No tap water is served at this restaurant
By Andy Jarosz on Friday, June 18th, 2010

After a long hike on a hot day there is nothing better than a large cold drink. So when we recently finished a wonderful walk in the Yorkshire Dales and sat down in the garden of the attractive looking Cottage Tea Room in Kettlewell.

No tap water is served at this restaurant

Tap water not seved here

We were ready for lunch and a chance to cool down with a glass of water. It was to our surprise that we saw written on the menu “Please kindly note tap water is not served”. Not to worry I thought; they want to avoid people passing through and just sitting down asking for a free glass of water.

We were still confident that having ordered a meal for four and a round of drinks this denial of water would not apply to us; particularly when we asked the waitress and mentioned our thirst and need for simple and rapid replenishment.

The legalities of not serving water

But no; she repeated the line that we had already heard her give to other guests, “sorry, we don’t serve tap water”. I have a problem with this on many levels. Firstly, I don’t know if it’s legally allowed to refuse to serve water: perhaps someone can clarify here?

Lost business for a cup of water

Secondly, it may stem from a wish to prevent people spending next to nothing and hogging the small number of tables, it was self-defeating as we chose to go elsewhere for our desserts, purely down to this point. A couple of glasses of tap water would have probably increased our bill by another £15.

More basic than this however is the simple principle of good customer service. Keep your customers happy and they will go away and sing your praises. What could possibly be gained from annoying people by this refusal?

Petty, short sighted or unfriendly

We saw others ask and be disappointed by the inability to get a humble glass of water. The impression that is given, rightly or wrongly, is of a business that is short-sighted, petty and more bothered about enforcing unfriendly rules than about providing their customers with a decent service.

I have no doubt that the decision to refuse to serve tap water is based on financial grounds. I hope that those owners who continue this unreasonable practice eventually realise that the denial of this basic request by their customers is perhaps one of the single most harmful actions they can do to those finances that they are trying to protect.

Andy Jarosz owns and edits the popular travel blog 501 Places, featuring stories from travels around the world and comments on travel related issues. He also writes regularly for BP in several of their corporate publications and is a freelance copywriter. You can follow Andy on Twitter and read his blog.


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11 responses to “No tap water is served at this restaurant”

Martino | 18 June, 2010 at 7:06 am

Don’t know if you knew, but it is the law in France to offer tap water when serving food. Incidentally, free toilet facilities are the law too – which is why you are unlikely to see Ryanair France! ;)

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David Whitley | 18 June, 2010 at 11:40 am

Not sure about the UK, but I suspect the law is similar to that in Australia: If you’re a licensed premises, you have to make tap water freely available.

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JR Riel | 18 June, 2010 at 11:53 am

I have worked in food and beverage for a decade and never heard of that. Tap water on request of course, but none at all, hmmm. It’s well known that the little things are what the diners remember, and water service is always a BIG little thing. You’re right, they’re probably trying to avoid loiterers, that does drive a restaurant staff nuts, but a paying guest? As you mentioned, this will only affect them in the long run. Have you considered a letter?

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Jack | 18 June, 2010 at 2:05 pm

If they’re licensed to serve alcohol, they legally have to serve free water to customers that request it.

If they’re not licensed, then they don’t.

Any restaurant manager unaware of this is at best incompetent and at worst wilfully breaking the licensing laws.

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Andy Jarosz | 18 June, 2010 at 2:45 pm

Thanks for all the extra info. Jack, I’ve checked their website and they have a wine list on there ‘for Friday and Saturday evenings’ – maybe they serve water on those days only?

It’s such a little thing, as you say JR, yet it is something that gets remembered (hence my rant). Your idea of a letter is, of course, a sensible one. If I get a reply I’ll let you know what they say.

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Nick | 22 June, 2010 at 10:57 am

Andy

Other option is they are not on the water mains. I know a few places like this, yes even in the UK.

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Nick | 22 June, 2010 at 11:04 am

The other point I wished to make is that it has only been a legal requirment for the last few weeks to serve tap water for free. However you are exempt if your not on the mains supply.

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Mark H | 29 June, 2010 at 5:31 am

In Australia, my understanding is food and beverage places must make tap water freely available. I am staggered that that isn’t the case in the UK. If mains supply isn’t available, I am sure a note to that effect would be warranted to explain the situation. However put simply, any place that has “no tap water” as a policy would immediately lose me as a customer.

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Oli | 9 July, 2010 at 4:13 pm

Yorkshire eh? Don’t they have a reputation for being tight? (I say this as a Scotsman!)

Never experienced anywhere that didn’t provide tap water. However, on holiday at a boutique hotel in Thailand, we were stunned when we were charged around £5 for a bottle of still water! Needless to say we were on the complimentary stuff from then on.

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Caitlin | 14 July, 2010 at 2:18 am

This is one of my pet peeves as well! One thing I really like about the US is that they will bring you tap water without even asking. It’s just basic.

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Kerry | 16 August, 2010 at 8:07 pm

Just been to the Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival which I have to say was brilliant. It’s been a beautiful summer day and after wondering round the village for two hours we decided to have lunch and chose this particular tearoom. We ordered two sandwich lunches, a pot of tea and a pot of coffee …. and ….. yes … I asked for a glass of tap water.. and .. yes .. I was told they did not have any tap water. Very disappointing end to what had up until that point been a lovely day. Come on Cottage Tearoom keep your customers happy and supply a thirsty visitor a glass of water.

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