A gourmet Chinese restaurant chain in Britain came into the limelight after it refused to serve a group of 11-year-old schoolgirls children’s meal deal because they were too tall.
The girls had wanted to celebrate the end of their school exams at the Real China restaurant in Cheltenham, Gloucester, but they were barred from having children’s meals because they were over 4ft 7in.
Chen Hunag, operations manager for the Real China, has now apologised to the girls and explained that its restaurants occasionally measured children against a mark on the wall to see if they topped 140cm - but it was more common to ask whether they were 12.
“If a child looks over the age of 12 we normally go by a mark on the wall,” the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.
“I suppose it could be unfair if there was an 11-year-old who looked 12, but we really haven’t had any problems before,” he stated.
The girls said they were told they could not have the discounted child’s buffet for under 12s because they exceeded the height limit.
The girls had arranged the special lunch outing by themselves to celebrate the end of their exams and were looking forward to the all-you-can-eat buffet for 3.95 pounds.
However after being turned away they looked for other venues and because they had not made a pre-booking, ended up at McDonald’s.