We’ve all seen the stories of ridiculous behavior in public places. Fights in bars and parking lots, brawls in the streets and hair pulling in stores are all newsworthy. But, you would expect to be able to go to a family restaurant and enjoy a meal without getting an impromptu wrestling or boxing match. A family dinner should be a quiet, relaxing time to socialize with each other and enjoy the meal. This is not always the case. Somehow, there are always people that will push the limit and act like animals with each other. I can’t help but feel sorry for the management, the restaurant owners and the other patrons who have to witness the slapping, kicking, and hair pulling idiocy that kicks up when adults forget how to be adult. We get to sit back and watch in astonishment and horror as people are pulled off of each other and hauled away in police cars. We watch the bewildered servers try to clean up spilled food, broken dishes and overturned tables as they take care of the other patrons who are still there. We’re going to take a look at some of the craziest brawls that have happened at family restaurants. 

15. Pizza Brawl

A Chuck E Cheese Pizza place is always going to be very noisy and chaotic. Screaming children running all over the place, clanging, dinging and chattering games and just about every other noise will send your head into a pounding frenzy. But we expect children to be wild in a place designed to stimulate and entertain them. What we don’t expect is to deal with drunk adults swinging fists, pulling hair and yanking shirts off of each other. But that’s exactly what happened in a Jacksonville, Florida location when two inebriated adults started brawling while one of them was still holding her child. The kids certainly didn’t expect that kind of show.

14. Fight Over Choice Of Salsa

Texans have a reputation for taking food seriously, especially Tex-Mex. But some patrons of El Paisano Mexican Restaurant in Dallas took their love of salsa and chips to a ridiculous level. Isobel Rojas, another customer of the restaurant, caught a huge brawl on video and uploaded it to YouTube. From her report to Eater.com, the childish fight broke out over chips and a choice between red and green salsa. Fists and chairs started flying as other startled customers tried to stay out of the way. Despite an enormous disruption that has garnered over one million views on YouTube, no arrests were made from the incident. Guys, it was salsa.

13. Mother’s Day Gone Wrong

Mother’s Day is supposed to be an amazing day for the family. We take the time to cherish and take care of your mother. We celebrate the woman who spends her entire life taking care of others. Most families take Mom out to eat to give her a chance to relax and not have any cleanup to do. Unfortunately, for the moms at Kiku Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar in Atlanta, their day wasn’t the quiet one they expected. A massive brawl broke out as a customer punched a server for smiling. According to Demonte Harrison, the server who was punched, a customer came up and questioned why he was smiling. When he replied that it was a part of his job, the customer swung and missed. Harrison punched the customer and a total uproar commenced. A lawsuit has been filed against the server by the customers.

12. Wings and Fists

We know that the combination of wings and beer go hand in hand with sports bars. Things can go sideways quickly when alcohol is involved, but most restaurants are try to keep things under control when they are building a more family friendly atmosphere. Bayou City Wings, a Houston family restaurant, had their image tarnished when two men got into a fight. From the images taken by the surveillance camera, one appeared to reach out and touch the arm of the other. Then the fight broke out. It escalated from punching to chair throwing before the fight ended. Management of the restaurant made it clear that this kind of behavior wasn’t common and they go to great lengths to ensure a safe and comfortable place for families to enjoy a good meal.

11. Seafood and Mayhem

What started out as a warm February night in the Bronx turned into a scene that resembled a drunken free for all in Seafood City. This bar and restaurant is reported to have had some similar incidents in the past, but this one was huge. The exact cause of the fight is unclear, but alcohol is thought to have been a key part of it Videos of multiple people throwing chairs and beating each other were released by other patrons, but by the time the police got there, the perpetrators were gone and no charges were filed for the crazy incident. Neighbours are trying to get the restaurant’s liquor license pulled.

10. More Than Bacon Being Served

When you go to IHOP, you expect large servings of pancakes and everything to go with them. You certainly don’t expect to be caught in the middle of a melee gone wild. But that’s exactly what people at the IHOP in Racine, Wisconsin got. Although the cause of the fight is unclear, video of the crazy brawl made it’s way to the internet. Racine police were called to the location when several people became involved in a punching match that even included one woman hitting another over the head with a chair. After the police got there, two people were cited and three were arrested. No one knows why these people went from eating to punching. I guess they didn’t realize that the P in IHOP doesn’t stand for punching.

9. New Year, Old Habits

You normally associate New Years with parties of happy people celebrating as they look back on the old year and anticipate the new one to come. Parties do get rowdy and out of control at times, but you don’t expect to ring in the year with flying debris rocketing through the air around you. But this is exactly what happened at Sakana restaurant in Manchester. For an unknown reason, a fight broke out in the bar area of the restaurant some time after midnight. Punches were thrown, furniture was flying and bottles were launched across the room. Dozens of unsuspecting diners were horrified to be caught in something that according to some “looked like a horror movie”. Police were called and the management of this upscale eatery are cooperating with the investigation. So much for new habits for the new year.

8. Peter Piper Picked a Fight

Peter Piper Pizza strives to make a family outing fun. As a restaurant that caters to children and families, they want to make every visit a positive experience and do their best to provide that. Unfortunately, when families get together for parties and meals, they often bring more than their appetites. Along with the fun comes family drama. And it exploded at a Peter Piper Pizza in Laredo, Texas. From the information that could be obtained, a fight broke out between “ex” members of a family. This disagreement quickly devolved into the “adults” throwing punches, picking up benches to throw at each other and other mayhem as the poor kids watched. This is definitely not an example for how to behave in public.

7. Barbecue and Tantrums

Ridiculous and childish behavior is not limited to one country. It’s a worldwide pattern that is becoming more and more visible with video and social media. Hong Kong produced this idiocy. A fight broke out between two customers in a yakiniku restaurant in Hong Kong. The story says that the couple were on a first date and got into an altercation over who was going to pay the bill. The gentleman paid the bill and the woman tried to hand him a $500 HK note to help with the bill. When he tore the note up, a physical fight broke out. The two ended up being treated at the hospital for minor injuries. I prefer to end dates with coffee instead of punches.

6. Chicken Isn’t Worth Fighting Over

Des Moines, Iowa provides the next piece of lunacy. Fast food is a convenience that many of us take for granted. Although these meals are an easy alternative in a hectic schedule, it takes time to cook food. The name is fast food, not instantaneous. But one woman obviously didn’t get that memo. Video was caught of an irate woman shouting at a cashier of a local McDonald’s because her sandwich was taking too long. She repeatedly yelled at the employee that she wanted her money back. When the hysterical customer was handed her food, she threw it at the employee before climbing over the counter to punch the poor person. Eventually the two women were pulled apart. Before police could arrive, the idiot customer left with two male companions. No sandwich is worth that.

5. Chuck-E-Cheese, Round Two

How a chain restaurant that is founded on family fun has turned into a place of brawls and smackdowns is beyond me. But Chuck E Cheese seems to have managed it. A Flint, Michigan location joined the ranks of restaurant infamy when a brawl broke out not once, but twice on the same night. The initial fight started between three teenage girls. The fight was quickly contained by officers, at least for a little while. Later on that same night, police responded to another call that the fight had started again and had escalated to a mob brawl of about seventy to eighty people. Pepper spray was used to disperse the crowd. No arrests were made and no cause was figured out at the time. The next day, it almost happened again. I would definitely avoid this location.

4. Cheddars and Insults

Cheddars is a well known family friendly casual dining chain with locations all over the country. But some people take the casual atmosphere too far and forget their manners. This was the case at one restaurant in Slidell, Louisiana. Two families who didn’t know each other got into a physical brawl after degrading comments were made. Witnesses say that one family was waiting for a table and started making degrading remarks about another family as they were leaving the restaurant. This altercation escalated as the two families started a physical fight in the parking lot. Nine arrests took place after this ridiculous fight went public. People need to remember that casual doesn’t mean rude.

3. Fists Flying At Family Owned Restaurant

This particular story blows my mind. A woman and her teenage daughter were viciously attacked at their family owned restaurant by two insane customers. The altercation started when the two customers complained that the chicken was too cold and they didn’t get enough fries. After the meals were checked, words were exchanged. Then things went downhill fast. The female suspect started punching and slapping the business owner. The woman’s daughter was attacked by the male suspect when she got out of the truck. He punched her hard enough to knock her off her feet. The two suspects took off as other customers showed up. There are active warrants out for the two suspects.

2. Waffle House Warfare

I wouldn’t expect to see a brawl with my waffles, but patrons of the the Manheim Township Waffle House got one. Eight women got into a physical brawl. Five of the women were charged with disorderly conduct when it was determined that they were the aggressors in a fight that turned into a catfight of epic proportions. Between the hair pulling, punching and grappling, this ridiculous fight turned into a YouTube hit. Although police were called and arrests were made, the cause of the initial fight hasn’t been released. The food at Waffle House is good and there is plenty of coffee, so there is no need to fight about it.

1. Denny’s Fight Led To Victim’s Death

I won’t make jokes on this one. This fight shows the horrible, deadly side of adults acting stupid in public. Initial reports stated that the victim of this deadly fight, Johnny Hernandez, may have been urinating in public and the alleged assailant, Terry Thompson, yelled at him to stop. The fight escalated from there. Thompson got Hernandez in a choke hold that many witnesses got on video. Hernandez was choked out and taken to the hospital. Three days later he was taken off life support and died. Charges have been filed against Thompson. This is a serious reminder of the fact that things can go horribly wrong when adults lose their grip and fight like children.

Some of these incidents are ridiculous almost to the point of parody, but they definitely show the childish side of people. We often forget that others are forced to be witnesses or participants in our fights when we let emotions override reason. These examples of adults gone wrong are proof that being adults doesn’t always equal mature behavior.