Restaurant Starts Charging People For Skipping Main Course

It's not unusual for a restaurant patron to be less hungry than expected and decide to order an appetizer instead of a main course, but one Zurich restaurant got so sick of the practice that it has started adding a fee for any customers who don't order a main dish.

According to The Local, the restaurant Neumarkt in Zurich charges 10 Swiss Francs, or $10.23, for any customers who don't order a main course. The fee has not gone over very well with some customers.

"Typical of Zurich," one Facebook commenter reportedly complained.

In spite of the complaints, the restaurant maintains that the fee is totally fair, especially since without it people keep coming to the restaurant and staying all day without actually ordering anything.

"We are confronted with a growing number of people who spend all night without eating anything," said owner René Zimmermann.

According to Zimmerman, the non-eating diners are a problem during the day as well as at night. He complains that sometimes people will come in, order tea, and then nurse their tea cups all day without ordering any food.

"We are a restaurant," he said. "If people eat nothing we can no longer make ends meet — we must cover the costs related to staffing."

Zimmerman pointed out that the restaurant has an attached bar-café where anybody who wants coffee or to eat something very light could go and be welcome. On top of that, he also clarified that the 10-euro fee does not apply when customers order either two appetizers or an appetizer and a dessert.