Oct 12, 2023 - Food and Drink

The time Post food critic Tom Sietsema was found

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Tom Sietsema poses with a print newspaper box over his head to shield his identity — Sietsema goes to great lengths to shield his identity. Photo: Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Everyone hates losing things when going out, but have you ever lost your child?

At Rasika, one family of diners paid and left — sans their young kiddo, still hanging out by the table, manager Santosh Bodke recently told the Washington Post.

The tale made Post food critic Tom Sietsema's much talked-about story of all the things diners lose at restaurants. Things like:

Unclaimed cellphones at Old Ebbitt Grill, donated to charity.
A "man bag with a passport, $14,000 and a gun," at a Miami Beach crab joint.
Very elite black AmEx cards at a Wolfgang Puck spot in Beverly Hills.

We naturally wondered: Tom, what's your lost and found story?

Sietsema, who famously goes incognito to evade detection as a reviewer, didn't disappoint:

"Years ago, at a restaurant on Capitol Hill, I left my credit card, with a name other than my own, on the table. I was about a block outside the restaurant when a manager came running behind me. "Nick! Nick!" he called out. When I didn't look back, he shouted, "Mr. Sietsema! Mr. Sietsema!" It was both a gotcha moment and a relief, because how could I go back to the restaurant later and ask for my credit card without showing ID?"

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The time Post food critic Tom Sietsema was found

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