I was just trolling the Malsingmaps.com forum a few days ago and came upon this particular post that read, “Beware of this kind of restaurant”. It’s the same story which I received in my inbox a day earlier.

It tells of a guy’s dining experience at a restaurant in Gohtong Jaya, Genting Highlands. He ordered fish, in this case, half a steamed Sultan fish, and got slapped with an RM505.50 bill! A kilo of that fish apparently cost RM320, which he only found out when the bill came. All this guy had to prove for it was a receipt from the restaurant.

This, of course, sparked a big uproar in the community, presumably with keyboards blazing, angry-faced emoticons and a slew of similar experiences, all relating their bad experiences with eateries that overcharged their patrons.

One forum member even suggested that they come up with a “blacklist” for restaurants in their maps. It was rather amusing to see some actions being taken by the consumers for the consumers. After all, by the time you complain to the related authorities, it would have taken months before anyone acted on it.

But most KL-lites will avoid placing an order on fish if they are dining out on a budget.

A friend had a similar experience with the pricey Sultan fish which he paid RM30 per 100 grams in Gohtong Jaya two years ago. That works out to about RM300 per kilo; given the price of inflation, RM2 per 100g is acceptable. It’s also an accepted fact that fish, poultry and meat are generally more expensive in the highlands than the lowlands due to the cost of transportation, and fresh fish is more difficult to transport than frozen fish.

The price is often clearly written on a board in most restaurants. Now the question is, had this particular patron been ignorant and somehow felt compelled to tell the whole world as a goodwill gesture, or is there a hidden agenda?

For all you know, it could have been a disgruntled employee or worse, the restaurant’s competitor who has just gone tech savvy.

I remember many years ago, a similar fate came upon one of my colleagues during lunch over at a newly opened mamak eatery right across our office. Apparently, she found a cockroach egg in her curry.

To cut a long story short, she was told it’s bunga cengkih (clove) and was still made to pay for the meal. Had that incident happen today, all you need to do is whip out your super-duper-megapixel camera phone, snap a shot, include a macro shot, upload it to your favourite blog and link it to your favourite high-traffic forum and watch the demise of the said restaurant.

Personally, it’s just scary to think of what people believe what they read online these days.