'Stop talking on speaker in public': Entitled restaurant-goer gets publicly shamed for taking a loud phone call at a fine-dining establishment after multiple guests speak out against her

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Mar 14, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

Imagine you finally score a reservation at that one Michelin-rated restaurant for a romantic dinner and after waiting 45 minutes for your pre-booked table, you've already excitedly chosen appetizers from the menu. Once seated, you sit across from your date and the candlelight flickers in their eyes; you're both thrilled to be sharing this beautiful restaurant experience. However, disaster strikes when you realize who your dining room neighbor is… An entitled yapper is seated next to you, chatting away with someone over the phone, speakerphone blasting at full volume. 

At first you thought you could ignore the shrill, high-pitched tone of the phone's external speaker, but with the cacophony of restaurant noise, the clamor of forks, and the full-volume screaming of the inconsiderate person next to you, you can go ahead and kiss your quiet, romantic evening goodbye. 

In my eyes, there's nothing worse than getting stuck next to a speaker-phone person in public, which is why the karmic justice of this next story brings me so much satisfaction. 

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  • You'd think that a person would have enough social awareness to recognize when they're bothering everyone around them. Perhaps people who talk on speakerphone in public have some sort of spatial awareness, but they simply don't care. Wrapped up in their own entitled little minds, they're the only ones on earth who matter—because who gives a hoot about the other patrons of this restaurant who just wanted to enjoy their meal in peace?!

  • "AITA for asking a woman to turn her phone off speaker at a high end restaurant?"

    Cheezburger Image 10478795520
    via Kaboompics.com

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • My (50/f), husband (52/m) took my mother and her partner out to dinner at a 4 star restaurant. We had just finished our appetizers when the table next to us was seated, middle aged woman and a teenager. As the woman walked
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  • by our table she had her cell phone in hand and I quickly realized she was on a phone call and it was on speaker. The other tables around us were also occupied and people at those
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  • started turning toward her as the conversation was very loud. The woman and the person on the call were essentially speaking to each other with raised voices. Our entrees were brought out and
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  • despite several people around the woman just kept going with her conversation, phone propped up by her water glass while the teenager was on her phone.
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  • Here is where I may have been the a h le. While we were eating. A couple was seated on the other side of the woman and teenager. They sat for a few minutes and when the server
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  • came to introduce himself they asked to be moved to a different table. They clearly said it was because of this woman having a phone conversation. We finished our entrees and were waiting to
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  • order dessert. The teen had gotten up from the table. I leaned over and said, "excuse me. Would you mind taking the phone off speaker? It's very disruptive to those around you. Several tables
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  • have been staring at you hoping you would do so." She responded back that "if she were sitting here in the restaurant you would be able to hear the conversation" to which I replied "I would certainly
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  • hope that you would not be speaking in raised voices if you were sitting two feet from each other at a table." She said "I'm turning it down." I said "thank you because it is very disruptive." At
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  • this point she says "listen. I'm a grown a woman. This is over." I said nothing. We had our dessert and left and as we were leaving she said loudly to the person on the phone, ok they are gone I'm turning this up so I can hear you." AITA for asking her to take the phone off speaker phone?
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  • Fearless_Lychee_6050. I just commented on another post like this recently. If one is on their phone NOT ON SPEAKER and is talking at a normal speaking volume, that's not a disruption.
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  • When you have your phone turned all the way up in an already noisy environment it causes shrill and high pitched sounds to come out of the phone, plus you said the woman was talking loudly. The staff definitely should have said something to her. NTA
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  • LowBalance4404 NTA, but I would have spoken to the manager and asked them to deal with it and point to the other table that asked to be re-seated.
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  • underyou271 What are these four stars you speak of? Four stars on Yelp? It sounds like she was on this loud call throughout your entire dinner service, so what like 45 mins? There is no way an actual fine dining establishment lets this stand. It's atrocious.
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  • Speaking to the server or a host about it on no uncertain terms would put an end to it immediately. Approaching the woman directly on your own should be unnecessary.
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  • NTA, but your approach was ineffective. Let the people being paid to create a fine dining experience fight that battle.
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  • Even_E... That happened to me and a date before, the offending woman was right next to me. I started talking loudly and drowning out her. She leaned over and said to me that
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  • she couldn't hear the party on the phone, could I talk lower. I said no because if i Lowered my volume I'd hear her conversation and I didn't want to hear her. If she took it off speaker, then I
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  • would stop talking. She said I was being rude, I reply, just like you are. She got very offended, and asked to move tables. After she moved, I said thank God and had a very pleasant night. Fight fire with fire, nta
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  • m33chm NTA and if I'd been the hostess at that restaurant I wouldn't have seated her. That sh is rude af. Stop talking on speaker in public.
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  • starksdawson Ugh, I despise people who use speakerphone in public. We GET IT, they think they're more important than EVERYONE. I remember I was on a bus one time and some lady was using speakerphone for like an HOUR.
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  • When she got off, someone said 'there is a God' and we all laughed our off. Speakerphone is for PRIVATE calls, NOT for using in public unless there's some rare exception.
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  • shrug987 Absolutely NTA. I can't stand entitled people like that woman who have no regard or awareness for the other people orbiting around them.
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