Funny, I thought given the topic, booze would be involved. Every time someone tries to pad my bill, it’s invariably booze that they don’t think I’ll ask the price of. The fish thing has been attempted a few times, though. I’m wondering if the fish is weighed when it’s raw. When I’ve seen “per 100 gram” on menus, you usually can’t order just 100g— that’s why it’s annoying to say the least. So it sounds like those folks didn’t really understand what they were ordering.

Not to say that the restaurant isn’t scamming. The tip thing—owner’s explanation doesn’t make a lick of sense. And even accounting for shrinking, that seems like an absurd amount of fish for a restaurant to serve two people.

i was at this really cute little place in Italy, and this Asian couple had ordered a more extensive version of my (delicious) charcuterie platter. When it came out, they were very distressed that it wasn’t on a board—you know, like in guide books or movies. The poor owner was completely confused as to what the heck they were complaining about. I don’t know if they ever made themselves understood, but I walked out of there thinking about why so many scams do happen. And wondering how many restaurants or other folks are deliberately targeting the massive influx of Asian tourists. They have money, don’t always speak great English, aren’t always willing to protest. And in a lot of cases, probably aren’t actually familiar with a lot of western foods. I saw such hilarious mistranslations on some of the English menus that I stopped asking for them, because my Italian food vocab is passable.

No, the consumers in question went back to the restaurant and demanded to be shown a platter of 4.8 kg of fish. Restaurant refused, said they were too busy. From that the consumers assumed that it wasn’t “possible”.

(I’m not saying it was possible. I’m thinking that restaurant screams shady. At very least, it was a deliberate and deceptive attempt to take advantage of tourists. But the consumers/article actually have no proof they were ripped off for sure. They ordered fish, received more fish than they (mistakenly) thought they ordered, and ate the fish. I suspect that even had they called the cops, the most that would’ve happened is that the tip and service charge would’ve been removed from the bill).

I thought that initially but I think it’s just poor writing. They said they were too busy which in restaurant “speak” is “sorry, darling, I need to wash my hair”. If it’s scam, they’re not going to do it, and if they’re an ordinary restaurant they’re still not going to do it. They already got the guy’s money, they’re unlikely to kiss up to someone who is from the other side of the planet and never coming back. I used to work in a restaurant in college and my manager would give people with complaints like this vouchers just so they’d go away. But never refunds.

if they give him any refund now, it would solely be to get back in TA’s good graces. even then, though, who knows. Chances are they have a good location that gets a lot of gullible walk ins.

If you are buying fish by weight in a restaurant, the whole fish will be brought to the table (or it should be), and then the whole fish will be weighed. Weight includes everything, head, guts, bones, even if the diner is being served a fillet.

Yeah, but to be actually suspended by TA is another thing entirely. I don’t put much stock in TA’s reviews because there always seems to be a lot of fake ones. I didn’t think they suspended restaurants over anything.