A New Jersey mom claims a restaurant refused to serve her autistic toddler, and she doesn’t understand why. The woman, known only as Heather, planned to eat at Houston’s in Hackensack. According to her, the restaurant asked them to leave because of her son’s behavior. Video of the interaction at the restaurant quickly went viral. But not everyone is so sure Heather didn’t cause the problem.
The mom told Fox 5 she took 2-year-old Hopper to Houston’s, but they did not provide a high chair. According to her, this was all a big misunderstanding, and now she wants an apology.
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The restaurant apparently knew the group included a child.
Heather says that when she and her friend arrived at Houston’s and put their name on the waiting list, staff knew she had a child with her. When staff sat the party, the trouble reportedly began. Heather told Fox 5 she asked for a high chair, and staff told her Houston’s does not have high chairs for guests.
“I said, ‘Can I bring his stroller over? He needs to be strapped in. He has a disability and can’t sit in a restaurant unless he is strapped in,'” she explained. Heather then asked to speak to a manager about her situation.
The family ordered their food.
Heather said she made Hopper comfortable and they ordered their meal. But when the food came, the manager allegedly showed up at the table, too.
Heather’s friend caught the interaction on video of the manager approaching the table and telling them, “We’re actually going to cut this short tonight. Sorry, but we won’t be serving you tonight.”
Heather shared the video to TikTok, @worldkingdom123, and it quickly amassed 18.2 million views.
The viral video caused quite a stir.
After reaching millions of viewers on TikTok, some felt something was missing.
Like this person, who wrote: “He starts with ‘well in that case’ soooo, what happened in the 30 seconds leading up to the video being recorded?”
“I know I’m always recording when I unexpectedly and surprisingly get kicked out of restaurants,” commented someone else sarcastically.
The interaction didn’t surprise some familiar with the restaurant group.
A former employee wrote: “I worked at a Hillstone restaurant for years. We didn’t have high chairs, boosters, kids menus because frankly we just weren’t a kid friendly establishment. Especially at night when it was busy.”
Someone else agreed, writing: “If this is Hillstone or Houston’s Restaurant they don’t play. I worked at one prior.”
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The interaction upset Heather.
She told Fox 5 she had a tough night at Houston’s. “It was extremely hard to see that happen to my son,” Heather said. “He was recently diagnosed, so I haven’t really even fully processed it yet, so it’s kind of my first time advocating for him.”
According to the Hillstone Restaurant Group website, the restaurants to not appear to be the most suitable environment for children.
“Our restaurants are generally not the best environment for young children. We welcome families, but we ask parents to keep children at the table and calm vocal infants or youngsters outside of the dining room. We do not offer child seating nor do we allow strollers in the dining room.”
The mother claims she didn’t know about the policy, or she would not have taken Hopper to Houston’s in the first place.
