Ja'Grill Jamaican Restaurant RESTAURANT OWNER'S POLICY TO KEEP YOUR CHANGE! Chicago  Illinois

Was in Chicago a few weeks ago and went to dinner with my family to a fairly new and very nice restaurnat - Ja' Grill in  Hyde Park.  They featured Jamaican food which was very good.  The service was pleasant and quick.

Our check was $86.51 - I gave the waitress a $100.  She returned with $13.00 and no receipt.  I am familiar with a scam that some wait staff have used in several restaurants where they keep your change.  I called her back to ask for a receipt and the 49 cents.  She explained that it was the policy of the restaurants to not keep change in register so they 'round up' or 'round down' the customers change. 

In other words, if the change due me was more than 50 cents, I would have gotten $1 back.  But since my change due was less than 50 cents, they 'rounded down'and kept my 49 cents. I've never heard of such a crazy thing.  Asked for a manager, and she repeated this insanity. I insisted on getting my change - it was the principal - and she said she gave it to me from her own funds. 

The only name online associated with the restaurant was the Executive Chef, who my family thought was one of the owners. I called the next day to speak with him, thinking that I would be letting him know about the scam his staff was running in his very nice new restaurant. The Chef explained that he was not the owner, but that he was aware of the 'policy' and it was the owner's policy.  I asked if he understood that that was stealing - to just arbitrarily keep the customers change?  He said he understood that but it was the owner's policy and he switched me to the day manager.

The day manager repeated this 'rounding up-rounding down' policy.  He also repeated that they do not keep change in the register.  I told him that was a lie - you can't run a retail business without change in the register. He had no response. He also understood that this was stealing, said he was trying to get the owner to change the policy. He apologized profusely.

That's a restaurant that my family and I won't visit again.  If you go and pay with cash - be sure to count your change.

I wonder, if the owner is this dishonest with your change, what might he be doing with credit card payments/info?????

REDFIRE