Alex and Lindsay Breen Canadian honeymooners forced to pay 400 euro at Mykonos DK Bar for quick snack in latest indictment of Greek luxury eatery.
‘We just wanted a quick snack….’
A honeymooning Canadian couple are seemingly the latest individuals to have been taken advantage of by notorious high flying Mykonos bar restaurant, DK Oyster beach bar after allegedly being forced to pay $410 for a ‘quick snack.’
Alex and Lindsay Breen, both 30, were astounded to be hit with a €400 bill ($410) at the DK Oyster bar after coming in for a quick bite while on their honeymoon on May 23.
The Toronto natives according to the dailymail were forced to pay the huge sum after ordering just one beer, one cocktail and a dozen oysters.
Recruiter Lindsay said they were in ‘disbelief’ when saw the tab, as restaurant staff had given them a drinks menu that did not list the prices.
‘We just wanted a quick snack’: Outraged Canadian honeymooners claim they ‘felt intimidated’ into paying huge $410 bill for one beer, one cocktail and a dozen oysters at infamous Mykonos restaurant
via https://t.co/RwSu94gp8N https://t.co/kCJ6NRWPAx— Caro🏴🇨🇦🇬🇧#STAND WITH UKRAINE🇺🇦 (@caro_done) August 2, 2022
Where were the prices listed?
The couple also claim that rather than presenting them with the bill at the table, carpenter Alex was taken to a back room to pay and when he asked for a breakdown, they showed him their computer screen which was all in Greek.
Lindsay says her new husband settled the bill without arguing as he wanted to avoid a confrontation.
‘He definitely felt intimidated and he’s the friendliest guy so even if the bill was double he probably would have paid it to avoid any problems.’
Lindsay said: ‘We went to the oyster bar for a bite to eat and a drink.
‘They immediately said ‘do you want oysters?’ They were very presumptuous. We said yes and he said ‘a dozen?’ so we said yes because a dozen is a typical order.
‘My husband ordered a beer and I asked for a cocktail menu and he came back with the beer but I had to ask again for a cocktail menu and he started rhyming off different kinds of alcohol he had, vodka, gin but I asked for a menu.
‘I didn’t know how it was so difficult to see what they had.
Ordering up – a restaurant mainstay
‘He finally brought me back what they consider their cocktail menu. A laminated piece of paper with the types of alcohol listed but it didn’t have the brand or the drinks, nothing.
‘So I said fine I’ll have an Aperol spritz because they clearly didn’t have a menu that they wanted to give me.’
Lindsay claims that the waiter served them ‘comically large’ drinks and once they’d finished their order, tried to persuade them to order crab legs and desserts.
Lindsay said: ‘He finally came back with comically large drinks so we were thinking it’s their funny thing that the bar does because we didn’t ask for an extra-large cocktail.
‘He was very much lurking around the table the whole time. He was always around.
‘When we’d finished the oysters, he was trying to get us to have crab legs and thank goodness we didn’t.
‘We were intimidated…’
‘He said ‘you know what would go really nice with these oysters? Crab legs. Shall I get some over for you guys?’ and we said no, we just wanted a quick snack and a drink.
‘My husband went to the toilet and when he came back he said he thought he’d seen a menu inside that said it was 29 euro per oyster and I said there’s no way.
‘We had already eaten the oysters so we thought ‘oh God, what are we getting ourselves into with this bill?’
‘The guy came back with a huge trolley of desserts and he says ‘so of course we’re having cake today’ and starts putting different desserts on our table and we said we didn’t want them and he started getting offended that we didn’t want to take them so I can see how people would be pressured to take more.
‘As we kept refusing what he was trying to give us he was getting more frustrated.
‘He definitely felt intimidated and he’s the friendliest guy so even if the bill was double he probably would have paid it to avoid any problems.
‘It was pretty crazy. I’m glad in hindsight that we didn’t cause an argument or refuse to pay because it could have ended up worse for us. They know when you’re tourists they take advantage.
‘When I met him out front, I was in disbelief. I could not believe it. In Canadian dollars it’s over 600 dollars. It’s so crazy to pay that for a snack.’
Lindsay and Alex had married in Italy in May this year and were celebrating by travelling around Europe for three weeks when they spent some time on Mykonos known for catering to a luxury high flying clientele.
One star reviews condemning DK Oyster Bar
Lindsay claims that after their ordeal, other local business owners apologized on the restaurant’s behalf.
Lindsay said: ‘Next door, a store owner said he was so sorry to hear that we went.
‘He said he warns everyone that goes into the store to stay away from there and it doesn’t represent who the Greek people are.
‘He said they really need tourism. Everyone we spoke to after, we warned them not to go.’
DK Oyster’s Tripadvisor page is flooded with one star reviews and also customers who allege they experienced similar treatment as Lindsay and Alex.
One review states: ‘DO NOT GO HERE! Absolutely disgusting behavior from manager and staff. Cocktails are awful and charged Euro 125 plus service for 2! Waiters made us feel very uncomfortable.’
Another said: ‘Wish we looked at the reviews before! This place is a joke! 350 euros for 4 drinks!! I would definitely NOT recommend going here. Please save your euros!’
DK Oyster bar took to Tripadvisor to defend their prices.
They wrote: ‘Thank you for taking the time to post your review, but could you please clarify the exact reason of your disappointment? The prices you mention sound correct, so I would like to understand what the problem was.
What were one Canadian couple actually expecting amid luxury destination?
‘The drinks were not what you expected, the setting or the service? Your opinion is important to us. So, we would appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to clarify.’
They also mocked customers who said they felt intimidated into paying the extortionate bills.
They wrote: ‘Let me see if I got it right: You were abducted from the beach and shoved by force into a luxury restaurant.’
The Breens are just the latest in a long list of angry and fed up customers who have been hit with apparently excessive bills by the beach front bar.
Located on Platis Yialos on the Greek island in the Aegean Sea half way between the Greek mainland and Turkey, the restaurant advertises itself as ‘the freshest, all-day entertainment venue in Mykonos!
‘At the cosmopolitan beach of Platys Gialos, luxury and style finally found the most deserving destination!’
American tourists Brenda Moulton and her 19-year-old daughter Kaylea took the restaurant to court after they claimed they were also scammed into paying $641.15 for two crab legs and two mojitos when they visited in May.
They claim the waiters proceeded to threaten to call the police when they complained and told them they wouldn’t return to the US if they refused to foot the astronomical bill.
‘It was a nightmarish incident for them that they will not forget,’ their lawyer Marianna Kikiri said.
The restaurant defended itself, claiming they were ‘stunned’ by the complaint which is ‘unfounded’ and that they ‘cannot know what and how she was motivated.
‘However, she was definitely motivated by opaque, unfair and obviously hidden competitive interests,’ the restaurant added.
The restaurant was fined €31,000 ($31,700) in July by the Ministry of Tourism after an investigation of their books revealed ‘seven or eight violations’, the Greek City Times reported.
