A woman exploded at a restaurant after claiming she had not been warned about the exorbitant price of a single dish while dining with friends.
Perth woman Reanna Ho was shocked after being presented with a $944.30 bill for her table of nine at Canton Lane Chinese restaurant in Cloverdale on Friday night.
While the group ordered eight dishes, the “live lobster” accounted for the lion’s share of the bill at $615.
The restaurant had warned Ms Ho that the price would be determined based on weight and market price, but she claims The staff brought it to the table and did not say how much it would cost per kilogram nor would the five additional servings of noodles cost $15 each.
“Even though I paid the bill, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
Calling the restaurant the next day, a staff member told him that the huge lobster weighed 4.5 pounds (more than 2 kg) and was priced at $120 a pound.
“We didn’t assume lobster would be cheap, but based on common sense, the typical price per pound is usually around $60 to $70,” Ms. Ho wrote.
“Even over the holiday period, it doesn’t seem reasonable for the price to shoot up to $120 per pound.”
A Perth diner was left furious after staff at a Chinese restaurant failed to warn her about the cost per kilogram of a huge lobster (pictured), which cost her $615.
The lobster and noodle dish accounted for the majority of the bill (pictured) and prompted the diner to leave a furious review of the restaurant on social media.
He claimed that staff did not “clearly inform” his group about the weight and price of the lobster, or that it was a “giant lobster.”
“On top of that, the dish did not include the lobster head; if the lobster really weighed 4.5 pounds, the head should have been huge and noticeable, yet none of us at the table saw it,” said Mrs. Ho .
“Frankly, with such an expensive ingredient, shouldn’t it be the restaurant’s responsibility to ensure transparency by first confirming the price and weight with the customer?”
“This dining experience deeply disappointed us and we decided not to return.”
He went on to warn other diners to “always confirm the weight and price” when ordering market-price dishes at a restaurant.
Several users agreed with Ms Ho and expressed surprise at the “lack of transparency” from staff and management.
“Who goes ahead and cooks a meal worth over $600 without telling the diner beforehand that it’s going to be extremely expensive,” one wrote.
‘I wouldn’t expect to spend $615 on lobster unless it was solid gold.
The management of the restaurant, Canton Lane Chinese Restaurant (pictured), admitted the price was not passed on to the diner, but claimed there was “no deception”.
The restaurant’s management responded to the post on Tuesday night, admitting that “the price and weight were not informed to the customer.”
But they claimed there was “no deception” in the process, and shared security footage of staff removing the lobster from a tank, weighing it and cooking it.
“In our restaurant, we cut off the head of the lobster for cooking as well because we don’t see the point in wasting the head meat just for display,” the management said.
‘This has been our way of cooking since we opened, unless the customer requests otherwise’
They added that the large size of the lobster makes it more expensive per pound, while other costs, such as chef salaries and ingredients, also influence the price.
“In addition, during the end of the year, the festive period and particularly when the export of live lobster to China resumes, prices shoot up very quickly,” they wrote.
‘We have been running this restaurant for 8 years and we have done it without problems. We do not need to deceive anyone in any way to maintain our business.
“Let’s hope that on our part we have clarified this situation.”