“Is this the norm now?” — Woman asks after being “chased out” of café because of dining time limit even if it was “half-empty”

SINGAPORE: “Is this the norm now?” a woman asked in a TikTok video, saying that she and her friend were being asked to leave a restaurant in Paya Lebar because of a “dining time limit.”

In a video on an account called @bondnaked posted on Monday (Dec 16), the woman and her friend can be seen inside the café saying that they had just gotten “chased out” of the eatery.

According to an in-video caption, they were told by the café staff, “We actually have a dining time limit. Do y’all mind to leave in 10 to 15 minutes?”

@bondnaked

Is this the norm now? The cafe is half empty tho 🥲

♬ original sound – bondnaked – bondnaked

The restaurant, which the woman did not name, limits diners to one and a half hours for meals. Her friend chimed in to say that they had not been informed of this when they entered the restaurant.

“What the heck?” the woman said and panned to the restaurant’s dining area to show that there were “so many” empty seats at that point. She said she couldn’t understand why they were being asked to leave.

Her friend explained that they had not come in just to have a cup of coffee and then work, as some customers have been known to do in coffee shops all over the world, but they had ordered meals.

“Make it make sense!” the woman added.

The video has gone viral, racking up almost 75.000 views since it was posted. Many commenters said they could not understand the rationale behind asking customers to leave after a certain time, especially when there aren’t many other diners in an establishment.

One pointed out that having the woman and her friend dine longer would be good for the café, with some passers-by might be enticed more to go there.

Empty eateries can make other diners nervous and suspicious about food quality, price points, or other issues. Having an occupied eatery can signal that the place is in demand.

“Basic marketing, even though I don’t own a café. Correct me if I’m wrong,” wrote the TikTok user.

Other establishments only employ the dining time limit when it is full, another added, while one more said it pointed to a “lack of EQ” on the part of the café’s management.

Some argued that the woman should have at least been informed about the dining time limit when they first entered so they would not have been blindsided when they were asked to clear out.

The Independent Singapore has contacted the café, Coexist Coffee Co, for further updates or comments. /TISG

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