M'sia restaurant owner hits back at customer who said RM148, 7-dish meal for 9 pax is 'expensive'

RM148 is S$47.80.

Belmont Lay | April 09, 2022, 04:21 PM

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The owner of Restaurant Chai Por Hu, a Chinese restaurant in Kedah, Malaysia, was left exasperated after he was told his eatery served expensive food despite only charging RM148 (S$47.80) for seven dishes for nine people.

The operator, Samz Wong, wrote on Facebook on April 7:

The customer came to pay after the meal and said that our food was very expensive.

I said: Uncle, look at the order, nine people eat RM148, it is not expensive.

Uncle: It's already very expensive, only a few dishes.

Wong added: "The average profit of a single order is less than 30 per cent. Why do some people think itis expensive?"

He also lamented that RM150 (S$48.50) these days cannot get much in terms of food from the market, let alone cook it and having to wash the dishes for the customers.

Wong did not say if the customer was local or a foreigner.

Media coverage on his response

Wong's Facebook post was well-received and many commenters commiserated with him as it was shared some 3,600 times over a few days.

The Facebook post then led to media coverage in Malaysia, which highlighted that there are customers who can take issue with a RM148 bill at a restaurant for nine pax.

What customer ordered

Sin Chew reported that the restaurant operator said that particular meal served eight adults and one child, with seven dishes prepared in total.

The receipt put up by Wong showed that the customer had ordered a variety of dishes that included fish that cost RM39 (S$12.60), prime pork ribs that cost RM17 (S$5.50) and even a prawn=based dish that cost RM17 (S$5.50), as well as other dishes, which were served with rice and drinks, where a can of Kickapoo cost RM2.20 (S$0.71).

Prices kept the same for years

The restaurant added that it had only opened at its new address at the end of 2019, but prices on the menu have never increased, apart from the fried chili, which is charged at an extra RM2 (S$0.65).

Wong wrote in his post that prices have remained the same over the years so as not to alienate the old customers.

The business owner also said the restaurant has a 22-year history with many local and foreign diners, and did not need to rely on this recent incident to make a name for itself.

The restaurant, he told Sin Chew, has even kept its original prices despite the pandemic seriously affecting business.

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