Waitress calls out customers who bring outside food and drinks into restaurant

‘Why don’t they just go sit at a coffee shop??’

Normally people come into a restaurant to order food, but one waitress is highlighting experiences she had where customers came in with their own food.

Syd, under the username @poorandhungry, took to TikTok to reenact a situation she had with a set of customers in a restaurant. “This happened at every brunch shift I’ve ever worked,” the TikToker captioned her video, indicating that it was a regular occurrence.

In the video, she was playing the role of both the customers and herself as she began to ask the group as a server if she could get them started with coffee or mimosas. “We brought our own coffees — I hope that’s fine,” the “customer” said, before asking Syd for “warm water.”

The server went on to explain that they were in a restaurant and couldn’t allow outside food and beverages. “Looks like you’re almost done with your coffee, so it’s whatever,” she said, visibly annoyed. “Maybe we can get started with some things that are on our menu.”

This time the customer replied saying that they brought their own granola bar and that they would only be sitting there for a “few minutes.”

Syd then asked if this meant they needed a few more minutes with the menu when the customer replied, “Wow servers really have turned into sales people nowadays. Yeah, we’ll just keep our money in our pockets.”

“This isn’t a public place. Will you be ordering from our restaurant?” the server asked.

When the customer refused to order, Syd accused her of trespassing.

“If you’re not planning on actually dining with us, may I ask why you’re here?” she asked. When the customer said that they were there to chat up a longtime friend, Syd gave them a 15 minute grace period before advising her to go to a nearby Starbucks.

After posting, the video went on to receive over 500,000 views with many people taking to the comments to question how this type of behaviour was acceptable at all.

“Why don’t they just go sit at a coffee shop??” one commenter questioned.

“15 minutes grace is wayyyy too nice,” another commenter pointed out.

“The audacity of some people! I just can’t,” a third wrote.

Some of the commenters were fellow servers who ended up relating to the skit and wrote about their own experiences. “This happens ALL THE TIME at the restaurant i work at. People have given us bad reviews because we ask them to leave for the exact same thing,” one story read.

“THIS HAPPENED TO ME! it was a fine dining restaurant and they brought their own dinner!” another story in the comments read. “And I told them they had to leave if they weren’t going to order, so they ordered a side of fries.”

“I had a table of 2 ladies that told me they only wanted the free bread & water & they were shocked when my manager told them they had to order something that cost money in order to stay,” a third commenter wrote.