A London restaurant has sparked outrage after surreptitiously adding an extra charge to diners’ bills – with customers branding the decision ‘sneaky’.
Taking to Reddit, one customer who visited The Pig And Butcher in Islington highlighted a discretionary £1.23 ‘Carbon Free’ fee that had been added to the total price of their meal.
An image shared of the restaurant receipt soon circulated online – with many branding the fee ‘stupid’, ‘sneaky’, and even a ‘scam’.
The customer wrote on the r/London thread: ‘I kind of got desensitised to the service charge already, but carbon free dining? That’s something new.’
The receipt showed that the customer paid £54 for two beef dinners, £4 for bread for the table, £9.50 for a glass of red wine, £11.50 for another glass of red wine and £10 for a strawberry pavlova.
However it was the ‘optional carbon free dining’ charge that got people talking online.
Social media users were quick to criticise the fee as another unwelcome addition to the cost of dining out in the capital, with many accusing restaurants of using climate change as an excuse to charge more.
One person said: ‘Yeah, this is a very stupid and sneaky thing that’s coming over from the US. Service charge percent on top of the additional ‘optional’ fee that they’ve added (probably hidden away on the menu, if mentioned at all).
‘When you ask for the £1.23 to be taken off, do you reckon they remove the 12.5 percent of £1.23 that they’ve also added for no reason?’
Another added: ‘As an American, I’ve never seen anything like this. Carbon free dining? Come on. The only thing I’ve seen is a service charge only when it’s a large party. This is ridiculous.’
Someone else added: ‘I… do NOT feel good paying this. Total scam.’
A fourth added: ‘Did they ask you before adding it to the bill, since it’s optional? If not, I would ask them to remove it and will also reduce the service charge (also optional!) for all the time and bother they’ve caused me.’
Carbon-free dining first began to enter the restaurant scene in late 2023 and was created to help ‘offset the environmental impact of meals’.
According to the organisers behind the scheme, Lightspeed, the charge of £1.23 also helps to plant more trees to stop the ‘high rates of deforestation’.
According to the website: ‘For every six trees funded, the restaurant receives one sustainable credit.
‘Through your restaurant’s personalised Carbon Friendly Dining portal, you can keep track of credits earned and redeem them for Lightspeed annual renewals, upgrades and additional software.’
The Daily Mail has contacted the Pig And The Butcher for comment.
It comes after a vegan restaurant in London left customers seething after charging 50p for a ‘Diversity Role Models donation’.
Mallow restaurant in Borough Market is fundraising for Diversity Role Models, a UK-wide charity dedicated to ending LGBTQ+ bullying in schools through educational workshops and role model storytelling, according to their website.
While the charitable initiative is well-intentioned, Reddit users have expressed concern that the scheme places the burden of social responsibility on the customer rather than the business.
One person took to Reddit to showcase the extra 50p automatically added to their bill, which came to £57.55.
The customer paid £19 for a vegan full English breakfast, £19 for a mezze brunch, £5.50 for an oolong and pineapple drink, and £7.20 for two oat flat whites.
There was also an optional additional charge of £6.35 for service, plus the optional 50p for the diversity charity.
Some commenters questioned the extent of the restaurant’s contributions to the charity, suggesting that while the business promotes its charitable support, the financial responsibility appears to fall primarily on the customer.
One person said: ‘This is about the owners being able to claim they’re environmentally / socially conscious at your expense.
‘You’ll hear their celeb chefs on TOPJAW being all smug about ‘giving back to the community’ while guilting you into this situation, ‘Oh, you want me, a service worker, to take this bill back to the till, remove the 50 pence donation and bring it back to you? Do you want me to club a baby seal on my way back as well?’
‘It’s making the customers pay for their PR. The id**** posting ‘Hurr durr not paying 50p is a bad look on you’ is justifying this s*** being the norm.
They concluded: ‘I might not get it removed at that time, but I will make a mental note of not going to that place again.’
Another said: ‘Yep, they do exactly that. They boast about supporting charities, but they don’t make it clear that not a penny is from them.’
Someone else wrote: ‘You also see this a lot with airlines. They offer you the option to pay extra for your flight to help them meet their environmental obligations. And the way they word it is a clear attempt to make you feel guilty for not doing so.’
A fourth added: ‘I hate this sort of thing. It’s shaming the customer into paying more money, with the implication that if you don’t you clearly don’t care about diversity.
‘Even if it does go to a charity in this case, if this sort of thing gets normalised you could quickly see places start to establish their own ‘charities’.’
The Daily Mail previously reached out to Mallow restaurant for comment.
Mallow restaurant’s website explained where the money goes, writing: ‘Diversity Role Models is a UK-wide charity, working with schools to end LGBTQ+ bullying through educational workshops and role model storytelling.
‘They educate young people about difference, challenging stereotypes and addressing the misuse of language to shape a world where everyone embraces diversity and can thrive.’
Mallow concluded: ‘We fundraise for them during June and volunteer throughout the year.’
