The restaurant’s Google rating fell from 4.2 to 2.5 within a day after a Sunday article by Mothership sharing the family’s disappointment with the charges.
The diner told the outlet that his family of five had eaten at the establishment. He ordered a S$14 beer while his two children, aged five and 10, drank plain water they had brought along.
The family was later charged S$2 for two “outside drinks,” bringing the total to S$109, according to a receipt dated Feb. 7, 2026.
The customer paid the bill but described the charge as “both surprising and disappointing” as he had thought the policy applied only to adults and was unaware of the charges until the bill arrived. He added that his family has been frequenting the restaurant for over two decades.
Eat First restaurant in Singapore. Photo from Eat First’s Facebook |
The eatery told the outlet it has a sign at its entrance stating the policy and that waiters are trained to remind customers of the charges for outside food and drinks.
It also claimed that the family in question had been informed but still used the restaurant’s bowls as cups to drink their water.
Following online backlash from the article, the business took to another local newspaper a day later to share their side of the story.
Citing CCTV footage, the eatery said the family had brought a large 1.5-liter bottle of mineral water and that two staff members had repeatedly warned the group about the S$1 per person fee for drinks not purchased on-site.
“We are running a small business. We are selling bottled water too,” Steve Chia, Eat First’s 58-year-old owner, told The Straits Times in a Monday article.
“Just as we respect and appreciate our customers, we would also like customers to understand that we have our own policy with regard to outside food and drinks.”
Chia described the online backlash as his first experience of being cyberbullied and noted that the drop in the business’s Google rating due to “fake reviews” could deter foreign tourists, who make up around 30% of its customers and often rely on such ratings when visiting Singapore.
By Tuesday morning, the restaurant’s rating was at 2.4. It had nearly 1,100 reviews, with most of the latest ones being one-star and citing the incident, as well as the owner’s subsequent response, which many have called “arrogant.”
“Bad service, avoid at all costs. Charging people for bringing outside water especially those needed by children is not warranted for,” a review said.
However, there are also a handful of five-star reviews defending the restaurant’s decision.
“A fair number [of recent reviews] appear to have very little to do with the food and everything to do with indignation over the restaurant’s no outside food and drinks policy,” one such review read.
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