Restaurant's Facebook post sees 'dine and dash' customers return

After a "table of 6 boys" left a Melbourne restaurant Saturday night without settling their $325.50 bill, the owner thought he’d have to cover the costs from his pocket.

But when his staff returned the next day to open up the Mexican restaurant, they discovered the cash left in an envelope, with the tab paid in full.

In the 12 months of running Carlos Cantina at Croydon, Charles Tey told Yahoo7 this was the first time diners had walked out without paying.

It was a busy Saturday night at the Carlos Cantina, so the owner said he was was more upset than angry about the unpaid bill putting a damper on the evening.

After closing up he shared the unpaid bill on Facebook in the hope the absconders would front up and pay up at the east Melbourne restaurant.

“To the table of 6 boys that walked out tonight,” he wrote. “You forgot to pay. Please come back.”

To his astonishment, the diners had returned and slipped the full payment under the door for an employee to find when they opened up 3pm on Sunday afternoon.

“My staff called to tell me ‘there is an envelope here’… I asked them to open it.”

Mr Tey said when his employee told him the full payment of $325.50 was received he was in disbelief.

“I said ‘no way!’… I didn’t think I’d get it back,” Mr Tey said.

“Maybe they did forget."

The restaurateur told Yahoo7 the group of six had a fair bit to drink and might genuinely have forgotten to pay. Or maybe they thought it would be funny to dine and dash, Mr Tey wondered.

In a follow up post on Sunday afternoon, the restaurant shared a picture of the envelope with the words “sorry we forgot to pay” written on it.

“We came into work today and found a envelope with full payment under our door,” the post read.

“We are extremely happy. Thank you very much boys. We hope you had a good night.”

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Many replied to the restaurant’s posts accusing the men of knowingly walking out without paying.

“Who forgets to pay?” one asked.

Another agreed: “How can 6 people 'forget' to pay?"

“Caught out more like it!” was another response.

“I call bulls*** on forgetting to pay, they could have at the very least handed the money over in person, $300+ is a lot of money to flippantly put under your door BUT they have paid so that’s a good thing,” another wrote.

Regardless, the owner is happy the bill was eventually settled.