A group of friends who were celebrating in a Greek restaurant embraced the traditional practice of plate-smashing—only to find out that it doesn’t come free.
TikTok user Ruhsheed M (@ruhsheed) shared a video online showing just how much fun he and his friends had while dining at a Greek restaurant in Birmingham, in the U.K. As they were celebrating the upcoming wedding of one of the guests, they wanted to make the most of the joyous occasion and asked the waiters if they could smash some plates for good luck.
Ruhsheed, who doesn’t wish to disclose his full name, expected the waiters to bring one plate for each guest to throw on the ground. But to his surprise, they had plenty more than that, as he told Newsweek that they started throwing the plates “six at a time.”
Plate-smashing has been a long-standing tradition in Greek culture, often carried out at weddings and in some restaurants in celebration. The practice symbolizes the start of a new beginning, as the broken plates signify the newlyweds throwing out their former lives and starting a new chapter. This was something that Ruhsheed had never done before, so he relished the opportunity to give it a try.
“I’d never been to a Greek restaurant before, but I knew it was tradition to smash some plates for good luck,” Ruhsheed said. “So, I asked the waiters if that was something they did, to which they said of course.
“I thought the eight of us would each get one plate to smash, and that would be it. But before I knew it, they had brought out a massive box with loads of plates and started throwing them all at once, rather than one at a time like I thought,” he continued.
While the group of friends had a blast smashing the clay plates, dancing and singing with the waiters, there was one factor they hadn’t considered: the cost. Ruhsheed didn’t realize the broken plates would be added to the bill.
Ruhsheed doesn’t recall the total cost of the bill, but he says it didn’t cost more than £20 (approximately $25) for the broken plates.
“The plates were just clay and made for the sole purpose of being smashed, rather than actual plates that had been painted and glossed. So, they definitely weren’t as expensive as real plates,” he told Newsweek. “In all honesty, I was expecting eight plates to be broken, not 50. I hadn’t even been to a Greek place before, so I wasn’t sure how the tradition worked. But now that it’s been made obvious that plates aren’t free, I look back and wonder why I assumed we wouldn’t be charged for them.”
After the video of the plate-smashing experience was shared on TikTok on December 2, it went viral with over 2.3 million views and more than 169,600 likes at the time of writing.
Layered over the footage of everyone dancing merrily, the caption reads: “Told the waiters at the Greek restaurant to smash some plates, not knowing they add the cost of plates to the bill.”
Ruhsheed never imagined the video would generate so much attention, as many people lauded his unwitting mistake. Nonetheless, he told Newsweek that he would happily go back again and recreate those fun memories.
At the time of writing, the viral TikTok video had amassed more than 340 comments as many were shocked by Ruhsheed’s error.
One comment reads: “In what world would they not charge for this?”
Another TikTok user wrote: “Isn’t it obvious that you’d have to pay? Y’all have zero common sense.”
But some people were equally unaware and thanked Ruhsheed for his helpful tip. One commenter said: “honestly, I wouldn’t have thought about it either.”
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The post Friends Smash Plates to Celebrate in Greek Restaurant, Then Comes the Bill appeared first on Newsweek.
