If the spot itself is actually worth $200 then the restaurant was forgoing that per seat and suddenly made $5000+ per day. No restaurant is going to pass up $1.8M of “free” revenue.
Either the seats are worth the price or they’re not.
Restaurants should of course disclose -- very clearly -- at reservation time that the deposit and slot are not transferable, and that IDs will be checked at the door. If you choose to make that reservation, knowing that, and then show up without an ID, that's on you.
> ... but didn’t notice I would have to bring my ID
That would fall under the category of "that's on you".
Regardless, I would hope that a restaurant would try to find another way to verify you are who you say you are, like perhaps asking for the credit/debit card you used to make the reservation, or even just asking to see something on your person that looks vaguely difficult to forge and has your name on it. We're not talking about a high-security situation here.
I’m not from the US, and I don’t live there. I was talking about the world at large, not about the US.
Also are there other options for ID? Eg in UK, Australia, NZ you can get identity cards that prove your age. Australian one costs $77 AUD.
No. In my country there is a requirement to have a certain amount of training with a professional driving instructor. For most people here the cost of that will amount to about $3000 USD. And it takes a lot of time too.
Just because I don’t have $3000 USD to shell out for that currently, nor the time for those lessons and self-study, does not mean I cannot afford to go to a restaurant.
> are there other options for ID?
Yes there are other options, but I have no use for a National ID card really when I already have a passport. Having to show ID only happens in two cases for me most of the time:
- border control when I am traveling, in which case my passport is required anyways in many countries
- retrieving packages that were too big to be delivered in my mail box. And even then most times I don’t have to show ID
It also used to be the case that I had to show ID when buying alcohol and tobacco. But being 32 years old now I usually don’t get asked for ID in the store in my country anymore.
Sounds like what the parent said, "that's on you" to fix that, then. In the aggregate, your (as well as those similar to you's) business is simply irrelevant to the vast majority of businesses that need to check IDs. Just because you don't want to get such a driver's license does not mean that a restaurant must honor your choice.
The US issues passport cards you can stick in your wallet, as well as the books. I carry mine because my state ID isn't "REAL ID" compliant, which is amazingly a thing that starts to matter before my ID expires.
Trouble is, I keep forgetting to change it back so now we never know what name a reservation will be under.
Just commit and don’t change plans.
Tell everything else this time is already booked and paid for.