Couple trade blame after leaving eatery without paying $270 bill on first date

A couple on their first date at a Korean barbecue restaurant ordered $269.55 worth of food, including a pricey wagyu beef platter, but both left without paying the bill - and later insisted that the other should pay.

More than a week after the date on March 15, the restaurant, Pa Bul Lo Korean BBQ in Serangoon Gardens, has been unable to get the man to pay his half of the bill.

The woman settled her share a few days after the date.

The owner has filed a police report and sought help from a lawyer. The man, who wanted to be known only as Mr Jung, insisted his date had offered the meal as a treat after she stood him up a couple of times.

"(After the meal), I told her, thanks for dinner, and I went outside to wait... while she went to the washroom," Mr Jung, a manager in his 50s, told The Straits Times yesterday.

"She came out, and I thought she (had) paid... we went in different directions."

"She ordered an expensive beef set, and I thought she was apologetic for postponing the meet-up and was giving me a treat."

The woman paid her half of the bill last Saturday after the restaurant's owner, Madam Karen Ho, 50, told her she had filed a police report and tried to pursue the matter at the Small Claims Tribunals.

The woman told Madam Ho that Mr Jung had offered to foot the bill because he felt bad for leaving the restaurant a few times to answer phone calls during the date.

Madam Ho told ST yesterday: "I believe the woman. I don't trust the guy. She was apologetic. He wasn't... The last time he talked to us, his tone made us very angry."

After 9pm on March 15, an employee told Madam Ho that the two diners had left without paying. Madam Ho tracked them down using closed-circuit television footage and contacted the woman.

The woman said the man will return to make payment, but he did not turn up.

The next day, Madam Ho and her husband, who oversees another branch, contacted Mr Jung.

"We talked to him nicely and asked for payment, but he laughed at us. My husband said we will make a police report. He laughed and said, 'Go call the police'," said Madam Ho.

Recounting that exchange, Mr Jung said: "I tried to explain the situation, but he refused to listen and told me to talk to the police... I waited to be contacted by the police but the owner contacted me again and said he was (advised) to sue me since this is civil case. So I told him to do so since I have not done anything wrong."

Madam Ho said: "If he is seriously willing to pay us, he should come to us and apologise and make payment."

Madam Ho made a police report on March 16. She said the police later directed her to the Small Claims Tribunals.

But she said the Small Claims Tribunals could not pursue the case because she did not have the diners' full names, addresses and NRIC numbers.

Her 25-year-old daughter told her to contact a law firm for pro bono services. Yesterday, a lawyer contacted Madam Ho and said he will send Mr Jung a letter of demand.

Since the incident was made public, Mr Jung said he has received calls and messages from strangers. He said the restaurant also wrote to his company to get him to pay.

A stranger also called his former wife yesterday morning and referred to a video of their son, who is less than a year old. Mr Jung said: "I have a YouTube page with videos of my son. My ex-wife said the caller mentioned our son, and told her to remind me to pay the bill.

"(For the) bill... it is not a matter. I can pay easily. But I should not let the woman (his date) get away with this."

Madam Ho said that in her 25 years in the food and beverage sector, this is her first encounter with customers who left without paying.