Singapore — One customer had the ill grace to post a negative review after a restaurant would not allow him to dine in because it had been less than two weeks since his second Covid vaccination jab.
Mr LG Han, chef and owner of Labyrinth restaurant, took to Facebook on Aug 14 (Saturday) to recount an incident that had occurred on the first day that Labyrinth reopened for dining in.
When a couple with a reservation arrived, the restaurant’s General Manager asked to check their TraceTogether apps.
They quickly realised that the customer had not been fully vaccinated yet, since “the law defines fully vaccinated as 14 days after the 2nd jab,” and he had not yet reached that date.
The General Manager, although sympathetic toward the diners, refused them entry.
“My GM even empathised with him saying that he himself cannot eat out for now,” wrote Mr Han.
However, the man went “into a rage,” wrote Mr Han in his post, claiming that he had made the booking before the law had been passed and that he did not know that 14 days is required after the second shot to be considered fully vaccinated.
The man also said it was unreasonable that the deposit he had made would not be returned.
He “then proceeded to hurl profanities to my GM and another staff (the F word was used twice) and even mocked their intellect and threatened to go online to post abt the incident to let the netizens ‘decid’” and demanded to escalate this to the GM of the restaurant (whom he was talking to all this while).”
Mr Han made an appeal to the public to be kind and considerate of Food and Beverage establishments and their employees, having heard of similar situations in other restaurants.
“Please, this is not our fault, we are just following the laws to protect you as a diner amidst the pandemic and we truly want to create a safe environment for our guests and my staff.”
He added that the F&B industry has undergone much in this time, “we have been brought to our knees but yet we soldier on under immense stress.”
He asked the public not to dine out “if you are not fully vaccinated as per your TT app status.”
After Mr Han’s initial post, he found out about the bad review.
And in his latest Facebook post, the restauranteur explained why he did not refund the customer’s deposit, explaining that Labyrinth is a small restaurant that is not receiving walk-in customers but relies completely on reservations.
“For the period of the latest Phase 2(HA), our reservation system (Chope) was closed for any bookings whatsoever until the announcement for reopening was made with the new restrictions requiring full vaccination status on your TT app in order to dine out,” he added.
He also wrote that the customer had booked his reservation two days after the new law had been announced.
The restaurateur added that Labyrinth prepares “our food fresh everyday in accordance to the exact number of customers coming in and alot of manwpower goes into the food.
If a customer is irresponsible in making a booking and showing up unvaccinated as per TT app, we definitely will not be able to seat the customer and there will be losses incurred. The deposit that we charge does not even cover the loss.”
“Please respect all restaurants and staff, we are humans too,” Mr Han wrote. /TISG
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