With its signature extremely rude waiters and awful service, Karen’s Diner hit the headlines when it announced it was coming to Blackpool in June. Promising five-star food, alongside one star service, its strapline is ‘We love good food & drink, but absolutely hate good service.’
However, the venue that is known as ‘the rudest restaurant in the world’ has issued a stark warning that customers must not body shame their staff.
This warning has been reiterated and underlined after an incident in which Jack Keith, 17, and his elderly grandparents visited the Manchester branch of Karen’s Diner but were booted out after just 10 minutes later.
Their ejection from the venue came after Jack asked a server, ‘How old are you, you fat slag?’
The incident was videoed and went viral on Tik Tok. In the background a warning can be heard: ‘You can get kicked out for that.’ The insulted server then tells another member of staff, who comes over to the table to tell the family: ‘You’re out, all of you, it’s in the rules. He’s ruined it.;
Jack and his family were told to pay the £25 drinks bill and leave because rules given to customers upon entry tells them the banter between customers and servers doesn’t extend to ‘body shaming’.
After the event, a dismayed Jack said, ‘If you can’t take it don’t give it. I was shocked when she told us we had to leave. We thought they’d tell us to pay for the drinks then to sit back down.’ He added, ‘Some of the insults they gave to my grandparents were pretty next-level. Karen’s Diner is a crazy idea and I probably wouldn’t go back.’ Jack also said in his defence that the rules need to be made clearer,
A spokesman for Karen’s Diner said, ‘Karen’s Diners will not condone seriously offensive abuse either ‘given’ (which can be grounds for dismissal as all our staff are obliged to work within strict behavioural guidelines) or ‘take it’ as we will always take every stance to protect our staff from unacceptable behaviour. It is sad that a minority of customers need reminding as to how to behave.
We have no choice but to cater for this minority and accept that it is always possible that they struggle to understand how to click onto the front bar of our website (‘rules’), and perhaps struggle to read the cards (‘House rules’) handed to them on arrival, which state specifically what we consider to be unacceptable behaviour.
Sadly we are unable to personally explain to every customer that calling a waitress a ‘fat slag’ is very directly ‘body shaming’ and that is why we hand out the House Rule cards. I accept that there is a distinct possibility that some people perhaps need an explanation as to the meaning of ‘body shaming!’ Perhaps this is what they mean when they say ‘It needs to be made clearer!?’
We spend days teaching our staff how to be rude and funny. Offending anyone is never funny. When you trawl through the thousands of video clips showing customers enjoying Karen’s dining experience, it will take you some time to find other clips with content similar to the sour clip presented.’
For more details about Karen’s Diner coming to Blackpool see this Lytham St. Anne’s News article: https://www.lythamstannes.news/news/the-rudest-restaurant-in-the-world-comes-to-blackpool/
