PETALING JAYA, Sept 21 — A restaurant in Singapore has doubled down on its controversial surcharge for guests with “screaming” or “uncontrollable” children.
Angie’s Oyster Bar & Grill, located at Outram Road, sparked controversy when a customer shared details of the eatery’s surcharge with media outlet Mothership.
After making a reservation and requesting a baby chair, the customer was told via text that only space for a pram was available as it was not a child-friendly place.
While stating that it welcomed children, the restaurant further said that a S$10 (RM32) surcharge would apply if children were found disturbing other patrons, Mothership reported yesterday.
The policy is not a new one — a negative review of the restaurant posted to travel platform TripAdvisor in August complained about the matter as well.
The reviewer had posted saying that they were “put off” after being told that disruptive children would “not be tolerated”.
Responding to the review on Monday (September 19), Angie’s Oyster Bar & Grill explained that it had received more complaints about “children running around unattended or disturbing other tables”.
“Not only is this dangerous as servers are often moving around with hot food and sharp cutlery, but it is also disrespectful to other diners who may wish to dine in a quiet and comfortable atmosphere.
“In these instances, our team speaks with the parents or caretakers and they are almost always able to manage the situation.
“However, we occasionally experience situations where nothing is done and the matter is ignored altogether,” the restaurant said in its reply.
The restaurant added that it had no choice but to impose a “penalty” in such “awkward” situations where they had to manage other diners’ expectations.
“We ask for nothing more than mutual respect from all our guests, but we sadly experience a few diners who may feel more entitled than others.
“It pains us to impose the policy, but it was never our intention to diminish any of our guests’ experience,” the restaurant said.
Angie’s Oyster Grill and Bar also told Mothership that it will not shy away from “creative” policies to “provide a better dining experience to all guests”.
On Facebook, many users appeared to support the policy, with some saying that it should be extended to “noisy teenagers and adults” too.
“Such things only happen when parents allow their children to run around making a lot of noise thinking it’s normal for children without thinking it’s disturbing others,” said one user.
Several parents, however, said the move discriminated against special needs children.
“(Parents with special needs children) will never have the chance to bring their family to these type(s) of fine places anymore... as some autistic kids will shout, make weird noises etc,” said one parent.
