Signs things are a changin'

[gougou]

they might charge you for the extra cleanup afterwards.

Don't think that would be an extra clean-up, everybody's spitting and dropping on the table anyway... (when will they start shrinkwrapping your table?)

[cdn_in_bj]

Yeah, that's true. And I regret making that suggestion, it's a really gross thought.

[roddy]

I think an admin should split this off, as it's in no way a sign of things improving.

I wouldn't mind if restaurants just put their prices up. Hell, I probably wouldn't even notice. But petty little charges for things like this irritate me. I'm awaiting the 'seat-use' fee in taxis.

[Senzhi]

I actually had a "shrinkwrapped" table in a local Chaozhou restaurant. Handy, saves them the cleaning afterwards.

[liuzhou]

You know what is a sign that things are changing, have any of you been to a restaurant and your dishes (plate, teacup, bowl, and class) are all 'sanitized' and shrinkwrapped in plastic lately. This has happened to me twice in the last 2 weeks. I'm always happy to receive sanitized plates and such, but what is not cool is that you get charged 1-2 yuan for your chopsticks and 1.5 for these sanitized plates

They've been doing that for ages down here in the uncivilised wastelands of Guangxi.

And they are ripping you off. ¥1 for the full set including chopsticks.

[Rincewind]

I've been getting shrink wrapped plates and bowls in several restaurants here in Anshan for over a year now. There's a company in town that collects them, washes, shrink wraps and returns them to the restaurants every day. At least now they are actually clean, most other restaurants I have to send back the cup or bowl because it's dirty and my friends here use the disposable cloth to clean the plates, rather than their hands, before using them.

Shrinkwrapped tables I see very often. Especially the cheaper country restaurants or street BBQ. They just whip of the old wrap and stretch a new one over for each new customer.

Personally I don't have a problem with the surcharge. You have to pay for that some way or other. Either in an upfront surcharge or hidden in the cost of the food. At least they haven't yet adopted the western (particularly American) system of tipping for service.