Karen's Diner

About

Karen's Diner is an interactive pop-up restaurant based out of Australia where the wait staff treats customers rudely and allows customers to go "full Karen" on them in return, meaning complain and act poorly back. The restaurant first opened in Sydney in June 2021 and gained worldwide media attention online, resulting in numerous viral videos of interactions between the staff and customers.

History

The first Karen's Diner pop-up opened in Sydney, Australia in June 2021. Karen's Diner is designed like an 80s-style diner and features rude waiters and waitresses that try and egg customers on, allowing the customers to act rudely back according to a set of rules outlined on their website.^[1] The restaurant's website describes Karen's Diner as follows:

Karens is an interactive diner and an absurdly fun experience. At Karens you will be greeted and waited upon by rude waiters who in return are expecting you to give it full Karen. A place where you can complain until the cows come home because we literally don't care.

You can expect good food, good fun and a dining experience like you've never had before. Let us know if it's your birthday, if your name is Karen and for the love of Karen don't ask to speak to the manager….

The website claims that if your name is Karen and you show an ID for proof, you get a free drink. On June 22nd, 2021, Australian radio station websites KIIS^[2] and WSFM^[3] reported on the restaurant. On October 21st, LADbible^[4] published a story about the restaurant.

On April 23rd, 2022, LADbible posted a video to Facebook^[5] compiling various clips of interactions from Karen's Diner, gaining over 14 million views and 59,000 reactions in four months. On May 5th, the YouTube^[6] channel for A Current Affair posted a video about Karen's Diner, gaining over 296,000 views in three months (shown below). On May 8th, LADbible posted a video to Facebook^[7] where they visit the diner, gaining over 1.2 million views and 2,700 reactions in three months. On July 10th, TikToker^[8] @xixiplease posted a video taken at Karen's Diner that gained over 61 million views in a month.

Controversies

On July 29th, 2022, the Daily Mail^[9] reported that a member of the staff at Karen's Diner's Brisbane location allegedly called a man a "pedo" and asked his daughter if she had an OnlyFans account. According to the article, a spokesperson for the diner apologized to the family and claimed the incident is being investigated.

Online Presence

Karen's Diner is most active on Instagram,^[10] where they have over 55,000 followers, Facebook^[11] where they have over 21,000 likes and TikTok,^[12] where they have over 723,000 followers. Their website is bemorekaren.com. Videos showing interactions between customers and wait staff at Karen's Diner often go viral on sites like TikTok and YouTube (examples shown below).

Reviews

A number of reviews for the various Karen's Diner locations have been posted online and to YouTube. YouTuber^[13] Chandy Sao gave the Sydney location an overall positive review in a video posted in January 2022, gaining over 144,000 views in seven months (shown below).

Search Interest

External References