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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/rtice001 on 2023-09-05 21:55:29.

This has been bugging me for a few days.

Went to dinner with my wife recently to a relatively nice place ($30-$45 pp mains). Quick side note, we’re both in our 30s and both work in hospitality and worked in kitchens for years, so we’re generally on our best behavior at restaurants.

Anyway. We sit down and are greeted by a young woman (early 20’s) who drops some menus and asks if we want to start with still or sparkling water. I looked at the drink menu and saw the still was $9 and the sparkling was $12. Neither of us care that much about fancy water, so I said tap is fine. She gave a sort of grimace and a small noise.

I asked “Is there something wrong with the tap water?” She replied “It’s very hydrating.” Followed by an awkward silence. This was very strange to me so I essentially repeated the question with slightly different verbiage and once again got “It’s very hydrating.” I looked at her with with an expression of “please explain.” More silence. Eventually I asked “What does that mean?” She said, with no emotion: “It will hydrate you.”

Now I’m feeling weird about the whole situation. And I flat out asked, with no expression or connotation: “What’s wrong with the tap water?”

You guessed it! “It’s very hydrating.” I stood up and told my wife “We’re going.” Before my wife even realized what was going on, the waitress said “Have a blessed day” with the smuggest smile I’ve ever seen. Am I in La-La-Land here? The triplicated response seems really dumb for someone who is a ‘professional’ at hospitality.

Anyway- my wife suggested I took it too far by leaving. In my opinion, I didn’t take it far enough and should have spoke to a manager. But life’s short- and I didn’t. AITA?

Update 1: My wife was cool with leaving. We have a very equitable relationship. If one of us says to the other “we’re leaving,” or any variation of that, we trust each other to know we made the right call and will figure out the rest later.