Rude diners slammed with $4k bill after mistreating restaurant owner they mistook for a waiter

Editor's note: This article was originally published on January 14, 2022. It has since been updated.

Although many like to believe that karma will eventually get to even the cruelest of human beings, the r/ProRevenge is proof that sometimes, a smart, nonviolent revenge plan can be extremely satisfying. Reddit user u/RRinfo brought one such story to the internet a couple of years ago when they recounted how they got back at a bunch of rude diners who thought they could bully their way into a restaurant without a reservation by playing the "I know the owner" card. Little did they know that they were talking to the owner himself and not a waiter they could push around to get whatever they wanted.

u/RRinfo began the post by explaining that the restaurant was a family business founded by their grandparents in the 70s. The Reddit user eventually came to inherit the restaurant from their parents and through a great deal of hard work, remodeling, PR and planning, managed to turn it into a popular destination for locals and celebrities alike. "On one night a group of six women walks in. Five of them look like they are still in their early 20s and the head of the group looked like she was in her mid-20s," they continued. "When she came up to me she told me she needed a table for 6. I replied 'of course, can I please get the name on the reservation.' She looked at me and said 'oh, I didn't make one but it's ok the owner is a personal friend of mine, he said he always has one or two tables that he keeps open for special guests and said we can have one of those tonight.'"

The Reddit user explained that the woman was lying about knowing the owner since they—the owner she claimed to know—"had no clue who this woman was. I told her 'I am sorry but we can not seat anyone without a reservation as you can see we do not have any seats available.' I didn't want to go all out and say I'm the owner and we have never spoken before so I never promised you a thing because I didn't wanna embarrass her in front of the other girls she was with. She then went on and said out loud to one of the other girls to take a picture of me, she will speak to the owner and make sure I'm either cleaning the toilet or fired by the end of the week. The other girls following her lead were like 'yeah kiss your minimum wage job goodbye.'"

In the post, RRinfo continued that the woman "went on and said 'look you can just give us a table or I can make life very difficult for you, this is not worth losing your job.' Constantly pointing, just trying to put me down saying things like 'obviously, you aren't anyone here because if you were you would know who I am and never even try to tell me anything other than yes or of course.' Constantly trying to belittle me and get that table."

"At this point, it was a long day for me and the way I saw it," RRinfo wrote, "I had three options. 1) tell her I'm the owner and just call her out on all of this. 2) just give her the table and let it be 3) teach queen B and her little minions a lesson. I smiled at her, said of course ma'am follow me please and I gave her one of the 3 tables we keep open in case a celebrity comes in. I told her I apologize for everything and she is right it would be simpler to just give her the table I also told her that the first three rounds of drinks will be complimentary. I sat them down and personally served them."

"[The oldest of the women] gave me her cards, and told the minions that tonight was on her. I took their orders and got them their free drinks and told them due to how busy we are tonight there might be a delay in the food. They ordered their 3 rounds and still no food, they eventually called me and asked me to check on it; the whole time giving me the world's most nasty attitude since even before they ordered," RRinfo wrote. "I told them I will check on it but also asked if they would like any more drinks. They ordered two more rounds by the time the appetizers arrived. At this point, they are all drunk. As more food arrives, more drinks are ordered."

"What these girls never realized was they are at our VIP table which alone costs a few thousand just to sit in (but I didn't charge them for that) what I did charge them for was all the super expensive cocktails they had throughout the whole night (except for the first three rounds). In addition, the table they were sitting in was VIP so the menus were a bit different. It had certain higher-end menu options such as white truffle, black caviar dishes and specially imported west coast oysters among other things," the Reddit user revealed. They also explained that although, at one point, they reconsidered the trap they were laying out, "some things reassured me throughout the night. Such as one of the [younger women] asking me if I felt like my life was worthless since all I ever became was a waiter. Also, one of my other employees told me how they were discussing how to 'f*** with me' to the point that they can just do this whenever they want and I will know to always give them a table. There were a bunch of comments like that the whole night. So I kept on with their life lesson."

At the end of the night, RRinfo handed the women a bill of $4,232.23. "I have never seen anyone sober up so quickly. She went from laughing and giggling with her friends to nearly in tears," they wrote. "Extremely rattled queen B simply said 'one second I need to use the washroom.' 10 min later she comes back with new makeup (obviously she has been crying) and makes up a whole story on how the food was awful, the drinks were bad and so on... Then as if a light bulb went off in her head she again mentioned her relationship with the owner as if it were to give me additional incentive to cut the bill in half."

"Holding back a grin at this point I told her no. Just no, I can't change the bill. She whips out her phone and shows me a series of texts with someone called '(my restaurant's name owner)' which pretty much I realized was what she was doing in the bathroom just probably changed one of the other minion's contact name and deleted previous texts so start this new script. I told her that's not the owner's cell number. Her reply was 'he has multiple phones for business and stuff of course you don't know all his numbers.' I told her already in a less accommodating voice, 'cut the crap little girl, you don't know the owner, you have never been here before and if you keep yelling I will call the police.' Her demeanor changed and she was trying to defend herself the best she could. My reply to her weak comebacks was 'my grandparents founded this restaurant, my family has been running this place for generations. I have worked here almost my entire life. I am the one and only owner of this restaurant and I have never once seen you, heard of you and I definitely never made a stranger I don't know and have never met before tonight any promises.' Queen B was in tears. I said 'Now I gave you the table you wanted one of your specially reserved tables for high-end clients which I didn't charge you for and I gave you three rounds of free drinks, if you don't pay your bill I will call the cops and hand them your ID.'" The women eventually pooled together whatever they had and settled the bill, RRinfo revealed.