She Allowed an 81-Year-Old to Order a Kids Meal—Until She Denied Her the Included Ice Cream and Triggered a Manager Confrontation
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When you’re paying for a meal, you probably expect to get everything that comes with it.
But for one family, it almost didn’t work out that way while celebrating a birthday at a steakhouse with their 81-year-old grandmother.
Since she couldn’t eat a large meal, they ordered her something from the kids menu, and the waitress didn’t say there was a problem.
Later, when the kids asked for the ice cream that came with their meals, the family asked for one for their grandmother too.
That’s when the waitress refused and said she couldn’t have it because she wasn’t a child.
Read on to see what happened next.
AITAH for calling the manager and making a scene when waitress refused to bring ice cream for my grandmother
It has become a family discussion, and I would like to see what you all think. And, for context, it was my cousin’s birthday, and she invited us and the rest of the family to have dinner at this steakhouse restaurant that has really good bread to celebrate.
This was on a Thursday, so we ended up arriving at the restaurant at around 8. We were a fairly big party of 14 people, and there were 2 kids amongst our party.
Anyways, when we arrived and took a seat at our table, our waitress arrived, and we started giving her our orders.
The server’s attitude was apparent from the start.
Right off the bat, she seemed to come in with a very curt and downer attitude, as if she was just tired of everything and was not too happy about getting our table, especially near closing time (9:30).
When asked about the bread, she gave us a very dry response and said, “We don’t have any bread anymore. We ran out.”
While it was something my cousin was really wanting to get, we stayed and proceeded to put in our orders since we were already there.
My grandma, who is 81, can no longer eat big plates (which most of the menu contained), and there were no meals or menus for seniors/elderly people, as some restaurants tend to offer.
At first, the waitress didn’t say anything.
So we asked for a dish that was from the kids’ menu since those were smaller plates and the best suited for her. I do want to mention that it did state that the kids’ menu was for children 12 and under.
However, the waitress did not indicate an issue and wrote down our order for her. So we assumed all was good.
Some time passed, and we were all having a good time despite the waitress taking forever to bring out our food. Mind you, the restaurant wasn’t at all packed for the same reason that it was pretty late.
So when we got to the part where we were starting to finish our food, the 2 kids in our party were asking for the ice cream (the meals from the kids’ menu came with complimentary ice cream).
Suddenly, the waitress had a different stance on kids meals.
Remembering that my grandma had also ordered a kids’ meal, we asked the waitress for the ice cream as well.
My grandma initially said she didn’t really want the ice cream, but she changed her mind when we said that she could just give it to one of the kids (she adores her grandchildren).
But the waitress said, “No, she’s not a little girl. She can’t have any.”
At that moment, I saw the baffled and irked faces of my aunt, mom, and brother.
Upset, they called the waitress back over.
While some chuckled a bit at her abrupt response (they thought she was joking at first), she did say it in a very corrective, condescending tone, which those of us who heard her took issue with.
As she walked away to get our checks and process payments, my brother commented that the way she responded was rude and that my grandma had the right to get her ice cream, as it was part of her meal.
To shorten what happened next, I called the waitress, and my brother insisted that my grandma should get her ice cream because it came with her order.
Unfortunately, the waitress stuck to her decision.
The waitress said she couldn’t because the menu said it was for kids only.
My brother then said that if that was the case, why did she take her order in the first place, and that my grandma was paying full price for that meal (therefore entitled to get the included ice cream).
So then I asked to speak to the manager.
Lucky for them, the manager finally sided with the grandma.
The manager came and seemed to side with the waitress at first, but my brother kept his stance and said that ultimately, it made no sense for the waitress to not honor the ice cream but still charge us full price.
Some other people seemed to notice that something was up but did not interfere. After some back and forth, the manager agreed to bring her the ice cream and told the waitress to do so.
She brought it, but as she saw that my grandma instead just passed it on to the kids, she gave us an annoyed stare.
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AITA?
Um, okay. But if the meals came with ice cream, why did the kids need more?
Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit think about this whole thing.
According to this comment, the family was in the wrong.
This reader thinks it’s very petty.
Apparently, this person thinks the restaurant should’ve just honored it.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a tech support worker who told a manager a computer needed replaced, only to be told no thanks.
It’s a little more complicated for this reader.
It’s easy to see why they brought it up, but come on.
The restaurant was nice enough to let them order from the kids menu in the first place.
But then insisting on getting something that the grandma wasn’t even going to eat is just ridiculous.
Sometimes, you just gotta appreciate what was already done and move on.
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