A clever waitress poked fun at a customer’s poor experience with her service, turning the critical one-star review into a shirt before wearing it for her next shift.
Daniella Claeys, 24, a server at a restaurant in London, was shocked when a customer left a nasty review that claimed she allegedly treated a family like “rubbish” when their baby was crying.
The family felt they were treated so unfairly and wanted to tell the world about it in the only way one can do in the digital age: an online review.
In a now-viral TikTok, Claeys showed off her new work apparel, tucked inside a black apron while she held a server tray behind the bar.
“When you get a 1 star review for being a bad waitress so make a top out of it,” the video, which has been viewed over 2.9 million times since it was posted on Jan. 3, is captioned.
In the retelling of the incident from their perspective, the complaining family outed the server’s identity because their screaming child had given the server a headache.
“We Will never be back!!! at this restaurant the staff made us feel so uncomfortable,” the one-star review reads. “A waitress named Dani suggested the manager to seat us outside (in) the cold when our baby cried because she had headache.”
“She didn’t bother to hide her discomfort and looked at us like we were rubbish we obviously left the restaurant straight away. Very not family friendly atmosphere in there don’t bother to go with kids.
The server, who has worked at the same restaurant for three years, says she was pretty upset about the review and sent it to everyone she knew and posted it to Instagram.
“At the time I was super upset. I never want to make anyone feel uncomfortable,” Claeys said, according to WalesOnline.
Instead of being mad at the customer, Claeys thought the critique was funny.
“I know I shouldn’t have reacted as much, but on a T-shirt it is f–king funny.”
“After I got the T-shirt, I wore it back to work during my break and we all had a laugh. If I was a really bad waitress, it wouldn’t have been as funny to my colleagues,” she told the outlet. “Seeing as it was a one-off occasion and it was overblown, we could all just laugh at it.”
Claeys said the incident happened in Nov. 2023 was battling a cold but still decided to show up to work.
When the large family with the screaming child came in, the screaming child got to the best of the server, and she eventually suggested they go outside to the heated terrace to calm the baby down.
“The crying went on for a considerable amount of time and other staff members were aware of the disruption. Because of my migraine it just seemed to pierce through my ears,” Claeys added.
“I think the family could see my discomfort. I’m not denying that.”
“I’m serving for 14 hours of the day. The chance that I might get something wrong is quite high. I don’t think a review like that will ever happen again.”
“Then they left super abruptly. The mother was angry and on her way out she was a little bit aggressive towards me. I only realized how bad the situation was when the review came in.”
The server says she wanted to share the review so others could relate to it.
“I thought I could reframe this narrative and find some comedy and relate to others online who are in the same situation as me. It humanizes the servers and the waiters that are often just not recognized.”
If Claeys faces any backlash for her shirt, she says she wasn’t doing it out of frustration towards the customer nor claiming she was wrong.
“I wasn’t doing it out of malice or saying the woman was wrong, I was just laughing at what had happened. As much as I can laugh about it, my livelihood and how I make money is being a waitress and have been for 12 years.