An Ohio Texas Roadhouse customer checks his bill and sees a strange extra charge that puzzled the staff

A customer dining at a Texas Roadhouse location in Ohio was surprised to find an unexpected $1.99 charge added to his bill for using the restaurant’s tabletop payment kiosk. Details later emerged on BroBible, which reported that the fee appeared despite the diner insisting he never interacted with the device beyond paying at the end of the meal.

The customer shared that he is germaphobic and intentionally avoids touching the tabletop Ziosk system unless absolutely necessary. He said he did not play games, browse menus, or press buttons during the meal, making the charge confusing when it appeared on the final receipt.

After noticing the unfamiliar fee, the diner immediately asked his server about it. The staff member initially assumed the charge came from a game being activated on the device, but the customer maintained that he never touched it. While the charge was ultimately treated as an error, the incident led the customer to advise others to carefully review their receipts before paying.

The situation raised concerns about how easily these charges can appear

Texas Roadhouse acknowledged the issue and said it is working with the vendor that supplies the Ziosk tablets to determine why some guests are being charged incorrectly. A spokesperson confirmed that customers who do not play games on the devices should not see any related fees on their bills, suggesting the charge was not part of company policy but a technical problem.

On-table ordering and payment systems like Ziosk have become common across casual dining chains over the past decade. They are designed to speed up payments and offer optional entertainment, particularly for families with children. However, reports of unexplained “game” or “table entertainment” charges have followed the technology to multiple restaurants, not just Texas Roadhouse. Similar frustrations with modern convenience tech have appeared in other food-related situations, such as when a woman tracked her Uber Eats driver for over 30 minutes before receiving an unexpected message from him.

Customers at other chains have described similar experiences, saying they were billed for digital games they never knowingly activated. In many cases, servers quickly removed the charge and did not seem surprised to see it. Some diners believe the tablets are overly sensitive and that even moving or bumping the device can trigger a paid feature.

As a result, some customers now take preventative measures, such as pushing the kiosk to the edge of the table or removing it altogether. Others compare the devices to hotel minibars, warning that interacting with them too casually can result in unexpected fees. That skepticism mirrors reactions in other corners of the fast-food world, including backlash over limited promotions like McDonald’s bringing back Pokémon cards for its 30th anniversary after previous rollouts caused issues in certain countries.