The 5 Worst Types Of People To Dine With At A Restaurant

Part of the joy of eating is sharing a meal with others. Sometimes it can look like doling out pieces of pepperoni to your cat as you both lounge on the couch, enjoying a freshly delivered pizza. Other times, you need to leave your cat at home, put on pants, and meet a group of friends at a restaurant, which should normally be exciting — except when you realize that a particular person may be joining you for dinner. While most restaurants work hard to provide diners with an enjoyable experience with good food, ambiance, and service, all it takes is one annoying individual to ruin the whole meal for everyone at the table, if not the entire restaurant.

You may already know some of these diners personally, like when your friend's new flame vomited all over your eggs Benedict at your birthday brunch because they didn't know bottomless brunch cocktail etiquette. Or maybe you were enjoying a family dinner, and just as your cousin was going to propose to his girlfriend, your uncle started a loud phone conversation about the details of his recent colonoscopy. These are pretty extreme examples, but some of the bad dining companions below can demonstrate more subtle tactics that may seem innocuous at first — but then grate on your nerves harder than your server grates cheese onto your pappardelle.

Dining is a human experience, and many restaurants understand that part of the human experience involves unforeseen circumstances that can cause delays. Most restaurants offer a grace period for arriving late, and many restaurants will do their best to accommodate you if you call ahead. However, a restaurant reservation is not an open-ended ticket for you to arrive whenever you feel like it. It not only throws off the restaurant's operations, but it is extremely inconsiderate to the people with whom you're dining.

Many restaurants refuse to seat incomplete parties, which means that your friend's lack of planning or desire to put on airs as if they're an important celebrity may lead to you and your group not being able to eat for hours or having to find another restaurant. There is a simple fix to this, though: Tell that one friend who's always late that the reservation is an hour (or two) earlier.

I remember going out to a Lebanese restaurant with a new friend who ordered a glass of wine, an expensive Lebanese-style steak tartare, two desserts, and took cash from me to tip the bellydancer. When the bill came, he made a show of reaching for his wallet, then slapping his forehead in feigned frustration before asking me if I could spot him this time because he forgot his wallet.

Diners who forget their wallets, forget their smartphones, don't have smartphones, don't carry cash, don't have credit cards, don't transfer money, or spout any other excuse for not paying their fair share tend to be repeat offenders. They may start out small, asking you to spot them for a coffee or to pay for parking, but the demands tend to snowball along with their forgetfulness. They also ruin it for people who really do need their dining companions to help them pay for a meal because they genuinely forgot their method of payment or are going through a difficult financial situation.

A diner's culinary knowledge or refined palate can sometimes enhance a dining experience, but none of that matters if you use your knowledge to demean others or make them feel uncomfortable. A true connoisseur reads the room and takes their fellow diners into consideration before they offer their opinions.

Having been a professional critic myself, most of us are good at separating a working meal from a casual meal with loved ones. It's the amateur or poseur who points out that it's not "real" Parmigiano Reggiano as they ask their server for more cheese at The Olive Garden during Grandma's 80th birthday celebration. Be wary of diners who won't shut up about every detail of their meal. In the best case, you may have been roped into a professional's work dinner, but typically you're just sharing a meal with a pretentious ignoramus.

I once made the mistake of inviting an influencer to my favorite hidden gem. When our food arrived, she picked up the dishes, walked them to the other side of the restaurant then proceeded to stand on top of a dining chair to take an overhead photo, at which point I told her to get down. I liked this restaurant, was a regular, and wanted to return without getting scolded for bringing in such an uncouth guest.

Professional influencers, like critics, distinguish between a work meal and a social meal and typically arrange their visits to a business ahead of time to ensure that they're neither interrupting its normal business operations nor disturbing other diners. If you happen to be dining with a social media enthusiast who's trying to make their hobby into a full-time career, suggest to them that they approach the restaurant's management to return at a later time and record a proper post. That is, unless they're only dining with you because they forgot their wallet.

Dietary restrictions are real and should be taken seriously, which most restaurants do. It's important to recognize and distinguish true medical and religious or moral dietary restrictions, along with neurodivergent sensory aversions, from mere personal tastes. It's also important to pick up on diners who use religion or medicine to excuse their picky food habits.

For example, it's not impossible, but it is very rare to be allergic to cilantro. And very few world religions prohibit their adherents from consuming pepper. Most diners with food restrictions will have educated themselves on what they can and cannot eat. If a particular restaurant is too risky for them, they may politely decline to dine with you. That friend who claims to be allergic to gluten and that garlic is against their religion, but still joins you at an Italian restaurant and takes up everyone's time inquiring about every ingredient and demanding complicated modifications, is going to ruin the experience for everyone — including the staff.