Public launch attack on cafe for charging customers for salt

he Beach Bums cafe on Forster's main beach in NSW. Photo / Facebook

A cafe on the NSW mid-north coast has come under fire, after a photo of their menu went viral online.

Beach Bums Cafe in Forster, about 3.5 hours north of Sydney's CBD, received a message on their Facebook page questioning why they charged extra for chicken salt.

"20c for salt?" the post read.

"I didn't know salt was a menu item. Can I please order a serving of Salt ..."

The post, which was picked up by Reddit, has since been viewed more than 168,000 times, and received hundreds of comments from perplexed social media users, news.com.au reported.

"That's a bloody outrage it is," one person wrote.

"That's just un Australian," another added. "They charge extra ... For salt. Seriously. They charge for salt."

The photo uploaded to Facebook shows the cafe charging for salt. Photo / Facebook

The cafe responded to the post on their Facebook page, saying the reason behind the small charge is to avoid wastage.

"Sorry you are offended by this," the post read.

"You must be a responsible user of chicken salt. It used to be free but there was a lot of wastage from overuse. Thank you for your feedback."

News.com.au has contacted Beach Bums Cafe for comment.

Earlier this month, another cafe was dubbed 'ridiculous' for serving up a plate of vegemite toast.

The toast, which is served up at Core Espresso cafe in Newcastle, NSW and costs $7, is on a wooden board, with a quenelle of butter and a dainty little microherb leaf resting on top. To finish, there's a large smear of Vegemite to finish the dish.

Popular Instagram account Brown Cardigan got hold of the picture and shared it with their 348,000 followers. More than 2200 comments later, people were in full-blown outrage.

"This is not on. This upsets me," one person commented. "Seriously??? Hahahaha by the time it gets to your table the toast will be cold ... dry veg toast," wrote another.

"The toast would be well cold by then, the butter wouldn't melt. What a s**tfight," another person said.

Core Espresso's manager Emma Reid said there's a thoughtful reason behind why they serve toast that way.

"If someone orders toast and they want Vegemite, we want to make sure it is presentable and that there is enough Vegemite on there. We don't skimp on Vegemite," she told news.com.au.

"Even though they're only ordering Vegemite on toast, we want our customers to know a little bit of care is being put into the dish. It's nice to put a nice quenelle on the plate," she said.