Mouthing Off | Who pays the bill on a date? What US$10,000 Hong Kong dine-and-dash scandal says
Andrew Sun muses on a lavish Hong Kong date that ended in scandal, highlighting outdated gender norms and the need for true equality
It was a Hong Kong dinner date that grabbed headlines.
A 20-something “lawyer”, on a date with a 31-year-old woman he met online, indulged in two lavish HK$2,388 (US$307) set dinners with her at Man Wah, the one-Michelin-star Chinese restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong hotel, paired with a 2002 bottle of Krug champagne at the aspirational price of HK$71,800.
It was a notable scandal – as much for his skipping out as for the outlandish amount splurged on a single meal. Other than hedge fund bros and spoiled tycoon nepo babies, people rarely drop that kind of cash on one bottle of bubbly over dinner.
Clearly, the guy was the antagonist in this dine-and-dash scam, but was the female fraud victim really such a complete innocent?
If I were on a blind date and the other person wanted to lavish such extravagance, I would want to clarify whether the bill would be split or whether they could actually afford it. It is common dating sense.