‘I Would Have Walked Out’: Texas Roadhouse Customers Order Tea, Steak, A1 Sauce. They Can’t Believe How Long They Had to Wait

Tipping at a restaurant is usually expected, no matter what kind of service you get. To leave a $0 tip, something has to have gone extremely wrong.

After all, in the United States, tips aren’t considered supplemental pay for tipped workers. Most servers don’t make even close to minimum wage without them.

However, some consumers don’t think it’s required in certain situations.

One TikTok creator, Desiree Godwin (@mama.dee), shared a Texas Roadhouse experience she believes may be one of those cases.

What Went Wrong At Texas Roadhouse?

In her video, which has garnered over 545,900 views, Godwin starts by setting the scene.

“Okay, real-life scenario. You go to a steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse. After waiting for an hour for a table, you finally get sat down,” she says.

She explains that their server initially greeted them and told them she’d be right back.

From the beginning, she says they tried to be patient. “Me and my husband are very easygoing people… we do understand that we are not the only people in the restaurant being waited on,” she explains. “So we try to be as patient as we can until our patience is up.”

That patience started to wear thin. “About 10 minutes go by, no drinks,” she says.

When the server finally returned, she said they ordered sweet teas, one without lemon, with her husband also asking for a drink on the rocks. The server responded, “’Perfect. Got it. I’ll be right back with your drinks.’”

But that didn’t happen. “Twenty minutes goes by. No exaggeration,” Godwin says. “Twenty minutes goes by and she finally comes back with just our sweet teas.”

Even then, the order wasn’t right. “My sweet tea had lemon in it,” she says.

Godwin says she initially tried to brush it off. “I told my husband that I was gonna try to drink it,” she says. “‘Cause she dumped the teas and was gone.”

When the server returned to take their food order, 10 minutes later, Godwin asked for a new tea since hers had lemon ‘stuff’ in the bottom.

“She picks my drink up, and she goes, ‘There’s stuff inside of it?’” Godwin recalls. She says she clarified, “’Yes ma’am. … There’s lemon flakes and lemon seeds down in the bottom of the tea.’”

More Issues Followed

According to Godwin, the server responded, “’Oh, gotcha… I’ll go grab you a new one,’” and told her husband his drink should be coming soon.

It did, but with a mistake yet again. “Here comes the bartender… and he brings him his drink with no ice in it,” she says. “And he goes, ‘That was supposed to be on the rocks.’”

Godwin says another “good 10 minutes” went by before their food finally arrived, though she notes it wasn’t brought by their server. While she says the food itself was correct, the service issues continued.

After getting their meals, they asked for A1 sauce. “I promise you, another 15 minutes goes by,” she says.

When the server eventually returned, Godwin says she was unsure of what she had missed. “She goes, ‘I feel like I’m forgetting something at one of my tables… something’s telling me that it’s you guys,’” she recalls.

By then, it barely mattered. “My husband’s literally halfway done with his steak at this point,” Godwin says, adding that the sauce only arrived for “maybe the last two or three bites.”

She also points out the timing of the final interaction. The server asked about drink refills, she says, “as we were paying our tab to leave.”

Godwin briefly mentions their appetizer as well. “The cactus blossom was absolutely burnt and disgusting… which I know that’s not the waitress’s fault,” she says.

After walking through the experience, she asks viewers what they would’ve done.

“With everything that happened in the hour we sat to eat,” Godwin asks, “how much tip would you leave that waitress, if any at all?”

In the caption, she added another detail. “We still left $5 just because we know that’s how they feed themselves/their families but good lord haha,” she wrote.

Commenters Say They Wouldn’t Have Tipped

In the comments, many viewers said the level of service at Texas Roadhouse didn’t warrant a standard tip.

“I tip based on service. Poor service means no tip,” one person wrote.

Others said they would have handled the situation differently much earlier. “Ummm I would’ve asked for another waiter/waitress after for the 1st 30 minutes,” another commented.

Some viewers even said Godwin was more generous than they would have been. “I mean, you were nice by giving her five dollars… I would’ve just given her two,” a third added.

Can You Skip Tipping If The Service Is Bad?

What counts as “bad service” can be subjective, but according to etiquette experts, there are very few situations where it justifies leaving no tip at all.

Thomas Farley, also known as Mister Manners, told CNBC that it helps to have a general scale in mind when deciding how much to tip. Around 20% is considered the standard, with higher tips reserved for exceptional service.

Even in cases of poor service, Farley says leaving at least 10% is still appropriate. If the experience is bad enough that you feel like not tipping at all, he recommends bringing the issue up with management as well.

BroBible has reached out to Texas Roadhouse via email and Godwin via TikTok messages for comment.