Diner gets charged $8 for cup of water by insistent waitress: 'If the waitress doesn't remove it... she will get the manager involved'

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Dec 27, 2025 11:00 AM EST

This diner has a few bones to pick with the local restaurant scene, which has been rather ridiculous for their past few meals out. 

Eating at restaurants with your friends or family members is a great part of life. You really do have some of the best conversations while you're sitting around waiting for your food to arrive. Since you don't have to cook, you get to have plenty of time to chat about your day or make plans for the future. 

But obviously, you and I both live in current day, and it's expensive out here, so going out to eat is a treat for a lot of people. It's not something they do every day, or even every week, so when people do get the chance to eat at a restaurant, they hope that their experience is really great. 

For this person, though, dining has recently brought a few challenges along with it, as you can read all about below. They're not impressed with the level of customer service they've been getting, which seems to be an ongoing problem. There are lots of people looking for work, yet a lot of businesses also seem chronically understaffed. And that means when you go out to eat, you're facing long wait times to be sat, grumpy waitstaff who have been berated by customers all day, and food that you just know used to taste a lot better before restaurants started cutting corners and slimming down their portion sizes. It's not all bad, but… it could certainly use some improvement. 

This person shared their strange experiences recently, and commenters commiserated with them. Check out both stories down below… and weigh in about the whole tea debacle. Was it weird for this waitress to try and charge someone $8 for drinking "tea without the tea?" Maybe she didn't get any sleep before her shift or something, because it's one of the silliest things I've ever heard. Maybe she should try charging them a few pennies for the electricity needed to heat the water, instead of just arguing about whether or not hot water constitutes tea. 

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  • 01
    Man in blue shirt sits at restaurant table with hand on head while woman next to him looks at phone
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • 02

    'Noticing unscrupulous practices at restaurants lately'

    Round 1: Went to Outback in Cherry Hill (we love it there and have been going for years). In winter months, My wife and I usually get hot water. We never get charged for water but this time we see charge of $8 for tea. We asked the waitress about charge
    via u/Life_Waltz5237
  • 03
    and her exact words were "its tea without the tea". I said in most calm way possible that tea without the tea is water. She was annoyed and stomped away. I went up to front desk hostess to see if there was policy change were they now charge for water...she laughed and
    via u/Life_Waltz5237
  • 04
    said no and that if waitress doesn't remove it bring it back to her and she will get manager involved. Our waitress didn't return for 10-15 minutes and finally came back and removed the charge. She said she had meeting in back (seems odd to have meeting at
    via u/Life_Waltz5237
  • 05
    4:45 on Sunday night). My guess is hostess told manager and they had little meeting with waitress or she was just annoyed and made us wait the 10 minutes. I am considering getting t- shirt made with "it's tea without the tea" on front of shirt :)
    via u/Life_Waltz5237
  • 06
    Round 2: Penang in Chinatown Philly. Another place we absolutely love. To order you scan QR code on table and it brings up menu with prices. 4 months ago we noticed on bill that item was $5 more expensive than price listed on their menu. We informed the
    via u/Life_Waltz5237
  • 07
    Waiter and he said they just didn't update the prices yet on website but would still give us the less expensive price listed on website. 2 months later, We go again and notice same situation but this time the Waiter pushes back some and tries to get us to pay new higher
    via u/Life_Waltz5237
  • 08
    price but went to his manager and they agreed to listed menu price. Its clear to us that things have gotten tighter in economy and workers and Management are trying different tactics to squeeze customers. We
    via u/Life_Waltz5237
  • 09
    go out to eat to have a good experience and we want to be friendly and kind with workers but I am definitely looking things over more closely now.
    via u/Life_Waltz5237
  • 10
    Mostly-... 4:45 is precisely the time managers hold shift meetings for the evening on a weekend because everyone is scheduled at 4pm, so even the idiots that are consistently
    via u/Mostly-Moo-Cow
  • 11
    30 minutes late have shown up. That particular Outback is very much a shift meeting twice a day operation. Source: former outbacker. Second source: I filled in for a month in that hole.
    via u/Mostly-Moo-Cow
  • 12
    The first one is hilarious
    via u/-__-_-__-_-_-__
  • 13
    ymmotv... But $8 for tea?!? Holey cow!
    via u/ymmotv****
  • 14
    Jerseyb... Businesses are now behaving like they're upset they have to go through us to get our money
    via u/Jerseyborn88

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