charging for tap water

Zinger549

Most of they buffet places charge more for drinks. They won't make much on the food so they have to recoup the costs else ware.

Voyager2002

dmg24 wrote: »

Why dredge up a thread from nine months ago?

Your assumption that all workers in Chinese restaurants are illegal immigrants (I assume this was your point) is plain ignorant, and not really welcome here.

Agreed. Not long ago, I foolishly tried to show off by ordering a beer in Chinese in a Chinese restaurant near where I live. The waiter looked Chinese but spoke only English, and in fact his family have lived in Devon for far longer than mine. Perhaps he should have been checking my passport!

(Just for the record: I am white English but my grandparents came from Central Europe.)

Voyager2002

Zinger549 wrote: »

Most of they buffet places charge more for drinks. They won't make much on the food so they have to recoup the costs else ware.

The French do these things so much better than us. If you eat in a Paris restaurant you get a bottle of chilled tap water and as much fresh bread as you want, at absolutely zero charge. No nasty surprises when the bill comes. If only Napoleon had won!

Timmne

I totally agree with charging for tap water, in certain circumstances...

I used to work in a traditional 'home cooked food' pub in my old village that served Sunday lunch at £4.95 and it was well known and loved by loads of customers. It was certainly not a big money spinner though as the margins were tight. Almost everyone would have a roast and a couple of drinks and spend £10-£15 minimum, which made it worth serving them when you take into account all of the overheads - a lot of customers would have a few drinks and a couple if not three courses, bringing their bill to up to £20-£25/person.

What happened through the years however is that we got more and more people booking up the same table for weeks in advance and they would turn up, make the roast last a good couple of hours (rendering the table useless for another sitting) and order a jug of TAP (and they really stressed the tap bit) water. My boss had to tell these tables that he was making big losses on their custom and although he appreciated their loyalty he just couldn't afford to keep them fed every sunday afternoon!

He then introduced a discretionary charge for tap water and this was charged to anyone that was clearly choosing tap water as the free alternative to paying for a drink - anyone that bought other drinks too would not be charged.

Personally, I always ask for mineral water as I know how much it irritates staff having to spend time and effort serving a free drink when they could be doing something more worthwhile.

rjm2k1

I can understand charging if that's all someone is drinking, but if I have a bottle of wine or a beer etc with my meal, I like to have a glass of tap water available too, particularly if I'm having a fair bit to drink.

Mark7799

I know this is an old thread but I'm still amazed that people think they can demand anything free of charge from a restaurant (or any other business for that matter)

surfcat

Timmne wrote: »

Personally, I always ask for mineral water as I know how much it irritates staff having to spend time and effort serving a free drink when they could be doing something more worthwhile.

I worked a bar for five years and never once felt irritated being asked to serve a free glass of tap water. And all that washing up is so hard, that one pint glass goes in the glass washer with 63 others!

Perhaps bar/restaurant staff that feel irritated by serving tap water should go and work somewhere else where customer service is not as important..
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...like a call centre!

Timmne

When you've got 10 drinks orders to make and the two waitresses are busy serving food that's being made, the last thing one needs is to be tied up doing something for nothing and then trying to flag someone down to take it to the table.

Usually people that order (only) water are the ones that end up complaining about something anyway - tight people have the me, me, me attitude too often!

Rosemary7391

Tap water is what I normally drink - I wouldn't mind paying a charge for it, but I don't like to buy a bottle of water that is generally overpriced - it costs pence through the tap, and I at least don't notice the difference! We're not all tight - just sensible

Andy_L

Voyager2002 wrote: »

The French do these things so much better than us. If you eat in a Paris restaurant you get a bottle of chilled tap water and as much fresh bread as you want, at absolutely zero charge. No nasty surprises when the bill comes. If only Napoleon had won!

Last time I was in France (quite some time ago I admit) they tended to hit you with a cover charge so the bread/water wasn't free.