05 December 2023 , 08:00
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A restaurant once hit back in brilliant fashion at an unhappy customer who complained about paying £8 for a small fish and chips.
The customer left a two-star review on Facebook, suggesting her meal should have been cheaper. She said the fish and chips were "lovely", but challenged the Oxton Bar and Kitchen to justify its prices. Restaurant management were more than happy to oblige, defending their prices -and revealing their margin of profit - in a rebuttal that has been celebrated by loyal customers, the Liverpool Echo reports.
A Facebook user named Debbie Davies, who posted the review on the restaurant’s public page, wrote: “Lovely food and staff are amazing but I cannot see how you justify your prices, small fish and chips £8 plus and it was small?" In its sassy response, Oxton Bar and Kitchen, on Wirral, gave an itemised breakdown of exactly how little the restaurant raked in from her £8 meal. The restaurant wrote: “Ok Debbie. Where do I begin? Out of that £8, our nasty government is charging you 20% vat which we collect by law on their behalf, so we’re left with £6.66.
The restaurant issued a sassy response“Out of this, we need to buy the fresh ingredients; 1 haddock fillet, get a chef to make everything from scratch; a delicious beer batter, homemade tartare sauce, mushy peas and chunky chips (the whole cost of ingredients for this plate comes to roughly £2.70). This leaves us with £3.94 for which alas our pesky chef expects remuneration!! Then we realised the ‘lovely’ food doesn’t float to you, so we have to pay ‘amazing’ staff to serve you and clear up after you?!
“Pay utility bills (we need gas to cook, you need lights to see the food) and don’t get me started on business rates. So if £3.94 is not justifiable for creating and affording this whole experience with us, you’re welcome to recreate it in the comfort of your own home. I doubt it’ll be long before the government find a tax for that too.” The post had over 200 likes.
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One user wrote sarcastically: "This profit-making is a disgusting principle. You should be doing it for free if you had a heart. And don’t you find it a joyous experience paying your accountant to work out the VAT?" Another added: "Another well articulated reply". And one user posted: "People who have never been involved in running a business have no idea the hard work and stress owners go through". Mike Atkinson, who was then the owner of Oxton Bar and Kitchen, replied to a customer who wrote a review on TripAdvisor accusing a waitress of being a bully. The tongue-in-cheek response went viral and the bar was flooded with comments and likes online, with many customers applauding the bar for standing up for themselves.