Customer waiting for full vaccination vs Michelin Star restaurant Labyrinth in latest dine-in tussle

A man waiting for the two-week mark after his second vaccine dose gave Michelin-starred Restaurant Labyrinth in Esplanadea a 1-star review on Google after the establishment refused to let him dine with his wife. They refused to return his reservation as well, after the customer did not agree to a compromise on the dine-in reservation.

The incident happened on August 13.

1-star review given

The unnamed dining customer posted a 1-star review on Google for the Michelin star restaurant. The review said that he considered the food a ‘novelty at best’ but he decided to return to the establishment once the COVID-19 rules and regulations loosened.

The review also said that the staff at the restaurant were allegedly unprofessional and that they failed to confirm his vaccine status–which lead to the patron and his wife not being allowed to enter and use their reservation.

The patron said that he had received his second shot of the vaccine a week prior to the incident, which happened on August 13.

Restaurant Labyrinth in Esplanadea owner spoke up

The owner of the restaurant,  Han Li Guang, posted his side of the incident on his Facebook account.

He said that the man and woman who arrived on the first day they reopened on August 13 were asked to show their TraceTogether app or tokens to verify their health statuses. The staff asked the man to refresh the app in front of them so as to confirm that what they’re being shown was not a screenshot.

The man did so quickly, but the staff asked him to press the thumbnail for the vaccination status indicator.

That was when they noticed that the man’s app showed he was not past the 2-week mark following his second vaccine dose. In the man’s review, he also mentioned that he was vaccinated with his second dose a week ago.

They were denied entry, since dine-in rules say that the patron must have finished the 2-week period after the second dose to be considered fully vaccinated.

The man got angry at the rule, saying that he did not know about the 2-week mark even if his TraceTogether app showed that he was not considered fully vaccinated yet. He claimed that he had made the reservation with their restaurant before the new rules in dine-in were put in place, but the owner said that he made the reservation on August 8.

The rules for dine-in set down by Singaporean authorities came into effect on August 6.

Han’s Facebook post said,

[Customer] then proceeded to hurl profanities to my GM and another staff (the F word was used twice) and even mocked their intellect⁣ and threatened to go online to post about the incident to let the netizens “decide”⁣ and demanded to escalate this to the GM of the restaurant (whom he was talking to all this while).

He then mentioned that this was not an isolated incident, and that other restaurants and their staff had experienced patrons trying to cheat the system or become unruly when denied entry based on the government’s dine-in rules.

Han also mentioned that they tried to compromise with the patron, since he had a paid a deposit on the reservation at the restaurant. They said that they would honor the deposit and let his companion (who was of fully vaccinated status) dine without him.

The man then allegedly refused and he and his companion left angrily.

Han addressed the matter of the reservation fee or deposit, and said,

“Meaning that we prepare our food fresh everyday in accordance to the exact number of customers coming in and a lot of manpower goes into the food. If a customer is irresponsible in making a booking and showing up unvaccinated as per TraceTogether app, we definitely will not be able to seat the customer and there will be losses incurred. The deposit that we charge does not even cover the loss.”

Han said that the restaurant’s reservation were handled by Chope, who did not allow any new reservations for restaurants until the new rules were in place.

Diners always reminded of rules

Reservation sites are very insistent on reminding customers that they have to present their proof of full vaccination to the restaurant twice on their website. The customers are also sent emails before the date of the dine-in to remind them of their proof of vaccination.

Whatever side you take here, the most important takeaways are:

1. wait 14 days after your second dose before you eat outside.
2. read your TraceTogether app