Italian Restaurant Charges 4 Japanese Students Rs 1 Lakh For Meal And Then…

Four friends from Japan, who took a holiday together to Italy’s Venice, were scammed by a restaurant. All the friends are students and had started saving money for their trip long ago. But little did they know that one restaurant would charge them Rs 1 lakh for one meal.

The incident took place at Osteria de Luca restaurant, near the popular St Mark’s Square. They ordered four plates of steak, a plate of fried fish and a bottle of water at the restaurant. And after finishing their meal, when the restaurant handed them the bill, they were shocked to see that it was worth €1,100 (around Rs 1 lakh). On complaining, the restaurant told that all four used the internet hotspot there and that too has been added to the bill.

Somehow friends paid the charges then but after leaving the restaurant, the four filed a police complaint in Bologna. They wrote in the complaint that the restaurant cheated them, charged more money than necessary and did not give them any information about hidden charges.

The police thankfully took serious action following the complaint and the restaurant later had to pay Rs 12.5 lakh as compensation to the students.

As per a Daily Star report, the four students also complained about another restaurant where they were charged €350 (around Rs 31,000) for three plates of seafood pasta.

The Daily Star also mentioned a few comments left by other tourists on the Osteria de Luca restaurant page on TripAdvisor. One person left their review stating, “Garbage. Total rip-off. You have to have stupid written on your forehead to eat in this dump. Went there for a family meal and they extorted money.” Another person wrote, “I didn’t think they would charge me £40.21 (Rs 4,100) for fried seafood and £14.18 (Rs 1436) for dinner. Also, they added a 15% service charge, I asked the waiter and he said that is tax.”

Osteria de Luca restaurant is not the only restaurant embroiled in the scam. Earlier, a complaint was filed against Caffe Lavena, also located in the St Mark’s Square area, which charged a Chilean national €43 (Rs 3,800) for two coffees and two bottles of water.