Carrie S.
Yelp
On May 8, 2024, I went to Kent Ave., Brooklyn for a short business meeting. Referred by a local gift shop employee, I stopped by Two Hands Restaurant at 262 Kent Ave., Store 4, Brooklyn and ordered a chicken bowl to go. The menu price for a chicken bowl was $17.
At the front desk, a tall girl with freckled face took my order and told me the total was $18.51. She showed me her pad for the total charges ($17 plus tax); I tapped my credit card and signed on her pad without marking any tips. The girl did not give me the receipt immediately; she told me that I could sit anywhere while waiting...
Then I was sitting right outside of the restaurant waiting for my order. Within 5 minutes, another girl delivered my order to me. She called my name and I said, "Thank you." With these two girls, I had a total of less than five sentences of communication; they both appeared serious in their demeanor...
The receipt was found in the to-go bag (photo attached). From the receipt I saw $4.07 was charged for the tip; that was 23-24% of the order price. So, the total charge was changed to $22.58. I was quite surprised and absolutely not happy about that.
First of all, I consider that the behavior of adding money to a credit card without the customer's consent, especially after the customer's signature was completed, is stealing and not acceptable at all.
Second, if charging tips for any services is the policy of this restaurant, that should be disclosed to all customers by either the hostess or shown in the menu as a clear warning. Least of all, the girls could kindly require some complimentary even though the service is robotic.
Third, tips have multiple levels. When a restaurant charges more than 23% of tip for a to-go order, I think this place is so eager for money as to be unusually greedy. Meanwhile, the owner of this restaurant is risking losing his business reputation for lacking common decency.
Finally, about the food (photo attached), the chicken was very dry and hard to chew. It seemed like it might have been cooked days ago. The kale salad underneath tasted like cardboard. Obviously, it was not mixed enough with citrus.
I gave this place one star because I ate the sweet potato in the bowl. I thought that it was a good idea to fill up my stomach even though the rest was almost inedible.