SINGAPORE: One customer was surprised when she received the bill with an additional $15 charge for their meal. Upon inquiring from the staff, she found out it was for the extra cucumber her parents asked to go with their Peking Duck order.
The customer, Ms Susan Leong wrote about this incident on the COMPLAINT SINGAPORE Facebook page on Monday (Feb 20).
She explained that she had dinner with her family at Peach Garden at Thomson Plaza the day before and ordered the Peking Duck, which was on promo, along with some other dishes.
Noting that the cucumber served with the dish had been a small portion and that her parents “like to wrap the duck skin with more cucumbers because it is more crunchy that way,” they proceeded to ask “if (the restaurant) can provide more cucumbers.”
According to Ms Leong, the woman who served them had a bit of an attitude and asked them, “in a sarcastic way that why we eat so many cucumbers?”
“Although I feel a bit offended, I did not start any argument,” she added.
When it came time to pay the bill, they saw that there was a charge of $15 for a “2nd serving.”
They then asked for clarification and were told it was “for the cucumbers because they need to charge for 2nd serving. I tried to reason with them that we were unaware of this charge as we thought cucumbers should be complimentary to go with the Peking Duck,” wrote Ms Leong.
She added that customers should be told if there are additional charges to decide whether they want to order extra items and “not to be surprised at the cashier when nothing was being conveyed to us before.”
However, she added that the staff “just shrugged and said this is company policy. So we have to pay $15 for a plate of cucumbers. The overall food quality is so-so only. And their portion for the dishes are very small. I am not going to go back anymore.”
The Independent Singapore has contacted both Ms Leong and Peach Garden for comment.
UPDATE: Feb 22, 2023
A spokesperson from Peach Garden restaurant clarified the matter with the below statement:
“We investigated the situation on our end and as pointed out by some netizens, the $15 was for the second serving of duck that the customer ordered. The customer ordered the Deep-fried duck meat with salt and pepper using the balance duck meat. She was not charged for the cucumber and spring onion.
Under usual circumstances, the first two plates of cucumber and spring onion are complimentary at our restaurants and we only charge customers $3 for any additional plates. As you can see from the itemized receipt, we did not charge the customer for any cucumber and spring onion plates at all.”