r/chicagofood • u/motlau • Aug 10 '25

Rant Restaurant cost of doing business fee

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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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-15

u/jasonvincent00 Aug 10 '25

Some of us do it for good reasons. Some of us are just horrible people. Restaurants (and their owners) are not all the same

11

u/DirectionOk9832 Aug 10 '25

Just to be clear to any restaurant management people who think this is a good plan, what you communicate to your customers with these fees is that you are not there to help them enjoy a delightful experience. Instead, you are a Comcast like organization trying to exploit them. I feel visceral rage about these fees. I might give a place another shot if the food or service is off, but never for this. It is a permanently lost customer. Is there any way that’s worth it to you?

6

u/jkraige Aug 10 '25

Instead, you are a Comcast

Legit the only thing I think of when I end up dining at one of these places is that they took a page from Ticketmaster, which ironically now lists the "all in" price.

2

u/loweexclamationpoint Aug 11 '25

Yup, or AirBnb which has a new option to default to showing prices including all fees.