Italian diners have left a scathing review after an ice cream parlor charged them €1 for an extra spoon to share their dessert in the latest row over restaurants in the country ripping people off.
A customer said she asked for a second spoon to share her bowl of ice cream with her husband at the Gelateria Serafini in the town of Lavis in northern Italy.
The woman wrote in her TripAdvisor review: ‘I shared an €8 tub of ice cream, but I paid €9: I had to pay €1 extra as a courtesy for asking for a second spoon.
“I won’t be back, but if you come over, take one from home.”
This comes after a couple had to pay €2 for an empty plate so their daughter could try the pasta at an Italian restaurant last month.
A customer said she asked for a second spoon to share her bowl of ice cream with her husband at the Gelateria Serafini in the town of Lavis in northern Italy.
The woman wrote in her TripAdvisor review: ‘I shared an €8 cup of ice cream but I paid €9 (photo): I was charged an extra €1 as a service for asking for a second spoon’
Italians mocked the restaurant for the unusual accusation and even the regional governor condemned it – amid a row in the country over extra hidden prices.
Ida Germano, the owner of the Osteria del Cavolo in Finale Ligure, told us The times the charges were valid because more plates to clean meant “more work.”
In another price scandal, a couple who asked for an extra teaspoon to share a dessert had to pay €1.50.
They were billed for the pleasure of using two teaspoons to eat the crema catalana they had in the pizzeria near Alba, in northern Piedmont.
It came as a chic bar on Italy’s exclusive Lake Como sparked outrage after it emerged customers were being charged an extra €2 just to cut their sandwich in half.
A disgruntled customer shared a photo of a receipt online as proof of the astonishing bill.
It is clear from the June 18 printout that Bar Pace had charged them €2 for the privilege of cutting their lovely sarnie in half.
Diners at an Italian restaurant were shocked after waiters charged them €2 for an empty plate so their daughter could try the pasta. In the photo: the restaurant’s receipt
Ida Germano (pictured), the owner of the Osteria del Cavolo in Finale Ligure, said the charges were justified because cleaning more plates meant ‘more work’
The total pushed the already expensive €7.50 ‘toast vegetarian e patatine’ – or vegetarian toast and chips – to €9.50.
The bar’s owner, who has not been named, hit back in Italian media, saying “additional requests will incur costs.”
They explained: ‘If a customer asks me to make two portions of toast, I have to use two saucers and two napkins and go to the table with both hands.
“It’s true that the customer is always right, but it’s equally true that additional requests come at a cost.”
The customer, also unnamed, was reportedly sitting at the bar with his partner in Gera Lario, a small town on the northern shore of Lake Como.
They ordered a fizzy drink, a sandwich to share, water and coffee, for a total of €15.70 (£13.52).
The TripAdvisor user said: ‘This has never happened to me in any of the places I’ve visited in the world.’
Since international travel returned to normal at the end of the global pandemic, several disgruntled holidaymakers have taken to the internet to express their shock at being offered exorbitant bills at bars and restaurants in a number of European holiday destinations.
Several customers have slammed a cafe near St Peter’s Basilica in Rome for being a ‘tourist trap’. One customer says he was charged €53 for ‘two triangular toast bread sandwiches and a ciabatta with ham and mozzarella’.
In June, a tourist took to Reddit to express his shock after being left with a bill of €360.80 (£310) for a light lunch on the Greek island of Mykonos, at a beachside restaurant called Eclipse.
The customer explained that their family was looking for a good place to sit and enjoy the sun when a waiter at Eclipse beach restaurant told them they could “use their cabanas or sun loungers, provided we bought two drinks.”
The bar’s owner (pictured), who has not been named, hit back in Italian media, saying ‘additional requests will incur costs’
In June, a tourist took to Reddit to express his shock after being left with a bill of €360.80 (£310) for a light lunch on the Greek island of Mykonos, at a beachside restaurant called Eclipse (pictured)
The customer said they asked for prices and a menu, but the waiter cleverly avoided their questions and said it was ‘cheap’.
The two parents each ordered a beer and a mojito, but were also pressured to order milkshakes for their children. They also had a Greek salad and calamari.
To the customer’s horror, they said they were then given a bill with the price of their four drinks at €78 (£67) and the calamari at €75 (£65). Being hassled for payment, they finally gave the waiter their card.
But to even more dismay, the customer said he was charged even more.
‘When the bill came back I was shocked because the calamari cost €148 (£127), the milkshakes which we never wanted but had to order for our children cost €38 (£33) each and the salad and bread we which were free were €28 (£24) and €14.50 (£12) respectively,” they said.
After telling staff he was shocked and angry about the payment, they said staff “began to group together and get angry.”
They said the cashier then tore off the top part of the receipt showing the transaction details and the name and address of the restaurant.