Woman Stunned by Restaurant Charging Her $25 for Cutting the Cake She Brought In, Leaves the Internet Divided

A young woman was left stunned upon being charged a $25 "cake cutting" fee at a restaurant. TikTok user Gigi, who goes by @vivala_blondiiie on the app, went viral after posting a video featuring the receipt from the restaurant where she enjoyed her birthday brunch. 

Gigi shared how she went out to celebrate her birthday with some friends who had made a homemade cake for the special occasion.

According to 7NEWS, the birthday girl—who is from Arizona, US—explained that she was having brunch with three friends when a waitress offered to cut and plate up her cake. Believing it to be a kind gesture on the waitress' part, Gigi happily agreed and the waitress whisked it off into the kitchen before coming back with it served neatly on four plates. The party enjoyed the desert but things took a turn when they received the bill of $113 which included a $25 "cake cut" charge.

"When the server asks if we want the cake WE brought cut, thinking she’s doing something nice for us... but it was 25 dollars," Gigi wrote in the text overlay on the video. She captioned the clip: "I didn't know this was a thing?!?"

Speaking to 7NEWS, Gigi revealed that she and her friends had originally planned to save the cake for later. "We didn’t plan on eating it at the restaurant," she explained. "But the servers kept insisting to bring the cake to the (kitchen) and cutting it, which was not our plan."

Gigi, who has six years of waitressing experience, added that the "cakeage" came as a shock to her because she'd never encountered such a practice in any of the restaurants she'd worked at. "I've been a server and we never charged customers or we didn't have a charge. I get the charge but it was surprising," she said, adding that she would have been happy to pay the fee if she had known about it before the bill arrived.

"I don't mind I got charged, I was just shocked because it was a surprise," she said. "We never asked them to serve me the cake I brought. Just like they never told me it was a charge."

The TikTok video received more than 800k views since being posted. Many users shared their mixed reactions to the surprising charge. While some people were shocked by the $25 charge for slicing a cake, others maintained that this was a customary practice for restaurants.

"I would have got the manager because the server should have told you that you had to pay for it," one TikTok user commented. Another wrote: "Totally a thing. Because then they bring plates and forks, which they then have to wash. But it was wrong that you weren’t told of a fee."

Another commenter said: "News to me! $25 is way too much and they should have told you first." One TikTok user added: "Many restaurants do this but they definitely should have told you about the fee." However, another pointed out: "It's obvious. I don't know why people like bringing outside stuff into restaurants."

A "cakeage fee" is known as the extra cost a restaurant charges to serve customers a dessert that they had previously bought for the occasion. According to The New York Times, a cakeage fee "covers the cost of the server’s time and washing the dishes." The fee also helps to "offset the loss of revenue from in-house desserts and makes up for the extra time a party will be at the table but not ordering food."