Resto Sign - Attitude - Detail - © 2017 Chuan Sim

Maylasian Eatery Charges Extra For Rudeness

We’ve already covered the cases of various restos, from all over the world, that have instituted novel policies to address common situations. Now there’s word of an Asian eatery that adds a hefty surcharge to the bills of customers who are rude to the help…

Resto Sign - Attitude - © 2017 Chuan SimResto Sign - Attitude - © 2017 Chuan SimThe infamous signs: A desperate effort to
maintain decorum at the resto?

We’ve already covered the cases of one resto that fines people for not cleaning their plates and another that gives skinny people free food. Now, there’s word of an Asian eatery, Piao Xiang Claypot Chicken Rice Restaurant in Johor Baru, Maylasia, which adds a surcharge of 10 RM (Maylasian Dollars) to the bills of customers who are rude to the help…

(I you’re not familiar with the RM, it’s currently valued at about (US)$0.36 / (C)$0.27)

Maylasian Media Specialist and Blogger Jonathan Teoh encountered the resto in his travels recently and posted about it on his Facebook page.

Make no mistake…

The resto has several signs posted at its entrance, along with the usual “No Outside Food And Drinks Allowed” notice:

  • “Prices subject to change according to customer’s attitude”
  • “If you’re arrogant, grouchy, irritable, or just a pain in the a**, there’ll be a RM10 charge for putting up with your s**t”

And finally:

  • “Normal people contribute to charitable causes. Idiots contribute to an increase in beggars. Are you normal?”

Not a deterrent to ‘normal’ diners…

One commenter on Teoh’s Facebook post said he felt obliged to support the resto, for its stand. Another wondered if the eatery should not add another surcharge, for people who bring pets into the dining room, suggesting a RM1,000 fine for that transgression.

Yet another interpreted the sign mentioning beggars as an indication that the resto gave money to beggars (one assumes, from a fund fed by the fines), and warned against the practice, suggesting the poor don’t spend their money wisely: “That’s the reason I don’t give money to them. Either I pay them [in] foods or he/she get out of here.”

The post has been shared over 6,000 times and has over 2,000 likes.

My take…

I guess that, in Asian countries where they still have some kind of caste system, the are still folks who are stigmatized as ‘beggars’. And I gather, from the comments to Teoh’s post, that ‘normal’ people hold them in no great esteem. That aside, I congratulate the resto owner for his attempt – albeit with its overtones of desperation – to maintain an air of decorum in his establishment.

I also note that the signs are written in English; perhaps an indication that the worst offenders are not locals but western visitors…

~ Maggie J.