The owner of Osteria del Cavolo defended the charge (Pictures: Ida Germano/CEN)
A restaurant in Italy has been criticised for charging diners €2 for an extra saucer, which they claim was needed to cover the cost of washing up.
Osteria del Cavolo in Finale Ligure, on the Gulf of Genoa, added the charge to the bill after a mother requested a saucer so her three-year-old could share some of her food.
Meanwhile, a couple at a pizzeria near Alba in northern Piemonte were charged€1.50 (£1.30) for an extra teaspoon so they could share a crema catalana dessert, the MailOnline reports.
The two incidents come days after Bar Pace at Lake Como made headlines for adding €2 (£1.70) to the bill when a pair of diners asked for a toasted sandwich to be served on two plates.
The bill said the price was to cover slicing the sandwich in half – although the customer wrote on Trip Advisor the sandwich is cut in half anyway.
The owner later claimed the cost covered him using an extra plate, serviette and hand to carry it out.
The saucer charge at Osteria del Cavolo came to light after Netizen Selvaggia Lucarelli shared their receipt on social media.
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The bill from Osteria del Cavolo showing the charge for the saucer (Picture: @selvaggia.lucarelli/CEN)
Osteria del Cavolo is in Finale Ligure, Italy (Credits: Osteria del cavolo/CEN)
They wrote: ‘Liguria. A plate of trofie with pesto, EUR 18 [£15.52], the mother asks for a saucer so that the three-year-old girl, who has already eaten, can also taste some.
‘They put EUR 2 on her account for the saucer. By the way, having already factored in the cover charge.’
Trofie is a short, thin, twisted pasta from Liguria, northern Italy.
The restaurant has been hit with a slew of negative reviews, but the owner, Ida Germano, 76, said: ‘We made the lady who posted the receipt sit at a table for three, because there were two adults and a child.
Ida Germano, the owner of Osteria del Cavolo, said the €2 was to cover the cost of washing up (Picture: Ida Germano/CEN)
‘They ordered only one plate of trofie with pesto and one of fried anchovies and they asked for two saucers to share for both. So they had four saucers in all, not one, and we only charged for one because we pay for the dishwasher and the dishwashing too.’
There have been various reports of bars and restaurants in holiday hotspots handing tourists exorbitant bills since the pandemic.
Several customers have complained about a cafe near Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, with one saying they were charged €53 for ‘two triangular toast bread sandwiches and a ham and mozzarella ciabatta’, the MailOnline reports.
And in June a tourist posted on Reddit to say they’d been charged €360.80 (£310) for a light lunch on the island of Mykonos in Greece.
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Another restaurant charged a couple €1.50 for an extra teaspoon to share a dessert.