to think that "bring your own drinks" in Indian restaurants refers to alcohol only?

[areaGL51]

We often go to an unlicensed Indian restaurant and I can't believe the number of people who bring their own soft drinks. Big bottles of Coke etc. I think this is really unfair. "Bring your own" clearly means alcohol only!

[waltzingmathilda]

Its for restaurants that dont have alcohol licences and charge a corkage fee for you opening the bottle on site.

[RubberBullets]

I've never come across byo. I don't drink alcohol so would probably bring my own coke if I saw a sign that said byo as I would assume that they didn't sell any drinks.

[LadyBryan]

If the restaurant is clear that is is alcohol only then there is a problem.

Having said that, I can see why people would bring their own soft drinks.

Five people go out for a meal, one person is designated driver - so four bring cheap booze and the fifth has to pay extortionate prices for soft drinks (or drink dull water ) I can see why it would annoy

[WilsonFrickett]

The way it's usually stated is 'bring your own bottle', not bring your own everything. I think it's usually pretty clear that they mean 'bring your own booze' by that. I too think it's cheeky not buying soft drinks from the restaurant. Do you bring your own starters too?

[Ninjahero]

Your just being Stupid.It DOSN'T say bring your own alcohol.It says bring your own DRINKS.Why one earth would you pay restaurant prices when you can get it down the supermarket MUCH cheaper.

[ilovesooty]

I think it's pretty stupid to assume you can bring your own soft drinks if soft drinks are sold in the restaurant.

[SelectAUserName]

Why one earth would you pay restaurant prices when you can get it down the supermarket MUCH cheaper.

By that logic, why on earth would you pay for an Indian meal in a restaurant when you can buy a jar of value curry sauce for 16p and make it yourself at home?

I wonder how many of the people in the OP's community priding themselves on having saved a couple of quid on soft drinks by taking their own, or on having 'got one over' on the restaurant owner by taking advantage of ambiguous signage will be the ones complaining there's nowhere decent to eat locally when the restaurants have all closed thanks to falling profit margins...

[LadyBryan]

I've just checked out local one and they are very specific on the website that you can bring bottled alcohol only and not to bring your own soft drinks.

Far more sensible to be explicit and remove the risk of people getting it wrong due to misinterpretation

[Ninjahero]

@ilovesooty I am not ASSUMING anything.The sign says "bring your own drinks" therefore I am only doing what the sign says I can do.

@SelectAUserName It would require effort to make a curry though and the ones I would make wouldn't taste nearly as nice.Bringing your own drinks is a cheap and easy thing to do and the sign clearly says it's allowed.

[ilovesooty]

Well perhaps the restaurant should specify that they mean alcohol only. I was obviously being unreasonable to assume that most people would check a menu and realise that the restaurant didn't think you would BYO soft drinks.
I'm quite used to the concept and even though my nearest restaurant does state the policy explicitly I didn't realise some people needed to have it spelt out to them.

[oinkling]

Never really thought about it but I always assumed it meant alcohol.

[BlingBang]

Went to a Chinese restaurant on a little Scottish island recently. Only had milk and coke on the menu. Everyone around was drinking beer, wine etc - had to nip next door to the pub and come back with my wine so guess you could have brought your own soft drinks as well.

[BlingBang]

I would normally assume it's alcohol only though as long as the restaurant has a reasonable choice of soft drinks.

[SPBisResisting]

Because it leaves the choice as drink cheap alcohol or drink expensive soft drinks.
If a stick 5ml of vodka in a 2L bottle of diet coke, does that count :o

[SPBisResisting]

has everyone read LadyBryan's post?

[ilovesooty]

Yes I have read it. It's completely outside my experience. Generally ime the soft drink bill of the designated driver is covered by the drinkers or split between the whole party equally.

[ilovesooty]

Sorry I meant the first of her posts not the second one

[SPBisResisting]

Fair enough. I just see this as if you're driving or pregnant, you pay £2 for a half a coke. If you're not, you can bring your own.

[ilovesooty]

She is obviously correct in saying restaurants need to be explicit judging by some of the posts on this thread.

[ilovesooty]

Fair point SPB but I've never known people be expected to bear the brunt of soft drink expense if pregnant or driving. Itthink it would be really rude to treat friends like that.

[Ninjahero]

If a sign says bring your own drinks I don't know why anyone would think that only applies to alcohol.Obviously if that just said alcohol that would be a different thing but if a sign said bring your own drinks,I would be the first one to bring a 2 litre bottle of cheap supermarket coke.

[SPBisResisting]

I agree but it does happen, and quite often people pay for their own.
I just think the restaurants aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. It obviously makes good financial sense for them to allow people to bring their own alcohol in. They could choose to offer meals and soft drinks only under the usual rules of "nothing to be eaten or drank that wasn't purchased on the premises". but they get more money if they allow BYOB. But then even more money if they stick to "the rules" when it comes to soft drinks. because they don't need to fork out for a licence to sell those.

[Ninjahero]

If it says You can only bring Alcohol fine.I just wouldn't give them my bussines.If it says "drinks" it's TOTALLY reasonable to bring whatever "drink" you want.

[HoobleDooble]

I've just looked at the website of the one we usually go to, it says the following;

We are not licensed to serve alcohol in the restaurant but feel free to bring your own to accompany your meal. We do not charge for corkage.

Never really thought about it before, we usually take a selection of wine, non-alcoholic wines and fizzy 'fruity' water with us to share with the table. I'm usually one of the drivers and wouldn't want to be paying over the odds for soft drinks when there's no point, the staff seem happy enough for us to do this, but then there's usually at least 10 of us and they probably don't want to risk us saying "knackers then, we'll pay less for the food and have it as a take away".

[mindyourownbusiness]

I don't agree it is unfair to only let people who drink alcohol bring their own drinks. The reason they are invited to bring their own drinks is because the restaurant doesn't sell alcohol and a lot of people like an alcoholic drink with a curry.
People drinking soft drinks however are catered for by the restaurant menu and are therefore bringing their own purely to be cheapskates.
I'd have the sign changed pronto - to say alcoholic drinks only , seeing as some people are taking a lend of them obviously.