Storytime!

So yeah guys, this time it's not going to be a random thought post. I thought I would rather share this story instead and I'll warn you guys now, it's going to be pretty long. This incident kinda of put a damper on my mood for the entire week so.

Last Sunday, my family and I went to Red Lobster to celebrate my birthday four days early. Red Lobster is our go to restaurant and it's my favorite place to eat at, well at least it used to. After what happened last Sunday, it's not anymore.

Back to the story. At Red Lobster, they have this event that's going on called endless shrimp, where for certain meals, you can get basically get unlimited servings of it. My mom, my sister, and I chose meals that were apart of the endless shrimp offer and my dad got a meal with salmon and shrimp and he would share with my little sister. In case you guys don't know, little kids are the pickiest eaters in the world, so my parents were not about to spend $20 for a meal just so my sister would barely finish it. So when the waitress asked around for our orders, my little sister froze up when it was her turn because she didn't know what to say. The waitress then immediately assumed that she would be sharing with either me, my sister, or my mom since we ordered from the endless shrimp options, and said, "She can't share with you guys the endless shrimp, she can have a bite or two, but you can't share." We explained to her that we knew that and that she was going to share with my dad, who didn't order from the endless shrimp options. She said okay and left.

When we finally got our food, we noticed one major thing: it was cold, despite the fact we were waiting for awhile, but we didn't complain. While we were eating, my sister asked my mom if she could try the shrimp Alfredo that my mom ordered, and my mom gave her like two spoons, which is literally a bite. Apparently the waitress didn't think so and that's when everything went south.

While we were still finishing our first plate of food, this waiter came up to us and said, "Hey guys, I heard from your waitress that you guys have been sharing the endless shrimp meals so you guys have two options: either you pay for what you shared or we stop the endless shrimp." After he said that, it all took us awhile to absorb what he said because we were in a state of shock. My mom literally gave my little sister TWO spoons of her shrimp and that's considered sharing her entire meal?? Like what was my mom supposed to do, say no?? Anyway, my dad was like "I don't understand what's the problem?" and so my parents fought with him, trying to explain to him that my sister literally had a bite from my mom's shrimp until he finally apologized and told us to have a good rest of our night and to which my dad replied, "No, you ruined the night for us."

Then after that, our waitress came to our table acting super innocent and was like, " Is there anything I can get out of your way, do you need anything else?" and we all looked at her like:

  

My dad was like, " Why didn't you come and talk to us? We could have explained to you instead of bringing him to come and talk to us." Then this girl had the nerve to say, "Um, I'm sorry I'm not sure what you're talking about?" and we were like:

My mom replied back, "Why did you tell him that I shared my entire meal with my daughter? I gave her only two spoons. That's not sharing an entire meal." The waitress replied, " Yeah, I know but you're still sharing endless shrimp." That's when I had to chime in, and I said, " You said we could give her a bite or two and we haven't even ordered a refill yet for our shrimp so it's literally like we're sharing with her a normal meal." and so then she stood there speechless trying to come up with her rebuttal and then this cook came out of nowhere and said, "What's the problem?" and so then the waitress told her what was going on and so then the cook said, "Okay, just tell us exactly how many shrimp she ate and then you'll just pay for that. " We all stared at her, and my mom replied back, " I thought you were going to apologize to us, but instead you're going to make us pay?".  Then she got up, grabbed me and my sisters and said, "I'm never coming here again, this was the worst service I've experienced, you don't even deserve tips." and walked off with us following in suit. My dad stayed in Red Lobster for a little longer and according to him the manager finally showed up and came up and told him to tell us to come back and that she would double our order free of charge, but it was too late by then. 

So, there are a few things that I want to mention. One, at the table right next to us, there was also a family and they had little kids who they were sharing their food with. Second, where we were sitting, it was not easy for people to see what we were eating, so the waitress had to really look at our food and peek constantly to notice that we were sharing at all. Finally, the waitress knew that we came to eat there for my birthday so the fact she did all of that while knowing that we were there specifically to celebrate my birthday sucked honestly. 

If you've reached this far, thanks for listening. I just really wanted to let this out and also get your opinions on it. Were we really in the wrong? I honestly don't think so.

**By the way, my parents contacted Red Lobster customer service and told them what happened and Red Lobster is documenting as discrimination so there's that.