GEORGE TOWN: A restaurant customer who paid RM100 for two pieces of fried squid has come forward to apologise for the misunderstanding caused after the receipt went viral on social media.

       The apology, which was sent out via a WhatsApp message by the woman who requested that her identity be kept a secret, to Hameediyah Restaurant director Muhammad Riyaaz Syed Ibrahim, was posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page on Wednesday.

       In the post, the unidentified woman said she had visited the restaurant to buy food with her partner and took two pieces of fried squid priced at RM50 each.

       “I saw the restaurant owner key in the price of the food and did not object to the price.

       “I used to come to the restaurant and have ordered the same dish before, so I know the price,” she wrote in her apology message.

       The woman added that she had merely uploaded the picture of the receipt and the food in an Instagram post and did not caption the picture.

       “I did not mention anything about the price or about it being expensive,” she said.

       She, however, said an individual had taken a screenshot of her post and uploaded it to a Facebook page.

       She said the individual had also tagged about 70 people and placed a caption that had caused the misunderstanding and the post to subsequently go viral.

       The woman stressed that the price of the fried squid was reasonable because of its size.

       “I had no intention at all to make my post viral, but some other party screenshot it and tried to make it look as though I was the one who had complained about the price.”

       She hopes that with the explanation, there would be a stop to the matter.

       Since Wednesday, a copy of the receipt had gone viral on social media about the two pieces of fried squid costing RM100.

       The post had irked netizens with many criticising the famous restaurant for selling the dish at an exorbitant price.

       The restaurant defended itself and said it had been selling the squid dish since last year and this was the first time it encountered such an issue.

       It was reported that the state Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry had visited the restaurant on Wednesday and asked the restaurant to furnish details of the cost price of the dish the next day for it to assess the next course of action.