Restaurant host reveals one of the most irritating things customers do: ‘I’m guilty on this one’

‘This has happened six times this week,’ she wrote

A restaurant host has acted out some of the annoying things that customers have done during her shifts, including one exchange that she revealed occurs weekly.

Alana Fineman, who works at a restaurant in San Diego and goes by the username @alanafinewoman, frequently shares stories about her customers on TikTok, where she often creates amusing skits to illustrate how irritating her customers can be.

In one video, filmed in March 2021 but reposted in December, Fineman described an incident where a customer came to the restaurant to meet their friends.

According to Fineman, she greeted the customer by asking if their friends had a reservation, to which they responded: “Eh, they might.” The TikTok user then questioned if the customer knew what name it was under.

“Maybe Joe…or Selena…but like, I don’t know if they have one,” Fineman said, imitating the customer.

From there, the restaurant employee asked if the customer knew how many people the reservation was for, and the customer noted that it was two people, or “maybe five, or maybe eight, or maybe three.”

“Okay, well you’re welcome to walk through and take a look,” Fineman recalled telling the customer. “And then if you don’t find them, you can come back here and I’ll help you out.”

However, the customer then listed all the possible times the reservation could be, which Fineman recalled ranged from 5pm to 7.30pm. In response, she still encouraged the customer to check if their party was at the restaurant. But, according to Fineman, rather than going to look for their friends, the customer asked the host to “check the clipboard for a reservation”.

“Sure, let me just check my clipboard here for a reservation for maybe Joe or maybe Selena,” Fineman said, as part of the skit, in response to the customer. “For maybe two or five or eight or three people at maybe 5pm or 6pm or 7.30pm.”

“This has happened six times this week,” she wrote in the caption.

Fineman’s video has since been viewed more than 425,000 times on TikTok, with some viewers confessing that they’ve been that annoying customer.

“Okay, I’m guilty on this one. But I usually immediately call my party to double-check,” one person wrote.

Many viewers also revealed that the skit resonated with them, as they’ve worked in food service and experienced unpleasant interactions with their customers as well.

“Omg! Yep!” another comment read. “Being in the restaurant business I totally understand! People are smart, it’s when people become customers things change!!”

Someone else said: “I had someone come in and say: ‘I’ll have a group… like 16 to 40 people.’ Um. Pardon me??? How am I supposed to seat that.”

Others praised Fineman for the amusing videos, with another person writing: “Thank you for your content, really appreciate you! Crazy world right now and this is the stuff I can completely relate to, thanks!”

This is not the first time Fineman’s experiences working at the restaurant have gone viral on TikTok, as she’s previously created videos recounting moments such as when a customer tried to pay a bill with a Starbucks gift card or when a child was misbehaving at the restaurant.

In another story posted earlier this month, she recalled how a customer had requested wine that was “frantic” and “chewy”.

In a follow-up video, Fineman explained that she didn’t know what kind of wine the customer wanted, so she asked a bartender for assistance. She claimed that the bartender ended up giving the customer “a bottle of house red that had been opened for three days,” which they liked.

While speaking to The Independent, Fineman noted that the most polite way to handle a customer who may not know about their reservation is to “invite the guest to go ahead and walk through the restaurant to see if their party is there, and to come back up to the host stand if they don’t find who they’re looking for.”

“Otherwise, if they really can’t give you any information, I ask them if they know who made the reservation and if they can call them to get more information about who they’re looking for and when.”

Fineman also wanted to emphasise that these videos are made “all in good fun.”

“While it seems like all I get are entitled customers at work (because the mean ones are what make funny videos), most of the guests I meet every day are very nice and normal,” she said.