Woman left a 1-star review after a disastrous anniversary dinner. Then the restaurant charged her boyfriend's card again
The restaurant saw the negative review and started shrugging off their mistake with excuses
A couple got bogged down on their anniversary night when a restaurant they went to for a romantic dinner gave them a nightmare experience. Frustrated by the poor service, they eventually walked out and left a one-star review. However, the situation grew intense when the couple realized the restaurant had overcharged their credit card after reading the review. On September 28, 2026, one of the partners (u/shilohrenn) recalled the story on Reddit. The post has since garnered 1,200 upvotes.
AIO restaurant ruined our anniversary dinner then emailed us saying we were being rude and wanted to have a bad night
by u/shilohrenn in AIO
An awful experience
The customer said their experience at the restaurant was awful. It was their anniversary, and the couple had made a reservation for 8 pm. However, when they arrived, the restaurant made them wait. "After waiting 10 minutes, they showed us to a table that was directly connected to another couple, and we asked to be moved because this was our anniversary dinner, so they moved us to a table outside," the author explained. Once seated, the couple found the servers extremely careless. The waiter kept passing by their table and took a long time to take their order. Even after the delay, the food was far from satisfactory. The entire episode upset the author's boyfriend, who had gone out of his way to book a nice restaurant by scrolling down the top reviews. Frustrated, the couple left a one-star review.
The shocking response
However, the drama didn't end there. The restaurant saw the negative review and started shrugging off their mistake with excuses. First, they said they weren’t aware it was their anniversary dinner, even though the couple had told them three times. They even started charging the boyfriend's credit card with random payments. Ultimately, he too ended up leaving a similar one-star review for the restaurant.
Instead of embracing customer feedback, the restaurant started blaming and accusing them of deliberately having a miserable night. They even said that the couple displayed rude behavior in front of the staff, which wasn’t true. When the couple browsed other reviews, they noticed similar complaints. They were willing to let it go until the situation escalated out of control and the restaurant started disturbing the couple with continuous phone calls, emails, and messages. The episode soon snowballed into a bigger conflict, and the customer asked Reddit whether they were overreacting.
Reviews speak loud
A survey by HungerRush found that 63% of customers avoid restaurants with poor food quality reviews. However, most tend to avoid the extra effort to leave a review. In fact, 90% of dissatisfied customers don’t raise their voice (International Journal of Tourism Research, 2024), but those who do significantly affect new customers’ choices while selecting an outlet. After all, poor service is a traumatizing experience for those who just desired to enjoy some food and quality time with their loved ones.
'Call the cops'
Readers were enraged and urged the customer to file a complaint. u/Prestigous_owl commented, “The evidence of intentional fraudulent charges in revenge is genuinely criminal.” u/opening_meaning8550 said, “The minute I saw extra charges, I’d be calling the police.” u/beneficial-depth-546 said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if the place closes down within a year, to be honest.”
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