A Reddit user is sparking a conversation around bringing outside foods into restaurants after revealing they brought their own tea bag into a restaurant and were advised not to do so.
On Tuesday, April 22, the anonymous internet user shared on the platform’s AITA forum that they went out to eat with their mother in Los Angeles, as they each ordered a hot cup of water and a lemon.
The Reddit user, who had a “slight sore throat,” brought bags of a “specific healing tea” along with them to the restaurant and began to drink the tea as their meal arrived. As a result, the location’s waitstaff “began circling our table and staring at us throughout our meal” before asking them about the tea at the end of the meal.
“She said, ‘You can’t really do that.’ I said, ‘It’s a specific type of tea for my health,'” the Reddit user recounted. “She said, ‘It doesn’t matter. We have tea here. Next time we’ll have to charge you for the hot water.’ I said, ‘You guys don’t have this specific tea.’ She said, ‘It doesn’t matter. We’ll have to charge you for hot water if you put your own special tea in the water.'”
After the customer’s interaction with staff, they wrote that they were “surprised” as they had “never been to a place that charges for hot water.”
“The waitstaff continued to stare at us and started circling our table. Then, without asking if we were finished, the waitress brought the check to the table,” the Reddit user wrote. “I was planning on ordering a mango sticky rice, but didn’t get the chance as she had brought the check. Because of this experience, as we left, I did not leave a tip. I felt very unwelcome and awkward with the staring.”
The Reddit user — who claimed that the lack of tipping “did not have to do with the rule about the tea” — also argued that the restaurant “had no other stated policy about bringing one’s own tea” and called the staff’s approach “hostile and unprofessional with the staring, circling, and preemptively bringing the check.”
Still, the original poster’s friend argued that they were in the wrong, not only for bringing the tea, but also having “stiffed the server for no good reason.”
“The not tipping did not have to do with the rule about the tea, which I accepted,” the Reddit user wrote in an update. “I usually tip 20% minimum because I do know servers have it hard. I drew the line at the way the waitstaff began staring, circling our table, and hovering over us even after we had the tea discussion. They kept looking between us and the door. I found this to be hostile.”
Despite how they may have perceived the situation, the general consensus under their post was that the customer was indeed an “a——-” for bringing their own tea and refusing to tip.
“The restaurant’s source of income is on selling product. You would never walk into a bar with your own six pack claiming they don’t have that type of beer,” the most-upvoted response read. “Just because they were OK bringing you free hot water and lemon, does not mean you should bring your chicken noodle packet, which they don’t sell. So, yes it was an AH move that not only you and your mom were doing this, and then on top of their doing you a favor of bringing hot water and lemon, you decide to stiff the tip? You double dipped on AH behavior, sorry to say.”
Another user added that if the original poster were to get sick, “the restaurant could be responsible even though it was her own stupid tea.”
“If it’s a restaurant always ask,” another Reddit commenter wrote. “They don’t know what that stuff was in your teabags and only had your say so for it. Someone else posted earlier about bring a small cupcake, rules for every restaurant is can I eat or drink what I brought from the outside in? And if you wanted something else you could have ordered it.”
“That happens sometimes to me, I always say ‘Hey I wanted to order one more thing’ and they whisk it away. To me, they didn’t do anything to not warrant a tip,” the person added. “I will say at least you all were civil to each other, but it seemed like you were waiting for an excuse to not tip them since you were upset about the earlier comment of them telling you no to outside tea bags. At least they didn’t empty it out or anything.”
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After reviewing the comments, the original poster wrote that they “could perhaps accept a ‘you’re the a–hole’ on the tea, but not for the tipping as the waitstaff’s subsequent behavior did take away from the meal.”
“In the future I could consider a lesser tip rather than none,” they wrote. “Thanks everyone who has commented so far!”
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