‘No idea this was a thing’: Olive Garden customer catches worker playing ‘server bingo.’ What is it?

How do Olive Garden workers pass the time? If a recent video is to be believed, it's by playing a game called "server bingo."

The video, appearing to be a recreation of an interaction between a server and a customer, comes from creator Holden D. Lane (@holdenlan), a Georgia-based creator who has drawn more than four million views to his video since putting it up on TikTok.

In the short snippet, presented as a POV video with the camera trained on the server, the worker is exultant that the customer has ordered a dipping boat—a hack that's been celebrated in multiple TikTok videos. The server exclaims, "I got a bingo," thanks to the customer's dipping boat request. Pumping a fist, he walks away from the table, presumably to tell other co-workers he'd achieved a bingo first.

As he walks away, the customer can be heard saying, "What about my order? What about my order?"

What is server bingo?

Search "server bingo" online, and you'll see a variety of cards enabling servers to play. Judging from what's out there, there are two main tributaries of the game: One, created by a restaurant's waitstaff to make a shift more fun by accentuating some of the more bizarre things that a server might experience, and the other, created by management, to encourage workers to upsell various items.

One Reddit forum dedicated to servers, r/TalesFromYourServer, contained a post titled, "I Hate Server Bingo." In it, the server declared, "The first four are always easy, ie Add-on Salad, Dessert, Beer and Cheese Sticks. The last one is always the one thing that never ever sells like a Kale, Quinoa and Sardine Bowl. Like, wtf? And no point buying it yourself when the menu price is $17 and the prize is a $15 gas card. I swear managers do this on purpose."

Asked what the game was, the same server replied, "Where you get a 'bingo' card with items in the squares such as listed above and the server who gets a line of them wins a usually lame prize."

@holdenlan what about my order ????????#fyp@Seth ♬ original sound - Holden D. Lane ????

Another post, this one on the subreddit r/ServerLife, included someone sharing, "I serve (and manage) a restaurant and Brunch Bingo is my favorite game! We usually use it as a little contest for upselling and often give away swag or F&B as a 'prize' for winning. Good for morale and good for sales!"

The person then added, "Our squares are more like '5 mimosas at one table' or 'special of the day.' We do have a few fun things not geared towards selling like 'more kids than adults' to keep it interesting though!"

Commenters had thoughts.

"I hated server bingo," one reflected, "I was so bad at it."

Another noted, "Maybe I need to start telling my tables about my bingo cards."

Someone responded with, "If my server told me, I would immediately order what they needed me to lol."

The Daily Dot has reached out to Olive Garden via email and to the creator via Instagram and TikTok direct messages.

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