Anyone else been refused tap water in restaurant

A question about : Anyone else been refused tap water in restaurant

Hi guys, just wondering if this is a common phenomenon now. I was in La Cuisine on the Antrim Rd a few weeks ago and when we were placing our order I asked a glass of water but was refused one. When we asked why we were told that it was due to the cost of having to wash the glasses. To put things in context it was one of those hot (for here) days, we had had to stand for at least 15 mins waiting on a table and I was carrying a wriggly and heavy 6mth old baby as the place was too small for pushchair. I hope the money they saved will outweigh the cost of the lost custom as I certainly won't be back. They defended their policy by saying loads of other places were now doing this, just wondering if anyone else has come across this policy?

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• Shame on them, I just hope they lose a few customers because of it, especially if there were other people with you and you were all ordering food and drink.
  Did you mention it to the manager. I would write to them and express your anger.
  We go out for Sunday lunch every week and I get a glass of water with ice and lemon in it for free. We eat and my OH has a J2O. If I was ever refused then I would never go back. The other place we go to there is an automatic jug of water with ice and lemon brought to the table.
• Me again, they have a website where you can leave reviews,
  Go for it, give them some stick, I wouldnt hesitate to be honest.
• I will thanks! I probably should have raised it with the manger at the time but was just a bit too gobsmacked and concerned about settling the baby at the time to challenging them. I've been out to other restaurants and have asked just to see if it is an issue and it's always been delivered with a smile. Their policy doesn't seem to be hurting them unfortunately, when we were there it was queued out the door but definitely not worth the wait.
• They're not actually allowed to refuse water like this. A restaurant in Manchester was fined in court for it last year, read about it in the local paper at the time. Here you go:
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...estaurant.html
• The Other Place on Botanic as well, just flat out refuse you a glass of regular water from the tap. Won't be back.
• I won't mention the name as I heard this secondhand but a restaurant in Carryduff charge Ј1 for tap water!
• Why don't you people post some reviews on Tripadvisor?
• I've had this in The Other Place too so I refuse to go there. I really object to the environmental implications of bottled water so it galls me.
  Pizza express used to do a link up with the charity water aid where they asked you to make a donation to them if you took tapwater - I thought that was great! Obviously it was your own choice whether to do so or not....
• Ive just looked at the reviews and one person said they got some tap water and they were charged Ј1.75 for it
• This is controversal I am afraid. I do not see any problem charging for tap water. It is a comodity like anything else which costs money and it costs the cafe money as they have to pay water rates. Many people accept a charge for getting water in a bottle in a restaurant, yet most bottled water is just tap water. I cannot see the difference other than the plastic waste and transport fuel etc. to get the bottle water from the tap to the table. Seems very sensible to just charge for home produced tap water here and not let all the profit go to some bottler hundreds of miles away.
• Lol, theres always someone loves to gurn about nothing
• I think there is a problem with the bistros where people order just one course. In the big restaurants where most diners will get three or four course meals, there is usually a jug of water on every table and since the table is booked maybe all night or for a couple of hours it is not a problem for the restaurant to do this. It is the way it is done the world over.
  But expecting the same service for a bowl of chile or a lasagne in a bistro or cafe perhaps is asking too much. Starbucks and MacDonalds and the greasy spoon down the road would probably complain if you requested tap water there.
• In the cafe I used to own we always had jugs of water complete with lemons/limes sitting beside the cutlery and napkins so customers could help themselves.I didn't see it as a problem,lots of people really appreciated it.We also sold loads of bottled water too.