Irish tourist accidentally ordered £1,890 cocktail in five-star London hotel thinking it was £18.90

An Irish woman who was staying in a five-star hotel in London said she accidentally ordered a £1,890 cocktail thinking it cost £18.90. Lynsey Bennett was visiting the capital with her husband over the New Year and had ordered the drink at the hotel bar.

In a viral TikTok she said: “I ordered a cocktail which was called 1890 so the young chap brought out a bottle of Cristal, gave me this huge book to sign and there we were thinking we were the bee's knees." The cocktail also included 30-year-old whisky and gold leaf. When they were presented with a bill of £2,000 her husband was “furious” and left the bar for her to deal with it.

“I said to the young guy behind the bar, I’m so sorry I had no idea this was £1,890. It was set out on the menu where it said £18 gap 90 so I presumed it was £18.90,” she explained. “Looking back at the menu I saw the rest of the drinks were £19.50 so it was definitely my mistake.”

The barman started to panic and called the manager over who was “wonderful and discreet". Mrs Bennett said she didn’t even enjoy the cocktail as she doesn't even like whisky. She spent the next few days avoiding the bar over the mix up until her sister came to visit.

She returned to the bar and enquired about the barman to which the manager joked he had “sacked him". "After that, we actually sat with the manager and enjoyed drinks with him and his family and it turned out to be a really great new year," she said. "But I will forever check the price of cocktails from now on."

The viral TikTok video has been viewed over 1.6 million times and thousands of people have commented, with one person asking: “What on earth could they put in it to justify that price?”