They're just being stingy and crabby. Also, he obviously has a chip on his shoulder because his business isn't doing too well, with all the empty tables.
Such a big part of business success is how you interact with your customers.
Would you want to return to a place like that? I can promise you that you weren't the first he managed to "scold" just to temporarily blow off some steam and feel better.
In fact, this is exactly how you lose customers and sales.
Exactly! There's no way the so called manager is doing well and there were so many empty tables with no customers. He definitely doesn't know a thing about how to run and manage a restaurant. I don't see the business being functional for a very long time. Customers hate to be disrespected.