Two glasses of tap water cost almost 2 EUR in a Balaton café!

This is not a drill: two glasses of tap water cost HUF 720 (EUR 1.94) in a Balaton café.

Expensive tap water

In Tihany, two guests paid HUF 720 for two glasses of tap water. A reader of Blikk informed the news site about the incident and also sent a photo of their receipt. The reader and a friend of theirs had a coffee at the Rege confectionery in Tihany and asked for two glasses of still water afterwards.

The café’s website lists tap water among the drinks, but the price is not listed next to it.

“We asked for two coffees, which were impeccable, and we ordered two glasses of tap water to go with it. When we paid, we found out that it cost almost as much as the coffee. It was labelled as tap water, so it was not mineral water,”

the reader in question told Blikk.

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Why so much money for water?

According to Blikk, the Rege confectionery is a well-known name in the Balaton catering industry. It has one of the most beautiful panoramas. The prices have been set accordingly, with an espresso for HUF 890 (EUR 2.39), for example. Soda water and tap water are also available.

“Of course, the price of tap water is listed on our drinks page, so guests can find out about our prices, as with all our other products,”

Rege confectionery responded to the news site.

As we can read in the article of naphire.hu, although tap water is listed on the drinks menu at Rege, the guests did not see a price next to it. According to the manager of the place, when pricing purified water,

the staff takes into account the fact that locally consumed service is paired with the same service for all products, thus they try to ensure the highest possible standard of service conditions.

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Water, water, water

Tap water is indeed a “watershed”, as Blikk put it, between catering establishments. Some give it for free, some charge a small amount, and some charge almost the price of mineral water. Meanwhile, in one of Budapest’s most elegant restaurants, the waiter told Blikk that he was not allowed to serve water from the tap at all.

Tamás Flesch, the honorary president of the Association of Hungarian Hotels and Restaurants, told Blikk that

“It is not common everywhere, but it is not considered irregular to charge for tap water. This, if indicated, does not necessarily mean direct tap water. In many places, restaurants install special and expensive filtration equipment, and in fact it is non-carbonated water of almost the same quality as mineral water.”

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Source: Blikk, naphire.hu