A restaurant in Rome was swamped with complaints from tourists after it allegedly overcharged two Japanese customers with a bill of $470 or 430 euros.
The two Japanese tourists was charged with a bill of almost $500 by Antico Caffè di Marte restaurant, near Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, for two plates of spaghetti and fish, and water. A picture of the bill was posted on Facebook in early September and it went viral.
In addition to the 349.50 euros, the customers paid 40 euros for the service charge and another 40 euros for the tip.
After the photo went viral, several other customers came out to say that they were also ripped off by the restaurant.
Minh Ngoc Bui, a Vietnamese living in Germany, left a review on Tripadvisor, which detailed their experiences at the restaurant. Speaking to CNN, Minh claimed that she and three other friends were having lunch at Antico Caffè on August 27 when the waiter suggested the "seafood -- mixed fish" dish from the menu priced at 6.5 euros per 100 grams.
Minh said: "We agreed because It would be not a big deal to pay €6.5 extra to try a recommendation dish. But they brought us only one plate of mixed fish around 2 kg." He added: "We were kind of surprised when we saw this dish because we didn't expect '100 grams fish' would be this big. But it was our last day in Italy so we told ourselves it was OK. It's around 2 kg of fish so I agreed to pay around €130-150 for this dish of fish. We don't want to have more drama in Italy."
However, when the bill arrived, they were asked to pay for 4.8 kilograms of mixed fish at a cost of 315 euros. Adding the service charge and tip, the total was a hefty 476.40 euros.
Restaurant owner Giacomo Jin argued: "Everything is written in detail, just look at the prices: 16 euros maximum for a spaghetti with seafood."
