Brisbane's Restaurant Dan Arnold under fire over duplicate $400 charges to diner's card
Two-hatted Brisbane restaurant Restaurant Dan Arnold is facing a customer complaint and a Fair Trading investigation after a Taiwanese diner was charged $400 three times following a single booking, despite the venue's stated policy of not levying booking fees.
Sally Tsai, visiting Brisbane from Taiwan with her family, dined at the Fortitude Valley restaurant known for its French-meets-Australian menu under chef Dan Arnold on July 10. It was only after the trip that she discovered three separate $400 charges attributed to Dan Arnold had hit her card, spaced roughly 13 hours apart. Only one of the charges was applied to the actual bill.
"It's not like it's being spammed … it's [spaced out] around 13 hours afterwards," Tsai said.
A booking confirmation email from the restaurant, sighted by Press News Agency, states no booking fees apply.
When Tsai raised the discrepancy with both the restaurant and its reservations platform, SevenRooms, the booking service told her individual restaurants are responsible for their own charges. Tsai said the restaurant itself has not responded.
"Zero word, zero response," she said.
Press News Agency spoke to a second Restaurant Dan Arnold customer who reported a similar duplicate-charge issue but was eventually refunded. Tsai has since lodged a complaint with the Office of Fair Trading, which is working to broker conciliation between her and the venue.
Responding to the claims, Arnold said the extra charges appeared linked to a third-party payment provider and that the restaurant had not received any additional funds from what he described as an "isolated number of affected guests".
"Upon becoming aware of the issue, we confirmed that the duplicate charges were disputed and the dispute is currently being processed through the relevant payment provider," he said. "We are aware of Ms Tsai's inquiry and have been in communication regarding the matter."
Arnold has been a fixture of Brisbane's dining scene since opening RDA in 2018 following a near-decade stint working in Michelin-starred kitchens in France. He went on to take over fellow French restaurant La Cache a Vin in 2022, before selling his stake to co-owner Romain Maunier in 2025. A further venture, Pneuma, opened with former GOMA Restaurant chef Matt Blackwell in the Brisbane CBD but closed in July 2025 after Blackwell's departure. At the time, Blackwell said the business's direction no longer aligned with his own.
"Day to day, it's all going well … but the direction it's going is not where I'm wanting to be at the moment. So it makes sense to call it now," he said.
Arnold is also currently named in a separate, unrelated legal matter filed in the Brisbane District Court in May by Happy Boy co-owner Cameron Votan.
Jonathan Jackson, 5th August 2026
