The shrimp cocktail display at Texas Roadhouse is not an appetizer. Just in case you were wondering.
Featured Video
Apparently, that fact isn’t common knowledge if one believes longtime service industry worker and TikTok user Gina (@whatsthatmeen). She claims that at least two of the display’s crustaceans were seemingly ingested by a very confident patron.
At least that’s what the evidence of the accompanying sauce bowl leads her to believe.
Gina posted her alleged observations to her TikTok account yesterday. So far the story has over 4,865 views.
The shrimp cocktail display wasn’t for eating!
She began her video by discussing two new appetizer options at Texas Roadhouse—namely the Cactus Bloom, an onion bloom dish served with cheese dipping sauce, and what she describes as “shrimp cocktail.”
Texas Roadhouse does serve shrimp and features a grilled shrimp appetizer but does not currently advertise a shrimp cocktail on its online menu.
The two items were placed on top of the restaurant’s meat display case for customers to see. But only see.
“We put a little sign [saying] introducing our new appetizers,” she states. “They’re sitting up here to the side next to stuff.”
We put [the items] there at around 3:30 p.m.,” she claims. “We’re passing them all shift, they’re all there.”
Four hours later, “At 7:37 p.m. we notice that two of the shrimp cocktails are now gone. There used to be six, now there’s four.”
“And if you look at the little cocktail sauce in the middle, you can tell it’s been dipped in,” she claims. “I feel a hundred percent confident in saying that it was very obvious that the shrimp cocktail … was not meant to be eaten but was simply for display.”
“I put money on it that if the silly rabbit who ate the shrimp cocktail … if they got violently ill they would have no issue writing corporate email,” she states. “And yelling at them for getting them violently ill.”
“Because that’s how people are,” she concludes.
How long can shrimp stay out?
First of all, it should be stated that eating shrimp when you don’t know how long they’ve been out is always a bad idea.
Second, given the shrimp cocktail display was put out at 3:30 p.m. and the loss was noticed slightly over four hours later means whoever consumed them was probably only within a narrow margin of food safety.
According to Eat Your Beets, “You should only leave raw shrimp at room temperature for up to two hours. Otherwise, you always run the risk of bacterial growth, which could make anyone who consumes raw shrimp sick.
For cooked shrimp stored at room temperature, “you should also be mindful and leave them out for at most four hours.”
They note that leaving cooked shrimp out longer could result in food poisoning as bacteria grow rapidly on shrimp at room temperature.
Third, the recommended time for leaving perishable food unrefrigerated is only two hours according to Ghaida Batarseh Havern, MS, food safety extension educator at Michigan State University Extension.
The maximum amount of time perishable foods can [spend] in the danger zone is two hours. At two hours, the food must be consumed, stored correctly, or thrown away.
The Daily Dot reached out to Texas Roadhouse via email for a statement.
@whatsthatmeen oh and someone pooped in the parking lot
♬ original sound – Gina 🍉
Viewers sympathize
Many viewers responded by sympathizing with service industry workers.
Mrjexer (@mrjexer) asked, “Wow!!! Did y’all find out who took the shrimp?”
Gina responded, “The culprit is still unknown.”
One viewer wrote, “My mom’s boyfriend did that once at a different restaurant. It was obviously a display.”
Another added, “I’m so sorry my mom was a waitress for 40 years and I highly respect the profession. People really reveal themselves when eating it’s carnal same reason I won’t go to the grocery store.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Gina via email and TikTok messenger for further comment.
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
