To ask what is the rudest thing a friend or relative has ever done at a meal out?

[BallsforEarings]

When out at a meal with a bunch of friends, my ex-friend (never popular -known for rudeness!) once asked if she could taste my chilli con carne, I said 'of course' and she proceeded to take a huge forkful and then pronounce loudly 'UGGHHH!! That is SHIT'.

I was left to 'enjoy' the rest of my chilli after that!

Anyone got/had a friend/relative with worse manners?

I've just remembered another one from years ago!
We once went out for an office dinner at pizza express, about 6 of us (senior but not management) and 4 admin ladies. The admins had a bit of a chip on their shoulder about not earning a lot of money so I was surprised when they ordered bottles of prosecco and 3 courses. Everyone else ordered soft drinks and just had 1 or 2 courses.

When the bill came a fellow senior staff member suggested splitting it - around £25 each. I don't usually like doing this when some people have had so much more, but my own food and drinks came to £19 so didn't mind forking out an extra £6.

However the ring leader of the admin staff, A very tenacious woman, was furious. I was confused as they had had more than us so thought it works in her favour. But no, she was angry because we, as higher earners, didn't wanna pay the majority of the bill. She said considering they hardly earned anything they would each put in a tenner and no more meaning 6 of us would have to pay £35 each.

The other people (I think from shock) just feebly went 'ok' but I said absolutely no way, yes we earned more but that doesn't mean we should fund their extravagant meal. I put down £19 and said that everyone will pay for exactly what they ate. It was very awkward after that but I'm pleased I stood my ground. Left for another department 2 months later which was good as the admin ring leader made my working life hell after that!

Went out for a meal with my best friend and her now husband. He's ridiculously tight and doesn't believe in tipping I have since found.

We went to a lovely but not expensive Italian. He and DFr ordered pasta meals while DP and I had steaks (about £5 more). He then started to get very loud and indignant when I asked if we were splitting the bill as we'd "had fucking steaks".

Well guess who ended up paying more when his 4 x £5.50 bottles of cider and DFr's wine were added in. I was on lemonade and DP had 2 pints.

DFr and I used to go out regularly and we had always just split it and assumed it would even out next time.

My younger sister was once at Frankie & benny's with a big group of her friends, they were out celebrating one of the groups birthday, there were about 15 of them in total. I also happened to be in the same restaurant at the same time with my dh and his family so popped over to talk to my dsis. She was visibly upset when I got over to the table so I asked what was wrong and she told me that noone was agreeing over how the bill should be split, the kids were all aged 14-16 and the bill was around £200+ as theyd gone all out ordering started, mains and puddings. My dsis is disabled so gets dla and one of the other kids said that as dsis 'always has loads of money' she thought she could pay the majority [shocked] which turned out dsis was expected to pay about £70+ once they'd worked out what they all deemed appropriate to be her contribution, little sods. Dsis wasn't very good with working out money back then and would get easily stressed when put under pressure and thought she would get into trouble with the staff. I was so bloody mad, I took the bill and worked out what her and her close friend, that went to the meal together with dsis, had eaten and paid the waiter their share and took them both away from the table to join my table after having a stern word with dsis so called friends! Bloody disgusting to take advantage of someone like that. Dsis knew what amount she had to spend and that she had enough cash to cover her share but had I not been there she would have probably shoved the bill onto her card as another of the group cheerily suggested!

A bit off topic but went out for a close friend's engagement, about 15 of us.

Some people were up early the next day and left once they'd finished their meal, totting up what they owed and leaving it on the table, others lingered longer.

When the bill came, a service charge had been added, of course one or all of us should have expected this but we hadn't or had forgotten about it. Friend who was getting engaged didn't have much money and was stressing about this extra charge that some people had left without paying for. I said how about we all chip in a little to cover it.

At least 4 that I remember, said they couldn't afford it. I didn't want my friend being upset so I just told the waiter to stick the charge on my card.

The people that had left early, I texted to explain. One never replied and the next time I saw her she said she didn't know anything about it and wouldn't pay, another replied to the text saying service charges were optional and we shouldn't have paid, and the other one kicked off royally! Really aggressive in her texts back, didn't believe me wanted a receipt to prove it etc etc.

Really bad form, I thought.

Lying

It was done because she deliberately put the 20p down on the table so everyone saw how much change there was that he was generously offering as the tip, compared to how much had been put in as a tip by everyone on the table. They totted up what the tip should have been (and probably each person lied about what they had put in as it was way above what a tip for that sized table would normally have been), and then made him pay 3 times that to make up for the other times he admitted to doing it. We had a good session after work that night, shame it didnt last us very long really :o

Ha... thank you, Bogeyface... absolutely brilliant!

TruJay i wish you were my sister! That's amazing that you did that for her, bless her!

And I dont know if he was banned or just didnt go because he was too tight to pay. But, given the royal row that went on I suspect he wasnt invited out with them again.

The rest of the family were really nice though, very apologetic and the mans poor mother looked close to tears. I really felt sorry for her, she kept saying sorry but she had nothing to apologise for, as we said to her.

It wasnt the tip stealing that was that made it memorable for me (it happened loads), but the beautiful way that my colleague handled it. You know how sometimes people are so cool and collected and you wish that you could be like that but know that you wouldnt be? Thats how I have felt ever since I saw her do that!

Went out with a group of friends - and 2 brought their children (6 in all), not normally a problem but totally unannounced this time. It was something like a £15 a head set menu place which DP (now DH) had budgeted for as it was not long before we were getting married. We just had the set menu and a coke each.

One mum thought it was a good idea to let the children sit separately on their own table. They were early / mid teens so it seemed ok. Except they all ordered 4-5 of the 'luxury' hot chocolates each at about £4 a throw. Adding it onto the 'main' bill.

At the end of the meal the separate table mum demanded the bill be split between the adults in the group - so that we'd be paying for the kids' meals (still £15 each as over 12s) PLUS all their hot chocolates.

She was really angry when most of us refused.

I organised a surprise party for my DH and his friends at a nice restaurant. I planned it so everyone ordered their own drinks from the bar directly so I only needed to sort the food bill (easy yeah?). Despite all his friends being employed (no pleading poverty) the kitty was hugely short at the end of the night. His richest friend buggered off without paying anything and those left had to help me cover the short fall. I contacted some of those who'd left before the end by text over the next day or two. Some were rightly hacked off (explained had had less deliberately)but paid up. Some just transferred me some money with no quibbling. Rich friend I saw face to face and offered to pay his share in front of my DH then slimed out of it when I asked him again directly. Will never do it it again as it left a nasty taste in my mouth. His closest friends screwed me over big time.

Some places I've worked the bill has been massively overpaid when everyone has worked out their share. Some places have colleagues who collectively are massively short. Same industry, different mentality. Stressful.

Thank you Chippy, I was just so baffled that they all thought this was ok?! It made me wonder who had previously taken the piss with my dsis.
she's 21 now and much more confident with money and doesn't take any crap any more. She lost a lot of friends over her disability, it has a big stigma attached to it, thankfully the friends she has now are true friends even though it took some hurtful times to get to this stage.
Her old 'best friend' once took her to a posh cocktail bar and said they should open a tab meaning they had to leave their cards behind the bar, fair enough as they were both leaving their cards, bill came and yep, you've guessed it, the friend forgot to leave her card and my dsis ended up footing the bill after friend ordered herself plenty of wine/cocktails, grrrrr!

We went to a Japanese steakhouse on holiday. It was one of those where the food is cooked at your table, and you share a table with another group or couples if your party size is below 12.

At the table next to us a commotion started. A lady who was out with her mortified teenage kids was loudly insisting that everyone, including the strangers at her table, ordered vegetarian options for starters and that her main course was cooked first, before any meat was done. She was kind enough not to mind the other people at her table eating meat after she'd been served, even though she thought it was revolting.

Did I mention we were in a steakhouse? The fact the word Steakhouse was in the name of the restaurant didn't put that vegetarian customer off. She and her poor, embarrassed kids were moved to their own table.

Whoops, that wasn't a friend or relative.

I went for lunch with a friend who licked her pasta sauce off her plate when she'd finished. I've always thought she must have done it as a joke and that's not how she normally behaves. We were in a naice Italian restaurant.

If we're telling 'being rude to waiting staff' stories my MIL is classic. What's worse is she doesn't think she's being rude, just telling them what she thinks. Well yes, but you don't have to say it like they're shit on your shoe.

Regularly orders a dry Martini and tonic. Having never served in a bar and not drinking it myself I don't understand how it's so confusing but apparently staff don't always serve the right thing. Which may be exasperating but how about gentle education rather than loud humiliation? FIL does the ordering, MIL does the 'dog poo face' tasting and complaining. Being a martyr saying 'it's OK I'll just have a tonic water. They can't get that wrong' when she sends back the drink. She also asks for big changes to dishes. Not like swapping the side of one for the side of another. More like asking for roast potatoes (not offered with any dish on the menu) instead of mash. Then when the waiting staff checks with the kitchen and comes back apologetic with other carb/potato based suggestions she again goes into martyr mode 'no no I'll just have nothing then'. FFS. It's not like asking for an egg with a steak when they do an egg salad. It's like asking for pineapple with a steak when no dish on the menu has pineapple as an ingredient. Where does she think they're going to magic it from?? And tutting PA at how disappointed she is in them. Can be really cringey.

Not family or friend, thank the gods, but I saw a stranger, in a big [Chinese] buffet place take his plate of now-empty mussel shells and dump them back in the chafing dish. I tried to tell the manager about it, and was met with blank look. Nothing of my mention of food hygiene got through. He offered us 50% off our meal, but that wasn't my point.

Honestly can't think why I didn't ring the Elfen Safety Dept on their ass.

XH once took me out for a surprise Valentine's Day meal with friends of ours. The surprise was that he'd told them I'd pay on my credit card and he pocketed the cash.

I once went out for a friend's birthday. 3 people proceeded to drink heavily, one even ordered champagne for the whole table to toast the birthday boy. The drinks bill came to '00's and we refused to split the bill. We left the 3 of them drunkenly trying to work out how they'd pay for their bottles of wine and the champagne.

at some of these stories.
I obviously know all the 'right' sort of people then

DH and I have a friend who earned significantly more than us at one point, and liked to eat out a lot when single and didn't like to eat alone, so would invite DH and I plus our 2 children. We kept saying no, because we simply couldn't afford it. When he realised this was the case, he very generously took us to a Harvester and paid for all four of us as well as himself! He did this at least 4 times a year bless him.
We have since returned the favour when ever we can, but it still doesn't feel enough to repay him as he paid for an extra 4 people, where as we only paid an extra one! We always paid the tip though.

We also went out last year just before Xmas with a group of people, as our friend was so busy with Uni and work that she organised a meal to get all her friends together in one place so she could see us all just before Xmas.
Some of these people are friends of mine too, and some were not.
Our 3 children, (youngest under 2) were included in the invite, I knew not everyone in our group was fond of children, so we sat ourselves at the very end of the tables so that anyone not wanting to be around children didn't have to be IYSWIM. Well the meal itself was a right old faff, the wait staff forgetting items (even though they'd been written down) When things did arrive half the orders were wrong and so forth. The company however was lovely, even those that didn't like children were charmed by my 3, especially when my youngest shared out her chocolate buttons to the entire table.
All 3 kids were impeccably behaved (I was so bloody proud of them that day)
Any way, the bill arrived and a lot of things had been missed, so trying to work it out was fun. The general rule was you paid for yourself rather than split, which was TOTALLY fair in my opinion, as otherwise people would have been subsidising for our kids and why should they...
So we were trying to work out this massive cock up of a bill, when a colleague of my friend (who I'd never met until this day) piped up with, well my order isn't even on here so I will pay for some of YouSits kiddywinks meals as they were so well behaved, one of the guys who doesn't even like children said he would pay for some too, and so did his Mrs. We tried to insist that no, that wasn't necessary, to be told that this way it works out that we all pay roughly £10-15 each (was a breakfast at a not too costly restaurant)
I was chuffed to bits at the generosity of these people. I'll never forget that meal, one of my loveliest memories tbh.

There you go, some happy stories to counteract some of the bad!

I'm so glad I don't know people like the ones in some of these posts. I'm honestly shocked people behave this way

weefree

Having some experience I would ask if she wanted a dry martini and tonic (2 parts gin and ¾ parts vermouth) or a dry Martini and tonic (so the brand name vermouth in a standard 50ml measure).

But.....I know that many bar staff wouldnt get the difference and would probably just serve vermouth and tonic.

TBH it sounds like she likes a G&T but wants to be a massive pain in the arse about it so has gone out of her way to make it easy to get wrong.

Dh and I did the falling asleep thing. I cringe when I think back. We were in Hawaii and we had eaten dinner at about 8 been out for drinks and then got the munchies. All the restaurants are open really late so we went for to a Frankie and Benny's type place at about midnight. After the waitress had taken our order we both fell asleep. The waitress woke me up when the good arrived but I couldn't wake dh, I had a few mouthfuls then fell asleep again face down in my carbonara

Dbil is a greedy fucker, examples include:

Paella on my birthday one year, five people on a round table (the idea is that you eat the segment of the paella tin in front of you) Bil helps himself to all five of the big langoustines.

Xmas lunch, 10 people, 20 pigs in blankets, Bil helps himself to eight of them.

I used to work for TGI Fridays, and people nicking the tips/not leaving one at all is extremely common. Always nice when your entire section is taken up all night by a party of 20 (which is much harder than serving 5 tables of 4 people) and the fuckers stiff you...

We went out for a friends birthday meal. One of the men there was very keen to let us know he had been to Eton. It was an Asian restaurant and we had shared starters, only every time a plate of 4 starters was put down in the middle of our group of 4 people he would put all of them on his plate. Then he would stretch right across his neighbours (think armpit in the face) to reach other people's share of starters. When the main meal came I had big shell on prawns in mine and he took great pains to tell me I was eating them incorrectly and would I like him to show me how.

I replied that I didn't think I needed lessons in manners from someone so appallingly behaved himself.

CatWreath - I know this isn't relevant but where do you go to get paella like that?!?! I love paella!!!

Ohh I hate greedy, inconsiderate people so much. Why do they do this? Don't they realise that other people need to eat too or do they just not care?

My MIL once farted really loudly and continuously at a dinner party just as everyone was about to eat. She was completely unembarrassed and just went on talking like it was the most normal thing in the world. It really put me off my food and was disgusting. She still walks around farting but funnily enough she is able to control it when she is out in public or at a "sophisticated" event.