A customer at the Bar Pace cafe in Lake Como, Italy was shocked when he was charged an extra two euros to cut a sandwich in half.
The customer in question had gone to the cafe on June 18 and ordered a sandwich and asked for it to be cut in half so he could share it with his date.
However, after getting the receipt, the diner noticed a charge for two euro listed as "diviso a metà."
Overcharging, any way you slice it: Why a cafe charged extra for cutting a sandwich in half
The disgruntled diner then shared his experience on Tripadvisor, giving the cafe a one-star review and including a picture of the receipt, and further noted that the sandwich is supposed to come served in half anyway.
Speaking to Italian media outlets, cafe owner Cristina Biacchi defended the added surcharge. First, she noted that the sandwich itself took time to cut in half since there were fried potatoes inside. Secondly, she stressed that cutting the sandwich in half isn't the real issue. Rather, it was that the cafe had to double the plates used and double the time to wash them and use two placemats.
Thirdly, in an interview with Italian news outlet la Repubblica, Biacchi said the customer never actually complained at the time and only did so online later. If he had done so at the time, she would likely not have charged him for it.
However, this has led to a surge of negative reviews on the cafe's Tripadvisor page.
"They are thieves," one reviewer wrote. "They charge even for the air you breathe inside their filthy place."
Another reviewer wrote that the staff is "completely inappropriate and unprofessional" and further criticized it for not being pet friendly.
Notably, not all of these reviewers came after the two-euro charge went viral, with some predating it.
"Unsympathetic, grumpy, dishonest," one commenter wrote back in April. "They act like they're doing you a favor by serving you."
Due to the surge of reviews, Tripadvisor closed the cafe's page from further comments.