I never heard of this and would found it very unpleasant ! To be honest I would refuse to pay, pack my bags and go somewhere else

Never heard of such a silly cover charge. I would have ordered a extra meal and had it in take away form for your 10 year old the next day. I think this cover charge needs more investigation? I think this is un-Australian! No reason to ever charge a baby for attending a family local restaurant. I bet you will not be going back there! I would not!

I never heard this kind of thing before.

I’ve never had this happen but if so I would have just got up and walked out.

That’s utterly ridiculous! I’ve never heard of this before- I would’ve walked out! That’s more than a kids meal price anyway!

I have not experienced this type of charge before but then, we have not experienced times like this before either. I do not know if the baby needs to be counted in the seating numbers but surely the management would have been able to work with the customers to ensure a positive outcome for everyone. Business needs positive feedback to ensure its survival.

I wonder Which restaurant It was?

Walk out would have been the way to go – you could have ordered takeaway and probably had a better night!!!

Doesn’t sound normal to me. I actually would just say bye bye and leave and find a different restaurant

I understand that during Covid, restaurants want to ensure every patron who dines will order at least one main to get as much out of their limited seating (esp if it is a small place) but to charge a 3 month old is ridiculous.! They aren’t even in a seat or high chair yet. And you are a family of 4, which I assume means you will get one square table to yourself – so if you didn’t bring the 3 month old, would they have given you a 3 sided table so they could accomodate one more customer? I seriously don’t understand the logic of charging a 3 month old! its ridiculous! I would have told them where to shove their business!

No that is not right in fact they were quite rude and I would of walked how insulting to say you could order from the kids menu. There are other restaurants find a family friendly one.

I have NEVER herd of this! Absolutely crazy to have to pay for a 3 month old I would tell them where to go and go else where

They definitely should have explained it better, but restrictions on the number of people are not exclusive of babies. By having your child there, it meant they were potentially losing out on a paying customer. This is particularly a problem if it was a small place and/or if they were busy.

We ate out with my in-laws (4 adults total) at a nice-ish restaurant. We had to pay a $30 deposit per person to ensure we would should up for the reservation and actually place an order. It was refunded when they rang up the bill. That said, it was very clearly communicated to us when we booked what the charge was for, and how the process worked, so we weren’t hit with a nasty surprise.

Never heard of this before, I would be reporting them, or, at least, putting a review on the restaurant about it, so other parents know not to go there. Is it even legal??

I would of told em where to stick it, that’s a load of b.s

What a joke,.. I would have left

No way!! Did you ask to speak to the Manager. I would have asked for that in writing + written down date. time and staff you spoke to and find out who you can report it to. Surely there should be exceptions for a baby. Besides, a 3 month old isn’t even on solids. Until our little one was old enough to eat a reasonable amount of a kid’s meal we simply gave him some of ours.
I would make it known amongst your relatives and friends. Bad news travels fast. ((e.g. in some professions news (good and bad) spreads fast about prices and quality of meals)).

I would have walked out, that is ludicrous! Was it a fine dining establishment?

This is just ridiculous! They wouldn’t have my business!

This is my first time hearing this! It sounds quite unreasonable and ridiculous to me