A restaurant in Italy has caused an uproar after charging its customers a whopping £50 to cut their birthday cake.
A family visited the restaurant in the southern part of Arezzo to celebrate their mother’s birthday after asking in advance if they could bring a cake from the pastry shop.
However, after enjoying a quiet meal on Thursday, the bill of €659 still included €58 for cutting and serving the cake.
The cost was even higher than that of the birthday cake, which cost 45 euros, because each of the 13 guests cost 4.50 euros, reported Corriere Fiorentino.
It had previously been revealed that London restaurant guests had to pay an additional service charge of 13.5 percent for the “privilege of paying their bill”.
A look at the 58 Euro fee a restaurant in Italy charged for cutting a cake for a family birthday
The cost of the cake was more expensive than the cake itself (stock photo)
The mother’s daughter caused a storm on social media in a post in a Facebook group from Arezzo and told the story.
She claimed that the restaurant had explained that this was the establishment’s house rules and that they were obliged to pay the amount.
The restaurant owner told the Italian media site: “We don’t charge an entrance fee and we mainly serve dishes that we make ourselves. So we try to discourage people from bringing things from outside.”
“Considering that the average entrance fee in Arezzo is 2.50 euros per person, the difference is not that big.”
“My restaurant has to pay the waiter who serves at the table, the dishwasher and other related services. We have to recoup that somehow.”
However, the owner admitted: “I wasn’t there that evening and my employees may have handled the situation too awkwardly, reducing the usual price a little or not charging anything for the cake at all.”
“It’s better to have 50 euros less and have people go home happy than this misunderstanding that harms us all.”
In August last year, another restaurant in Italy shocked its customers by charging them 20 euros to cut a birthday cake.
The family had brought the cake to a celebration in Palermo, Sicily.
However, the party guests were astonished to learn that they had been charged 20 euros (17.26 pounds) for cutting up the piece.
