At Resort World Sentosa not only can you lose all your money gambling but it now seems you can lose just as much by eating. A dinner who took his four friends to Feng Shui Inn restaurant on June 12 had a jaw dropping encounter of the fishy kind.
He had initially asked for marble goby, better known locally as “soon hock”, but was told there was no stock for the fish....
..... A waiter then recommended the white sultan fish instead. The group agreed, without enquiring about the cost of the dish. But when the bill arrived, the five diners were shocked to find that the single sultan fish, weighing 1.8kg, set them back by a staggering S$1,224.
In response to the incident, an RWS spokesman claims that the practice of not disclosing menu prices is common in upscale restaurants. “It is not always appropriate to state menu prices to high-end customers who have come to expect a certain discretion when they entertain high-level guests, ” he explains. And I'm sure that's true in certain situations but a quick comparison with Capital Restaurant, which has been selling sultan fish for 36 years, reveals that the dish can go for as low as S$6 per 100g. This is less than a tenth of Fengshui Inn’s price tag on the fish.
The incident has been compared to one that occurred in March last year, where six American tourists were charged S$239 for a mere eight tiger prawns at Newton hawker centre. In that case the stall involved had its licence suspended for three months by the National Environment Agency (NEA) for breaching licencing conditions.
Of course it would be nice to see the NEA swing into action with the same enthusiasm but many doubt anything will happen at all. As one person commented on the Yahoo story (link below) "Restaurant is high class. Newton hawker is low class. Low class got low class treatment. High class got high class treatment."
On the plus side at least I know one Restaurant that I certainly WONT be going to.
Read it at Yahoo
He had initially asked for marble goby, better known locally as “soon hock”, but was told there was no stock for the fish....
..... A waiter then recommended the white sultan fish instead. The group agreed, without enquiring about the cost of the dish. But when the bill arrived, the five diners were shocked to find that the single sultan fish, weighing 1.8kg, set them back by a staggering S$1,224.
In response to the incident, an RWS spokesman claims that the practice of not disclosing menu prices is common in upscale restaurants. “It is not always appropriate to state menu prices to high-end customers who have come to expect a certain discretion when they entertain high-level guests, ” he explains. And I'm sure that's true in certain situations but a quick comparison with Capital Restaurant, which has been selling sultan fish for 36 years, reveals that the dish can go for as low as S$6 per 100g. This is less than a tenth of Fengshui Inn’s price tag on the fish.
The incident has been compared to one that occurred in March last year, where six American tourists were charged S$239 for a mere eight tiger prawns at Newton hawker centre. In that case the stall involved had its licence suspended for three months by the National Environment Agency (NEA) for breaching licencing conditions.
Of course it would be nice to see the NEA swing into action with the same enthusiasm but many doubt anything will happen at all. As one person commented on the Yahoo story (link below) "Restaurant is high class. Newton hawker is low class. Low class got low class treatment. High class got high class treatment."
On the plus side at least I know one Restaurant that I certainly WONT be going to.
Read it at Yahoo
