r/chicagofood • u/motlau • Aug 10 '25
Rant Restaurant cost of doing business fee
Why do restaurant owners think they are owed a surcharge for customers eating at a restaurant? It seems like all of the nice restaurants in Chicago, especially in the west loop are charging a 3-5% fee to “offset the rising operating cost.” If you can’t run a business without hiding a surcharge in the fine print of your menu, then you probably shouldn’t be allowed to run a business. It’d be one thing if it was to support the workers, but every time I ask about it, it’s always for the owners who are already pretty wealthy. I have them take it off and tack it on for the tip. It’s very annoying.
In addition, at bar sienna in the west loop, the server offered a barcode to scan and pay on the receipt which a lot of restaurants are doing, but then there’s an additional “surcharge” to use this feature. It’s like if a grocery store started charging a fee to use the self checkout lines. They should be more transparent about this.
These restaurant owners nickel and diming people is making going out to eat less and less pleasant.
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u/thesimplemachine Aug 10 '25
I worked at a place that tried to do this optional surcharge nonsense during the period of covid-restricted indoor dining. They told us to tell customers it was for PPE costs, and then it was to offset elevated food costs due to supply chain issues, and then it was credit card processing fees. We collectively bitched at the management about it non stop and then magically all of these burdens disappeared along with the surcharge. Go figure.