Former server shares tips on how to eat for cheap at fancy restaurants: 'Dinner homework'

There's something very appealing about going out to fancy restaurants and eating there. The overall ambiance, the excellent food and the good company can go a long way. However, most of these restaurants tend to be quite expensive, which means that people look for more economical options that may not be as good of an experience. Michel Janse—who goes by @michel.c.janse on TikTok—shared a helpful video informing fellow foodies about how they could go to nice restaurants and eat there for free. The video has got 676K views and 393 comments on the social media site.

Janse begins by sharing how she got to know that most people did not know about the hack she was going to share. She provides some background, saying, "I was living in LA, working as a server, my favorite thing is to eat out at nice restaurants, but I simply couldn't afford it." The woman then mentioned how the restaurant she worked at had "secret shoppers" who came in to grade their overall performance as a business. This made Janse wonder how hard it could be to become one of these people who came in to grade restaurants.

The woman explained how restaurants and other service-based businesses would hire individuals to secretly come in and observe certain things at the establishment. This included many subtle things about how the restaurant was managed, from cleanliness to service. Individuals would go in secretly, make a note of all these things and provide a report to the restaurant. She says, "They will reimburse the cost of your food up to a certain point and sometimes pay you additionally on top of that."

She reveals how she would go to steakhouses and end up getting four courses of meals for free. The woman clarified how the job was not very easy and how she had to study the report that the restaurant gave her properly to know the things to look out for. It also would take a decent bit of time to write a report once she got home. However, she describes the overall experience as a fun one and that she felt like a spy doing it all.

For people who were curious about how to get hired for such a gig, Janse shared that she just signed up for it online. She explains how there were many websites that people could use to get hired as a "secret shopper." The scale of pay depended on the restaurant itself and would vary quite a bit. She concludes by saying, "Just wanted to share in case you're in the same boat of loving to eat out, loving fine dining and maybe just are in a season where you can't afford it, you can do it for free."

People appreciated the woman's suggestion and shared their opinions in the comments section. @gluteusmaximusthecat said, "My friend was a secret shopper for Disney and we got to go to so many great restaurants." @msnrn77 shared, "Been doing this for years at restaurants. I get a $75 voucher and only pay the difference!" @itsmaia__ expressed, "My restaurant has secret shoppers and it's lowkey scary."