A WOMAN was shocked when she was charged a staggering £50 to cut her own birthday cake at her party.
She had been celebrating the occasion with friends shortly before she was slapped with the enormous bill and told it was “to cover costs”.
The woman, from Italy, had her birthday on Thursday and invited her nearest and dearest to a small restaurant on the outskirts of Arezzo, Tuscany.
She paid a reasonable total of £557 for 13 people to dine at the venue but was surprised to see an extra fee of £50 added on just for cutting the cake.
Before making her reservation, she had specifically asked if it would be okay if she could bring her own birthday cake and staff at the eatery assured her that this would not be a problem.
Although the woman expected a small surcharge she thought that the £3.80 that the restaurant charged per person was excessive, reported Corriere Fiorentino.
She had only paid £38 for the cake she ordered from the baker meaning the cake cutting fee ended up being more expensive than the cake itself.
The woman shared her experience on Facebook and the resturant has now faced heavy backlash for its handling of the situation.
The restaurant owner said: “We do not charge a service charge and serve mainly dishes from our own production.”
He added: “My restaurant has to cover the costs of the waiter who serves at the table, the dishwasher and other related services. We have to recoup them somehow.”
Although he thinks the birthday cake surcharge is justified the landlord admits in this particular case his employees were a bit “fussy,.
If he had been there on the evening in question, he would probably have handled the matter differently, he said.
“I’d rather have 50 euros less and have people go home happy than this misunderstanding that will harm us all,” the restaurant owner explained.
He added that he wants to introduce a “new rule” in the future.
It comes as a family were left horrified when a restaurant in a tourist hotspot charged them £17 extra just to cut their birthday cake.
The eatery in Palermo, Sicily, sparked outrage after it revealed its new chopping fee.
The family had bought their own cake with them to the Italian restaurant before they were slapped with an extortionate surprise charge.
Party-goes were handed their receipt after finishing their celebrations and discovered they had been charged £17.26 for their cake being cut into pieces.
The cost was calculated as a charge of 86p per attendee, despite the group spending £103.49 on pizza, wine, beer and water.
The eatery listed the charge as “20 X Servizio Torta”, which translates to “20 X Cake Service”.
