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.

The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.Please provide a valid email.

By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Never miss a story 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 in...