History Series / MysteryDiners

** Expect Charles to spell out the precise legal repercussions to both the business, the boss and the employee for whatever misbehaving employees do.

* ClusterBleepBomb: Been known to happen during shouting matches between employees or with the restaurant owner. One of the more spectacular ones was when the owner of a kitchenware warehouse confronted his security guard over the guard using his equipment to run an underground bakery business [[spoiler: alongside his fellow triplets]].

* FrameUp: The episode "''Cheese Burglar''" had the main suspect who was a rehabilitated convict now working in a diner. Since he started working, the owners noticed that money was going missing. [[spoiler:Despite some anger issues, he was genuinely honest and even put a wallet a Mystery Diner left behind on purpose in the lost-and-found! Turns out it was another worker who was stealing from the till and was trying to pin the incidents on him. She even broke into the lost-and-found to steal said wallet.]]
* FrenchJerk: The wine waiter in Las Vegas who implies his customers are complete ignoramuses who know nothing about wine.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: The basic assumption of the show is one of honest hard-working owners and managers who are invariably ripped off by lazy, incompetent or dishonest staff. But what happens when the ''management'' show themselves up as morally dubious or unreasonable? And in the episode where a Las Vegas diner, operating on the Hooters principle of attractive waitresses in tight tops acting as "hostesses". The owner goes into a fit of moral outrage that the woman managing his waitresses is clandestinely running them as, er, a business offering other services on a different bill of faire. He's running a business in Las Vegas predicated on using sex to sell services, albeit in a bland and vanilla way. If his employees choose to moonlight and take it to [[TheOldestProfession the next logical level]] - then what can he expect?[[note]] This doesn't get his manageress off the hook on either moral or legal grounds (despite Vegas's reputation, prostitution is actually ''illegal'' in Clark County), and doesn't excuse her deception. Her recruitment of other waitresses into prostitution is dubious, too. But in that place, given that job description, using employees expected to go at least part of the way there - can the boss be surprised? Or so morally outraged?[[/note]]

* MyGreatestSecondChance: After one mark was fired for alcoholism from his old job Charles sent him to rehab and hired him as a Mystery Diner. [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome He fell off the wagon on a stakeout and screwed up another heist by falling asleep]].

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Expect Charles to spell out the precise legal repercussions to both the business, the boss and the employee for whatever misbehaving employees do.
** Because one restaurant's owner was a hands-off owner, Charles couldn't get the cameras set up without raising suspicion, so they did the entire episode with the cameramen inside the restaurant and disguised the owner, who had never met any of the staff with the exception of the general manager, who was the target of the episode.
** Those stunts you see in ''Series/{{Jackass}}'' including when Bam went down the bowling alley lane on a skateboard? Business owners do ''not'' appreciate those kinds of antics (it's an insurance nightmare) and you'll be banned for doing so.

** One seafood restaurant called in ''Mystery Diners'' to help with some discrepancies with their lobster. They found that one of their servers was an animal rights activist, discouraging customers from ordering lobster dishes (to the point even claiming outright that lobster wasn't available) and stealing a live lobster out of the tank to release it back into the wild.

** One seafood restaurant called in ''Mystery Diners'' to help with some discrepancies with their lobster. They found that one of their servers was an animal rights activist, discouraging customers from ordering lobster dishes (and even claiming outright that lobster wasn't available) and stealing the live lobster out of the tank to release back into the wild.

''Mystery Diners'' is an American show that ran from 2012 to 2016 on Creator/FoodNetwork. In the vein of fellow Food Network series ''Series/RestaurantStakeout'', host Charles Stiles and his team of Mystery Diners are called upon by restaurant owners around the country who are concerned that employees at their restaurants are causing trouble or stealing things and want to find out who and why. Hidden cameras and the eponymous "Mystery Diners", actors who pose as diners or new employees at the establishment, are used to discover the bad employees as Charles and the owner(s) watch via [=CCTV=] from a nearby control room.

''Mystery Diners'' is an Creator/FoodNetwork show that ran from 2012 to 2016 where, in the vein of fellow Food Network series ''Series/RestaurantStakeout'', host Charles Stiles and his team of Mystery Diners are called upon by restaurant owners around the country who are concerned that employees at their restaurants are causing trouble or stealing things and want to find out who and why. Hidden cameras and the eponymous "Mystery Diners", actors who pose as diners or new employees at the establishment, are used to discover the bad employees as Charles and the owner(s) watch via [=CCTV=] from a nearby control room.

''Mystery Diners'' is an American Creator/FoodNetwork show that ran from 2012 to 2016 where, in the vein of fellow Food Network series ''Series/RestaurantStakeout'', host Charles Stiles and his team of Mystery Diners are called upon by restaurant owners around the country who are concerned that employees at their restaurants are causing trouble or stealing things and want to find out who and why. Hidden cameras and the eponymous "Mystery Diners", actors who pose as diners or new employees at the establishment, are used to discover the bad employees as Charles and the owner(s) watch via [=CCTV=] from a nearby control room.

''Mystery Diners'' is a Creator/FoodNetwork show that ran from 2012 to 2016 where, in the vein of fellow Food Network series ''Series/RestaurantStakeout'', host Charles Stiles and his team of Mystery Diners are called upon by restaurant owners around the country who are concerned that employees at their restaurants are causing trouble or stealing things and want to find out who and why. Hidden cameras and the eponymous "Mystery Diners", actors who pose as diners or new employees at the establishment, are used to discover the bad employees as Charles and the owner(s) watch via [=CCTV=] from a nearby control room.

** Another one had a [[StrawVegetarian Straw Vegan]] who claimed that [[InsaneTrollLogic "milk is murder"]] when a customer asked for cheese. The owner of the restaurant wasn't much better, referring to meat exclusively as "dead animal flesh" (although, he's not technically wrong in calling it that.)

* BodySushi: One episode took place at a restaurant specializing in this (although it got cut from rotation; see MissingEpisode below).

* MissingEpisode: The second episode of the fourth season took place at a BodySushi restaurant (the owner had noticed high turnover and was concerned that someone might be acting inappropriately towards the models). Unsurprisingly, this episode got dropped from the rotation and the various collections.

** Because one episode was a stake-out on the ''owner'' of the restaurant as requested by the waitresses, Charles couldn't get the cameras set up without the owner's co-operation so they did the entire episode with the cameramen inside the restaurant.

** Another one had a [[StrawVegetarian Straw Vegan]] who claimed that [[InsaneTrollLogic "milk is murder"]] when a customer asked for cheese. The owner of the restaurant wasn't much better, referring to meat exclusively as "dead animal flesh".

'''The Consultation''': Charles and his team meet up with the restaurant owner(s) who has asked for their help. The owner expresses his concerns about certain employees who he/she suspects are not taking their job seriously, is causing messes, stealing money or other things, etc. at the restaurant. It's at this point hidden cameras are set up around the establishment. This phase is invariably preceded by '''The Advert''', in which this week's restaurant owners are allowed a minute or so of free prime airtime to showcase the food they do best, and present their House Special.

* RevengeIsADishBestServed: A waitress with an attitude problem is affronted by a cutomer who tells her his order isn't right. Enraged that she has to get a fresh burger set up, back in the kitchen this fat sweaty waitress deliberately puts the burger bun inside her top, rubbing it against her breast and armpit before returning it to the plate - and serving the hapless customer.

** Because one episode was a stake-out on the ''owner'' of the restaurant as requested by the waitresses, Charles couldn't get the cameras set up without the owner's co-operation so they did the entire episode with the camera men inside the restaurant.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent:
** While most episodes take place in restaurants, one episode has taken place in a bowling alley where the employees (particularly those at the snack bar) were suspected to be allowing wild people being disruptive. Another one took place at an art gallery, the curator of which was concerned about the catering company they were working with.
** Another episode had a previous owner coming back and request a reconnaissance of a restaurant he wanted to make an investment. It turns out that it was a dump. Complete with a dead rat.

* MyGreatestSecondChance: After one mark was fired for alcoholism from his old job Charles sent him to rehab and hired him as a Mystery Diner. [[RealityEnsues He fell off the wagon on a stakeout and screwed up another heist by falling asleep]].

* RealityEnsues: Expect Charles to spell out the precise legal repercussions to both the business, the boss and the employee for whatever misbehaving employees do.
** Because one episode was a stake-out on the ''owner'' of the restaurant as requested by the waitresses, Charles couldn't get the cameras set up without the owner's co-operation so they did the entire episode with the camera men inside the restaurant.
** Those stunts you see in ''Series/{{Jackass}}'' including when Bam went down the bowling alley lane on a skateboard? Business owners do ''not'' appreciate those kinds of antics (it's an insurance nightmare) and you'll be banned for doing so.

* GreyAndGrayMorality: The basic assumption of the show is one of honest hard-working owners and managers who are invariably ripped off by lazy, incompetent or dishonest staff. But what happens when the ''management'' show themselves up as morally dubious or unreasonable? The episode where a bathroom attendant trades favours for a free dinner on his shift, for instance, which is seen as theft, and the person concerned is painted as wholly culpable. The idea that the business owner might concede an on-shift dinner to somebody working for him, as is standard in the business, is hand-waved away, on the grounds that the bathroom person is an "independent contractor", and not a directly employed member of staff. And in the episode where a Las Vegas diner, operating on the Hooters principle of attractive waitresses in tight tops acting as "hostesses". The owner goes into a fit of moral outrage that the woman managing his waitresses is clandestinely running them as, er, a business offering other services on a different bill of faire. He's running a business in Las Vegas predicated on using sex to sell services, albeit in a bland and vanilla way. If his employees choose to moonlight and take it to [[TheOldestProfession the next logical level]] - then what can he expect?[[note]] This doesn't get his manageress off the hook on either moral or legal grounds (despite Vegas's reputation, prostitution is actually ''illegal'' in Clark County), and doesn't excuse her deception. Her recruitment of other waitresses into prostitution is dubious, too. But in that place, given that job description, using employees expected to go at least part of the way there - can the boss be surprised? Or so morally outraged?[[/note]]

** In another episode, concern is raised about a cook who is allegedly drinking on duty, concealing the possible alcohol in a soft-drinks mug. He is sent out of the kitchen on a pretext whilst the Stiles plant intercepts the cup and takes it to the control room where it is identified as nearly-neat gin. Much is made about drinking on duty being illegal and a felony that could result in action against the owner. Yet - incredibly - the planted waitress is told, with the business owner's nod of assent, to take the cup of gin back to the kitchen, and to replace it where she found it. Thus - now the owner is provenly aware of his cook DrinkingOnDuty - making the business owner into an accessory to his employee drinking on the job, and implicitly consenting to his continuing to do so. A good employment lawyer could make a lot of this in court. Had Stiles thought to tip it away and replace it with a soft drink - they might have been in the clear.