Some restaurant shifts are so chaotic they are difficult to describe. TikTok user @littledrownedrat, who goes by Theresa, says she recently experienced one she will never forget. The video has received 2.6 million views and 3,672 comments.
Theresa said she has worked in the service industry for 10 years and described the shift as one of the worst she has experienced. Before beginning her story, she noted that she no longer works at the restaurant.
“I've been in the service industry for 10 years now. I've seen some things. I've said some things. I've served some things. But nothing compares to the shift that I'm about to tell you about right now,” she begins.
According to Theresa, the restaurant was short-staffed when she arrived for her Friday night shift. She said she was missing about half of her coworkers, including the food runner.
A new line cook was also working that night. Theresa said the cook was inexperienced. “She was sweet, but…didn't make the cut. Chopped,” she said.
Once the shift began, Theresa said she had 10 tables, compared with the five she would normally handle. Eight of those tables eventually needed food sent back to the kitchen.
“It was the new line cook,” she said. “She was just slapping food, popping it back off.”
The problems continued throughout the shift. After several customers needed their food cooked longer, a woman carrying a chicken dish approached Theresa.
“I look at her. She shoves the chicken into my chest,” Theresa said. “She goes, ‘This is undercooked.’ I look down…pink. I say, ‘Oh my.’ She goes, ‘I ate half of it.’”
The woman was upset about the undercooked chicken, according to Theresa.
“I think she thought that I had wrung the chicken's neck, plucked the chicken's feathers, slapped the chicken onto the fryer, picked the chicken back up off the fryer before it was ever cooked, and served it to her myself,” Theresa said. “I think she was confused about how restaurants work.”
Theresa said the rest of the shift remained stressful and chaotic. At one point, she began crying. The woman’s table also had its meals comped, according to Theresa.
@littledrownedrat Chicken was almost as pink as my face. #storytime #serviceindustry #serverlife #serverproblems #serviceindustryproblems
♬ original sound - Theresa Rowley
Other commenters share restaurant experiences
The story prompted other commenters to share their own experiences working in restaurants.
“Many, many people are confused about how restaurants work,” one user wrote.
Others focused on the customer's decision to eat half of the chicken before realizing it was undercooked. “How do you eat half of the chicken when it’s raw?!” one commenter asked.
“Who puts the new person on protein,” another wrote, referring to the new line cook mentioned in the video.
Other commenters said they could relate to Theresa's experience of having a particularly difficult restaurant shift.
“Uhg I've had nights like this. The way I drive home in complete silence and sit in my car for 20 mins just staring at my house after shifts like that,” one commenter wrote.
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the details of the incident described by TikTok user @littledrownedrat. The account of the restaurant shift, including the customer's claim that she had eaten half of an undercooked chicken, comes solely from Theresa's account in the TikTok video.
