Fat-shaming Thai restaurant grilled over skinny discount (video)
A Thai restaurant is under fire for discriminating against fat people by offering skinny folk a discount for being thin. One disgruntled US tourist fumed “the restaurant would be sued if it was in America!”
Chiang Mai Breakfast World is offering customers a controversial skinny discount to diners, provided they can squeeze through a set of narrowing metal bars before ordering.
The gimmick, on offer at Chiang Mai Breakfast World, quickly went viral after British travel bloggers Amina (@amonthego) and Alex (@alexwandersyt) stumbled upon it and posted a jaw-dropping video on Instagram.
“Couldn’t believe our eyes,” Amina captioned the clip, which has now racked up nearly eight million views in less than 24 hours.
The restaurant’s discount gate features five levels of bars, with gaps decreasing in size. Get through the skinniest? Bag 20% off your meal. The slightly wider gaps knock off 15, 10 or 5%. Can’t make it through at all? It’s “full price, sorry” for you.
One poor punter, caught on video attempting the challenge, had his mates mockingly shout “you need some butter!” as they tried to kick him through the 15% bars. No luck. He eventually managed the 5% discount gap, grunting, “it’s better than nothing, I suppose.”
But while some social media users chuckled at the light-hearted challenge, others branded it “fatphobic,” “discriminatory” and “a breeding ground for body-shaming.”
One Instagram user fumed: “Wouldn’t eat there. That’s really discriminating.”
Another asked: “Why should someone pay more just because they’re not a size zero? Do they get more food or what?”
Some feared the gimmick could fuel unhealthy eating habits, with one comment reading: “This kind of thing promotes eating disorders. Let people enjoy their food and be healthy at any size.”
Alex, who posted the original video, tried to defend the stunt: “I don’t think it’s that deep, it’s a bit of fun.”
But critics hit back, arguing it’s only “fun” if you fit through the bars, adding: “For everyone else, it’s just humiliating.”
Others were baffled but amused, with one user joking: “What if I don’t even fit through the full-price one?” Another wrote: “In America, this place would’ve been sued already.”
Despite the backlash, Breakfast World still boasts an impressive 4.5-star rating on TripAdvisor and bills itself as a “little garden restaurant” serving international breakfast dishes.
The controversial discount scheme isn’t even new. A 2023 video from YouTubers Randy and Joy, who run the Retired Global Life channel, revealed the bars used to offer “food for free” if you could slide through the tightest space.
Randy, who described himself as a “skinny guy who can’t gain weight no matter what,” laughed: “Maybe for once in my life this is going to pay off!”
Even the restaurant’s signage leans into the absurdity, claiming their discount system is “fully electronic and computer controlled,” though it’s clearly just a bunch of steel bars and a tape measure.
And it’s not just Thailand embracing the so-called “diet gate” trend.
Back in 2018, a restaurant in Jinan, eastern China, rolled out a similar stunt. Owner Zhao Lang encouraged customers to watch their waistlines by offering free food and beer, if they could pass through a 15 centimetre wide opening at the door.
“We’re just having a bit of fun,” Zhao said at the time. “Maybe it will remind people to cut down on the beer and junk food.”
Zhao’s version included progressively wider gaps with varying rewards: free meals and drinks, five beers, one beer, and, if you were deemed “just average,” no discount, just a snarky message: “You shouldn’t ask for more.”
The widest bars came with an even cheekier note: “Are you sure you should be drinking beer?”
Clips showed some customers easily sliding through the narrowest bars, while others hilariously got stuck halfway, flailing their arms in desperation. According to Zhao, the smallest gap was typically conquered by female diners, and the gimmick drew long queues outside his restaurant.
But back in Chiang Mai, Breakfast World’s version of the stunt has sparked a full-blown food fight online, with many calling for the “skinny discount” to be scrapped.
Still, others say it’s just a bit of harmless fun in a world that’s perhaps a little too quick to take offence, reported The Daily Mail.
“You don’t have to do it,” one defender argued. “You can still enjoy your Eggs Benedict without shoving yourself through a metal fence.”
Whether genius marketing or body-shaming gone mad, one thing’s for sure: this breakfast bar has stirred up far more than just scrambled eggs.
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