CD members,
I arranged a buffet party at a south indian restaurant. Before that i had arranged at a North indian restaurant at $11 a meal. Since the South Indian restaurant was at $10 and since family member in my family wanted to encourage the uplift of south indians i had to rearrange there.
We told him that we expect around 30 people. The owner also told us that below 5 years is Free and from 5-9 years will be half rate. In the north indian restaurant, they said that it will be based on a head count.
In the party, around 18 adults and 5 children for 1/2 meal and 3 children for Free meal came. The food was good. The owner promised baloons and sparklers. He never did the sparklers. Also he gave each one a glass of pop (without our order or asking).
When i went to pay the bill, he said that i said 30 people and he charged for 30 full people. He also added a $45 service charge. I did not want to create a scene there and so i mildly told him that it should be based on the head count. He said " No , you said 30 and i will charge you for 30". He also said that he gave the drinks free.
Again, since i am a timid person / mild mannered person face to face, i let him go.
It is again a grim reminder that South Indians wait to stab a South Indian who tried to help him. This has always happened to me outside Indian. The restaurant always was always empty (due to location and price of the ala carte menu) and i gave him a good business. We paid around 20-25 % more than our budget + the loss in service charge.
I am writing this to let other fellow desi's know of the loop hole and to secure in writing / verbal agreement that it should be based on head count.
Just my personal views.
Please PM me if you need to know the name of the restaurant to avoid it. Also PM me if you want to know the name of the North Indian restaurant who graciously allowed us to cancel a booking and get a refund of the $100 advance without any deduction. he also asked us if any of the waiters upset us or if the food was not to our expectation for which we replied in the negetive.
TK A

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

It is common that one of the members of the group verify the bill while others are waiting. I observed this in many group lunches/dinners offered by a person/company. It is a common practise when a group of people go for group dinner/lunch and I am talking about group Indians and non-indians too.

You don't have to feel ashamed about it but I guess we Indians sometimes carry the Indian mentality over here too.

e.g. No one wastes the left over food when you dine in an expensive restaurant here, many take it in a box but in india it would be against the norm

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India Canada Bhai-Bhai

I would not call it a cheating, which is a criminal offence, but unethical or sharp business practice.

The whole episode was distasteful and would limit the growth of business of the owner, which is punishment in itself.

The corollary is that we should take a quotation from restaurant manager, maybe on a plain pad, and find out total expenses before confirming the order/party.

Thanks for posting the experience.

Hi TK,

That was a nasty experience you had . Nobody should take advantage of others delicate situation especially when the family members are around.

Please PM me the name of the South indian restaurant so that we can avoid it in future and i will request the same from my friends..

As they say, Revenge is a dish best served cold...

seenappa

I would not call it cheating at all. In a restaurent, when you book for a particular no of persons, the minimum charges are for that many persons. Now when you say 30 persons it could mean all 30 are adults, or 25 adults and 10 half price children or even 20 adults, 20 half price children and 10 no charge children.

In this case, you got only 20.5 persons (TK, as an architect you should know this - when you say 100 men hours, you do not mean 100 men working for 1 hr each), and the restaurent owner was right in charging for 30 persons.

And usually there is a service charge - also sometimes fixed per person, so a $45 charge does not surprise me - though one could debate that the manager/client should have discussed that before ordering a party.

Chandresh

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Chandresh

Advice is free – lessons I charge for!!

For the sake of others can you share the name the restaurant/caterer

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Live and Let Live

Freinds,

Even after leaving the country and becoming citizen elsewhere we still talk about South Indian - North Indian. Not in good taste. It's unfortunate and something that's unque to the Indian society. Things will be far better if we all can overcome this. Wish atleast the gen next has not such barriers. Even I live away from India almost six year now in Middle east where I can see the division so wide. I always used to think may be because of the illiteracy crowd we have in this part of this world such things has become part of the life style here. But it really surprises me when I see that such division do exist in there too. UNFORTUNATE.