This Restaurant Is Charging Diners Who Don’t Order a Main Course

We've all seen those MacBook-wielding "freelancers" holding court in coffee shops, swiping the seat near the power socket, and making one latte last for the three hours/however long it takes for them to finish the chapter in their obviously genre-defying novel. Or the couple staring into each other's' eyes over long-finished desserts with no intention of getting the bill, oblivious to you circling the table like a hangry vulture.

One Swiss restaurant has come up with a simple method of dealing with these time-wasting table hoggers: charge 'em.

As The Local reports, Zurich's Neumarkt restaurant is adding an extra ten francs (around £7 or $10) to the bill of customers who visit the restaurant but don't order a main course.

The sneaky tactic came to light when an unhappy diner posted a photo to Facebook showing a note on the restaurant's menu that details the charge. He captioned the picture: "Who in Zurich has only a small appetite and therefore only wants a starter has to pay ten francs more." Other social media users soon joined the criticism, branding the charge as unethical and "typical of Zurich," which is one of the world's most expensive cities to live.

Speaking the Zürcher Unterländer newspaper, Neumarkt owner René Zimmermann defended his pricing policy, saying that customers often come to the restaurant to drink tea without ordering any food.

He explained: "We are confronted with a growing number of people who spend all night without eating anything. We are a restaurant. If people eat nothing, we can no longer make ends meet—we must cover the costs related to staffing."

Zimmermann added that customers who order two appetisers or an appetiser and a dessert won't be made to pay the extra ten francs, and that anyone who "wants to eat something very light is welcome in our bar-cafe."

The charge may not be popular but it's far from the most outrageous fee to be slapped on unsuspecting diners by business-savvy restaurant bosses. An Italian cafe recently tried to charge its patrons for the "festive" atmosphere and in China, a diners at a restaurant in the Jiangsu Province were billed for the air they were breathing.

What's more worrying than stealth charges though is the fact that there are people in this world who go to restaurants without ordering actual food. Man cannot live on bar snacks alone, guys.