A woman ordered Starbucks’ new braised short rib grilled cheese on a bad day, then opened it to find a tiny piece of meat on the bread

A TikTok user who goes by @liftwithlipp says the Starbucks braised short rib grilled cheese she ordered arrived with almost no short rib, according to BroBible. Her five second video shows the sandwich taken apart on a holiday print Starbucks bag, with a small piece of braised meat sitting on one slice of bread. The video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

The caption addresses the chain directly and asks where the rest of the short rib went. On screen, she wrote that she was already at her limit and that Starbucks apparently thinks the sandwich qualifies as a braised short rib grilled cheese. The sandwich is part of the holiday menu that Starbucks rolled out in early November, according to coverage of the video.

Starbucks has not publicly responded to the video, based on what has been reported so far. The price of the sandwich has also not been confirmed in coverage of the clip, and the video does not show how the order was placed or whether the creator asked staff about the meat before posting. The post has still drawn hundreds of comments from viewers.

Viewers in the comments joked about the short rib, and some said their own sandwiches were fine

The most liked reply joked that the order said short rib and not long rib. Other viewers questioned why anyone would order short rib at Starbucks in the first place, with one comparing the idea to a seafood boil at an auto parts store. Another said they never expected to hear the words short rib and Starbucks in the same sentence.

Some commenters defended the creator. One said critics were overlooking that the sandwich had only just launched and that customers want to try new menu items. Other viewers, however, said their own sandwiches looked the same, with one saying they expected a lot more rib and another saying theirs tasted like mustard, so they threw it away.

One commenter who said they work at Starbucks claimed that the sandwiches arrive prepackaged from a warehouse and that the creator may have received one with no meat on it. The claim could not be verified. Another viewer used the thread to say the turkey stuffing sandwich is the best item on the holiday menu.

The video is only five seconds long, and it ends on the same frame of the deconstructed sandwich that appears throughout, with the small piece of braised meat visible on one slice. The on screen text frames the sandwich as the last straw during an already hard moment, and the clip leaves viewers to react to the meat for themselves.

Sandwich complaints at Starbucks have gone viral before, and a woman who paid $6 for a Starbucks bacon and Gouda sandwich went right back through the drive thru for a refund after lifting the bun. The short rib video follows a similar pattern of a customer showing what was inside a Starbucks order and viewers weighing in.

The braised short rib grilled cheese is one of several food items on the holiday menu. Replies in the comments suggest that experiences with the item vary, as some viewers said theirs was good while others said it fell short of what the menu name promised, however, none of those accounts could be verified.

Starbucks has not said whether it plans to change how the braised short rib grilled cheese is assembled, so it remains unclear whether other customers will report similar results.

Attack of the Fanboy was unable to independently verify Starbucks’ side of the story, as this account originates solely from @liftwithlipp’s TikTok video.