Pho-gedaboutit!
A Vietnamese restaurant in California was placed on blast when a customer shared a photograph of a receipt that appeared to incorporate an automatic 18% service charge “for parties of one or larger.”
“I’ve seen restaurants include gratuity when it’s a big party but never for parties of 1!” irked patron and Reddit user TRTL2k posted on the positioning’s “mildly infuriating” thread.
Their meal — reportedly eaten on the Cupertino location of Pho Ha Noi — had a subtotal of $49.50 but wrang up at a frustrating $62.93, due to the fee ($8.91) plus sales tax ($4.52), in accordance with a posted image of the receipt.
Calls to Pho Ha Noi by The Post weren’t immediately returned.
Many on Reddit also took exception to the protocol amid growing backlash to similar phenomena — including “guilt tipping” on tablet screens.
“That’s the tip so far as I’m concerned,” wrote one user of the service charge.
![“I’ve seen restaurants include gratuity when it’s a large party but never for parties of 1!” said irked patron.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000040714999.jpg?w=784)
![Pho Ha Noi is located in Cupertino, California.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000040715718.jpg?w=1024)
“F–k that then. Just one other place I wouldn’t must eat out at,” added one other.
“No higher way of saying ‘we definitely don’t pay our employees enough,’” a 3rd commented concerning the seemingly latest tackle tipping etiquette.
It is usually becoming increasingly common for eateries to tack on bizarre charges — ones normally known as a “wellness fee,” “kitchen appreciation fee” or a “living wage charge,” which restaurants say go to employees.
Upper West Sider Anna Nikkinen was floored to see a $15 fee appear on a recent bill while dining out at trendy Italian mainstay Mother Wolf in Los Angeles.
“It’s just kind of crazy since it’s not just like the food and drinks are cheaper — and we’re still paying for employees’ advantages,” she previously told The Post.
(*1*)
Many on the recent Reddit thread also questioned why restaurants — just about all of which have navigated the turmoil of inflation and provide shortages since COVID — don’t simply raise their prices fairly than implementing a charge of these kinds.
“Every couple of months, we can have a guest that wishes to talk to a manager to grasp why we do this as a substitute of increasing our prices,” Romain Turpault, owner of upscale Recent Haven, Connecticut, eatery Union League Cafe, previously told The Post about tacking on a 4% kitchen appreciation fee post-pandemic.
“To me, at the tip of the day, it’s actually the exact same thing. Only we show why the value has actually increased.”