A café assistant called a customer a “weird freak” on her receipt after asking for a smaller omelette for her child.

The woman's husband, Steve Dempster, claimed that staff at the Weetons café in Harrogate had “sniggered” when she asked for a smaller omelette portion for her 11-month-old baby.

When she asked for the receipt, it clearly stated the name of the staff member and read “small egg & tom omlette (sic) for weird freak”, he said in social media posts on both Facebook and Twitter.

The café manager said the matter would be taken up with the assistant involved.

Mr Dempster said his wife explained that her son would not eat the entire portion and, because she once worked at the café and knows such requests can be made of the chefs, asked for a smaller serving.

“At the time I think she was being served by the café manager who was training up a new member of staff,” said Mr Dempster, speaking to the Harrogate Advertiser.

“They went to type the request in and my wife noticed that the other member of staff sniggered, so she asked for a copy of the receipt. They obviously weren’t aware this comment was included on the receipt.”

He claimed staff could not give an explanation for the comment when she confronted them.

“It’s not like she’s made some ridiculous demand, not least to say she was really upset and asked them ‘did I really deserve this treatment?’,” he said.

Keren Shaw, the general manager at Weetons café at West Park in Harrogate in North Yorkshire, said: “Unfortunately today one of our staff acted in an incredibly unprofessional way and we are extremely sorry.

"It is not the high level of service that we know our customers expect from us and which we expect from our staff. We have made a direct apology to the customer concerned and will be taking up the matter internally with the staff involved.”