Hong Kong police have received a report that a woman was left with a HK$80,000 bill at a Michelin-starred restaurant after her date disappeared in a suspected dine-and-dash.
Police said on Friday that at around 10pm on Thursday, they received a report from the woman, who suspected she had been scammed after her date, whom she had met online, left without settling the bill. The case was listed as a “request for police assistance,” and no one has been arrested so far.
According to local media reports, the pair wined and dined at Man Wah, a Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong hotel in Central.
The restaurant offers two set dinner menus: one is priced at HK$1,688 per person, while the more expensive option – the “Man Wah Premium Set Dinner” – costs HK$2,388 per person. It is unclear how much alcohol costs at the upscale eatery.
The woman, 31, met her date, a man around 26 or 27 years old, who claimed to be a lawyer, via messaging app Telegram, local media said.
According to HK01, the man excused himself during the dinner and never returned to the table. The woman failed to reach the man and eventually settled the HK$80,000 bill with help from friends.
Last month, police arrested a 29-year-old man who allegedly tricked three women he met online into paying for lavish meals in apparent dine-and-dash date scams.
The man, reportedly a bus driver, allegedly impersonated a firefighter on one occasion and asked the women to settle bills, totalling HK$3,800 – only to become unreachable afterwards.
He was arrested on suspicion of obtaining property by deception and was released on bail pending further investigation.
