A British tourist has written a letter of complaint to Venice’s mayor after he and his parents were charged €526 (£463) for lunch in a restaurant near St Mark’s Square.

Luke Tang, a university lecturer from Birmingham, said he and his 70-year-old parents were shocked to be charged so much for the seafood meal, much of which they had not ordered.

He accused the waiters in the restaurant, Trattoria Casanova, of taking advantage of the fact that neither he nor his parents spoke any Italian.

Waiters brought them dishes that they had not asked for and failed to tell them the cost, he said, describing the restaurant as “a disgusting place”.

In a letter to Luigi Brugnaro, the mayor of the World Heritage city, Mr Tang, 40, wrote: “I do not expect there will be any refund, but I wanted to draw your attention (to) the behaviour of this business, (which) will ruin the reputation of Venice. It is disgraceful and indeed the shame of Venice.”

The bill was presented to the Tangs after they sat down to a meal of 20 fresh oysters, spaghetti with squid ink, grilled fish and crayfish.