NZ Restaurant is branded 'incredibly racist' for calling a group of customers 'Asians' on their receipt

A restaurant has been branded 'incredibly racist' after a young waitress from a rural town called a group of customers 'Asians' on their receipt.  

The new waitress used the description to identify a group in order to serve them because their table at The Falls Restaurant & Cafe in West Auckland had no number.

Stuff NZ reported one woman from the restaurant group had found it 'racist' and said the restaurant didn't apologise or acknowledge it while they were there.

'As a group of 'Asians' born in this country, we were truly shocked at the restaurant for their incredibly racist service,' the unnamed woman was quoted as saying.

Daily Mail Australia rang the cafe and found a representative who wished to give their side of the story but was afraid to give his name. 'It was an unintentional and honest mistake,' the man said by telephone from the cafe on Monday morning.

The man said the waitress was a 'newbie', a young girl who came to Auckland from a rural town 'up north' and had only recently started employment.

'It's a different area, not as sophisticated or advanced as Auckland,' he said.

'She's a newbie and we talked to her, retrained her, done an apology, we have given her a warning as well.

'We do not believe in racism. On the contrary, we are being targeted by people calling us "curry munchers" which we are thinking of taking action regarding.

'We do not believe in any way in any discrimination in operations or towards customers. We do not practice racism in the business in employing staff or in any way towards customers.' 

After media reports revealed a photograph of the receipt with the word 'Asian' typed near the top, social media exploded. 

'Casual racism is still racism' wrote one Twitter commenter, while others moved to defend the restaurant or criticise the media reports for making a fuss.

'This isn’t racism and now this poor waitress might lose her job,' wrote Kim Brown on Facebook.

'I work in... a busy cafe. I write descriptions like this all the time,' wrote Janelle Taniwha, defending the restaurant.

'Asian lady with short hair. Blonde mum with child... and I most definitely am not racist. I am however describing how someone looks so my work mates can deliver the coffee/food to them. You have to identify people in hospo. Get over it,' she added. 

SOURCE