Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be annoyed that we were going to be charged for extra butter?

201 replies

NotEnoughTime · 03/12/2019 11:54

I went out for lunch on Sunday with my DH (a very rare occurence). We went to a restaurant that we have been going to for years. We go there on special occasions ie birthdays, anniversaries etc. It usually costs around £60-70 for lunch for two with no alcoholic drinks.

Anyway, we ordered soup for our started and we were given bread with this. We used the (small amount of) butter and then asked for some more butter. We were then told we could have some more butter but we would be charged a £1 for it! I thought this was very strange. Has anyone else ever been charged extra for butter? The waitress insisted this was common practise but I have never come across it before. I know it was only a £1 but I thought it was very mean.

OP posts:
TriangularRatbag · 03/12/2019 14:20

And sometimes - and this is the WORST! - you get a fucking cup of hot water with the teabag on the saucer beside it instead of tea in a pot! (I'm looking at you, Italian restaurants . . . )

Blasphemy!

It's a constant source of shock to me that in a country known (and mocked) for its obsession with tea it's just about impossible to get a properly made cup of tea 🤬

At least you're talking about places having teapots. Short of going to the Ritz I can't remember the last time I saw tea in a pot in a London café.

(Veera badly off-topic)

Dustarr73 · 03/12/2019 14:22

Its very short sighted of them.In a cafe i can understand cause people would just take the butters by the bucket load if they were free,

A high end place should have included it in the price of your meal.Especially as you bought soup and a roll.It just makes you think,what else are they tight about.

BuzzShitbagBobbly · 03/12/2019 14:24

And sometimes - and this is the WORST! - you get a fucking cup of hot water with the teabag on the saucer beside it instead of tea in a pot!

Last week, after a nice meal, I got a teacup and saucer, and teapot (all good so far). Lifted the teapot lid to stir the leaves and found a teabag crammed into one of those mesh diffuser cages Angry

SchadenfreudePersonified · 03/12/2019 14:28

I always thought April

Isn't April the wickedest month? Or is that August? Hmm

I expect that's with cats eating all the baby birds . . .

SchadenfreudePersonified · 03/12/2019 14:29

You have my deepest sympathy Bobbly.

DisgruntledGuineaPig · 03/12/2019 14:48

Why should you get it for free? You wouldn't walk into a shop and demand something for free, so why would you do it in a restaurant?

The OP ordered a starter that was listed as soup with bread and butter. It's not unreasonable to expect the portion of butter to be enough for the portion of bread. She wasn't getting it for free, that was the food she was paying for.

If she'd asked for a side of peas that weren't listed on the food she ordered, then yes, she would expect to pay extra for it, but to order something that included butter, you'd expect to get a full portion butter. For a restaurant working out what constiutes a portion of butter, it needs to be enough to butter all the bread provided.

If it wasn't, then she wasn't getting the food she was paying for.

BrickTop999 · 03/12/2019 14:53

JasonPollack is the restaurant manager ! He recognised his stingy policy straightaway Xmas Grin

TheNavigator · 03/12/2019 14:54

Entitlement like that which is shown on this thread is the reason so many businesses go under.

Nope, they go under when customers vote with their feet due to poor food or service. I work in the centre of a city surrounded by eating places. Some come and go, some have been around for years. If you want to survive, you have to meet the needs of your customers and provide a competitive or unique offer. An establishment charging £1 for extra butter wouldn't survive - and nor should it.

SimplySteveRedux · 03/12/2019 15:02

It's taking nothing out on the wait staff. Are we really so engendered into a tipping mindset it's expected not a bonus?

Crazyladee · 03/12/2019 15:18

That's absoluteky ridiculous.

We went out for lunch at an Italian restaurant on Sunday and I ordered a salmon fillet with what I thought was basil sauce.

Turns out it was salmon fillet with a smidgen of basil butter on top.

Because the dish came with seasonal vegetables and new potatoes, I felt the dish needed a sauce and said "does this not come with a sauce?" the waitress confirmed no and pointed out the menu. She must have seen the disappointment on my face so then asked if I would like the chef to whip up a nice fish sauce to go on top, which I said that would be lovely.

When the bill came, there was no extra charge for the sauce. So we left a really decent tip and decided we would definately choose to go back there next time we want to go for an Italian as theres a lot of competition.

So an extra £1 for a knob of butter is ridiculous.

TheLittleBrownFox · 03/12/2019 15:22

It's almost as bad as being charged for extra hot water to add to your teapot. This used to be standard - a pot of tea with a pot of hot water. Now you have to ask. And sometimes they want you to pay.

Ah now you see I get the restaurant side of this coin. Buy a cup of coffee and if you want more, you buy another cup.

Buy a pot of tea for one and people want extra water and milk to make 3-4 cups out of it instead of buying another. Madness, I tell you!

Walkerbean16 · 03/12/2019 16:19

I went to a restaurant once on holiday and asked for a plate so I could put some bits on my 1 year olds plate. They charged me five euros for it!

Timinfuckingruislip · 03/12/2019 16:27

Can’t believe anyone is defending the restaurant here. Unless it was “special butter” (for example I went for a meal last week where the bread was served up with chicken skin butter).

Most definitely mention on Trip Advisor.

Dustarr73 · 03/12/2019 16:33

chicken skin butter what fresh hell is that.

tttigress · 03/12/2019 16:40

I guess it would be normal in a cafe etc.

But for lunch in a restaurant it seems a bit tight.

adaline · 03/12/2019 17:25

It's tight - it's like charging extra for ketchup or mayonnaise!

Original poster
NotEnoughTime · 03/12/2019 18:31

Thanks for the replies everyone. It's been interesting reading everyone's take on buttergate :)

OP posts:
ferrier · 03/12/2019 18:46

@JasonPollack

Give over about tightly costed. Another restaurant would have provided OP's meal for £35. Plenty of leeway in there for the butter that should have been provided in the first place.

LEELULUMPKIN · 03/12/2019 18:51

To use and americanism, that is real nickel and dime practice and I wouldn't go back either.

I always have corn on the cob at the place we frequent and it has to be dripping in hot butter!

I always ask for extra and if anything they freely give me more than I acutally need but never once have I been expected to pay extra.

dontalltalkatonce · 03/12/2019 18:55

Not, please review the place. I'd like to know a thing like that. It's utterly ridiculous, nothing entitled about wanting adequate butter for a starter advertised as soup, bread and butter. It's a false economy and I'd not be returning there again.

ThatssomebadhatHarry · 03/12/2019 19:00

The baguette shop at a railway station I was in didn’t have butter on their baguettes. They made out it was an odd request when I asked for it and said it was horrible and dry without. Plain egg on a baguette with nothing else. They had to go and hunt some down as if it was a mythical orb only talked about in legends. Butter on a fucking sandwich!

Spidey66 · 03/12/2019 19:08

I think that's dear....it would be ok with wine

Sunflower20 · 03/12/2019 19:17

Whoever set that policy in this restaurant is a massive idiot, especially for that price bracket! YANBU.

TheMidasTouch · 03/12/2019 19:19

I've never known it in a restaurant - only in cafes sometimes such as Boundary Mills cafe. (But they do state the charge for it by where you pick it up).

SlightlyStaleCocoPops · 03/12/2019 19:21

"The baguette shop at a railway station I was in didn’t have butter on their baguettes. They made out it was an odd request when I asked for it and said it was horrible and dry without. Plain egg on a baguette with nothing else. They had to go and hunt some down as if it was a mythical orb only talked about in legends. Butter on a fucking sandwich!"

Where is this wonderful place because I cannot stand butter on sandwiches and always get looked at like a right weirdo when I ask for them dry!