Overview

• Twenty-year-old Aribella Menold and her two sisters dined at Moonrakers in Beaufort, North Carolina, and misread “MKT” on the steak menu as a discount rather than market price
• Their order, including two $52 New York strip steaks, a $28 baby kale Caesar salad with an $11 chicken add-on, a $10 grilled cheese and a $3 Sprite, plus a 3% credit-card surcharge and 6.75% sales tax, totaled $159.14
• A TikTok video of their shocked reactions has now been viewed more than 19 million times, driving widespread attention to menu abbreviation confusion
• The sisters’ grandfather covered the unexpected bill, underscoring generational gaps in restaurant pricing expectations
• Consumer advocates and diners are calling for clearer disclosures of market-priced items and service surcharges to prevent similar billing surprises