More waiting
At the 50-minute mark, Niki shares how they decided they were done waiting and flagged down her server to pay for their teas so the couple could leave. When she did find the server, she says she told her her food was “coming right out.”
Back at her table, Niki tried to pay for the teas and leave. “I’m not paying $60 for a meal I haven’t ate,” she says.
Suddenly, Niki says the actual manager appeared at the table with the dishes after having “literally rushed out” their food.
“The food we waited 50 minutes for was done in less than five,” Niki says.
But she did not budge. “I told the manager, ‘I’m not paying for that, I’m not eating that. Do whatever you want with it….we are going somewhere else at this point,’” she says.
Niki claims the manager “rudely” told her that she was going to cancel everything out, including the teas the couple drank.
After leaving, Niki says she and her husband went to a different steakhouse where the food and service were “amazing.”
“Answer this question: How long is too long? How long would you wait?” Niki poses the question to viewers as the video ends.
@nikollasaachli #fyp #genx #serviceindustry #resturantlife #tips #question #genxtiktokers ♬ original sound – Niki D
Viewers Weigh In
In the comments section, users shared their opinions about appropriate restaurant wait times.
“I would’ve gotten my server’s attention after seeing the other two parties get their meals,” one user wrote, to which Niki responded, “They went missing. No one could find her.”
“Nothing past 30 minutes and that’s only if they are slammed with customers,” came a second opinion.
“I work in the cooking industry and I bet the waitress forgot to put your order through. So when you had enough and asked they ran back and told the kitchen to rush it,” a third viewer reasoned.
Niki confirmed this, writing, “She did forget it and didn’t put it in until I went up to her and said we were leaving and just wanted to pay for our tea.”
“You are a godsend for waiting that long,” a fourth user added.
How long should you wait for food at a restaurant?
Tasting Table shares a study from Long Range Systems, LLC which reports that the average wait per party at restaurants is 23 minutes, but nearly a third of all parties wait more than 30 minutes. Eight percent wait longer than 40 minutes.
Tasting Table reports that the wait times at many restaurants across the country are due to staff shortages. According to Open Table, staffing in the restaurant industry was 3.6% below pre-pandemic levels at the start of 2023. This translates to 450,000 job openings compared to 2019. Sixty-two percent of operators also said they couldn’t staff up to meet demand, and 80% said they were struggling to fill open positions.
Still, sometimes the cause for a longer-than-usual wait time at a restaurant can boil down to server error.
As one user simply wrote in Niki D’s comments, “Waitress messed up!”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Niki D via TikTok Message and Texas Roadhouse via email.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
