Geylang restaurant Eat First’s Google ratings plunge after $2 outside-drinks charge, Lifestyle News

“We are selling bottled water too. Just as we respect and appreciate our customers, we would also like customers to understand that we have our own policy with regard to outside food and drinks,” he said. 

Customers have brought fast food and economy rice into the eatery to consume over the past two years, Steve added.

With the recent negative Google reviews, the restaurant owner expressed worry over how they would impact his business, as up to a third of his customers are foreign tourists who may rely on the service.

Following ST’s report, some netizens showed support for the eatery’s outside food policy, with one commenting that he found it fair, while others said that they enjoy the food there and will continue to patronise Eat First.

On the other hand, a few members of the public urged the business owner to be more flexible with the policy.

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Differing accounts

Although the incident took place in February, it only garnered online attention recently due to an article published by Mothership on April 12.

It involved a party of five: A man surnamed Ng and his wife, their two children — aged five and 10 — and their domestic helper.

According to Ng, the group had been charged an outside drinks fee of $1 per person because his children drank water out of their own bottles.

Ng, who described his family as longtime patrons, added that there was no visible signage of the restaurant’s policy on outside drinks, and that he was also not informed of the charges in advance.

However, the restaurant had a different recount of the incident. 

A comment by the restaurant under its Facebook post showed a screengrab from CCTV footage of the family dining.

The image showed they brought in a 1.5 litre mineral water bottle into the restaurant.

The family’s helper had been pouring water from this large bottle into the eatery’s bowls for the children to drink from, Steve’s wife Julia Hsieh told The Straits Times.

They had been told by staff that this would incur a $1 charge per person, equivalent to the restaurant’s outside drinks charge, said Julia.

She also pointed out that a sign at Eat First’s entrance informs diners of the restaurant’s outside drinks policy, adding that employees are trained to give polite reminders of this as well.

When contacted by AsiaOne, Eat First declined to comment on the matter.

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bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com