Photo: TikTok
She had a "bone to pick" with Buffalo Wild Wings after this night.
By Hawthorn Martin — Written on Feb 07, 2023
A former waitress described her experience at a Buffalo Wild Wings, explaining how the service was so poor that she hardly tipped anything.
“I have never in my life tipped less than 20 percent,” she begins, explaining that due to her extensive experience in food and beverage, she is familiar with how much can go wrong behind the scenes. Rion knows that issues in the kitchen or with management can be out of the server’s control, but this time was different.
The TikTok was shared by a former server who explained why she tipped so little at Buffalo Wild Wings.
TikTok user Jenna Rion (@jennarion) posted her video to share the frustrating experience.
“I understand that things are out of your control sometimes, okay. This was beyond that.”
She draws attention to the to-go box of chicken wings on the counter in front of her and explains that she is eating them now, at home, because she and her fiancé had waited at the restaurant for over two hours.
The night had started off fine, with the pair sitting down and waiting for only a few minutes before a manager, not a server, came to collect their drink order.
Rion isn’t bothered by this, and assumes that the manager is simply helping their server out.
Rion and her fiancé order two beers with lime and water, and after 10 minutes, the server appears with only the beers. No lime, and no water.
“Because we’re hungry,” Rion explains, “we go ahead and, like, give her our orders."
"We order an appetizer, and we ordered the rest of our food. And then we sat there.”
The two were prepared to wait, and were happy to sit and watch the football game on TV while drinking their beers, but after finishing their drinks 30 minutes later, the table still hadn’t gotten water, silverware, or napkins.
Rion explains that she tried to get the waitress’s attention by making eye contact with her, but she never seemed to take the hint.
“I’m not gonna snap or wave anybody down. I’m just not gonna do that, that’s annoying.” Rion explained, but apparently her more subtle attempt to grab the waitress’s attention wasn’t enough, as the server never came back to check on the table.
Eventually, Rion says she had to ask the bartender for the waters, and then had to ask a different server for napkins.
Finally, her fiancé got his food. But after a few minutes, it appeared that Rion’s food was running sorely behind.
“We sat there for, like, an hour and fifteen minutes after Dion had gotten his food. I had not gotten anything.”
The server never came to check on the table during that time, and when she finally did return to the table, it was to ask if the couple was ready to check out, not to bring Rion’s food.
When Rion explained that her food had never come out, the server apologized to the pair of them, and said that she would go check on it.
Rion then asked if they could get the check as well, so they could be ready to finish and leave. After this, however, it still took up to 20 minutes for the food to come out, and when it did, it didn’t have the side of fries with it.
The couple then asked if the side was coming, and the waitress left to retrieve it.
Although Rion claims she and her fiancé were being “very nice”, the waitress still came back angry, and “threw the fries down.”
She ignored the couple’s request for silverware, Rion eventually had to ask the host of the restaurant to get them to-go boxes, as well as asking the bartender to find their server so they could check out.
The whole encounter took over two hours, and Rion hadn’t even gotten the chance to eat her food in the restaurant itself.
TikTok users in the comments had some mixed reactions to her story:
“Okay, but why would you sit there for an hour and a half waiting for your food? This obviously not your fault but next time just go up to someone” one user wrote, and elaborated in their replies: “Some people are too scared to take initiatives at restaurants.”
Other users completely sympathized, sharing similar experiences to the one Rion described.
“Girl sounds like we had the same server at BWW,” one user said.
Another user claimed: “Every Buffalo Wild Wings location I’ve ever been to has had terrible service. They always give me my wings BEFORE the appetizer.”
“I work there as a server,” a fourth user wrote, “and I’m definitely on your side, we have one of the busiest stores in the country but the experience should NEVER be this bad”.
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Hawthorn Martin is a news and entertainment writer living in Texas. They focus on social justice, pop culture, and human interest stories.