Selsey restaurant owner speaks out after dine and dashers leave him with a massive £391.75 bill

The diners – a large group of 10 – arrived on the evening of August 31, and soon racked up a huge bill; ordering expensive Tanqueray gin, Grey Goose vodka, seafood salads, beef ragus, crab linguines, mussels and more. Owner Neil Kimber said his staff did everything they could to make their guests comfortable, checking in throughout the meal, and even agreeing to remake a dish.

All the feedback was positive, the once-full plates came back clean, and things seemed to be going well until the time came to pay the bill. Presented with the final total, the diners refused to pay up, only agreeing to spend £60 towards the cost of their drinks when pushed by the manager on site.

“They just walked out after that,” Mr Kimber said. “It’s disgusting that they feel they can get away with it. They didn’t rush off, but we had young members of staff on shift and we didn’t want to put them in danger,” he said. One member of staff, he added, suffers from anxiety, and his run-in with the diners has caused them considerable distress. “It’s not about the money, it’s about the danger to my staff and the problems it’s caused them.”

Even so, it’s a real blow to a new restaurant still trying to find its feet in a tough economy, and wiped La Blanca’s profit for the evening. “We have literally only been open for for 18 months. We’re not even making a profit at this stage – new restaurants never do, and the margins are getting thinner all the time.”

The sole silver lining in what has been a difficult week for a local business, is the emphatic support of a community determined to look after its businesses. “The response has been absolutely amazing,” Mr Kimber said. “We have been receiving emails from all over; Australia and New Zealand. A wine producer in Italy is going to send over some bottles of wine and olive oil for our staff because he feels so strongly about what happened.