A woman from Tampa, Fla., says she had to cut off a close friend after witnessing her rude behavior at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse. She figures out she was sending meals back at multiple restaurants because she was “too broke” to afford them.
In a viral video with over 1.5 million views, Ohana Star (@ohanastarr) says she initially offered to pay for her friend’s meals when she knew she couldn’t afford to dine at the upscale restaurants with the rest of the group.
“I do not care if you have no money. If I want to go eat, Imma pay for you,” she explains.
However, she eventually had to set a boundary after her friend continued to take advantage of her kindness. That’s when she noticed that her friend kept sending her food back when she was expected to pay on her own.
Star brought up the issue to another mutual friend and asked her to tell her “broke friend” to stop sending the food back, as it was embarrassing her. But she quickly reached her breaking point the next time they went out, this time at Ruth’s Chris.
Again? Really?
Star says she knew her friend was about to send the food back again as soon as the Ruth’s Chris waiter placed the wedge salad in front of her.
“She goes, ‘I didn’t ask for this. I asked for lettuce and ranch. That’s it,'” she recalls her friend telling the waiter.
The waiter clarified with her friend that she did in fact order the side salad off of the menu.
“I about d— near snapped,” Star says. “I look at her, and I say, ‘Are you 5? Who eats lettuce and ranch?'”
The waitress brought out a new salad, with only lettuce and ranch. However, her friend still wasn’t satisfied and sent it back again. Star couldn’t take it anymore.
“She’s being rude as f— to the staff. She’s sending back lettuce and ranch. We’re in a nice-a– steakhouse,” she rants. “She cannot be doing this.”
She confronted her friend, who then started to throw a fit, standing up and telling her to just send her steak back too as she leaves.
“I’m about to explode,” Star continues.
She turned to her other friend and told her that she believes her broke friend sends back meals because she can’t afford them. While she says she sympathized with her situation, she also drew the line at how her friend treats the restaurant workers.
Star says she cut off her broke friend after the meal, saying she can’t accept her behavior. She also stopped being friends with the other woman in their friend group since she seemed to accept the broke friend’s behavior.
Have Servers Noticed A Pattern?
Star isn’t the only one to call out the unacceptable strategy to get items knocked off the bill.
Fox News reported that server @girlypopzonly on TikTok lamented that some customers will eat half of their food and send it back to avoid paying their tab. The server says that the manager actually comps most of the items off of the bill, which may just reinforce the bad behavior.
On the r/TalesFromYourServer subreddit, other servers shared how they react when customers try to send perfectly good food back.
“I love when people send our award-winning, 1st place festival winning food back. Like what kind of exquisite food are you eating that our festival-winning food ‘doesn’t have no flavor,'” one lamented.
Another said, “It depends on what it is. Ur not gonna order the most expensive thing & send it back for no good reason. I’ll offer to pack it up for u if u’d like to order something else.”
Viewers Praise The TikToker’s Reaction
In the comments of the viral TikTok, viewers praised Star for cutting off her broke friend after she refused to change her behavior.
“As someone who used to work as a waitress….these were literally the worst customers ever. thank you for speaking up @ the restaurant bc were not able to,” one wrote.
“I had a friend tell me she put a hair in her food bc she didn’t want to pay , never spoke to her again after that,” a second shared. A woman in Texas recently got caught trying to scam a family-owned restaurant by doing that.
A third has a slightly different take on the situation, suggesting that Star did her former friend a favor. “I’m so proud of you for teaching her that. You’re a good friend for that in my eyes,” they add.
Others say there are better ways to go out to eat if you’re tight on money.
One suggested, “She could just eat before going & just get a lil drink or appetizer. Or not go. So may other options besides what she was doing.”
“I eat before and get a nice little appetizer and a coke,” another said.
BroBible reached out to Star via Instagram and TikTok direct message and to Ruth’s Chris via email for further comment. We will update the story when they respond.