Legal Question in Consumer Law in Virginia

Re: Leaving a restaurant after ordering food

If you have not received and consumed any food and/or drink which you've ordered, you can leave any time you please without being legally obligated to pay for these items----despite the overbearing and utterly baseless efforts of the restaurant manager to convince you or other naive patrons that his view is the one by which you should abide.

Re: Leaving a restaurant after ordering food

Yes, the question is whether you can cancel the order. Since you didn't eat anything, you are not responsible to pay anything IF you have a right to cancel the order. I don't know why not. I think, however, you would be better off actually telling the waitress to cancel the order, rather than just leaving without saying anything, because then it is clear that you owe them nothing, because you are not asking anything from them. It would also have the advantage of telling them WHY you are unhappy. If anyone actually called the police, perception and "spin" can make a difference. So the manager saying "they sneaked out without paying" sounds a lot worse than "I told the waitress to forget about the food."