LA restaurant ‘blacklists’ furious diners over tipping drama

No soup for you!

A group of Los Angeles diners claims they were “blacklisted” from a popular Little Tokyo restaurant on Halloween night — after refusing to pay an automatic 18% gratuity for large parties.

The dining dustup unfolded at JinCook, a Korean restaurant in the bustling DTLA enclave — where six friends couldn’t be accommodated at one table without a lengthy wait.

Instead, the group agreed to split up, with three diners seated at each table, where they say they had separate servers.

But when the two checks arrived arrived, the diners allege the restaurant treated the two tables as one big party anyway — slapping both with the mandatory gratuity.

Their challenging of the extra charge — diners are increasingly confronted with extra fees at area restaurants — led to things reportedly getting nasty.

After the group complained, the server reportedly agreed to remove it — but not without delivering a parting shot.

“Okay, we won’t charge you this time, but next time you cannot come here, we’ll blacklist you,” the staffer allegedly snapped, according to one of the disgruntled diners.

The miffed merrymaker shared the jaw-dropping encounter on Reddit’s r/FoodLosAngeles forum, where the story went viral — sparking a heated debate over tipping etiquette, restaurant policies and whether a party of six still counts as such when they’re not actually sitting together.

“We fully intended to leave a standard 15-18% tip after the bill was fixed; we just didn’t think a mandatory large party fee made sense for two completely independent tables,” the poster wrote.

“​I’m very confused, does it make sense at all charging large party fee like this? it made me feel like if I went to this place and ran into someone I know sitting on the other table, they’ll find this as an excuse to charge me too,” they added.

The customer claimed the server continued defending the restaurant’s position after returning with the corrected bill.

The Reddit post ignited a social media firestorm, drawing thousands of reactions.

“Weird attitude when the tables are split like that,” one commenter argued. “That’s no longer one large party if you can’t sit together.”

Another accused the restaurant of punishing customers for accommodating its seating limitations. “If y’all are not sitting together as a large party, then no large party fee should be added,” one user wrote. “You did them a favor by splitting up.”

But some Redditors weren’t entirely sympathetic.

“18%? I would have said thank you for saving me 2%,” one wisecracked, suggesting the automatic gratuity was a bargain compared to the customary 20%.

Others defended the practice of automatic gratuities for larger groups, arguing that they protect their servers from getting stiffed after handling complicated orders and split checks.

The exceedingly popular post has now been been locked to new comments.

JinCook’s account of the incident, including whether the diners were actually barred from returning, has not been established.

The restaurant did not respond to the California Post’s request for comment.

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