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A Chinese restaurant in London thought they had lost £80 when a family of four sped away in a car without paying after a meal.
But in an unexpected twist, Pangs in Hillingdon say the apologetic mother of two of the women in the group then came to the restaurant to settle her daughters’ bill.
Footage from inside the restaurant showed two women, one of them carrying a child in her arms, the other holding another child’s hand, as they walked out the door after a meal.
Staff chased them outside in an attempt to have them settle their bill, but as one man was stood holding the car door open, the driver hit the acceleration and sped off with the door still ajar.
After the incident was shared widely on social media and news outlets, it appears a relative spotted the coverage and recognised the alleged wrongdoing.
Pangs restaurant said last night: Today was another day at Pangs.
‘Just before closing I had an unexpected visit from the mother of the two ladies from the incident on 23 March 2025. She apologised for appalling behaviour of her two daughters running out without paying for their meal and nearly running me over.
‘She settled the bill and left.’
The restaurant even thanked Metro for their coverage of the incident which helped hold the family to account.
The Chinese eatery posted a picture of the receipt, showing that the £75.80 food bill and £4.40 drinks bill had been paid for.
‘Dine and dash… this is crazy’, the restaurant wrote on Facebook about the incident on Saturday, describing the car as a white Mercedes-Benz C-Class.
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‘Can’t believe they had two kids with them. Incident has been reported to the local authorities and they are looking out for the pair.
‘This is why we need to take payment up front for their sitdown meals, from now on. Fed up chasing the people out the door.’
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the following day they were investigating and encouraged people with information to come forward.
The Met Police told Metro they had no further comment in light of the restaurant’s new Facebook post.
The rise of ‘dine and dash’
One in 20 people have walked out of a restaurant without paying for their meal, and a spate of recent incidents has drawn attention to this trend.
One couple racked up bills of £1,000 across five restaurants before using their children to walk out without paying between August 2023 and April last year.
Bernard McDonagh, 41, and his wife Ann, from Sandfields, Port Talbot, were jailed for eight and 12 months respectively for their stunts.
A restaurant in Wales said last November they were targeted by dine and dashers on their opening night.
The Welsh House, in Carmarthen, Wales, was celebrating its launch on October 25 when two men ate steaks and seafood before running off and leaving their £155 bill unpaid, the owners said.
A 2018 survey found that one in 20 people have left a restaurant without paying for a meal.
Kate Nicholls, the CEO of the trade body UKHospitality, told The Guardian while these incidents remain small in number, they are a ”serious matter for the businesses affected’.
She added: ‘This is theft and fraud and it should be prosecuted as such. It’s not a victimless crime.
‘It is money that is being taken from a business for goods and services consumed – it’s exactly the same as shoplifting.’
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