They’ve got to check their “wait privilege,” according to critics.
A diner has shocked social media watchdogs after revealing how she waited nearly an hour to receive the check at a restaurant, sparking a furious viral debate over whether it’s acceptable to “dine and dash” after a certain period of time.
“When’s the appropriate time to dine and dash?” asked Lauren Petrosian in the caption to the clip, which has amassed 1.7 million views online.
According to the burgeoning influencer, she and her friend had been sitting at an undisclosed hot pot restaurant for 45 minutes while they waited for the check.
The accompanying footage shows Petrosian and her unnamed gal pal sitting in the booth, before the camera pans to a nearly empty dining room, emphasizing the apparent ludicrousness of their interminable wait time.
Despite the servers putting the “wait” in waitstaff, the ticked-off TikToker admitted that the “hot pot was gas [Gen Zoomer vernacular for a great meal].”
Petrosian’s “dine and dash” remark was almost surely written in jest — but it set the wheels turning on TikTok as commenters wondered how long they should have to wait before ducking out on the bill.
Many felt that if you’ve waited a certain amount of time you shouldn’t pay a dime.
“No cause last time I waited about an hour & I should have just left bc our server literally left & no one took over???” said one commenter, discussing the supposed statute of limitations.
“I ask twice,” said another. “On the second time I tell them I have to leave in five minutes. I’ve walked out of a few places.”
A third wrote, “After 20 minutes of no contact (at the obvious end of the meal) I start walking to the door and if no one stops me I just leave.”
An admitted dine-and-dasher recalled: “This happened to me one time! We asked 3 times over an hour. I threw down what we thought the total would be and left.”
Meanwhile, other life hackers said that bluffing like you’re going to leave usually gets servers to bring the bill right away.
Other naysayers slammed this alleged bill-skipping loophole —comparable to the mythical 15-minute rule in school, wherein pupils can leave if the teacher doesn’t show in 15 minutes — observing it does not in fact exist.
In other words, there’s no free lunch no matter how late the waiter is.
“It’s illegal to not pay for services rendered. That’s theft,” declared one armchair legal expert. “I guess you don’t pay for hair, nails, dry cleaning, valets etc.”
“I assumed that when I didn’t get the bill, it was free,” snarked another in reference to the so-called late bird special.
A third observed, “When you dine and dash, we’re in the negative because we tip out busboys, dishwashers, bartender, food runner, bar back, and sometimes the hostess.”
Meanwhile, another service industry sympathizer suggested, “That’s when you get up and go to the hostess stand and ask for your bill.”
Check-skipping saw a serious uptick during the pandemic, as restaurants’ contactless payment systems made them susceptible to digital dine-and-dash schemes.
Fortunately, some restaurants have devised some ingenious methods of deterring prospective dine-and-dashers.
One Florida restaurant owner went viral last month after posting videos of miscreants on his “wall of shame.” He would filming the culprit and then upload the often heated confrontation on social media like a bill-skipping scarlet letter.