Restaurant owner divides Aussies after publicly shaming birthday girl with blunt message about unpaid $33 fee: ‘Ridiculous’
A restaurant owner on the New South Wales Central Coast has sparked heated debate after publicly posting the letter she sent to a customer who refused to pay a $33 "cakeage" fee for bringing an outside birthday cake into her venue. Hayley Hardcastle, co-owner of Tutti by Chilli's in Ettalong Beach, shared the message on Instagram, arguing the charge covered the use of the restaurant's table, linen, tableware, glassware and outdoor heating, and framing the dispute as one of respect for hospitality staff rather than the money itself.
The letter noted the customer had been informed of the cakeage charge by email before booking, and the fee worked out to roughly $5.50 per guest. Reaction online was sharply divided: critics called the charge "ridiculous" and said they felt "nickel and dimed," with some contrasting it to British restaurants that typically allow BYO cakes for free, while supporters argued it was reasonable given advance notice and compared it to expecting a restaurant to cook outside food at no cost. Hardcastle told Daily Mail the BYO cake option was new for the venue, introduced to help guests amid cost-of-living pressures, with the fee set to reflect the price of the restaurant's own in-house desserts.
- Restaurant owner shared letter shaming a guest over unpaid $33 cake fee
- Fee covered table, linen, glassware and heating use for outside cake
- Social media users split between backing the charge and calling it excessive
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Restaurants sometimes charge a "cakeage" fee when customers bring their own cake instead of buying dessert on the menu, similar to a corkage fee for outside wine. It usually covers things like plates, cutlery and staff time for serving cake that wasn't bought from the venue. Such fees are legal in Australia provided customers are told about them in advance, though how well they are communicated can vary.
This particular row involves Tutti by Chilli's, a restaurant in Ettalong Beach on the New South Wales Central Coast, and its co-owner Hayley Hardcastle. She shared on social media a letter she had sent to a customer who declined to pay a $33 cakeage charge after bringing a birthday cake into the restaurant, prompting wider discussion about what such fees should cover and whether businesses should air individual customer disputes in public.
The story has drawn attention because it touches on everyday tensions between small hospitality businesses and customers, particularly around transparency of charges and rising costs. It has also raised questions about how business owners should handle disagreements with customers publicly, especially on social media, where such posts can quickly attract widespread commentary and divided opinion.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Advocates for the restaurant argue that a clearly disclosed cakeage fee, agreed to in writing before the booking, is a legitimate business practice: outside food still consumes staff time, table settings, cutting and plating, and space that would otherwise generate revenue from desserts on the menu. At roughly $5.50 a head, they see the charge as modest and transparent, comparable to established hospitality norms elsewhere, and argue that customers who accept terms in advance should honour them rather than expect concessions after the fact, especially when small venues are already squeezed by rising costs.
The case against
Critics sympathetic to the customer argue that nickel-and-diming guests over a birthday cake feels petty and out of step with warm hospitality, particularly when the sum involved is small and the occasion is a personal celebration rather than a commercial transaction. They contend that publicly posting a private customer's letter and payment dispute on social media was an disproportionate and humiliating response, and that a business confident in its policy could have resolved the disagreement quietly rather than inviting public judgement of the guest, especially given that many diners are unaccustomed to cakeage fees and may not fully register such terms buried in a booking email.