Signs A Person Or Group Is Planning On Leaving A Restaurant Without Paying
I was in the Greek Islands on a lazy late afternoon, and my friend and two friends had just plopped down at the first taverna we spotted.
We were hot, tired and hungry, having had nothing to eat to that point as we had just arrived by ferry.
So, as if often the case when you’re starving, everything looks good and you tend to order more than you do under normal circumstances. One friend, a voracious eater to begin with, ordered something like three main courses.
When the food came the staff stood around us, almost hovering, and surrounded the table. It was an uneasy feeling. I leaned over to my other friend and whispered “this is weird. Why are the staring at us.”
He said it was because the staff was afraid we would “dine and dash.” This was something new to me but he said we were showing all the traits of people who planned to escape without paying the bill.
The “dine and dash” people, he explained, always order way more food than they can eat because they know they won’t be paying for it anyway. So they get a table full of food. They load up on all the appetizers and get several entrees.
And that was why the staff was watching over us like hawks. They expected us to simply walk away when we had our fill.
Well I did not like being silently accused of something I did not plan to do (never even considered it an option), so I confronted them.
I told them my friend who ordered all those appetizers and entrees planned to eat every bite. At 6-foot-4 and an in-shape and muscular 225 pounds, maybe he didn’t look quite like the typical big eater, but I assured them he would empty the plates.
They backed off a bit, but the waiter stayed there and watched in amazement as my friend did indeed eat everything, right down to using the last pieces of bread to sop up all the sauces.
So how can you tell if a restaurant customer is going to do a “dine and dash?” Look for them ordering way more food than they can possibly consume.
Unless it’s my friend, of course.
Not sure; I found it unusual. But knowing how much the one guy can eat and they did not…! Haha.
This restaurant must have had some unfortunate experiences feeding their paranoia too! It would be interesting to see if that was a universal indicator, or if there were any other methods of identifying restaurant thieves too