The owner of a Melbourne vegan cafe that hit men with an 18% surcharge to highlight the gender wage gap has failed after two years, according to the Daily Mail.

The 'Handsome Her', owned by green activist Alex O'Brien, announced that it was tackling gender inequalities in 2017 by charging men more and seating women first.

Billed as a safe space for women and lesbians, the eatery attracted widespread criticism online.

"The man tax blew up the internet, an idea that we didn’t think was all too radical, yet the way the world responded showed us how fragile masculinity is and solidified the necessity for us to confront and dismantle patriarchy," reads a farewell post on Facebook.

Looks like men are still to blame!

"Yes, we are the evil, discriminatory, man-hating dykes who charge men more when didn't you know the wage gap doesn't even exist!? Meanwhile gentlemen’s social clubs live on and strong around Melbourne and the world over…"

Who would have imagined that strip clubs would do better than "man-hating dykes" who charge an extra 18% based on gender alone.

The 'man tax' was originally instituted by the cafe one week out of every month.

"I don't celebrate businesses going out of business or people losing their jobs, but seriously alienating a good proportion of your client base is not going to end well," one person wrote on Twitter, according to the Mail.

"Get woke, go broke," said another.