Hyderabad: A complaint has been filed against Hotel Katriya at Somajiguda for serving stale rice among other dishes to about 15 guests who had arrived at the establishment to celebrate a birthday on Tuesday night.

The group of customers complained that the rice they were served had started to smell. When they asked hotel authorities for an explanation, the hotel at first offered a 10 per cent discount on the total bill, and later offered to cut the Rs 7,000 bill to Rs 3,000.

However, one of the customers from the group said they were willing to pay the entire amount if the general manager of the hotel was willing to allow his own children to eat the same rice that was served to them. The row is believed to have gone on till midnight.

Prabhanjan Kumar, a resident of Ameerpet and the original complainant in the case, said the group had decided to opt for the Ugadi special dishes.

“It was the birthday of my wife’s niece and we had planned to celebrate it at the Katriya. There were 20 of us, including five children. We preferred the buffet as the hotel had announced a Ugadi special — serving Telangana, Andhra and Karnataka special dishes. “The first dish that was served was Karivepaku rice. But as we were being served we were instantly hit by this foul smell. I immediately informed the attendents and they took the bowl away. The second dish was a corn salad which was smelling too. We then demanded to see the manager.”

The manager then offered the group a discount of 10 per cent but the party questioned if the manager would allow his children to eat stale food if he was given a similar discount.

The argument is believed to have continued when the matter of bill settlement came up. “The staff took away the food left on our plates. Our guests had to leave, having eaten just curd rice and ice-cream. Everyone was worried as the children had already eaten some of the food. The management later called for security staff as they wanted us to leave. They refused to give us the bill and wanted us to pay for 11 persons. I assume it was the afternoon’s leftovers that they had served us for dinner during the party,” Mr Kumar said.

Several calls were made to the management of Hotel Katriya by this newspaper for an official response on the matter but there was no response.