AITA for asking a friend if they’d tried googling to see what restaurants are open on New Years day?

A Redditor shares their frustration after a friend asked for advice about New Year’s Day restaurant openings. When they suggested the friend try Googling, the friend reacted defensively, questioning if they’d prefer to just “Google everything” instead of offering help. The situation sparked a debate: was the suggestion practical, or was it dismissive?

‘ AITA for asking a friend if they’d tried googling to see what restaurants are open on New Years day?’

I (35F) have a friend (40M) who lives 30 minutes away from SF. I live in SF so he asked me what restaurants are open in the City on New Years Day. I asked him what is he looking for and his response was “food”.

I asked him if he tried googling restaurants and his response was, “Well if I did that I wouldn’t have to ask you right? Okay so the next time you ask me a question about something I should just tell you to Google it is that a fair statement?”

There’s so many restaurants in the City and I don’t know their hours. If I wanted to go eat out today, I would either google/call to check the holiday hours.

Even if my friend told me he wanted to eat at a specific restaurant, I wouldn’t be sure if the place is open today unless I googled/called to confirm. FWIW, I don’t think he was trying to make plans with me. So AITA for even suggesting him to Google restaurants to see what’s open on New Years Day?

Check out how the community responded:

Tinawebmom −  NTA. Um wow. You aren’t siri or alexa. Had he asked for a recommendation then you would be but he didn’t. He asked what was open. That’s entirely different. The only way he could have asked that is, “hey what’s a great restaurant recommendation and is there any chance if you happen to know if they’ll be open?”

The open question I sort of get as we went to a restaurant for a birthday celebration (not a holiday!) and found the restaurant closed yet Google said they were open. But to **only** ask that? Dude you literally have a *telephone, computer, fax machine* in your hand pretend you know how to adult!

dsjunior1388 −  NTA. “Hey, I’m in your city, what are your favorite restaurants I should check out.” – Friendly, social, normal, fun. “Hey, I’m in your city, do some planning for me.” – Not any of those things.

tnkelsey −  NTA. I am open and receptive to questions if it feels like someone already tried to find the answer. I HATE when people ask a question before using any brain power to try to answer it themselves first. I was treated like human Google near daily in my last relationship (sometimes about topics where I was like “wtf, I don’t even know what that is??”) and almost every day at work for five years by otherwise well-educated people. One of them straight up said “well, you’re at your desk, can you just do it?” Like he couldn’t walk the five feet to his computer to do it himself. This is a personal pet peeve of mine that I am actively trying to push back on!

SuchTutor6509 −  He’s the a**hole for expecting you to do the work for him and getting an attitude when you asked a simple question many others would have asked. You aren’t Siri, he can easily look it up himself. I would have just answered “I don’t know. You should probably look it up then.” To his snarky reply. Esp since it’s not like he was inviting you to pick a place for you both to eat at together.

Rpun −  NTA — my standard response to lazy mfers in this sort of situation is something along the line of “Damn Google must be down today huh” or “DId your d**bass forget how to use google”

ExKage −  NTA. I expect his thought process was “She lives in SF and might know of some places personally.” Of course, if I was the one asking I’d have specific thoughts in mind like “Any of your favorite food spots open on New Years Day?” “Any recommendations?” His response is immature and AH behavior. I asked in a location/county specific restaurant supporting FB group for specific recs, saw posts asking about what spots are open Christmas. I too googled “Restaurants in Location open on Christmas”

InternationalOne79 −  Not the AH. First off most restaurants are open on new years eve and day. If it is not a chain or more inclusive anyone would know to check. The fact that he didn’t care where to go but just wanted food beyond ridiculous to expect someone else to to the work for him. This brings back a memory of when I was in high school and my grandparents were visiting on New Year’s Eve and instead of being able to be out with friends my mom made me go to dinner with the family.

No reservations no checking just go out. We tent to out back steak house and the wait was over an hour. Even my grandpa thought it was ridiculous to wait that long and I heard him cuss for the first time saying “ This is f-ing ridicules. No one should ever wait for the last minute to go out or plan to eat on ANY HOLIDAY. Your friend is an i**ot and an AH. Expecting someone else to do the work for you so you never have to put in any effort is ridiculous.

EverydayCrisisAHHH −  Your friend is the king of learned helplessness.

swiggityswooty111 −  Next time just say “I’m not sure, it’s a holiday so their hours might be different.” NTA you’re not their concierge.