Shared Salad Bowl, ‘Dirty’ Spoon, And Dinner Disaster — This Redditor's Dinner Was Ruined Before It Even Hit The Table

A 25-year-old Redditor found himself in a surprisingly tense situation during what should have been a normal dinner with his 23-year-old girlfriend. While he was grilling chicken, she was making a salad and repeatedly eating from the communal bowl with the same spoon she kept mixing it with.

According to the OP, this isn’t a one-off issue and is something he’s raised before. He says he finds it gross and rude to eat directly from serving dishes that both people are expected to share.

He asked her again to stop or to make herself a separate bowl, but she brushed off his concern and got annoyed. Rather than escalating things, the Redditor dropped it and focused on finishing dinner.

When it was time to eat, his girlfriend tried to serve him salad using the same spoon she’d been eating from. He politely declined, which led to her repeatedly questioning why he didn’t want any.

Trying to avoid a fight, the OP made excuses until he finally admitted the reused spoon had turned him off the salad. That’s when things escalated, with his girlfriend accusing him of being dramatic and playing the victim.

She even added that if he didn’t like the salad situation, he would’ve hated watching her make the rice. Unfortunately, he had already eaten the rice, which left him feeling unsettled and frustrated.

The Redditor says he felt pressured to eat food that grossed him out just to spare her feelings. He insists he’s not nit-picky, but dirty utensils in shared food are a hard no for him, and now he’s asking Reddit if he was wrong.

The OP's girlfriend kept eating from the communal bowl with the same spoon she was mixing it with.

AI-generated image

Here's the original post by Reddit user 'ZookeepergameOld7322'.

I (25M) was having dinner with my GF(23F) last night and she was preparing a salad. As I was grilling the chicken, she was repeatedly eating out of the salad bowl with a spoon and putting it back in the bowl mixing around and such. This is a common thing that we've talked about before. I find it gross and bad manners to eat out serving dishes and put your used utensil back into the serving dish other people are expected to eat out of.Her family does it for almost every dish and if I see it, it grosses me out. I once again asked her to stop or to make herself a bowl and eat out of that rather than the community dish. She got bent out of shape, dismissed my concern, so I ignored it and carried on cooking the chicken. When it came time to eat, she tried to serve me salad (with the same spoon she was eating off) and I politely declined.She then started pestering me why repeatedly. In attempts to stop a fight, I continued to cop out saying "I'm just not in the mood for salad" and other excuses. Until she finally asked me enough to where I reiterated my concern that her reusing her dirty spoon in the bowl turned me off from eating it. She then played the victim about how she spent so much time preparing it for me and that I was being dramatic. She then left me with, "If you don't like that, you would've hated to watch me make the rice." Which I had already eaten and now made me feel unsettled.I was extremely frustrated in this situation because I feel like it's a valid concern and general manners to not repeatedly eat from a dish others are going to eat from. Furthermore, I felt in a position to be forced into eating something that grossed me out just to validate her feelings while disregarding mine. I'm not bent out over a bite with a clean spoon. Or cutting off and nibbling on little pieces of dinner while preparing dishes. I just get grossed out by dirty wet utensils being mixed around into the clean prepared food everyone is going to eat from. AITA?

Let's see what the Reddit community had to say.

Reddit u/ryhan0

What about when you have guests?

Reddit u/Limerase

The real issue here.

Reddit u/bustacones

Don't invite me for dinner.

Reddit u/ResponsibleDish2525

Just tell her the truth.

Reddit u/diceunodixon

It's not about the spoon.

Reddit u/NoDanaOnlyZuuI

Kissing is different.

Reddit u/LissaBryan

Gross.

Reddit u/GrumpyPanda29

Y'all are crazy!

Reddit u/Loud-Number-8185

You asked her not to, and she should respect that.

Reddit u/Littlequine

Maybe you're just not right for each other.

Reddit u/Neptune_the_sea

I wouldn't be eating at her family's place either.

Reddit u/Ok-Candy6819

She's your partner though.

Reddit u/KenraScar

ESH.

Reddit u/UntidyVenus

YTA.

Reddit u/triscuit79

You have bigger problems.

Reddit u/Squirrels-love-me

In the end, what started as a simple home-cooked meal turned into a much bigger conversation about boundaries, habits, and what people consider basic manners. Now the Redditor is left wondering whether he overreacted—or if expecting clean utensils in shared dishes is really too much to ask.