Too much to Ask?
Published 1 year, 1 month ago in Eat & Drink.Last night (30th June) my wife and I with some friends went to The Vines/Helen’s Hill for dinner, a restaurant and winery in Coldstream. Great place; the food was really nice, the service was good and the wine was fantastic. There was just one problem; well I’m not sure if I can call it a problem or not so I’d thought I’d ask you all here at Nook what you think…
The menu had a clause printed down the bottom stating that on a Saturday evening a minimum of two meals must be purchased per person. Now my friends and I aren’t really 2 meal people. We don’t usually go for the entrée and vary rarely do we find something on the dessert menu that appeals to us. We usually stick to mains and then go out somewhere else for dessert. We go out for dinner a lot too as we all use our ‘Entertainment’ discount book as much as we can.
Now even though I go out to dinner fairly regularly I can honestly say I’ve never come across this kind of situation where I have to have two meals or none at all. Is it wrong? Should I be questioning it? Does a restaurant have the right to make up rules like this? It wasn’t like I was going to complain or demand the one course on it’s own; I wouldn’t want somebody in the kitchen spitting in my food or something like that hehe.
Anyway I just thought I’d run it by you Nookers to see what you think about it.
21 Responses to “Too much to Ask?”
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Wow, have never heard of such a thing. Seems quite unusual.
I’ve never come across that before either, it will stop people going if they feel they have to buy something. It can’t be legal as they can’t make you buy something you don’t want. Or can they?
On principle, i would tell them no, and leave.
cheerio
shadowmaster
Weird. Was it explained to you before/ as you ordered or did you have to see the fine print? And how fine was that print? I’d have been annoyed. Yes, it’s a problem.
I’ve had a loading for weekends or public hols. but never struck anything like that, yes its too much to ask, thanks for the tip I wont be going there.
private businesses have the rights to make up any rules they like(within trade laws) , but that have the responsibility to let you know them before you are obliged to conform to them.
If I had been in that situation and noticed the fine print AFTER ordering etc , then i dont think you would be oblidged to pay extra etc …
refuse to pay the extra amount , and be on your way , if they have a problem they can call the police.
so what DID you do?
I agree with superficial, no way would I done the 2 meal thing. Greed again rears it’s ugly little head.
I’m sure they’re shooting themselves in the foot with that rule - it removes from their possible patrons: people on a diet, people with small stomachs, people who had a snack earlier, people who are going elsewhere that night, people with kids and people who just don’t feel like two meals. Good luck to them staying open… I certainly won’t be eating there.
On the other hand, perhaps they have the rule to ensure that patrons eat enough to counteract the wine so they don’t have to handle drunks? :S Who knows.
Well we’d booked the table earlier in the week, we were hungry and the Helen’s Hill Cab Sav Merlot 2003 is to die for so we decided to stay and follow the rules. I think Lady Chaos you made some excellent points regarding the different circumstances each of us can be in before entering the restaurant. At the time we didn’t fall under any of those categories so it was ok but yeh I totally see your point.
It wasn’t until we were all half way through reading the menu when one of our friends noticed the print down the bottom of the main page and mentioned it. From memory it wasn’t any smaller than most of the other print but it was in italics. I wondered later if none of us had noticed it at all would the waiter taking our order have mentioned it; and if so would we have taken a different approach. I ended up just getting the cheapest entrée, a $9 Soup and a main meal. It was great food though and a fair price.
It’s interesting that from the 9 comments already no one agrees this is a good thing. Like you mentioned ’superficial’ I don’t know if a restaurant is aloud to make these rules up. Either way the rule was only for Saturday evening’s so if your gonna go just don’t go on a Saturday night, or just go to the cellar door during the day because the wine is very very nice.
mmmmmmmm, this is a different slant on- ” and would you like fries with that”.
Methinks, theyve sat down and pondered on how they can get the takings up on a weekend and how they can upsell ! Good for them, that they are thinking outside the square- bad for them, that they seem to have enforced it. I for one, have a hernia, and cant eat a bit meal………..but they could do what my mum and dad used to do when I was little, turn all the lights off bar one and make me sit there until I was finished.
I doubt I’d have stayed…just on principal.
they can do it if the want and it is your choice as to whether or not to go there. Most restaurants work with very tight margins and hardly make a decent living for their owners. I think it is reasonable to set some minimum spend. If you are going to stay there all night on what is a typically busy night, gas-bagging and only buy one meal I can understand how that would be a problem for many restaurants.
Most places in Sydney charge a weekends surchage these days.
Thanks Sick.Biker, I didn’t think of that. I didn’t know about the surcharge in Sydney either. I guess we should be thankful this is a rareity down here..
The owners could have whacked an extra one dollar onto the main course, covering their costs and not aleinating weight conscious people into eating what they don’t really feel like. Eating for the sake of it is like going to one those eat all for $15 mentality, leaving the customer too full for comfort. I don’t normally handle a two course meal and I definitely prefer the choice to be made by me, not the operator. I must be more careful myself of the menu in future, thanks for that tip.
If it is really, really good food etc… you buy sweets but you don’t eat it if you don’t want it;
or don’t eat there.
I don’t think it’s THAT unreasonable to require you to buy 2 meals. After all, it’s the same principle as having to buy a “daily” metcard if you’ll need it for more than 2 hours. Socks are packaged in pairs, and you don’t get a choice there, either.
If you do tend to get full quickly, my idea would be to just order entree and dessert - or, as meinrosebud suggested, ask for a doggy bag.
You got a point there nebula. When I went though I was on a budget, kind of. The cheapest entrée was $9 and the rest started at $15 and up from memory. That’s too pricey for an entrée considering what you get I think. I’d rather two glasses of wine for that kind of money.
Taking a dessert home with you as suggested (doggy bag) would be a good idea as well I think, providing there is something you like on the menu that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Then stop eating there. If they want to attract you back they will have to review their prices.
I’ve never heard of such a thing, I mean how would it be if they changed it from ‘2′ to ‘3′ meals each, and then to ‘4′ and so on and so on.
Just doesn’t cut with me…
Last night (20th July) I went to Charcoal Grill on the Hill (289 High St KEW) and guess what!?! I had to purchase 2 courses!! I only had $50 on me and all I wanted was a main meal with a glass of red. I had dessert instead. Thankfully one of my friends shouted me a red but I thought wow how freaky is that, a raw deal twice in under a month!
The food was awesome though; probably the best Scotch Fillet I’ve ever had. I wasn’t about to eat something that good without a glass of red so my friend dared me to eat a heaped teaspoon of Hot English Mustard for a glass! I ate it after I’d finished my main meal and my glass of red. I didn’t want to ruin my palate lol. My Sticky Date Pudding afterwards didn’t taste all that nice though lol. But I didn’t want it anyway so who cares.