The knives came out at a pizza restaurant in South Carolina.
Video of a tense interaction at a pizzeria has racked up more than three million views on social media — all over a tiny order of buffalo wings.
A Black woman and her partner recently placed a lunch order at Mario’s in downtown Edgefield, but after one look, she sent the buffalo wings back. The customer, who goes by “Miyah Miyah” online, found them too “big and soggy” and returned the container untouched.
While dine-and-dash — illegally skipping out on a check — is one thing, refusing to pay for food before taking a bite falls into a legal gray area. If food is vastly different from the menu description, undercooked, or otherwise unsafe to eat, the customer may have a leg to stand on when refusing to pay.
Whether these wings were truly subpar — or merely unappetizing — is up for debate.
What’s not up for debate is how the restaurant employees handled the situation. A manager, who identified herself as Shelby, quickly escalated the dispute and threatened to call the police.
@miyahmiyahbraidsllc BEWARE OF MARIO’S PIZZERIA. My girlfriend and I visited Mario’s Pizzeria for the first time and had an extremely disturbing experience. We ordered six buffalo wings, six sweet chili wings, and a salad with cheddar cheese. Our waitress later told us they did not have cheddar and offered mozzarella instead. I declined and asked her to remove the salad from the order, which she said was no problem. When the wings arrived, they were unusually large, mushy, and not something we felt comfortable eating. We calmly explained that we were dissatisfied with the quality, offered to return the untouched wings, and said we would still pay for our drinks. Instead of addressing the issue professionally, Shelby and another male employee immediately approached us and said we either had to pay for the food or they would call the police. We were calm throughout the entire interaction, yet we were called “thugs,” accused of being thieves, and told that we “always come in there and do this”—even though it was our first time ever visiting the restaurant. Other customers began recording us as though we were committing a crime. We felt humiliated, stereotyped, and racially profiled simply because we refused to pay for food we had not eaten and immediately said we did not want. As a salon owner of seven years, I understand that businesses experience product loss and customer complaints. However, I would never respond to a dissatisfied customer by becoming aggressive, insulting them, making false accusations, and threatening police involvement before attempting to resolve the issue respectfully. We told them to call the police because we knew we had not stolen anything. We were willing to pay for everything we consumed. The issue was never about avoiding payment—it was about the poor quality of the food and the discriminatory way the situation was handled. Based on our experience, I would not recommend this restaurant.
♬ original sound – Miyah Miyah
“The customer’s not always right here. We don’t do that,” she told Miyah in a July 18 TikTok video. “You have two options here: you can pay for your food and leave, or we can call the police, and they’ll come right across the street and take care of it.”
As other customers pulled out their phones to film, Miyah chose to walk out. What happened next was even more jarring. A white male employee followed her out and yelled, “Thief! Robber! Thief!” before adding, “Thug, that’s what you are.”
Manager Responds
Before the video went viral, the manager reportedly responded on social media.
Although the post has since been deleted, Miyah shared a screenshot of the response, in which the manager accused her of “going on a social media rampage saying they were called thugs.”
@miyahmiyahbraidsllc Replying to @Zoepassion ♬ Saxophones getting louder – Sped Up – AntonioVivald
“Mind you, if you watch the video they posted, no one ever called them out of their name. No one ever called them a thief or a thug,” the manager wrote.
But Miyah’s video showed otherwise.
In the video’s caption, Miyah said other customers began recording them “as though we were committing a crime” and that she and her partner felt “humiliated, stereotyped, and racially profiled.”
As a salon owner, Miyah said she understands that product loss and unhappy customers are part of running a business. But she argued that the restaurant could have handled the complaint without becoming aggressive, insulting her, or threatening to involve the cops.
She also said she and her partner were willing to pay for everything they had eaten and even encouraged the employees to call police because they knew they had not stolen anything.
“The issue was never about avoiding payment,” Miyah said. “It was about the poor quality of the food and the discriminatory way the situation was handled.”
Mario’s has not issued a further public comment.
