Restaurant accused of “scamming” for higher tips by adding more food to order

A woman has accused a restaurant of attempting to scam her by adding ‘complimentary’ dishes to their order, just so the tip would be bigger.

The video, uploaded by TikToker @smoneyyz, has sparked a wider conversation on the platform. 

She recalls a story where she and a group of friends went out for some drinks at a “fine dining” establishment. 

“We all got one drink each… We were all in agreement that we didn’t want a huge, sit-down, entree-style dinner. We’re like, ‘Let’s pick a couple plates and share them, it’s kind of late.’”

Things got strange however, when several random plates were being laid at the table that the party hadn’t requested.

“We’re trying to find our waiter. He’s nowhere to be found. It’s getting to the point where they’re bringing out platters of wagyu steak, scallops, things with truffles on them that we literally did not order.”

When they finally got the waiter’s attention, he said that the extra plates were part of “an experience” that he wanted to give the group. He said that he’d need to seek out his manager if the diners didn’t want the untouched plates of food added to their bill. 

It turned out that what should have been a $300 meal, was $887.

People infuriated over restaurant tipping ‘scam’

The TikToker told viewers that she suspected the waiter was adding additional plates to their table in order to increase the tipping rate at the end of the meal. It turned out that other diners had experienced similar situations too.

“The same thing has happened to me twice at Mila. They sent ‘complementary dishes’ because of the table delay and tried to sneak it on our bill at the end.”

“As soon as I saw the hashtag I KNEW EXACTLY which restaurant in Miami! I never step foot in there and you gave me more of a reason!” another wrote.

“This happens pretty often! Especially in Miami when they have no incentive to work for the tip,” the creator wrote back, suggesting that it wasn’t just this particular restaurant running the scam.

Another customer went viral, when they claimed a pizza restaurant burnt their order after they didn’t leave a tip.