Restaurant’s 18% service charge for a party of one shocks many: ‘F–k that’

Pho-gedabout it!

A Vietnamese restaurant in California was angered when a customer shared a photo of a receipt that appeared to include an automatic 18% service charge “for parties of one or more people.”

“I’ve seen restaurants include tipping when it’s a large party, but never for groups of 1!” one upset customer and Reddit user TRTL2k posted to the site’s “slightly infuriating” thread.

Their meal — reportedly at Pho Ha Noi in Cupertino — had a subtotal of $49.50, but came out to a frustrating $62.93, thanks to the ($8.91) fee plus sales tax ($4.52), according to a posted image of the receipt.

Calls to Pho Ha Noi from The Post were not immediately returned.

Many people on Reddit have also opposed the protocol, amid growing backlash over similar phenomena, including “guilt flipping” on tablet screens.

“It’s the tip as far as I’m concerned,” one user wrote of the service charge.

“F–k that gosh. Just another place I wouldn’t need to eat out,” added another.

“There’s no better way to say ‘we’re definitely not paying our workers enough,'” a third commented about the seemingly new etiquette approach to tipping.

It’s also increasingly common for restaurants to impose bizarre fees – usually called “wellness fees”, “cuisine appreciation fees” or “living fees”, which restaurants say go to the workers.

Upper West Side native Anna Nikkinen was stunned to see a $15 charge appear on a recent bill while dining at the trendy Italian restaurant Mother Wolf in Los Angeles.

“It’s just kind of crazy because it’s not like food and drinks are cheaper — and we’re still paying employee benefits,” she previously told the Post.

Many people on the recent Reddit thread also wondered why restaurants — almost all of which have weathered the turmoil of inflation and supply shortages since COVID — aren’t simply raising their prices rather than impose fees of this type.

“Every couple months we’ll have a guest who wants to talk to a manager to understand why we’re doing this instead of raising our prices,” said Romain Turpault, owner of the upscale Union League Cafe restaurant in New Haven, Conn. , to The Post on adding a 4% cooking appreciation fee post-pandemic.

“For me, at the end of the day, it’s exactly the same thing. We alone show why the price actually increased.”