went to a chinese restaurant for lunch yesterday and....

[97guns]

It's a place we go to maybe 6 times a year, great food but we noticed they are charging $3 for a pot of tea. We had a party of 6 and the 3 of us get there first and we take a pot of hot tea, then the rest of the group arrives and the waitress asks if they want tea as well. They say yes and instead of bringing out 3 more cups she brings the cups with another pot of tea, do you guys consider this gouging? For some customers this will be turn off and a detriment to their business

We also noticed they are charging $2.85 per person for steamed rice, that comes out to almost $18 just for rice, a little pricy was my thought so I suggested we just order fried rice, a party of 10 would be close to $30. I don't think well be doing our average of 6 meals there this coming year.

[QuarterMillionMan]

It used to be that tea and rice were free but the trend is for them to charge for it. The "house" tea pot for $3 sounds about right but $2.85 per serving of rice seems high. I used to paying $1.50 per serving but in your area in San Francisco I guess everything is higher. This is a thread dated 2003 where people were talking about this same issue.

http://www.chowhound.com/post/free-tea-chinese-restaurants-291814?page=all

[GrimJack]

Teapots are sized for the number of people it is to serve; so if the pot was for 3 people and 3 more people wanted tea; it may have been that a 2nd pot was needed. If I remember sitting with a table of 6 people at a round table there were 2 pots - making it easier to pour tea.

[disneysteve]

I can understand charging for tea. The nicer Chinese restaurants have done this for a long time and usually have a tea menu for you to choose from.

I can't comprehend charging for rice as that is part of your meal. If I order chicken and cashews, for example, are you saying I would have to pay extra for rice? Or is it only if I'm not getting a platter?

[LittleLamplight]

Screw the tea. That rice is expensive!

[Drake3287]

Seems a bit unwise when in the long run they may end up losing a few customers. A pot of tea at a Chinese restaurant should cost pennies.

We had an upscale Mexican restaurant (really!) here in the Bay Area where I live that I took my family to once or twice a month for maybe 15 to 20 years. I'm guessing over the years (and same owner) I spent close to $10,000. including tips. During all these meals they always gave out free chips and salsa like most places do.

Then one day the 5 of us went for a nice dinner and out of the blue the waitress said she now had to charge $4.00 for chips and salsa. Something new the owner was now doing.

Needless to say our family has never been back. Penny wise and a pound foolish comes to mind.

[bjl584]

I've basically stopped eating out and have been mostly cooking at home. Eating out has seemed to have gotten really expensive lately. Add in alcohol and it's a small fortune for a nice dinner.

[amastewa93]

Eating out can be grossly expensive, but it seems that if you are a loyal customer and they are serving something like tea, that maybe they would give some kind of discount or even waive it from time to time? But, I suppose the day of caring about customer loyalty is probably long gone.

[disneysteve]

I suppose the day of caring about customer loyalty is probably long gone.

I'm not so sure that's the assumption to automatically make here.

Food costs have skyrocketed. That's no secret. It's true at the grocery store. It's true for restaurants. They operate on a pretty slim margin so eliminating a free perk might be needed to keep running a profitable business. The alternative is to raise prices across the board to pay for the "free" tea or chips. I think more customers would be bothered by that.

Personally, if the Chinese place starts charging for tea, I would just drink water. If the Mexican places started charging for chips, I'd skip the chips (which I really should be skipping anyway since they're lousy for you).

We enjoy eating out. We're not going to stop doing it but I realize that restaurants are in business to make a profit, not give food away. If you don't want to pay the price, stay home.

[BuckyBadger]

Was the charge for *rice,* or for *extra* rice?

I'll admit that I've never been to a Chinese place that charges ala carte - i.e. like a fancy steak place where you order your sides separately - but I suppose they could exist.

I've usually been charged for extra rice and for tea, but I've never ordered a Chinese meal that usually comes with rice that didn't come with rice included in the price. If you get a noodle dish, ride should be extra, and if you want fancy fried rice of some sort instead of plain white rice there would also be a fee.

We went out for Chinese on Christmas day and the place was hopping and in a great mood! They gave me free extra rice in my to-go container, although I think we did get charged for the pot of tea we drank.

[tonyb3]

I guess it pays to live near chinatown, few places in my city charge for tea because there is so much competition.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I've always paid for tea and rice. it sucks and they always charge you even when you don't drink it but are just sitting there. i am one of those who doesn't particularly care for tea but I'm always charged a $1