Outram Restaurant Imposes Surcharge For Children Disturbing Other Diners
Dining in at a restaurant is usually meant to be a relaxing and enjoyable time.
However, things can quickly become unpleasant if there are rowdy and misbehaving children in the vicinity.
As a result, a restaurant in Outram is attempting to prevent such incidents by apparently imposing a surcharge for “screaming children”.
However, this unusual move received significant backlash, with one diner complaining that it ruined her experience of making a reservation.
Source: TripAdvisor
In response, the restaurant explained that such a policy is in place to enhance the dining experience for their customers.
Diner complains about ‘screaming child surcharge’ by Outram restaurant
Posting to TripAdvisor on 25 Aug, a customer aired her grievances about a rather unique surcharge at Angie’s Oyster Bar & Grill.
Source: Angie’s Oyster Bar & Grill on Facebook
She shared that she had visited the restaurant with her family before and wanted to go back again.
While making the reservation, she indicated that her baby would be coming along with her.
To her surprise, the eatery informed her that they are not a kid-friendly restaurant. In addition, they would impose a “screaming child surcharge” if the kid was “screaming” or “uncontrolled”.
They would not tolerate such behaviour, they emphasised.
“This was the first time we were informed of this even though we had been on other occasions,” wrote the diner, who also brought her baby with her during her previous visit.
While she understood that a screaming child would disrupt other guests, she pointed out that the restaurant could’ve been more polite when informing her of the surcharge.
“[I] am pretty put off by the reply,” she said. “Guess we won’t be heading back.”
Restaurant clarifies policy is for improving dining experience
Angie’s Oyster Bar & Grill later replied to the review explaining the reason behind their policy.
Source: TripAdvisor
The restaurant shared that over the past few months, they have been receiving more and more complaints about children running around unattended and disturbing other diners.
They noted that such behaviour is very dangerous as servers would often walk around with hot food and sharp cutlery. In addition, it is disrespectful to those who wish to dine in peace and quiet.
When such things happen, the restaurant would share their concerns with the kids’ parents or caretakers, who are usually able to manage the situation.
However, there were times when the adults ignored the matter and did nothing about the misbehaving child.
“As a restaurant, this puts us in an awkward position when we try to explain to other guests why nothing is being done to address the matter,” Angie’s explained.
Because of these experiences, we felt we had no choice but to impose a “penalty” to address such unfortunate situations.
That said, they never meant for the policy to negatively affect other diners’ experiences.
“We seek parents’, and caretakers’ kind understanding to tend to their children as we aim to provide as many pleasant and memorable dining experiences for as many customers as possible,” they said.
Again, this policy does not apply to 99% of our guests, but only to the ones who fail to respect the space and experience of others.
MS News has reached out to Angie’s Oyster Bar and Grill for more information.
Be considerate to your fellow diners
Nobody likes to go to a nice restaurant only to have to put up with various disturbances.
The fact that Angie’s even has such a surcharge in place shows that there are still people out there who aren’t being considerate of their fellow diners.
However, since the reviewer’s main gripe appears to be with the restaurant’s alleged lack of politeness, perhaps they can consider coming up with more tactful ways to inform their patrons of the potentially controversial policy.
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