Tourist furious after posh Italian restaurant charge extra for an empty plate

Blogger Selvaggia Lucarelli shared her outrage over the added charge (Image: @selvaggia.lucarelli/CEN) An Italian restaurant has left a woman furious after she was charged for requesting an extra plate to use. The posh eatery based in Liguria, Italy , charged £1.70 for the empty plate after blogger Selvaggia Lucarelli asked for the dish to split a pasta dish with her daughter. Listed on the receipt as “piattino condivisione”, the item translated into English means “sharing saucer”. The restaurant is located in the exclusive destination of Gulf of Genoa northern Italy – where cover charges are quite common. However, the customer alerted holidaymakers as the fee came on top of the cover charge. The restaurant charged two euros for the plate (Image: @selvaggia.lucarelli/CEN) The total charge came to £6.48 amounting to the overall cost of the meal to £47.92. Disgruntled Italian media slammed the restaurant for the cheeky price saying: “They put 2 euros on her account for the saucer. By the way, having already factored in the cover charge.” The Governor of Liguria Giovanni Toti also weighed in against the restaurant. He fumed: “This extra charge is wrong to me.” Restaurant owners responded to the row giving a stunning reason for the astonishing charge. They said: “A table for three and they eat for one, then who does the dishes?” Owner Ida Germano, 76 explained: “We made the lady who posted the receipt sit at a table for three because there were two adults and a child. “They ordered only one plate of trofie with pesto and one of fried anchovies and they asked for two saucers to share for both. So they had four saucers in all, not one, and we only charged for one because we pay for the dishwasher and the dishwashing too.” Other customers shared their thoughts on social media. A TripAdvisor user said: “Taking advantage of the location to raise the prices of absolutely basic dishes is in bad taste.” This comes as another Italian bar added a bizarre extra charge to customers for cutting their sandwiches in half. The posh eatery at Italy’s exclusive Lake Como sparked outrage after it revealed its new £1.70 slicing fee.