A mom says her daughter left her 12th birthday dinner at Fogo de Chão in tears after walking past police the restaurant allegedly called
Open to interpretation
A woman is leveling serious accusations against a popular restaurant chain. Toni Marie Reed (tonimariereed) said in a TikTok video that Fogo de Chão called the police on her family and other guests during her daughter’s 12th birthday dinner.
Reed said a total of 18 people were at Fogo de Chão that day, including kids, a pregnant woman, and a newborn. She added that from the beginning, the service at the restaurant was a “mess.” As an example, Reed said, “Our lobster Mac came out cold… We sent it back, and instead of replacing them, they reheated the same dish and brought it back out, and they didn’t even try and make sure the dish went back to the same person.”
According to Reed, the restaurant made her guests wait a long time for food, didn’t provide water to someone who asked for it, and got her daughter’s food “wrong” after she had already waited a long time. “At this point, we were just saying, take it off the bill. Nobody was yelling, nobody was cussing anybody out. Nobody said we weren’t going to pay,” Reed said. She added, “And then we looked up, and there was police standing at the door.”
Reed alleged that she asked the manager why the authorities were called, and the manager apparently told her it was to make sure no one “ran out.” “Ran out for what? We never tried to leave. We never refused to pay. We literally stayed there waiting for them to fix our check. So what exactly about our table made you assume we were going to run out without paying?” Reed said angrily, highlighting that she had no intention of not paying for their meal.
According to Reed, the incident left her daughter shaken. She said her daughter got in the car crying after she had to walk past police officers while leaving her “own birthday dinner,” and then said she wouldn’t ever want to go back to the place.
Reed concluded her video, demanding answers from Fogo de Chão for their purported actions. “Bad service I can complain about and move forward, but calling the police on my family when we gave you absolutely no reason to believe we were going to leave without paying? No, I want an explanation ASAP,” Reed said.
Commenters were divided over her account
Reed’s video attracted over 8,000 comments, with opinions sharply divided. While some people chose to believe what Reed said in her video, others questioned her account.
One individual said, “Something tells me there’s more to the story.” Another wrote, “As a former server, I just know there is more to this story.”
In her video, Reed mentioned that the table was composed of Black people. One individual, noting that, suggested that Reed and her guests could have been racially profiled. They commented, “Assuming ur gonna dine and dash is insane. Profiling.” Another said, “I believe you 100%. People are racist and act like Black folks aren’t allowed to have standards, cause they wouldn’t have tolerated that bull**** either, but if you’re Black, you’re expected to accept anything. Period.”
Disputes over service and bills have sparked viral debates before, including one where a server said she was threatened over a margarita.
The Mary Sue has reached out to Toni Marie Reed and Fogo de Chão for comment. Fogo de Chão has not publicly responded to her video.
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