Good intentions, bad execution.
A London restaurant owner defends his establishment’s menu rules after customers accuse him of “guilt-tripping” them for ordering tap water.
“We’re not forcing people to buy drinks,” restaurant owner Morten P. Ortwed told Kennedy News and Media. “They can have free tap water,”
Jane Breeds, 27, and her boyfriend went out for dinner at Köd London, a Danish Steakhouse in East London, on Nov. 12 for their all-you-can-eat roast dinner.
The Essex couple was prepared to pay the $37 per head for the major feast, but they didn’t expect to read a “cheeky” note in the menu.
“You can have just tap water but please remember we’re running a restaurant, not a charity — wink, wink, we need to make money,” the Danish restaurant menu read.
“You know who is running a charity, though? Red Cross is! If you want to have just tap water, we encourage you to donate $1.24 to the Red Cross. Everybody wins.”
Turned off by the suggestion, Breeds and her partner intentionally opted out from ordering drinks and requested a jug of tap water.
“When I first saw the menu, I laughed and told my boyfriend that we’re not ordering any drinks,” Breeds told Kennedy News and Media.
The servers brought out their water jug without any questions, which the pair appreciated. Despite the menu’s “wild” message, the couple received “great service” and left a 15% tip of their $74 bill and didn’t make a donation. But Breeds left them another tip on X, formerly known as Twitter, about proper restaurant etiquette.
“Made a point of not ordering drinks at Köd Steakhouse by Liverpool Street after seeing this on the menu. Wild behavior lol,” she tweeted with an attached photo of the restaurant menu rule.
Köd’s boss, 38, clapped back at the customer’s post, calling his initiative “too much Danish humor” for her taste.
“Thanks for [the] attention,” Ortwed tweeted. “Tap water is still free, Red Cross donation [is] optional!”
Breeds replied back saying, “I guarantee that you are turning more people off ordering drinks with your snarky messaging than you are encouraging people to order more drinks.”
Although the Denmark native was frustrated by Breeds’ remarks, he tried to keep it professional.
“You are the first we have heard a negative comment from. But we will take it into consideration in our evaluation. Thank you for the feedback.”
As a Red Cross ambassador, Ortwed thought promoting charitable donations would be a win for the nonprofit and for his company to make some profit.
“I understand [they find it cheeky] but to come to a restaurant and have tap water I think it would be nice to also donate something,” he revealed to Kennedy News and Media. “That shouldn’t be a bad thing.”
He adds that the steakhouse wouldn’t be able to offer their “Sunday special where we offer an all-you-can-eat roast,” if customers didn’t buy drinks and only drank water.
Breeds understands Ortwed had good intentions behind the charitable request but thought it was done in a distasteful way.
“[The donation] is a nice idea but I don’t think I should be guilt-tripped into donating to charity just because I only wanted to drink tap water,” she said.
However, Ortwed, who opened the chain restaurant in March, has no plans to change the menu’s verbiage.
“There are still some things we need to learn about Danish humor working in the UK,” he admits after living over a decade in Denmark and Norway.
“[But] I don’t think we should change something because one person doesn’t agree.”