Shabu shop hits back with defamation threat against complaining customer

[SpanishExpat]

Fair move from the restaurant ????I think many guys here don’t understand it and it’s EVERYWHERE the same. Be it at AKA, King Kong, Sukhishi and all the “all you can eat buffets”. Order too much and don’t eat it up = you pay a fine. Actually I love it as if they wouldn’t enforce it + the thai culture of notoriously ordering too much food, would lead to a huge waste of food.

[robblok]

1 hour ago, swm59nj said:

    So if you go into an "all you can eat" buffet, restaurant, what ever.  And you probably pay a set fee in most of these places for " all you can eat"  You have to know how much you are able to consume before you take the food.  Or actually you pay for the food you cant finish.

    Sounds logical to me lol.  So its actually a restricted all you can eat restaurant.

    Im kind of surprised most people have no issues with this concept.  Especially seeing many posts on the forum of people complaining of paying a few baht more for things.  Especially booze.

Maybe because some of us actually went to places like that and know how it works. You probably have no idea. 

 

So you got a restaurant like that you ask a server to bring you 5 plates you finish those then you order more. You don't have to order all at one go.

 

You can stay there for a certain amount of time and can order as many times as you want so there is no need to order too much and not consume it.

[sambum]

6 hours ago, JoePai said:

Sorry I do not understand - did they not pay for the food ?

I am also a little confused:-

 

"The customer and his party were fined 1,000 baht because they didn't eat up all their food."

 

How on earth can you fine someone for NOT eating food? It's a bit like saying "The meal is 2000 baht but you didn't eat it all, so the bill is 3000 baht" The mind boggles!

[redwood1]

6 hours ago, Dmaxdan said:

If this is one of those places where you help yourself to the raw ingredients and then you overload your plate and don't eat what you have taken, the restaurant has every right to fine you,

And those terms are probably in the small print,

I personally HATE HATE these restaurants....The food blows.... Not even if its free, will I eat there.....Look who eats at these places.....Very very few farang EVER.....I think most farang dislike this kind of food.. 

Edited March 29, 2022 by redwood1

[robblok]

I think not many people actually have gone to a place like this. As i remember these places go from 500-1000 bad per head depending on beef or just pork ect. So perhaps its out of the price range of most of the retirees on this forum. I mean given they ask for breakfasts under 200 bt this must be out of their price range.

 

I mean if you had ever gone to such a place it would all become clear and you would understand it was all fair. 

 

You can call for a waiter to come as many times as you want. So why would one need to know how much one can eat. Also you get the raw ingredients that you cook yourself in the soup you selected. Who would be so stupid to assume you can order only one time. The rules are quite clear.

 

 

 

 

[sambum]

3 minutes ago, robblok said:

Maybe because some of us actually went to places like that and know how it works. You probably have no idea. 

 

So you got a restaurant like that you ask a server to bring you 5 plates you finish those then you order more. You don't have to order all at one go.

 

You can stay there for a certain amount of time and can order as many times as you want so there is no need to order too much and not consume it.

Maybe if the system was better explained in the post, less people would have been confused by people being "fined" for not eating all of their food?

[robblok]

1 minute ago, sambum said:

I am also a little confused:-

 

"The customer and his party were fined 1,000 baht because they didn't eat up all their food."

 

How on earth can you fine someone for NOT eating food? It's a bit like saying "The meal is 2000 baht but you didn't eat it all, so the bill is 3000 baht" The mind boggles!

Maybe because you never went to places like this. Just read what others have said and you might understand better. Alternatively try one of those places.

 

You get into the Shabu place, you select the soup that you will boil your meal with and it gets placed in front of you (hot pot) and then you order from a set menu items. You can order as many times as you want as long as you eat all you order. Otherwise you waste food. 

 

You only pay a set price so this is to prevent people from ordering and not eating it causing extra losses and wastage of food. Now if it was pay as you go or pay for every dish you ordered then sure i understand why it confuses you.

 

But it would be akin to going to a bar that says you can drink as much as you want all night as long as you pay 1000 bt and then order 20 beers and leaving 10 of them. That would be wasting and spoiling the concept. You could have ordered a beer, then one more and so on. 

[sambum]

3 minutes ago, robblok said:

I think not many people actually have gone to a place like this. As i remember these places go from 500-1000 bad per head depending on beef or just pork ect. So perhaps its out of the price range of most of the retirees on this forum. I mean given they ask for breakfasts under 200 bt this must be out of their price range.

 

I mean if you had ever gone to such a place it would all become clear and you would understand it was all fair. 

 

You can call for a waiter to come as many times as you want. So why would one need to know how much one can eat. Also you get the raw ingredients that you cook yourself in the soup you selected. Who would be so stupid to assume you can order only one time. The rules are quite clear.

 

 

 

 

"So perhaps its out of the price range of most of the retirees on this forum. I mean given they ask for breakfasts under 200 bt this must be out of their price range."

 

Bit of a pompous statement, or are you just trolling?

[robblok]

1 minute ago, sambum said:

Maybe if the system was better explained in the post, less people would have been confused by people being "fined" for not eating all of their food?

Perhaps but i mean these places are fairly common in malls and so on in Thailand. All Thais know how this works its just you and some other farangs that don't. Perhaps some rural Thais might be confused too but not those living in cities. 

 

I even saw shabu places where i used to live in Thailand in rural places.  The concept is easy.

 

They even had this concept many years back for Oishy bufet you could take as much salmon as you wanted ice as you wanted as long as you consumed it. This was to prevent people from taking everything then not finishing it and wasting food and causing more cost to restaurants. Because it undermined the concept and would cause the restaurants to have to charge more to cover it.

[RocketDog]

6 hours ago, Denim said:

Having seen greedy people in these places , piling their plates with ridiculous amounts of food then walking away with a lot of it uneaten , I actually sympathize  with the restaurant. 

I was brought up to clean my plate, and never take more food at a cafeteria than I would eat; the whole "kids starving in Africa" lecture. That was in the 1950's. In gradeschool we were taught to clean our trays into a large bin. Every evening a man from a hog farm came to haul it away. Pretty savvy business man, no? In most of America it's now illegal for restaurants to dispose of their waste food in anything but locked containers to prevent 'theft' by hungry people.

 

As an adult eating out I was constantly appalled at how much food was left on plates. Ironically it seemed the more expensive the restaurant the more food was left. I finally decided it must be some twisted conspicuous consumption status symbol thing, conscious or not. I still believe that. Countless articles have appeared in print in America over the last decade about how much food is wasted by Americans.

 

This carries into Americans dumping food at or before its expiration date. This is a scam that benefits nobody except the food factory industry. If foods are properly sealed in cans or jars it will be edible, if not fully nutritious for years. I've eaten vegetables I canned myself ten years after I processed it. I'm still alive if a bit on the mentally deficient side, but that's not due to the food. ????

 

Without addressing the whole ridiculous defamation nonsense in the Kingdom, I can say that people who blatantly waste food are committing a sin against the whole world. Conservation of ALL our resources should be a priority for every passenger on Spaceship Earth.

 

If I owned a buffet type restaurant it would be difficult to for me to see these wastrals leave my establishment without educating them on this reality of our world. No doubt my business would fail.

 

Eventually we will have to abandon our throwaway lifestyles. If we don't our children and grandchildren certainly will.

 

I'll get off my soapbox now, but this particular issue has always been a hot button for me.

[robblok]

1 minute ago, sambum said:

"So perhaps its out of the price range of most of the retirees on this forum. I mean given they ask for breakfasts under 200 bt this must be out of their price range."

 

Bit of a pompous statement, or are you just trolling?

I was trolling, but so many seem to respond to a thread and have no idea of a concept that is all over Thailand. 

[sambum]

9 minutes ago, robblok said:

Maybe because you never went to places like this. Just read what others have said and you might understand better. Alternatively try one of those places.

 

You get into the Shabu place, you select the soup that you will boil your meal with and it gets placed in front of you (hot pot) and then you order from a set menu items. You can order as many times as you want as long as you eat all you order. Otherwise you waste food. 

 

You only pay a set price so this is to prevent people from ordering and not eating it causing extra losses and wastage of food. Now if it was pay as you go or pay for every dish you ordered then sure i understand why it confuses you.

 

But it would be akin to going to a bar that says you can drink as much as you want all night as long as you pay 1000 bt and then order 20 beers and leaving 10 of them. That would be wasting and spoiling the concept. You could have ordered a beer, then one more and so on. 

"Just read what others have said and you might understand better." No need for the pompous attitude thank you! 

 

"But it would be akin to going to a bar that says you can drink as much as you want all night as long as you pay 1000 bt and then order 20 beers and leaving 10 of them". 

 

Wasteful I agree, but if the offer is as you say, then it is "up to you", as they say in Thailand. A bit like all you can eat buffets being abused by crowds of C*****e, then?

Edited March 29, 2022 by sambum

[Burma Bill]

Reading many of the threads today, some confusing, I have learnt something - do not go to a Shabu restaurant!

Is this defamatory??????

[johncat1]

6 hours ago, tonray said:

When will they start with these fines at "alll you can eat" buffets ?

I have eaten at " all you can eat buffets " Many of them are just that and you can keep going back for more. But if you leave food uneaten on your plate you get charged double. This stops greedy people piling food on their plates and wasting uneaten food. The rules are clear before you start

 

[robblok]

Just now, sambum said:

"But it would be akin to going to a bar that says you can drink as much as you want all night as long as you pay 1000 bt and then order 20 beers and leaving 10 of them". 

 

Wasteful I agree, but if the offer is as you say, then it is "up to you", as they say in Thailand. A bit like all you can eat buffets being abused by crowds of C*****e, then?

No look you still dont seem to get it. First off its to make sure these restaurants can keep their prices down. This way they only punish people who abuse them by ordering things they don't eat. This way the prices can keep low (relatively). Because there is not that much food wasted. They dont mind if you order a bit too much. But this is 2kg too much. 

 

Like i said you can order as many times as you want so no need to over order. 

Besides its clearly written down on menu's or told when you enter. 

 

ALso by those all you can eat buffets the ones i went to in the past they had the same thing. If you take stuff and not eat it (im not talking a few items but leave a lot) then you could be fined. This really is not a new concept in Thailand..

 

I am genuinely surprised that so many people seem to be unaware of it.

[Lemsta69]

14 minutes ago, sambum said:

I am also a little confused:-

 

"The customer and his party were fined 1,000 baht because they didn't eat up all their food."

 

How on earth can you fine someone for NOT eating food? It's a bit like saying "The meal is 2000 baht but you didn't eat it all, so the bill is 3000 baht" The mind boggles!

it's really quite simple so not sure why you're struggling with it. have you never been to a local shabu joint?

[robblok]

1 minute ago, johncat1 said:

I have eaten at " all you can eat buffets " Many of them are just that and you can keep going back for more. But if you leave food uneaten on your plate you get charged double. This stops greedy people piling food on their plates and wasting uneaten food. The rules are clear before you start

 

Indeed, so strange that so few people on the forum seem to be aware of these things. Must be a different Thailand they live in. 

[robblok]

Just now, Lemsta69 said:

it's really quite simple so not sure why you're struggling with it. have you never been to a local shabu joint?

I think that is the case for most of the people who are confused they have never been there. Otherwise it would have been clear to them. 

[RichardColeman]

Sounds Familiar (or about to be familiar) somehow !

 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

 

Bethselamin

 

For years, the fabulously beautiful planet of Bethselamin increased its booming tourist industry without any worries at all. Alas, as is often the case, this was an act of utter stupidity, as it led to a colossal cumulative erosion problem. Of course, what else could one expect with ten billion tourists per annum? Thus today the net balance between the amount you eat and the amount you excrete while on the planet is surgically removed from your body weight when you leave; so every time you go to the lavatory there, it is vitally important to get a receipt.

[TigerandDog]

7 hours ago, JoePai said:

Sorry I do not understand - did they not pay for the food ?

It is common practice, and I agree with the practice, that when you go to a Thai BBQ ( as per the OP Shabu ) restaurant that you pay a fixed amount per head. However, in an endeavour to stop those whose eyes are bigger than their bellies any food taken from the self serve buffet to the table and not eaten IS subject to an additional charge for the uneaten food. How that charge is calculated varies from shop to shop, but the most common one is weigh the uneaten food and charge per 100 grams.

[Lemsta69]

2 minutes ago, robblok said:

I think that is the case for most of the people who are confused they have never been there. Otherwise it would have been clear to them. 

how can you live in Thailand and have never gone to a shabu joint? it's pretty much compulsory ????

[robblok]

1 minute ago, TigerandDog said:

It is common practice, and I agree with the practice, that when you go to a Thai BBQ ( as per the OP Shabu ) restaurant that you pay a fixed amount per head. However, in an endeavour to stop those whose eyes are bigger than their bellies any food taken from the self serve buffet to the table and not eaten IS subject to an additional charge for the uneaten food. How that charge is calculated varies from shop to shop, but the most common one is weigh the uneaten food and charge per 100 grams.

And most of the times they don't even bother doing that as long as its reasonable what you leave. They only ever apply this rule on people who really break it big time. At least that is my experience. I went to places like this quite often in the past. 

[sambum]

4 minutes ago, Lemsta69 said:

it's really quite simple so not sure why you're struggling with it. have you never been to a local shabu joint?

No - never even seen one!

[robblok]

Just now, Lemsta69 said:

how can you live in Thailand and have never gone to a shabu joint? it's pretty much compulsory ????

Yes that is why im so confused, if your with a Thai girl they love these places. They are everywhere. 

[sambum]

1 minute ago, Lemsta69 said:

how can you live in Thailand and have never gone to a shabu joint? it's pretty much compulsory ????

I've never seen one!

 

[sambum]

Just now, robblok said:

Yes that is why im so confused, if your with a Thai girl they love these places. They are everywhere. 

No they're not!

[robblok]

Just now, sambum said:

No - never even seen one!

WOW.. where do you live in Thailand. Do you never go to malls ? I mean there are chain branches of Shabu joints and so on. They are really really common.

 

But i think a lot of foreigners don't like to boil their food. But there is also a kind of shabu joint or at least same principle for BBQ food. (i prefer that a bit more but Thais like the hot pot boiling stuff more).

 

 

[jesimps]

I don't understand. Surely if you order and pay for food, you leave whatever you want. It's yours! Unless of course (seems strange) you just pay for the slices of meat you eat. Did they finish a normal order and then order an extra portion of meat, which they then refused to eat? This seems the more likely explanation.

[Lemsta69]

Just now, sambum said:

No - never even seen one!

gotcha. well as others have mentioned they allow "all you can eat" but if you load up your plate with a shedload of raw meat and then don't eat it for whatever reason the restaurant will impose a penalty for the uneaten food. 

 

they're rather fun, you should try it some time. depends where you are but here in Bangkok you can get all quality ranges from gristle that you wouldn't feed to a dog through to Wagyu beef ????

[Bruno123]

2 minutes ago, sambum said:

No they're not!

They are.

Shabu, Moo krata...they are ubiquitous in Thailand. A very pleasant experience it can be. For me it like having a barbecue in the garden, but someone else cleans up the mess. I leave a generous tip for the staff.