There’s a small, innocuous-looking cafe on Madison Ave that you may find yourself considering on your next meander through New York City. Watch out, says BoingBoing, whose Rob Beschizza wandered into the place on a lark, you’re about to get socked with hidden charges. How bad could it be? Behold:

“We ordered a couple of dishes we thought were $30 or so: expensive enough! But a salad turned out to be another $49. Coffee was $12 per tiny little cup. Refill, sir? No, thank you, I’ll just have water. Water was $15.”

The cafe turned out to be so notorious that even the New York Times has written about their dubious practices. I guess you can’t really fail to disclose the price of a $275 pasta special and expect to have a good reputation on the internet.

From the NYT:

“At the end of the meal, I got a look at the check and for a moment I thought I was hallucinating. The meal for the three of us cost $400. How was that possible? Easy. The pasta dish cost $275. No joke. “

And corroborated again at TripAdvisor:

“We went there with out two kids (12 years old) The waiter presented the specials that included Tagliatelle with Truffle. Our kids wanted to taste Truffle, so we ordered that. The price of $275 was not mentioned by a single word. We was highly surprised when we got the bill totaling $859 – we thought is was a mistake, which is was not. They charged 275 for a plate with pasta and a little truffle…”

I suppose these horror stories can serve as a reminder to go ahead and endure the social pain of asking how much the “special” is going to cost. We can guarantee it will not hurt as much as the bill. Yow.

Headed to New York? Watch out for sleazy restaurant Nello [BoingBoing]