French waitress drags goanna out of restaurant like a champ

WHEN a goanna interrupted lunch at this popular NSW dining spot, a brave French waitress was having none of it.

WHEN a goanna interrupted Sunday lunch at a popular dining spot on the NSW South Coast, this waitress decided she was having none of it.

French woman Samia Lila, 25, who is in Australia on a working holiday visa, grabbed the unwanted visitor by its hefty tail and dragged it out of the restaurant, to the cheers of impressed diners.

The whole incident was captured in a now-viral video posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

Ms Lila admitted she mistook the large reptile for a dog when she first noticed it crawling around the dining room floor at Mimosa Wines and Drystone Restaurant in Murrah, northeast of Bega.

Samia Lila, 25, drags the goanna out of the restaurant. Picture: Supplied

One diner jumped on a chair as Ms Lila wrangled with the struggling lizard. Picture: Facebook/Mimosa Wines

Without flinching the waitress grabbed the goanna by the tail and dragged it outside. Picture: Facebook/Mimosa Wines

The Australian native was no match for the brave waitress. Picture: Facebook/Mimosa Wines

“I looked at it and thought it was a dog at first,” Ms Lila told Fairfax Media.

“But then I realised it was a goanna … I wasn’t scared, I like reptiles so was a bit excited.”

Her boss, Mimosa Wines owner Glenn Butson, told Storyful Ms Lila thought dragging goannas outside was just “what Aussies do”.

“She came here to improve her English and learn about Australian culture and wildlife,” he said.

“I recently told her a story about a goanna trapped in our shower and how I picked it up by the tail and carried it outside.

“She just thought that’s what Aussies do when a goanna comes inside.”

The video shows guests squealing as Ms Lila drags the goanna across the restaurant floor, with one woman standing on a chair to keep out of its reach.

Goannas typically eat smaller lizards, snakes, mammals and birds, along with insects.

The video of Ms Lila’s lizard-wrangling skills has been viewed more than 220,000 times since it was posted on Sunday.