Man eats dinner before his date arrives to the restaurant, 'I'll be hungry and cranky.' AITA?
"AITA for eating before my date arrived to the restaurant?"
So for context, I'm not a foodie. I eat to get full and not as an experience. I'll often eat at home before dinner outings just because I don't want to wait and rather enjoy the experience of the outing, which for me doesn't involve the eating portion.
I met this girl online and we agreed on meeting at a restaurant for dinner to get to know each other more. Fast forward day of our date we agreed to meet at 9 pm. Now my day was super busy with work and I didn't get to eat lunch, and it's almost 8 pm, and I'm starving. So I get ready and head to the date still having no food.
I like getting to a date early so I can check out the environment, pick the beat seats and just prepare in general so I arrived about 45 mins early this time. Still starving I decided I should eat to get that out of the way or I'll be hungry and cranky having to wait another hour or so before I can eat. I finished my meal and ordered a cocktail, by this point my date is almost arriving.
She gets to the restaurant and we instantly click, she's smiling and we're having great conversation. She's touching my hand. It's over all going extremely well. Eventually she asks if I would like to order some food to which I respond "No thank you I'm not hungry" and she insists saying she doesn't want to eat alone but I tell her don't worry and eat and that I am enjoying my cocktail.
So we call the waiter over and she starts asking him for recommendations to which he responds with no ill intentions that it seemed I really enjoyed the tacos so maybe she should try them.
At this point she's confused and asks what does that mean so I told her I ate some tacos before she arrived. She immediately becomes furious. Saying I'm rude and who eats before a date has even arrived. I explained to her that my goal was to get to know her and the eating portion wasn't important.
Regardless the whole mood changed. She ordered some food, ate and made an excuse to have to go leave. I haven't heard from her since then and that was last night. So AITAH?
Here's what top commenters had to say about this one:
Wongon32 said:
YTA. You could have munched on a small entree or dinner roll before your date arrived. It’s just uncomfortable for someone to eat alone while someone else is there, especially when you’ve just met.
-ImagineReality- said:
YTA If you don't see this as rude and inconsiderate, I don't know anymore...
Austen-aficionado said:
YTA. You were only thinking of your needs, not hers. A dinner date is a social event - a shared event. The "eating portion" is part of that. To make her eat alone is awful and awkward.
It's like you asked her to a movie, then went to see the movie before she arrived because you really wanted to see it earlier, and then sat with her while she later watched the movie, but you did other things while the movie was playing.
If you were starving you could have ordered an appetizer before she arrived but still ordered a main course once she was there. You're not going to hear from this woman again, for good reason.
Trailsya said:
YTA. You should have picked up some food from a supermarket/fast food joint on your way there instead of being there 45 minutes early. Then you should have eaten with her. I am not a very difficult person with etiquette, but this is just ugh.
Nyroughrider said:
Dude you’re 100% the ahole here. You should have had a snack at your house if you couldn’t wait 45 mins.
Danube_Kitty said:
YTA. You have invited her to dinner but not had a dinner with her. Let's go skating. Oh I have already skated, go yourself I will wait for you here cheering. Let go to movies.
Oh I have seen that last earlier today but enjoy. You have invited her to share an experience and didn't wait for her. What do you not understand about her being mad?