Working in service means you’re constantly bracing yourself for whatever customers come up with next. You deal with low tips, short tempers, and the occasional strange requests that shock the whole staff.
That’s the kind of night one server says she had when a woman ordered a drink so confusing it became a show for the entire restaurant.
What Was The Bizarre Drink Order?
Kalina (@kalinaisabella) posted a storytime on TikTok, where she walks viewers through the drink order step by step. Her video racked up more than 3.1 million views.
“Today at work… I ordered a drink exactly the way it was ordered from me, and I had everyone in the restaurant taking pictures,” she begins. The request came from a woman who first asked her to “go in the back and tell me all of the fresh fruit you have.”
Kalina says she did exactly that. “We got, like, a ton of berries,” she tells her, and the woman replied, “’Oh perfect, I want a strawberry lemonade.’” She also repeatedly called it a “baby lemonade,” insisting the bartender would know what that meant.
The order started spiraling from there. The woman wanted pink lemonade, light ice, no sweetener, and “no citrus because I’ll break out in hives.” Kalina then clarifies for viewers: The restaurant’s lemonade is only lemon juice, simple syrup, and water.
“’So you want a lemonade without any sweetener and without any lemon… but with strawberries?’” she recalls clarifying. The woman responded “yes” and then added, “’Tell them they can just top it off with Sprite.’”
Kalina says she rang it in as a “lemonade, no lemon, no sugar, strawberries.” The bartender looked at the ticket and went, per, Kalina, “‘What does this mean?’” Kalina further explained, and they muddled strawberries and added Sprite, exactly as requested.
When Kalina brought the drink to the table, she says the woman barely touched it. “’I don’t think they used fresh strawberries,’” she recalls the customer saying. Kalina says she told her she watched the bartender muddle them. Still, the woman wasn’t convinced.
Later, she held up the drink. “’I just don’t like this,’” the woman reportedly said.
Kalina admits she was at a loss. “It’s the weirdest lemonade you probably ever had,” she says.
Then the request circles right back to the beginning. The woman asked once more, “’I just want a lemonade, no citrus, no sugar, with strawberries.’” Kalina says she took a moment because she had no idea how to respond without losing it.
Eventually, the woman says, “Tell your bartender I want a baby lemonade with strawberries. If they can’t do it, … I’ll just take some muddled strawberries with soda water.”
That, at least, is doable. Kalina tells the bartender, “Fill that glass with strawberries…top it off with bubble water.” The customer finally drank it and “loved it.”
Do Bartenders Often Get Strange Requests Like This?
Anyone who’s ever worked behind a bar has at least one nightmare order seared into their memory. On Reddit, bartenders have shared everything from virgin espresso martinis (which are essentially chilled shots of espresso) to equal parts whiskey and whole milk. One especially cursed drink involved “3.5 oz Johnny Walker Black over ice in a snifter filled to the top with milk and 6 olives.”
Servers on r/talesfromyourserver have seen strange combinations as well: “1/2 Sprite, 1/2 Dr. Pepper, shot of Firefly Sweet Tea vodka, and shot of well tequila, topped with lemon juice.”
Every restaurant has different rules for off-menu drinks, but one thing stays consistent across the board: your server and bartender talk. And they absolutely judge your drink order.
Bartenders In The Comments Don’t Recognize The Drink Either
Viewers jumped in with their own thoughts, especially bartenders who say this drink makes no sense.
“As a bartender…WTF IS A BABY LEMONADE???” one wrote.
Another said the order was basically “strawberry water.”
Others pointed out the flaw in her allergy claim. “No citrus or sweetener, but top it off with Sprite, which contains citrus and sweetener,” someone noted.
“WHYYYY was she using the word lemonade at all??” another asked.
Kalina’s comments filled up fast with service-industry workers who say the order is now haunting them, too.
BroBible has reached out to Kalina via email for more details.