Every time we go to explore some new restaurant or cafe, a real adventure can await us. No, I don’t mean a 'culinary adventure' with incredible new tastes and foods, but a real thriller, when your bill may suddenly turn out to be much more impressive than you previously expected.
We recently wrote about a woman who was charged $11 for a few extra slices of sourdough bread, and today we'll tell a story about a restaurant where you can easily get a hefty surcharge for your kids' bad behavior... or for something the owner of the restaurant considered to be 'bad behavior'. Intrigued? Then let's read on!
Turns out, there's a restaurant where a customer can get a surcharge in case the owner isn't satisfied with their kids' behavior
Image credits: Mochi Mochi (not the actual photo)
Just a small disclaimer - we also found this restaurant on Google Maps (it's actually not that difficult), but we won't reveal its name - just note that this is an American cuisine restaurant located near Blue Ridge, Georgia. The average rating on Google Maps is 4.1 with 2,033 reviews, but Tripadvisor users give the establishment a slightly lower score: 3.5 based on 1,256 reviews.
And now that you’re already roughly up to speed, here’s a photo of a menu fragment from the user u/LPineapplePizzaLover, who recently visited this restaurant. And a whole set of warnings immediately catches your eye, due to which the restaurant can potentially inflate your check amount to the skies.
The information on the surcharges is written at the bottom of the menu, and it really leaves quite some room for interpretation
Image credits: u/LPineapplePizzaLover
Here you can see both an 'adult surcharge' and 'share charge', and the wording is highly ambiguous. They say that when in 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte needed to justify the coup d'etat he had committed from a legal point of view, he ordered his lawyers: “Write briefly and abstrusely!” I'm not sure if the owner of the restaurant is familiar with this story, but they fulfilled Napoleon's behest flawlessly.
Image credits: Yan Krukau (not the actual photo)
Okay, let's go over the reviews - maybe we're just misreading the owners, and they don't overuse passive-aggressive declarations in their own menu. But no, they still overuse them. At least a few reviews point directly to this. Especially to the restaurant management’s rejection of unruly kids.
For example, one of the customers writes that he received a surcharge for his kids' bad behavior - even though, while waiting for food, the children sat peacefully with a tablet, then ate calmly - and left with his wife outside, leaving dad to pay. Perhaps the boss of the establishment believes that watching a tablet is harmful for children? Who knows?
Some reviews on various services claim that the owner behaved rudely towards some categories of customers
Image credits: Danielle Hampy
Image credits: Kyle Landmann
On the other hand, another review is really very upsetting. It turns out that an army veteran who lost a leg in the war once came with a group of friends, accompanied by his service dog - and the owner never wanted to let the dog into the hall, demanding documents confirming that it was a true service dog and whatnot...
The most annoying thing is that many visitors are really satisfied with the restaurant’s food, and many people also like the interior of the establishment. But the higher-ups' attitude towards some clients, and these requirements regarding various surcharges written in the menu - this is quite possibly what lowers the restaurant’s ratings.
At the same time, many reviewers do say the restaurant really offers tasty food
Image credits: toccoariversiderestaurant
“Some restaurants and cafes actually prescribe such surcharges, but at the same time, it is considered a kind of good form to prescribe in detail what amount and for what a customer can face in addition to the bill,” says Vlad Ostrometsky, the administrator of UNIT Cafe in Odessa, Ukraine, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment here. "Otherwise, there really is quite a lot of room for misuse of vague language. After all, if someone's toddler is running around, one person may consider it a nice and cute fun activity and another may consider it an outrageous disgrace."
“Accordingly, the check will change. And the experience of visiting a restaurant, even if the food was incredibly tasty and the service was decent, will turn out to be ruined. As for that very 3.5% non-cash adjustment, it seems to me that this is nothing more than an ugly attempt to divert part of your income 'into the shadows.' It’s also not very graceful, although, alas, some also do this..." Vlad ponders.
Most of the commenters massively sided with the author of the post, claiming that even tasty food isn't an excuse for such an attitude towards clients
People in the comments to the original post also noticed this, and many other strange requirements written on the menu, and completely agree with the original poster. "From the laundry list of extra charges they have, this just seems like a restaurant that uses any excuse it can to gouge customers more," some of the folks in the comments don't mince words.
However, some commenters also note that to compensate for such requirements, the cuisine in the restaurant must be truly delicious. "The food must be amazing for people to put up with that attitude on the menu," one person aptly wrote in the comments. And as for you, our dear readers, what is more important - delicious food or decent service in a restaurant? Please feel free to share your points of view in the comments below.
Image credits: Francesca Cinel (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Anastasia Shuraeva (not the actual photo)
