These Olive Garden customers thought they were having fun with their server. But viewers pointed out she might have actually been super annoyed with them. There’s more to the story than you think. And you might surprise yourself with whose side you’re on.
In a viral video with more than 2.9 million views, content creators @thebattlebranchboys shared what they thought was harmless fun with their server.
The two men were out at an Olive Garden in Arkansas with a third friend. They had a large house salad for the table. Their server came up to them. And, as they do at Olive Garden, she asked if they’d like fresh grated parmesan on the salad.
They, of course, said yes. And she told them to tell her “when,” as in, when to stop grating. Now most people tend to stop the server after a few seconds, even if they do want more cheese, out of politeness or a sense of awkwardness.
That wasn’t the case here.
The server seemed to have just put in a new hunk of cheese. And as she got to work cranking the grater, the men just let her keep going and going, laughing as a cheese mountain formed.
For nearly 2 minutes, Kaylee kept grating until there was nothing left. The men thanked her for being such a trooper and assured her she’d get a great tip at the end.
If the server was bothered by the interaction, her demeanor didn’t let on. And she even offered to bring out a fresh salad if they felt like the cheese was actually more than they wanted.
“I’ve never felt more uncomfortable in my life!” the caption read.
Commenters Critique
“She secretly hated yall in that moment,” a top comment read.
“Idc what anyone says this is just so entitled and rude yes it is very tiring and subjecting someone to this for your humor is so degrading and a form of servitude idc,” a person said.
“And then another table won’t tip because she’s running behind now,” another pointed out.
“I would’ve walked away after 30 seconds,” a commenter shared.
@thebattlebranchboys I’ve never felt more uncomfortable in my life! 😆 Amazing cheese grindage. Elapsed time: 2 minutes. She got a huge tip!! #OliveGarden #cheese
Did They Tip Big?
Despite the people saying that they did all that just to tip the server $6, in a follow-up video you can see the men actually gave her $250 which she seemed deeply appreciative for.
That’s easily more than double or triple their bill total.
Would They Do It Again?
In reply to a critical comment, the @thebattlebranchboys shared that they were genuinely unaware that a server would be irritated with their behavior.
“I’ll be honest, I never dreamed this would offend a server. seriously. after reading comments from some of the servers, I feel terrible. he really likes cheese on his salad and hes never had enough from a server,” they explained.
Some people suggested that if they wanted that much cheese, they should have asked to keep the grater so that they could get their fill instead of making a server do a 2-minute arm workout for their sake.
“Next time im asking for the [grater]! I seriously feel bad. in our defense, she had us for our salads only. we had to take the food to go so we could make a hospital visit before visiting hours closed. so she got a pretty good tip for 2 mins of gringage.”
BroBible reached out to @thebattlebranchboys for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message and to Olive Garden via email.