Series synopsis
Mystery Diners is an American reality television series that premiered on Food Network on May 20, 2012. It ended on April 20, 2016. It stars Charles Stiles.
What happens in the food world when a bad employee starts to take down an otherwise thriving establishment or when restaurant owners suspect someone of not doing their job appropriately? They call in the Mystery Diners. These undercover operatives go into restaurants, bars and food service establishments with hidden cameras to find out what's really going on when the boss isn't around.
Premise
What happens in the food world when a bad employee starts to take down an otherwise thriving establishment or when restaurant owners suspect someone of not doing their job appropriately? They call in the Mystery Diners. These undercover operatives go into restaurants, bars and food service establishments with hidden cameras to find out what's really going on when the boss isn't around.
Cast and characters
Leading cast
Episodes
This series spans 3 seasons with 26 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 0 | 5 | May 20, 2015 | April 27, 2016 |
| Season 1 | 8 | May 20, 2012 | July 6, 2012 |
| Season 2 | 13 | October 19, 2012 | January 25, 2013 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Millions Gone Missing Mystery Diners counts down the series' greatest moments catching employee theft, involving stolen food, alcohol, supplies and money. |
May 20, 2015 |
| 2 |
Sneakiest Schemes Mystery Diners counts down the craziest schemes caught on videos from operating unauthorized businesses to raising money for bogus charities and even creating fake employees. |
May 27, 2015 |
| 3 |
Family Feuds On this special, Mystery Diners counts down the series' all-time favorite family feuds. From dishonest siblings to thieving spouses, these dysfunctional families are caught on tape by our undercover investigators. |
October 28, 2015 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Catering on the Side When the owner of The Groves Bar & Grill becomes concerned over a large loss in food and supplies, the Mystery Diners go undercover with hidden cameras as new employees and customers, suspecting that a recently hired chef may be plotting more than just the items on the menu. During the sting, they reveal that the newly-hired chef is running his own catering business and using the restaurant's kitchen and supplies to run it, making business at The Groves suffer, with customers waiting extensively for their orders. The owner, as well as Charles, confronts the chef and fires him. The narrator revealed that the former chef has gone out of business without his own overhead. The owner has his food and supplies all in check, with The Groves having an improvement in business. |
May 20, 2012 |
| 2 |
Bringing Down the Haus Brett and Rose, the husband and wife owners of German restaurant Haus Murphy, disagree on almost everything, particularly the hiring of Rose's nephew as their new restaurant manager. Fearing he is unqualified for the job, the couple hires Charles Stiles and Mystery Diners Danny, Chris, and Deanna to go undercover and show them just how incompetent their nephew truly is. After the proof is shown, this leads to the confrontation where Rose ends up having to let her nephew go from his employment. |
May 25, 2012 |
| 3 |
Big Earl's Gone Wild After losing thousands of dollars in unaccounted alcohol and hearing rumors of late-night staff parties, the owner of Big Earl's Greasy Eats contacts Charles Stiles and the Mystery Diners for help. Mystery Diners Shellene and Chris go undercover as a waitress and flirty customer in hopes of scoring invitations to an after-hours bash. |
June 1, 2012 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Tipping Point After receiving numerous complaints from his staff that his recently promoted head waiter is not evenly distributing the pooled tips, the general manager of D'Cache restaurant in Los Angeles contacts Charles Stiles and the Mystery Diners to help him discover if there is any truth to the rumor. Charles sends in Destiny and Grant as a customer and a waiter, where they discover the head waiter is telling customers the card system is down, and pocketing the money. The waiter tries to set up Grant by stealing an entire bill payment, then asking Grant to fetch the bill. When confronted, the waiter tries to defend himself, stating the manager giving tips to people who haven't earned them is stealing. The manager doesn't buy it though and the waiter is fired. |
October 19, 2012 |
| 2 |
Something Smells Fishy When Mario, the owner of La Traviata in Long Beach, California, becomes concerned over complaints with respect to the quality of his fish, Charles and the Mystery Diners discover that a recently hired chef may not be honest about what's in his high-priced dishes. Mystery Diners Rob, Shellene, and Lauren go undercover to find out what smells fishy. |
October 26, 2012 |
| 3 |
Getting a Leg Up The owner of Pips on La Brea in Los Angeles named Derrick Pipkin has a problem with a waiter named Bob who claims he hurt his leg on the job the day Derrick was going to fire him for not doing his job. This former waiter has threatened a lawsuit. So to appease him, Derrick has made him a host. However, his lazy behavior has not stopped and Derrick wonders whether the injury is even legitimate. Derrick contacts Charles Stiles for help and Mystery Diners Shellene, Lukas, and Tracey go undercover to see if Bob is faking his injury. While posing as a damsel in distress, Tracy helps to prove that Derrick is right about Bob. During the confrontation, Bob is finally fired and told to take his leg brace with him. The narrator revealed that Bob "kept on walking" and Derrick hasn't heard from Bob since the taping of this sting. Pips has finished it's relaunch where business has never been better. |
November 2, 2012 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | Food Network |
|---|---|
| First aired | May 20, 2012 |
| Last aired | April 20, 2016 |
| Runtime | 21 minutes |
| Status | Ended |
| Schedule | Wednesday at 22:00:00 |