An Italian woman working as a waitress in Australia has revealed one “shocking” habit diners have when splitting the bill at a restaurant.
Alice Burattini, who recently moved to Melbourne from Tuscany, took to TikTok to share her frustration over groups who “weirdly” insist on splitting the bill individually based on what each person ordered.
“As an Italian waitress working for an Italian restaurant here in Australia, here’s the thing that shocked me the most…and the reason why we don’t do them in Italy,” she said in a brutally honest video.
“I’m talking about the annoying part of the night where people are like ‘oh, I had three glasses of wine, you had four, so I should pay less.
“Or I ate two chips less than you so I’m going to put $5 less.”
Alice said in Italy, splitting the bill is called “alla romana”, meaning ‘Roman way,’ where the bill is divided according to how many people there are.
“You’re having dinner with six people, the amount is the total you just divide it in six,” Alice said.
“The reason why we do this is because, especially if you’re going out with a group of friends that you are usually hanging out with this is not the only time you’re going to have dinner with those people, right?”
Some people in the comments agreed with Alice and used her rant as an opportunity to hit out against the Australian dining habit.
“The pettiness with money here is embarrassing,” one person said.
“Maybe it’s just the ethnic in me, I love taking care of my people, even strangers, money always comes back one way or another,” another person said.
“You need better friends if they’re doing that,” one more person said.
Another person added the custom was “very embarrassing indeed!!”, and urged people to order shared plates in a group to make paying more fair.
However, a large majority said splitting the bill was necessary when groups ordered individual plates, which could end up costing more.
“If the meal is a shared meal, then yes. Split it down the middle. But I’m not going to pay for Joanna’s $30 cocktail, John’s $50 steak and Jason’s $60 lobster,” one person said.
“There’s always people who have three courses or expensive dishes and expensive drinks. Why should others have to pay for them?” another person said.
“Unfortunately, in Australia, as you’ve probably seen, a main meal might be $24 and something from the grill might be $58. How is that remotely OK to split between people fairly?” a third disgruntled commentator said.
One more person encouraged expats to follow the dining customs of the country they’re in, regardless of how different they are from those back home.
“You’ve heard the expression, when in Rome?” the TikTok user said.
“Same here, when in Australia you do it the Australian way”.
Dining and Cooking