Emily Brown
A British waitress who was hit with a scathing review from a family with a crying baby decided to make light of the situation with an incredible response.
Daniella Claeys realized she'd been well and truly named and shamed in the review left by the customers after they recently visited the London restaurant where she works.
The 24-year-old was accused in the review of suggesting the family sit 'outside [in] the cold' because their baby was crying.
"[Daniella] didn't bother to hide her discomfort and looked at us like we were rubbish," the family claimed, before saying they 'left the restaurant straight away'.
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The review was rounded off with 1-star ratings for Atmosphere, Value for Money and Likelihood To Recommend, prompting Daniella to speak out about the incident.
She said: "On this particular day I had a cold but came into work anyway. I could just hear this child screaming. It was a big family.
"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. I think the family could see my discomfort. I'm not denying that.
"On reflection I should have handled it better but I was quite openly uncomfortable."
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Though Daniella knew the mom was 'angry' at the time, she didn't realize quite how infuriated she'd been until she saw the review the next day.
"At the time I was super upset. I never want to make anyone feel uncomfortable," Daniella said.
"But then I sent [the review] to everyone I knew and put it on my Instagram. Everyone thought it was so funny."
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Daniella decided to lean in to the incident with her response, which saw her order a personalized t-shirt with the review printed on the front of it and show it off on TikTok.
Footage of Daniella shows her proudly wearing the shirt at work, along with the caption: "When you get a one star review for being a bad waitress so make a top out of it."
Explaining why she decided to make a t-shirt out of the review, Daniella pointed out that while serving for '14 hours of the day', the chance that she 'might get something wrong is quite high'.
By creating the shirt, she hoped to humanize servers.
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"Seeing as it was a one-off occasion and it was overblown, we could all just laugh at it," she said.
"I wasn't doing it out of malice or saying the woman was wrong, I was just laughing at what had happened."
Daniella added: "It humanises the servers and the waiters that are often just not recognized. It is widely felt across hospitality that a lot of the time people talk to you as if you're their personal server...
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"Waitressing is just not regarded as a high-skill job even though I truly believe it is. A lot of the time people don't appreciate or recognise the effort we make.
"I have so many friends in hospitality that have to put up with a lot. There is quite a small margin for error in terms of getting service right."
After sharing her response online, Daniella was praised by viewers who described the shirt as 'the best thing [they've] ever seen'.