Disgraziade.
A traveler in Italy took to the web to vent after noticing he’d been slapped with a surprise 2 euro surcharge at a restaurant within the upscale Lake Como region — for having his sandwich cut in half.
The unnamed man, visiting from nearby Milan, had ordered a vegetarian sandwich — with french fries stuffed inside — at Bar Pace in Gera Lario, on the lake’s northern end.
After munching on the meatless snack, which he shared with a friend, he was shocked to seek out the unwanted upcharge on his bill.
He coughed up without complaining but later posted a negative review to TripAdvisor.
The disgruntled diner explained that they ordered the sandwich to separate with their friend — but never asked for it to be cut into halves.
“Unbelievable but true,” the person captioned a photograph of the receipt on TripAdvisor.
The receipt lists the sandwich for 7.50, Coca-Cola for 3.50, water for 1.50, and espresso for 1.20, together with the debated “diviso da meta”, or “cutting in half” fee, amounting to 2 euros, or $2.20.
The confused customer gave the restaurant one star on TripAdvisor — far below the typical of 4 and a half stars, based on over 100 reviews.
The restaurant’s owner has defended the fee.
“Additional requests have a price,” owner Cristina Biacchi told La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper.
“We had to make use of two plates as a substitute of 1 and the time to scrub them is doubled, after which two placemats. It wasn’t a straightforward toasted sandwich, there have been also French fries inside. It took us time to chop it in two.”
She also noted that the shopper didn’t complain or query the charge and clarified that she would have removed the charge from the bill if someone had raised a stink.
The practice just isn’t unheard of in expensive cities and popular tourist destinations in the USA, where frugal eaters (and people with small appetites) are sometimes hit with a share charge, or a split plate charge, to make up for the lower check average at a table.
Some NYC eateries even ban the practice of sharing, period.
For the reason that story of the surprise service fee went viral, TripAdvisor has been forced to pause reviews for the spot, which has come under fire from indignant armchair opinionistas.
“As a result of a recent event that has attracted media attention and has caused an influx of review submissions that don’t describe a first-hand experience, we have now temporarily suspended publishing latest reviews for this listing,” the web site stated.
This isn’t the primary time a tourist has taken to TripAdvisor to share how they felt cheated by a restaurant.
In May of 2022, a furious couple traveling from Montana to Greece claimed they were stuck with an $860 bill, after being forced to order light bites and drinks at a Mykonos restaurant notorious for scamming tourists.
