&media=https%3A%2F%2Fimg-mkr.buzzfeed.com%2Fbuzzfeed-static%2Fstatic%2F2021-12%2F14%2F0%2Fcampaign_images%2Fef22704afd77%2Fpeople-are-sharing-the-most-awkward-family-moment-2-1379-1639442040-0_dblbig.jpg%3Ftemplate%3Dpinterest-vertical-dots-v1%26title%3DUGVvcGxlIEFyZSBTaGFyaW5nIFRoZSBNb3N0IEF3a3dhcmQgRmFtaWx5IE1vbWVudCBUaGF0J3MgRXZlciBIYXBwZW5lZCBBdCBBIFJlc3RhdXJhbnQgKEFuZCBJJ3ZlIE5ldmVyIEZlbHQgTW9yZSBTZWNvbmRoYW5kIEVtYmFycmFzc21lbnQgSW4gTXkgTGlmZSk%3D%26color1%3Dbluelight){kind=link}
What is it about the very ordinary experience of simply ~being in a restaurant~ that tempts our family members to act out in the most nightmarish ways possible? And it's not just the high-key embarrassing moments that make you want to go hide in the bathroom until the end of time — sometimes the most subtle annoyances end up being the ones that stick with us forever.
Recently, we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share the most embarrassing moments they've experienced while dining out with their families — from the absolute horror stories to the LOL-worthy tales they'll never forget — and boy, oh boy...they did not hold back.
1. "I was 8 months pregnant on my birthday. This was back in the 90s, so I was wearing a denim overall dress. My parents took me out to eat, and the servers were super nice! They tied a bunch of helium balloons to the strap of my dress to be cute. At the end of dinner, I stood up to leave and the balloons got stuck in the ceiling fan — quickly pulling the balloon strings up and CHOKING me out."
2. "My dad is the worst person to go to restaurants with because he is so rude. I constantly have to apologize to waitstaff out of fear that they'll mess with our food because of him. He'll verbally command them to do stuff, or signal...or *SNAP* at them. He’s worked in the restaurant business himself for years, so you'd think he'd be a good customer. Nope. We were at Olive Garden one time, and he wanted the spicy pasta. The waiter said they were out of the spicy pasta sauce — my dad told him to 'go ask your chef.' The waiter came back and said the same thing."
"Another thing: my dad, for whatever reason, never reads the menu — he just tries to order custom food. In case it's not obvious, my siblings and I hate going out to eat with him."
3. "My aunt is vegan, but her husband — my uncle — is not. My parents took them out to hibachi, and my mom confused the absolute fuck out of the waitress, saying that she wanted some fried rice made with egg, and some without egg, for both of them. I had just tried to tell the waitress 'no egg for any of us,' but Mom started screaming at both of us that we were 'depriving my uncle.'"
4. "One of the weirder experiences I've had was back when I was a kid — the first time my cousin got out of jail. My grandma took him out to lunch with my mom, and for some reason, she brought me and my sister with her. It was so awkward seeing him again because (as kids) we were like, 'hi, yes, hello...welcome back from JAIL?!'"
"He brought along a Twilight: New Moon calendar to give to me and my sister. I still don't know why. This all happened at a Ponderosa, too, which...really set the mood."
5. "My mom slapped me in the face during my birthday dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory, because I DIDN'T want the waiters to sing to me."
6. "This June, my grandfather asked to meet my family for dinner. Out of NOWHERE, he started telling us his coming out story — which was fine — until he started specifically detailing his use of *pornography* as an outlet...loudly. Somehow, it got back to him that I saw gay porn on his phone as a teenager, and it took him six years to admit that it happened. Nearby tables and waitstaff definitely overheard this conversation, too. I was so beyond mortified — I couldn’t look up from my plate, and my family was speechless."
7. "My father-in-law always packs up every last morsel of leftovers from the table to take home. One time we ate at Olive Garden, and on the way out of the restaurant he started grabbing un-eaten breadsticks off of OTHER PEOPLE'S empty tables. 🤦♀️"
8. "My family is from Thailand. We're very wary when going to Thai restaurants, because my mom has no issue with busting into a kitchen and yelling at the chef if the dish is made incorrectly. She’s done it several times."
9. "Our family was dining out for Mother's Day — my mum, aunt, uncle, and grandparents. My elderly uncle ordered beef, and he decided to take his false teeth out to eat it. We ate our lunch and left. Later that day, the restaurant calls my mum to say they found a set of false teeth at the table. My mum had to go back to collect them for my uncle. Considering how embarrassed she was, she tried to subtly ask for them — but the staff just shouted to someone in back: "SHE'S HERE FOR THE TEETH!"
10. "My parents decided a good place to give me 'the talk' was in a very packed Red Robin. If that wasn't embarrassing enough, they decided to GO THROUGH MY PHONE beforehand, read some very *private* texts between my then boyfriend and me, and then publicly confront me about everything in them. I ended up crying in the Red Robin. All before we had our orders taken. Good times."
11. "During her time in university, my mum got the opportunity to travel to Malaysia and study abroad for a few weeks. She came back acting as if she had lived there her WHOLE life, and would often try to teach us words and phrases...even though both my sister and I already took Indonesian language classes. Fast forward to a few months later — she's taking us to a Malaysian restaurant so we can 'eat like she did.' We ordered our meals, and the waitress was about to put in the orders, but my mother stops her to say 'terima kasih' — 'thank you' in Indonesian. This would've been totally fine if the waitress didn't turn around to say 'sorry, I don't know what you mean.' My mum explained what she was trying to say, only for the lady to say she 'doesn't speak the language' and that she could 'call over someone who could.'"
"I could've died in my seat, and I know my mum felt the same, because she wore a tight smile for the rest of our time there."
12. "Chili's, circa 2003. I was about 14, with my parents and 17 year-old male cousin who lived with us. My cousin had been teaching me to punch. He was a smart ass, and told me people with brown eyes are full of shit — my mom and I both have brown eyes. We were laughing, but also pretended to be offended. My mom jokingly told me to punch him. For some crazy reason, something clicked in my head at that moment that he had been teaching me to punch, and now was the time to finally use my skills..."
"I punched him square in the face. It felt like the whole restaurant went silent. My parents stared with their hands over their mouths. My cousin looked like he was full of rage, but he knew my dad would beat his ass if he touched me, so he took the dessert sitting in front of us and squished it in my face. One of the funniest things I've ever been a part of. I felt very...white trash."
13. "My brother, parents and I regularly still get together for meals. In our late twenties, we arranged to meet for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. My brother showed up with a date...but he had not warned his date that she was going to be meeting his family: she just knew they were 'going out to eat,' and he told her on the way. It was their SECOND DATE."
"A couple weeks after that, he pressured her into coming to our annual Christmas Eve party, with both sides of the family: over 30 people. They'd barely been dating for any length of time, and suddenly she was sandbagged into meeting the GIGANTIC entire rest of our family. Even worse, we had basically nothing she could eat since she's vegan. AND Christmas Eve is literally HER BIRTHDAY.
She dumped him soon after, but she and I are still friendly!"
14. "I was with my boyfriend at a restaurant, celebrating a special occasion, and he bought me these above-knee boots that I had been wanting forever. We were in DC and it was snowing outside, so when we went into the restaurant, our coats were taken, and we were led to our table. Now let me tell you: I was WORKING those boots. (At least, I thought I was). I was making the aisle my damn RUNWAY when all of a sudden...I fell."
15. "To celebrate my birthday, my folks took me and my siblings out to dinner. My youngest brother did not want to eat the garbanzo beans that were on his salad, but since my parents didn't believe in wasting food, they made him eat them. He chose to swallow them WHOLE instead of chewing them. I'll never forget the undigested garbanzo beans flying across the table as he projectile vomited them all over me."
16. "I have to get this story off my chest, because it was the worst day of my life. When I was younger, I went to Knott's Berry Farm with my best friend and my family. My youngest sister also brought along a friend that I was meeting for the first time. I met him around dinner time, and we all walked to the restaurant together. We sat down for dinner and ordered our food. When the bread and salads came out, I ate two rolls and started in on my salad. At this point, I’m going to mention that my stomach is extremely sensitive. First bite of the salad, and my body said, 'nope.'"
17. "We were out at a steakhouse in Texas, and my father had a little too much to drink. He proceeded to yell at my little brother to get the 'special souvenir cup' when he just didn’t want it. He ordered all the appetizers on the menu and screamed at my sister about why she 'wasn’t eating steak.' He ordered my mother a drink while he was drunk when she didn’t want one, and he forced her to drink it. He also wanted me and my sister to try Virgin Strawberry Daiquiris, so he forced our poor waiter over and aggressively ordered them for us. And he went on a political rant."
"Speaking of political rants, my father does them everywhere — at home, and especially at restaurants. And a few years ago, he got VERY drunk and said some objectively racist things to a really nice African-American family."
18. "I was enjoying Mother’s Day brunch at the fanciest restaurant in our town with my family, including my grandma and great-grandparents. My little brother was still super young — like, five-ish. We had recently watched Dumb & Dumberer, and I guess my brother liked the scene where the guy smears a chocolate bar over the bathroom and the girl’s dad walks in and screams about how there’s 'shit all over the walls,' because when they brought my brother a chocolate lava cake for dessert, he screamed out 'THERE’S SHIT EVERYWHERE' in that quiet restaurant. Cue my great grandmother taking a moment, then asking: '…what did he say?'"
"We still talk about that experience even now, as adults."
19. "My family went to Benihana for my mother's birthday. Over the course of the dinner, she got really drunk from the sake. When the employees took a polaroid photo at the end of our meal, my brother turned his head down because of the glare of the restaurant lights. My mother literally started CRYING in front of the entire restaurant because the picture was 'ruined,' and she continued in the parking lot and car, until we got home. I will never visit that Benihana again."
20. "I work at a florist, and since Mother’s Day is always extremely busy, my sister was helping out for the day. Since she let her boyfriend take her car, she was depending on me for an after-work ride to dinner with my mom...but she was being an asshole to me all day long. I told her to 'tell her shitty boyfriend to pick her up instead,' and she lost her shit."
"She literally kicked me while I was about to leave in my car. She stole my car keys and we ended up getting into a LITERAL fist fight behind my work, and both ended up with some blood and bruises. She eventually got a ride to dinner, and we all sat awkwardly at dinner with her nose bleeding on her shirt and me wearing the glasses that she broke. My mom was trying to make the best of it, but it didn’t help that I kept laughing at the fact that my sister had to keep going to the bathroom to cry and clean up her bloody face."
If you have any embarrassing stories to add, let us know in the comments! 👇
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.