$12 for water? Rip off, I'd leave as well... especially if you perceive that this server is judging you by your choice of beverage

I don't buy the justifications for her behavior. She has to know how obnoxious that behavior is when repeated. And in a tip dependent industry, even if you think the person is going to be cheap as hell, that's not the way to approach it.

This reminded me of the episode of "Bullsh!t" where they made a fake restaurant with a water sommelier. They filled all these different fancy bottles with the exact same water (from a hose out back of the restaurant), but people swore up and down how much better the "fancy" water was lol.

I don't know how it's like in other countries, but in Australia it's the law that all resturants have to serve free tap water. But there can be places that push paid bottle water for the sale

So, I figured out right away that she was telling him there was something wrong with the tap water.

I would have probably asked her if she knew what the definition of hydrating was. Clearly, she had no clue.

In most Europe you cannot ask for tap water, you either buy something from the menu or nothing at all; some coffee shop do give free water after an espresso but not restaurants

It's the restaurant I guarantee she's brought up the exact same point to management and when asked why someone would pay 9$ for water was told "It's hydrating, duh. Now go sell my overpriced water!" Nothing would have made her happier than you talking to the manager. I've managed hospitality staff and customer service staff for years and have seen it countless times when the people upstairs start making us charge people for c**p they don't need. If it's REALLY BAD management you could have even gotten her in trouble by ordering tap so leaving actually helped her. Plus remember she's an actual human being and is allowed to have bad days now and again so dont take it personally. Waitresses aren't allowed 'mental health days' unless it's also followed by 'malnourished and homeless days.' Maybe she's dealing with an illness or a family member passing. You never know and shouldn't jump to conclusions over such a short interaction. No one's a jerk here.

You know, I’ve learned life’s too short and expensive to not enjoy your experience going out to eat with an unfriendly server, so I would leave too now I’m at the age where I don’t put up with nonsense. I remember going to a steakhouse in Detroit on our honeymoon and paying about $200 for an absolutely delicious meal (and I’m usually cheap/frugal if I can), but still remember the waiter was so great he made it a wonderful night, and I told him so and tipped him well. Now I come to think of it, same for another fancy steakhouse in downtown Cleveland on a trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, when it wasn’t busy and they treated us humble Canadians like royalty. The chef even sent out a special dish to try, which was so nice. Americans are so friendly in every state I’ve visited. I love my neighbours to the south and have a US and Texas flag in my screen porch, actually bought in San Antonio.

If non tap water is that expensive, I don't even want to look at the menu. I'm out of there.

It sounds like English was not her 1st language. I'm learning Spanish right now and would probably fumbled similarly. Also she said "have a blessed day " when they left. Normally, we Americans don't say that phase very often as a goodbye. But, in many counties ( especially Latin American) this is the norm for saying goodbye. The OP was pretty quick to interpret the situation negatively while not staying long enough to figure out what was really going on. He just sounds insecure in a high cost restaurant and got easily offended even though there was most likely was not anything to be offended by on the 1sr place. Negative thoughts keep you in a negative world guys.

That word, I do not think it means what you think it does.

While the waitress was a fool lol what most people don’t realize (who haven’t worked hospitality) is that managers will critique, lecture, and some places go as far as to punish servers for not up-selling drinks and deterring customers from “free water”. By punish I mean, on busy nights giving you horrible sections where you’re guaranteed to make less than others, or terrible shifts because they expect your app sales, ppg (price per guest) add ons (self explanatory) and up-sales ( like when ordering rum/coke to be captain Morgan, or topping your steak with shrimp )to be a certain % or yea.. no money land! Think of a restaurant seating chart as a monopoly board lol by the kitchen or by the cold door is like Baltic ave whereas the table by the fireplace is like boardwalk and PP.. those top tier sections go priority to those who sell more! And i served and bartended for years at many places (from common chains to higher scale) before leaving that industry and this definitely does happen.

How do you know the employer isn't setting the tone?? Or she might lose her job depending on what she says? Or she's at a loss for words. I wouldn't support tap water because it isn't that great. But I wouldn't think of the consequences for a tip! I sometimes have no reply ready. Some places serve iced tap water immediately without request.

Very likely, the water just had a funky not clean taste. Likely was safe for consumption but for whatever reason just funky tasting. That is how the water tastes at the nursing home my husband works in. It's fine, just tastes bad.

I wonder if she knew what hydrating means

That would creep me out and make me think someone was f ing with my food or water. And in no scenario would I ever pay $9-$12 for water. Ludicrous. I would have left too.

"Have a blessed day" is the key. First, if it wasn't clear before, it confirmed that she was being a asshat. Two, it took the sting out of him leaving - this is the probably the main reason that it still bothers him later. In situations like this I always remember something my mother said - don't worry, life will take care of people like that.

"Hydrating water" is indeed tenth wonder of the world. You should have said that and leave. The world is full of strange people!

Had he stayed, their further interaction would be stressful. I always leave when I realize I can't connect with the waitstaff. Learned this the hard way, haha.

Don't blame the waitperson, I suggest they might not be very quick with responses, but tries to have that affect. I'm guessing the tap water is not very good, but can't say that. So, the response to, "how's the tap water" or similar is supposed to be something like, "well, it helps not being thirsty" hoping the guest 'gets it'. But, the server wanted to sound smarter than they might be, used the term hydrating, but wasn't astute enough to adapt to further inquiries. It's really the managers fault; they should just be upfront, or take the server's limited verbal skills into account, or just serve the water and let the client decide.

Did the waitress bug out?

Working in hospitality he would surely know that upselling is a way for servers to earn more, yes she was rude but so was he by keeping on about it.

Overhere they would simply say: the tap water isn’t any good, you either buy from us or you get a bottle from the shop next door. Why so unbelievably difficult in other countries…

Perhaps this young lady didn’t really know what the word hydrate means. Umm, sweetie ALL water, regardless of whether it’s tap, distilled or sparkling HYDRATES! That’s what it does. OP was right to just leave. This inane form of snobbery is ridiculous, she just blew the opportunity to sell a $$$ dinner tab over pretentious behavior. I’d leave a very negative Yelp review or whatever social network this place uses. Goes to prove, once again, you can’t fix stupid!

1. $12 for a bottle of sparkling? Yeah, had that before here in Germany too. (Difference is, that‘s the final price!) 2. eating out in the US sucks!

I'm a server. The server in the story was HORRIBLE. However, getting up and leaving was an overreaction. You're the a*****e. Many, many young servers are doing the job just for quick money and do not have the temperament for the job. Every server I know has had a bad day and has acted petty towards customers who didn't necessarily deserve it. If there were no other problems, you're the a*****e.