“Do We Really Have to Pay the 7,900 Won?”...Restaurant Owner Says Mother Brought a Lunchbox to an All-You-Can-Eat Restaurant but Fed Her Child Meat [What Do You Think?]

[Financial News] A customer who visited an all-you-can-eat restaurant and said she had brought a lunchbox, refusing to pay the child’s fee, allegedly fed the child food from the restaurant, according to the restaurant owner.

On the 9th, JTBC’s ‘Scandal Supervisor’ featured the story of a woman identified only as A, who has operated an all-you-can-eat restaurant with her husband in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, for three years.
According to A, five adults, one child, and one infant visited the restaurant at around 1 p.m. the previous day, the 8th. As soon as they sat down, they showed her a lunchbox bag and said, “We brought a lunchbox, so we won’t pay the child’s fee.”
The restaurant operates on an all-you-can-eat basis: after paying the per-person fee, customers can freely take Vietnamese rice-paper rolls, shabu-shabu, and meat for grilling from the self-service bar. Children under four eat free, while children aged four to seven are charged 7,900 won per person. The customers said they would not pay the child’s fee because they had brought a lunchbox.
A said she did not object because her husband told her, “Since this is a neighborhood business, let’s just let it go.”
However, while A was walking around the dining area, clearing tables and replenishing food, she allegedly saw a male customer bring rice from the self-service bar. She said the female customer then took a spoonful, topped it with seaweed from the lunchbox, and fed it to the child. A also claimed that she saw the child being fed meat provided by the restaurant.

Believing that the child had eaten the restaurant’s food, A included the child’s fee in the bill for the sake of fairness. The group left without raising any particular objection. However, they returned to the restaurant some time later and protested, saying, “Why did you charge us for the child?”
A’s husband reportedly explained, “I saw the child eating meat after you brought rice,” adding, “Other parents also bring seaweed, but they still pay.”
The customer then insisted, “The child didn’t eat even a single bite of rice. The child didn’t eat anything at all.” According to A, the other members of the group said, in effect, “The child doesn’t eat well, so we usually carry a lunchbox.”
After the argument, A ultimately processed the payment again without including the child’s share.
A said, “If they had asked for our understanding from the beginning, I wouldn’t have charged them. It’s not that I was upset about the 7,900 won; what really hurt was that I saw the child eating, yet they insisted the child hadn’t eaten.” She added, “I decided to speak out because I think many self-employed business owners are suffering similar losses.”
[email protected] Kim Soo-yeon Reporter