Popular entertainment and dining venue, Macau Gaming Lounge & Bar, has expressed surprise at the outpouring of support from Jamaicans after a group of patrons tried to “expose” the establishment for ‘not wanting them there’.

The group of seven women and a man, who claimed they were left with a bad taste in their mouths in a now-viral TikTok video by user @gennevagreaves, slammed Macau for refusing to seat them all at one table and confronted the restaurant’s general manager who kindly asked them to leave. 

However, Matthew Chinn, managing director of Macau Gaming Lounge & Bar said that the video does not paint the whole picture, at least from the restaurant’s perspective. 

Chinn, speaking in an interview with Our Today late Monday (March 7), explained that the incident took place last Friday between 5:00 and 7:00 pm, but seeking to be fair to the group, he said that he believed not all women participated in the heated exchange. 

The Macau managing director conceded he was not present at the time of the incident but received several parallel reports from the general manager, kitchen manager, and servers. 

According to Chinn, five women initially turned up to the Lindsay Crescent establishment and communicated that two others would be joining them, with an intention for the group to all sit together as they dined. 

The women were informed that the rules for dining, amid the waning coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, set by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, limits only six persons at any one table. 

“What happened was that five persons came and sat down and then two more came. At that point in time, two more came, the manager told them only six persons can be seated at one table,” Chinn said.

“Now, in a situation like that, we give [patrons] two options; we have a cabana that is more private, so we allow more persons to be able to dine there,” he informed Our Today.

Booking for Macau’s upper-level cabana costs between J$15,000 and $30,000, with a 10 per cent service charge for waiters serving groups, Chinn disclosed.

“The second option would be to split the table, put four on one table and three on the next but put them very close to each other, things like that,” the Macau managing director noted.

“My understanding is five people were on one table and two were on the next table and from what my manager told me, they had a meal in waiting for the others to come,” he added.

Seemingly unsatisfied with the seating arrangements, a segment of the split group decided they were going to leave, articulated as such to the waitress and proceeded to exit the building. 

On leaving, the still-calm group encountered the kitchen manager, who one of the women knew personally, and outlined to that individual how they felt the seating policy ‘didn’t make sense’. To this end, the group said that they would be spending their money at the Hope Road-based The Terrace at 100 instead of Macau. 

It was at this point, Chinn told Our Today, that things took a turn for the worse as the general manager, overhearing the conversation, went to speak with the group before tempers flared. 

“They decided to go downstairs because amongst themselves they would be going to 100 and at the bottom of the staircase, [the group] saw my kitchen manager, she knew one the of ladies in the group and they exchanged hellos,” Chinn detailed. 

“As soon as they said hi, one woman went off about she was going to blast [Macau] on social media because we have this stupid rule and ‘why would we want to lose seven customers?’; I understand she was loud but not extravagantly so,” he said.

“It was loud enough, [however], that during the exchange, the general manager overheard and decided to go and talk to them. He basically asked them what the issue was, which is something standard in customer service and when they told him, he relayed to them that unfortunately, it’s not a policy in place on our end. This is what the Government has stipulated and we’re just trying to follow the rules to the best of our ability,” the Macau exec added.

The general manager reportedly told the group of women “good night” after explaining and walked away. Again disappointed by management’s response, insults were then hurled at the general manager.

“I guess they were dissatisfied that he didn’t overrule management and allowed them back, I don’t know, because they started cursing at him. Loud enough, at this point, everyone who was downstairs could hear,” 

“They were acting [out] and being loud and that is where he came back and that is where the [TikTok] video starts, where he’s asking them to leave the premise.s And in her take, (@gennevagreaves) seems to say that we don’t want them there and we’re upset that they went to 100 but we respect everybody’s choice to go wherever,” he pointed out.

The five-minute TikTok video starts with the women again insulting the Macau general manager, who remained calm and patiently ensured they left as promised. 

One woman can be heard threatening to “lick him inna him face” as the group questioned why they were being ‘harrassed and followed’. Insisting the grounds of the restaurant are “free”, the women took turns calling the man “dummy” and “idiot” for ‘standing over them’.

The general manager also stopped others staff members from getting involved in the standoff, eliciting praise from Jamaicans on social media for not escalating the matter. 

More reactions:

‘Macau’ remains the second most-trending topic on Twitter on March 8, three days after the video was first posted to TikTok. 

It also seems that user @gennevagreaves has deleted her profile on the platform, however, other pages have since downloaded the viral video and re-uploaded the exchange. 

While expressing gratitude for the support, Chinn told Our Today that Macau wouldn’t be opposed to having the group of women back, admitting that two had returned to offer their apologies to the managers for their friends’ actions. 

The long-lasting impact of the viral video, however, is a first for Macau.

WATCH (Viewer discretion is advised):

@real_medz_ja

General Manager at Macau got upset when 7 guests decide to leave because they have a 6 person per table policy.

♬ original sound – Real_Medz

“I’m surprised it has even gotten this far, I thought I would have blown over. It’s interesting to me that it has carried on for so long. It’s been 10 years we’ve been operating and I can tell you everything that can happen had happened,” Chinn told Our Today.

“I would allow them back to the location. Seven people were dining but that doesn’t mean that seven people were rude. Who wins in all of this if the person doesn’t learn and aren’t able to grow from it? How does the world become better?” he asked.