[KnowItAll]

Lets create a list of restaurants that you know of, which refuse to server tap water to their customers and insist on selling marked up mineral water.

Where possible .. do try and list the cost of water.

Would be interesting to ping the various licensing boards in a couple of weeks to see why they don't follow international (I assume its common) standards and insist that licensed premises should be able to serve hygienic and safe water to their customers free of charge.

Le Meridian in Cyberport
Tenants Buffet Lunch : $128
Cost of Mineral Water: $60

Ole in Central
Cost of Average Dinner / Person: $300-500
Cost of Mineral Water: ?

[Max]

If I had a dollar for everytime I was served and charged for mineral water instead of tap water at a restaurant, I'd be sitting on a nice heap of money by now.

Saw something like this on 60 minutes a few months ago. It's about time we did something like that here....

[KnowItAll]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/your_rights/food.shtml

Apparently not the law in the UK.

[ScotchDrinker]

798 Unit & Co (the one in Times Sqaure, not the original one in TST, oddly) -

average cost of mains: $120
cost of bottled water: $40

The last time when I refused to let the matter drop, they apologised and offered a bottle of their precious water for free. But that's beyond the point.

There are tons more restos, just give me a minute to think about it...

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

Apparently not the law in the UK.

It certainly is in Scotland. Section 9(2) here:
http://www.uk-legislation.hmso.gov.u...016_en_15#sch3

In England & Wales licensing is done at the local level at the local authorities have discretion on conditions imposed, but a quick search shows that many local authorities do impose the condition of free tap water on all licensed premises. Specific examples that Google throws up immediately include Newcastle, St Albans, and a couple of London boroughs.

[MS@HK]

dont know much abt these places ...but the prices on the food may just reflect the water surcharge ....ie they are cheaper than places of similar quality .....but yeah i guess pple are just not used to paying for water ...shud be bad business for them.

anyway not serving tap water ...is that a statement on the potability of hk tap water ??

[sunniefaith]

At the risk of sounding like a snob, I don't drink tap water even at home therefore I don't drink tap water at the restaurant. I rather pay for a bottle water than to think and worry where did that glass of water come from.

[MovingIn07]

indeed, I can remember a time when we all laughed about the silly people trying to sell bottled water. i still do! Where does it come from? out of the reservoirs which have pretty stringent controls on them! If you worry about where food/drink comes from all the time you miss out on some of the best experiences AND end up not acclimating your gut to the environment so you get MORE sick!

[bloated.egos]

Originally Posted by sunniefaith

At the risk of sounding like a snob, I don't drink tap water even at home therefore I don't drink tap water at the restaurant. I rather pay for a bottle water than to think and worry where did that glass of water come from.

amen. if you have the money to spend on expensive meals why not spend a tiny bit more on some clean/safe water.

[PDLM]

Because in civilised countries clean water is freely available.

Why should, say, Evian (which is essentially tap water from a particular region of France) be worth any more than HK tap water? Why do you not worry about where it came from if it's in a bottle? I don't follow the logic here?

Do you worry about Bonaqua? Because that is simply HK tap water, in a bottle.