Guide names credit ‘shame' restaurants

By David Shrimpton

The Good Food Guide 1998 has published a "name and shame" list of restaurants that automatically add a service charge but leave credit card slips open.

The practice effectively suggests customers should pay twice for service, argues guide editor Jim Ainsworth.

"The hope is that people who see themselves on the list will be shamed into doing something about it," he said.

But Conran Restaurants said the inclusion of six of its restaurants was a mistake. "We are making extensive enquiries with the guide to ensure that this is rectified forthwith," said managing director Kai Ringenson.

"Having added 12.5% discretionary service charge to our bills, the credit card slips are completed, closed and ready for the customer's signature."

Shigemi Matsuda, manager of Japanese restaurant Matsuri in London's Mayfair, also claimed his restaurant had been wrongly included.

Michel Roux, owner of the Waterside Inn, said: "I've been running a restaurant for 30 years and nobody has ever said I'm doing anything that's not clear." All menus and bills stated quite clearly that service was included, he said.

Joanna Shannon, proprietor of the Atelier in London's West End, said: "A lot like to round it up to the next pound. We always say when we put down the bill that service is included."

Ronan Flanagan, proprietor of the Kapriol restaurant in Dublin, said he left slips open at customers' request. "I bought an automatic machine and that was closing them. Customers were handing them back."

Chef-proprietor Eric Lebas of Alexandra in south-west London claimed that, if he closed the slip, his suggested service charge would be counted as compulsory by the Inland Revenue, and he would therefore have to pay tax on it.