We've Got Mail: The apparent absence of tap water in a Dublin restaurant has prompted an angry Kate Bielinski to get in touch. She was in Tiger Bec's restaurant on Dawson Street for dinner with two friends recently. The group ordered a "fair amount of food" between them, she says including wine, starters and main courses and rice at €4.50 a portion.

"We asked for a jug of tap water for the table but were told by the waiter that they 'don't have tap water' in the restaurant and that we'd have to have bottled water."

She says they were so taken aback that they didn't challenge the waiter's rather astonishing claim and took the bottled water without comment. When they got their bill they were shocked to discover that the bottled water was €6 for a 700ml bottle.

"I have never encountered this assertion that a restaurant has 'no tap water' - and this raises all sorts of questions about how they wash their hands, the dishes etc. I feel that this is a very aggressive marketing tactic to get people to pay for expensive bottled water."

When PriceWatch contacted the restaurant it confirmed that the bottled water cost €6 but denied operating a policy of refusing to serve its customers non-bottled water.

In a statement Tiger Becs said that "like many restaurants" waiting staff always first asked customers if they would like to order still or sparkling water.

"The specific experience referred to by your reader would appear to have been a one-off oversight on behalf of the waiter and we are not aware of any other occurrence of this in our restaurant. We can only apologise to your reader."

Another reader had a watery tale of woe of his own. He and three others stopped off in the Cellar Bar in Dublin's Merrion Hotel recently.

While he was perfectly prepared to pay extra for the "plush surroundings and lovely bar", the price of a slice of lime left him feeling distinctly bitter. He bought a round made up of two pints, a glass of red wine and one sparkling water.

His wife asked the waitress for a slice of lime in her sparkling water.

"When I glanced at the receipt I noted that they had charged us 85 cent for the slice of lime."

Highly indignant, our reader took it up with the manager only to be informed that it was "company policy".

After some remonstration his 85 cent was duly returned but he is "still shocked at the pettiness and small-mindedness of it".

We phoned the Merrion Hotel who said that it was not company policy to charge for slices of lime. "Obviously a mistake was made and when the manager found out it was refunded straight away," a spokeswoman said.

Notary charge 'outrageous'

After reading how a Dublin-based reader was charged €100 to have two documents signed by a notary public a Wexford reader got in touch describing the charge as "outrageous".

He described it as "yet another example of the stranglehold the Irish Law Society has over the public". He points out that in the US almost every bank manager is an official notary public.

Although the cost to place their stamp on a document varies from area to area our reader has estimated that the average charge is approximately €10 (€7.80) "and if you have an account with that bank branch it is most likely the manager will waive their fee entirely", he writes.

The notary public function is not limited to bank branch managers in the US. "Virtually every professional may apply," he says. Several years ago our reader needed a motor vehicle registration document stamped by a notary public. "I merely stopped into the office of my car insurance agent and he performed the task, gratis, with a smile and a sincere 'Have a nice day'!"

Forecourt forfeit

Lynn Fitzpatrick from Dublin has been in touch to highlight the high cost of everyday items in petrol station shops when compared with major supermarkets.

She was "absolutely shocked" by the price of washing machine tablets at her local garage.

"The pack I normally get in Tesco for €4.27 was a whopping €8.55. I assumed it was a genuine error of pricing on their part but was told that it was correct and I didn't have to buy if I didn't want to."