‘That is soooo validating’: Woman’s disappointing restaurant experience aided in losing it a Michelin star

Being given a Michelin star is probably one of the highest honors that can be bestowed upon a restaurant. However, they have to meet a pretty high standard in order to earn it.

Getting good reviews is serious business for restaurant owners, and for one restaurant located on a small island in Greece, it came within a hair’s breadth of receiving the much desired rating. It would have gotten it too, if it weren’t for one meddling holiday-goer who simply wanted some decent service. Okay, to be fair, it was definitely the restaurant and its staff’s fault. After all, if they were really worthy of a Michelin star then they wouldn’t have offered such poor service.

In a video posted to TikTok, a woman by the name of Rebecca, shared her story detailing her experience in a Greek restaurant. She and her friends were able to get seats in a bougie upper-class establishment and while the evening started out nice, with a few drinks and a great view, it quickly became apparent that the staff seemed to be shafting them in favor of another couple sat on the table next to them.

One waiter in particular seemed to be treating Rebecca very weirdly, for example, when she asked for the salmon, the waiter said he didn’t recommend it, but when the table next door asked what he’d recommend, he told them to order the salmon. So what’s up with that? Well, by a stroke of luck, Rebecca ended up sitting next to the same couple at a different establishment the next morning where she was able to get her answers and validation that it wasn’t just her who noticed the weird treatment.

I don’t believe in karma, but in this instance I’ll make an exception. What are the odds that the mysterious couple would turn out to be Michelin star reviewers? And, not only that, but they heard everything that went down between Rebecca and the waiter, (even one instance where he pretty much fat-shamed her by implying she was eating too much) and they wrote about it in their review.

It’s safe to say the restaurant probably lost out on its chance to earn that Michelin star. Despite treating the reviewers well the blatant classism wasn’t missed. According to Rebecca, the restaurant couldn’t have known it had reviewers in their midst, (that would defeat the point) it seems like the staff were just trying to make up for the fact that they made the couple wait almost half an hour before seating them. However, in doing so, they completely neglected other paying customers which ended up being their own undoing.

Could it have been an honest mistake?

Hospitality work can be incredibly stressful, some of the stuff staff have to put up with is ridiculous. According to Facilitate Magazine, it’s actually the most stressful occupation, so it’s easy for staff to make mistakes or offend customers without intending to.

Interestingly, it’s also apparently common in Europe for waiters to tell someone when they’re ordering a lot, mostly so food doesn’t go to waste, at least that’s what the comments were saying in response to Rebecca’s video. But the rest of the odd behavior, like refusing to give them blankets and taking away their meal to show it to the table next door seem less excusable.

Regardless, we can only hope that a valuable lesson has been learned by the restaurant and its staff. Hopefully they’ll treat all patrons equally in the future.