Restaurant defends $72 charge to cut birthday cake - so do you think it's fair?
A vineyard restaurant in Victoria has defended their pricing after a diner was charged $72 to have a BYO birthday cake cut and plated.
The customer, identified only as 'Sue', phoned radio station 3AW to vent her frustration over the charges at Stillwater at Crittenden, located in the Mornington Peninsula.
"I bought a passionfruit sponge from a local Mornington bakery and it cost $10," Sue said on air on Monday morning.
She said the staff were happy to keep it in the fridge and offered to cut and plate it for the group of six women.
However, business manager for the restaurant Narelle Richards told Yahoo7 it was a group of 12 women and that it was a cost of $6 per person.
Sue said the group brought their own candles and sung Happy Birthday, but their jubilation was cut short when they were handed the bill.
"We sang happy birthday and everything... they charged me $72 for the cake to be cut," she said.
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"If we'd have known we'd have literally cut it with a butter knife."
"You should've eaten it with your fingers!" the radio host responded.
But Ms Richards likened the cost of cutting the cake to the cost of corkage of alcohol.
"If we let everyone bring their own food or whatever and not charge them anything, we would go out of business, any business would go out of business," she told Yahoo7.
"The cost includes plating the cake up as a dessert where we put some cream and a berry coulis with it as well. The guest was informed of the charge before the cutting of the cake. It's our policy."
Stillwater at Crittenden owner Jacqui Poulier said she wished the customer had mentioned the issue at the time instead of phoning the radio station.
"We do allow people to bring their own food to the restaurant, the option to have it plated and with cake it would come with ice cream and berries," Ms Poulier told the Herald Sun.
"This is a fine dining restaurant not McDonald's, we do pay our staff properly and we'd like people to enjoy their time here.
"If there's been a miscommunication I would hate for it to look badly on the restaurant."
Stillwater has won a number of awards in recent years, including first place in the Tourism Restaurants and Catering Services category of the 2015 Australian Tourism Awards.
