Influencer Accuses Restaurant of Eating His Cake But Here’s What Really Happened

A New York City cook and influencer is clearing up some not-so-sweet details after he went viral for accusing a local restaurant’s staff of “eating half” of his friend’s birthday cake.

Ryan Nordheimer, who has 300,000 TikTok followers, first shared a glimpse at his “funfetti birthday cake” recipe on Oct. 1, when at the end of the video, he revealed that he believed a restaurant “ate half the cake for themselves.”

After being asked to clarify, the 25-year-old influencer made a follow-up video, in which he again claimed that the remainder of the cake — which took him 5 or 6 hours to make — wound up instead with staff at the dining location where he celebrated his friend’s birthday.

Nordheimer said that he initially called the location — which he did not name — ahead of time and offered to cut the cake himself, but that the person who answered the phone told him it would be a “safety hazard” and insisted those on staff cut the cake.

As Nordheimer explained, the staff “ended up taking the cake back in the kitchen to serve it,” and he and his friends were served what he described as “thin” cake slices. After making a rough estimate of how many of the small slices could come from the cake, Nordheimer believed only half of the cake was served to them. But he and his friends left the restaurant empty-handed, with no more of the cake in sight.

“At the end of the dinner, when we asked the waiter where our cake leftovers were … they just say that there’s no cake left,” he recalled. “So the only explanation is that this high-end New York City, midtown steakhouse took the cake back into the kitchen, cut all of us meager slices of cake to eat and they had just eaten the rest of it for themselves.”

Nordheimer then clarified that he believed those on staff deserved a “sweet treat,” but that the cake was his “hard work” and a birthday present to his friend.

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Just a day later, Nordheimer returned to TikTok with an update on the cake dilemma, revealing that three different people within the steakhouse’s management team called him to confirm that they “neglected to give back” a “portion of the cake” after looking at security footage.

“They most likely forgot about it and it was left it the kitchen,” Nordheimer recalled being told on the phone. “They were super kind and they offered a free dinner for two back at their restaurant to make up for obviously this whole situation. So obviously its disappointing that we didn’t get our leftovers but most likely what happened — and I do have to think — is that it was a busy Saturday night … unfortunately my cake just ended up on the chopping block at the end of the night.”

While the influencer did not directly name the restaurant that he says misplaced his dessert, fans on social media quickly pointed fingers at Quality Meats — a steakhouse that wound up flooded with commenters asking who ate the birthday cake this week.

A spokesperson for Quality Meats told TODAY.com in an email statement that it “can ensure that our staff did not eat any of the birthday cake,” citing security footage. A representative did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for more information on Saturday, Oct. 5, but shared a similar statement with the New York Post.

“Whenever a guest brings in their own desserts, the team tries to estimate the size of the slices with a buffer in case a guest wants seconds. Once the party of 12 was served, there were only two slices left — not half of the cake,” the statement to TODAY read. “While we acknowledge that we failed to pack up the remaining two slices, the accusations that the staff ate the cake are completely false. We’ve reached out to the guest to apologize for our team’s lack of communication that evening.”

In his last video on the matter, the influencer asked his followers to “take a chill pill” on leaving Instagram comments, adding that he didn’t feel the staff “meant it or deserve it.”

“If there’s a silver lining to this whole thing, its that my friend whose birthday it was absolutely loves the fact that this whole thing blew up and thinks its so funny and hilarious to see this popping up in tabloids or whatever,” he said.

“So maybe the birthday present was the fun we had along the way.”