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4th October 2023
05:15pm BST
Almost as bad as waiting too long for your food to arrive, is finishing it and waiting forever to pay and leave.
And that very situation has sparked quite the debate on social media.
Two women asked what the "appropriate" time is to "dine and dash" if you've waited a fair spell to settle your tab.
In a video going viral on TikTok by Lauren Petrosian - @daisyku_- she posed the question, suggesting her and a dining companion had been waiting 45-minutes in what appeared to be a pretty empty restaurant.
In an update posted in the comments section, the poster said that they actually ended up waiting 1.5 hours before finally getting their bill and tipped 12 per cent.
The initial question set off a storm of comments.
One person commented that "waiting for the bill for long periods of time makes me feel like I’m being held hostage", while another person just wondered why the pair didn't just seek out a staff member and sought it out. A third said when they waited too long they called the restaurant from the table on their phone to request the bill.
However, many sympathised with the women and shared stories of frustration.
"After 30-40 minutes, I'm gone, unless it's super busy, then I understand," one person wrote.
"This happened to me one time! We asked 3 times over an hour. I threw down what we thought the total would be and left," another dissatisfied diner added.
For other restaurant-goers their payment grace period is a lot shorter: "After 20 minutes of no contact (at the obvious end of the meal) I start walking to the door and if no one stops me I just leave."
"I ask twice. On the second time, I tell them I have to leave in five minutes. I’ve walked out of a few places," another commenter added.
The video has been viewed 1.7m times and sparked over 1,000 comments.
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