Restaurant spat: eatery owners fight over unpaid bill

Phil Clark, owner of Phil's Kitchen in Kingsland. Photo/Jason Oxenham

A spat has broken out between two Auckland restaurant owners after one dined at the other's bistro and reportedly failed to pay his bill.

Phillip Clark, who owns Phil's Kitchen in Kingsland, posted on Facebook claiming that Scott Hawkins had left without paying for his dinner and became aggressive when Clark confronted him outside.

But Hawkins, who co-owns the Herne Bay cafe Dear Jervois, hit back in a public Facebook page saying Clark's account was "totally not true" and "nothing short of disgraceful".

Both posts have been removed from the page.

According to a screenshot taken by Fairfax, Hawkins claimed his entree took nearly an hour to arrive after his group took their seats on Wednesday night. After another 40 minutes his group inquired after their main course, which was part of a set meal.

Some time later they asked again, only to have the manager come over and tell the group they were being "very rude", according to the post. "She told us this was fine [dining] and we could leave if we did not like this," it said.

"We did not feel comfortable staying after being treated so poor and we decided it was better to leave," Hawkins' post continued.

"It was a set menu and so we didn't believe we should pay for something we had not received."

He said the group had only each had two drinks in two hours which "certainly does not constitute being drunk".

According to Hawkins, Clark then confronted him in the street, shouting at him for not paying and tried to push Hawkins back into the restaurant.

But Fairfax reported that in the original post, Clark claimed it was Hawkins who became angry and customers had held him back.

Hawkins denied this. "You shouted and started pushing me back into your restaurant."

He said he planned to report the incident to police. He denied punches had been thrown, apparently in reply to an accusation from Clark's original post.

"We walked away with you nutting off in front of eight people in your restaurant as it was close to empty," he said.

"I cannot believe this is the way you would treat any customer...you cannot shout and abuse customers."

According to Fairfax, Hawkins' wife returned the next morning and paid the bill in full.

Clark posted on Facebook on Thursday that the wife of an unnamed diner had returned the next morning and paid his bill.