Owner of Bondi Icebergs responds to $68 pasta scandal
The owner of Bondi’s famous Icebergs has responded after copping heat over an expensive pasta dish.
The owner of iconic Bondi Beach restaurant Icebergs has spoken out in defence of his venue’s pricing after a diner took issue with a $68 pasta.
The restaurant was last week accused of overcharging by self described “foodie” Special K Gourmet in a TikTok — who asked viewers if they thought the menu item was worth the price.
“So they have recently launched these sunset lunch sessions which start from 4pm. Sounds great, let’s sit there, have some amazing food, watch the sun go down, [I’m] all for that, think it’s awesome,” she said in a video posted Friday.
Interested in enjoying the experience for herself she looked online at what was on offer, but was immediately shocked at what she saw.
“I checked out their menu and saw $68 for a bowl of pasta,” she said.
“Like, I get this cost of living, I get cost of staff and rent, all that sort of stuff goes in.
“But is $68 for a bowl of pasta worth it?”
More than 30,000 people viewed the video, with more than 350 leaving comments saying whether or not they felt the price was justified.
“The demographic who complain about the price is not the demographic that icebergs is for,” one person responded.
“I’ve worked in some very premium restaurants in Australia that have world renown chefs and impeccable views and never seen prices like that,” someone else said.
“If you think its to expensive don’t go there, pretty simple really,” another wrote.
Owner Maurice Terzini has since responded to the criticism and clarified the pricing reflected higher weekend costs and was inclusive of GST.
“Your choice if you want to spend ten or $1,000. In this climate is a $10,000 Chanel bag still worth it?” he told Daily Mail.
Social media users still felt the price was “pretentious”.
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“Who’s making this pasta, Beyoncé?” one said.
“Icebergs has become very ‘precious’ especially for local people,” another said.
“It’s ridiculously pretentious. If you don’t like pretentious, don’t go,” someone else added.
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