Customer Furious After Restaurant Charges Him $3,750 For Wine It Said Cost 'Thirty-Seven Fifty'
First reported by NJ.com's Bamboozled column writer Karin Price Mueller, Lentini went to a business dinner at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa restaurant. The host encouraged Lentini to pick out the wine, so he asked the waitress if she could help.
"I don't know much about wine at all," Lentini told NJ.com. "I asked the waitress if she could recommend something decent because I don't have experience with wine. She pointed to a bottle on the menu. I didn't have my glasses. I asked how much and she said, 'Thirty-seven fifty.'"
Lentini assumed the waitress meant $37.50. Everyone around the table agreed to the price and they ordered the wine.
But the bottle of Screaming Eagle Oakville 2011 wine that she had pointed to wasn't $37.50 - it was $3,750, and one of the priciest wines on the 24-page menu.
After dinner, news of the actual price of the wine quickly spread. With appetizers, a seafood tower, lamb chop, and two NY strip steaks, the total bill ended up being $4,700, including tax.
The maître d' was called over and said he could bring the cost of the wine down to $2,200 (wine for this vintage typically ranges between $1,000 and $2,000). Though Lentini said he couldn't afford that price either, the other diners agreed to split the bill so they could leave.
The Borgata told NJ.com that it has done nothing wrong and that all the proper practices were followed.
"As the leading culinary destination in this region, we consistently serve as many, if not more high-end wine and spirits without incident," executive vice president Joseph Lupo told Mueller. "In this isolated case, both the server and sommelier verified the bottle requested with the patron."
Not only that, but the host of the party - who declined to be named - said that he knew the price of the bottle, but that by the time he had figured it out, the bottle was already open and "possibly empty."
As for whether or not the wine was worth it, Lentini said: "It was okay. It was good. It wasn't great. It wasn't terrible. It was fine."
Next time he should order from the "Top 50 under $50" section on the Bobby Flay Steak wine list ("Stimulate your taste buds without breaking the bank!").