A group of seven tourists have abruptly decided to dine and dash after eating at the much-loved Siġġiewi-based restaurant Marilù’s.

Speaking directly to WhosWho.mt, Owner Marilù states that on Friday afternoon (today), the group racked up a hefty bill of €135.

“They had told the staff that they were in a rush, so we tried our best to serve them promptly despite having a lot on our hands,” Marilù recalls.

The French-speaking group seemingly ate and enjoyed a cup of coffee and subsequently left in twos whilst servers were busy tending to other customers. Some went downstairs to smoke a cigarette, another person asked for a takeaway cup and so on.

“Eventually when the supervisor went to the table to check how they were doing, she found the table empty. They hadn’t even asked for the bill or left any money on the table, they just vanished,” she says, upset.

Camera footage of the group, eating at Marilù's this afternoon / Facebook

Asked about how this impacted her business, she explains that its extremely disappointing and heartbreaking to have to face such a situation.

She remarks that Marilù is a small business, that needs to pay its own employees through its earnings at the restaurant.

As everyone is aware, the mounting cost-of-living has affected all of us. Everyone knows how expensive the ingredients are and such incidents have a huge impact on our business. It's not something that we can easily brush off," she adds.

The restaurant owner explains that she filed a police report but was told that since they are foreign nationals, they are more difficult to trace, unless they dine and dash at another restaurant.

“It is understandable. To top it off, Siġġiewi is nearby the airport so they might be already on the plane, on their way back to their home country,” Marilù concludes.