Malaka Spice In Pune Charges ₹220 For A Single Bottle Of Water & There’s No Option For Regular Water

by Natasha Monteiro
Malaka Spice In Pune Charges ₹220 For A Single Bottle Of Water & There’s No Option For Regular Water

How often do you go to a restaurant and worry about food prices? Sometimes? All the time? Never? Now tell us, when was the last time you worried about the price of water at a restaurant? I’m pretty sure the answer to that is NEVER. At least not in India. Malaka Spice at Phoenix Marketcity in Viman Nagar, unfortunately, doesn’t fall in the category. Read on:

Water For ₹220 At Malaka Spice, Phoenix Marketcity

If you visit restaurants regularly, you would notice that the first thing servers would come and always ask is – “Regular water or bottled?” Well but that’s not the case at Malaka Spice. The restaurant has bottles of water kept on every table. At first, it feels like a great gesture that the restaurant is offering bottled water with compliments but wait up! The servers would offer a table to you, hand over the menu, wait for the order but will not mention the T & C of the bottle kept on the table.

Last month, a group of friends decided to visit Pune’s popular restaurant, Malaka Spice. Just when they settled down, they had to leave the restaurant due to some emergency. However, in the interim, one of them ended up opening the bottle kept right in front of them. Now, we are aware that a few restaurants keep chargeable water on the table and that’s fine. However, the problem is that the water costs a whopping ₹219. That too in a restaurant where the average cost of a dish is about ₹350.

We have heard of a 5 Star Hotel Charging ₹1700 For Two Boiled Eggs and the Customer Shared Bill On Twitter, and this was almost as crazy. In a country like India where serving water on the table is something that everyone does from homes to even a Taj, it seems rather odd that Malaka Spice would charge such an exorbitant rate for a bottle of water.

Now, unfortunate as it is – the guests confirm that the option of regular water was also not available. Upon asking the management, it was mentioned that only bottled water is served. So you have to open this lava bottle of water and consume that if you’re thirsty.

When we reached out to the restaurant, they clarified that, “The statement that says that there’s no option for regular water at our restaurant is incorrect. We are happy to serve regular water to our guests.” Well, we don’t know if its the restaurant policy or the staff claiming something that restaurant doesn’t follow but we are reporting the instance as is. The restaurant spokesperson further added that, “The actual MRP priced on the bottle is ₹375 which we sell at ₹190+ taxes as a promotional offer.”

Have you ever experienced something like this before? Please share in comments below.