A woman has blown up at a restaurant after claiming to not have been warned about the eye-watering price for a single dish while dining out with friends.
Perth woman Reanna Ho was shocked after being presented a $944.30 bill for the table of nine at Canton Lane Chinese Restaurant, in Cloverdale, on Friday night.
While the party ordered eight dishes, the ‘live lobster’ made up the lion’s share of the bill at $615.
The restaurant had warned Ms Ho the price would be determined by the weight and market price, but she claims staff brought it to the table and didn’t say how much it would cost per-kilogram nor the added five serves of noodles would cost $15 each.
‘Though I paid the bill, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off,’ she wrote in a Facebook post.
Calling the restaurant the following day, a staff member told her that the massive lobster weighted 4.5 pounds – more than 2kg – and was priced at $120-per-pound.
‘We didn’t assume the lobster would be cheap, but based on common sense, the typical price per pound is usually around $60-$70,’ Ms Ho wrote.
‘Even during the festive period, it seems unreasonable for the price to skyrocket to $120 per pound.’
She claimed that the staff did not ‘clearly inform’ her party of the lobster’s weight and price, or that it was a ‘jumbo lobster’.
‘On top of that, the dish didn’t include the lobster head, if the lobster truly weighed 4.5 pounds the head should have been huge and noticeable, however none of us at the table saw it,’ Ms Ho said.
‘Frankly, with such an expensive ingredient, shouldn’t it be the restaurant’s responsibility to ensure transparency by confirming the price and weight with the customer first?’
‘We were deeply disappointed by this dining experience and have decided not to return.’
She went on to warn other diners to ‘always confirm the weight and price’ when ordering market priced dishes at a restaurant.
A number of users agreed with Ms Ho and expressed their shock at the ‘lack of transparency’ from staff and management.
‘Who goes ahead and cooks a meal worth upwards of $600 without letting the diner know beforehand that this is going to be extremely expensive,’ one wrote.
‘I wouldn’t expect to spend $615 on lobster unless it was solid gold.’
The restaurant’s management responded to the post on Tuesday night, admitting the ‘price and weight were not informed to the customer’.
But they claimed there was ‘no deceiving involved’ in the process, sharing security footage of staff getting the lobster from a tank, weighing it and cooking it.
‘In our restaurant, we cut up the head of the Lobster to cook it up as well because we don’t see the point of wasting the meat of the head just for display purposes,’ management said.
‘This has been our way of cooking ever since we opened unless customer request otherwise’
They added the large size of the lobster makes it more expensive per-pound while other costs such as chef wages and ingredients also factor into the price.
‘Plus, during the end of year, festive period and particularly when live lobster export to China has resumed, the prices soar up real quick,’ they wrote.
‘We have been running this restaurant for 8 years and have been running it smoothly. We do not need to deceive anyone in anyway in order to sustain our business.
‘Hopefully, we have clarified this situation on our side.’