A British tourist was left furious after a restaurant in Italy charged him extra for cutting a sandwich in half, the Independent reported. Notably, the tourist had ordered a vegetarian sandwich with fries at Bar Pace in Gera Lario, at the Lake Como region's northern end.
He had ordered the sandwich to split it with his friend but never asked for it to be cut into halves. After the tourist and his friend were done snacking, he asked for the bill and was shocked to find the unwanted charge on his account.
There was a 2 Euro (Rs 180) charge for ''diviso da meta'' or ''cutting in half''.
Though he paid the money without arguing or complaining to the restaurant manager, he later posted a screenshot of the bill along with a negative review on TripAdvisor. The annoyed customer gave the restaurant one star on the reviews site, calling his experience ''incredible but true''.
''There were two of us and we asked for a toasted sandwich to share at the table. We have to pay because the toast was cut in half,” he wrote on the reviews site.
Meanwhile, the cafe's owner defended the charge, saying that additional requests come at a cost.
''Additional requests have a cost. We had to use two plates instead of one and the time to wash them is doubled, and then two placemats. It wasn't a simple toasted sandwich, there were also French fries inside. It took us time to cut it in two,'' owner Cristina Bianchi told Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
She added that the customer in question made no complaint at the time and, if he had objected, the charge would have been removed from the bill.
Since the story about the charge went viral, TripAdvisor has suspended reviews for the restaurant in question.
