Customer disgusted by staff licking their fingers while serving food at Oakberry Acai in Bondi

An American expat has shared her shock at an Australian cafe after she said a staff member was licking their fingers while making customer’s food and drinks. 

Sophia Kim, who is from LA but has been living in Sydney, detailed her visit to international chain Oakberry Acai’s Bondi location in a viral TikTok video. 

The swimwear designer claimed she had to ask for another employee to make her fruit bowl after watching a worker with gloves on constantly lick her fingers while handling and serving food. 

In a TikTok clip, she claimed she had to ask for another employee to make her fruit bowl after watching a worker with gloves on constantly lick her fingers while handling and serving food

‘I went to Bondi today and I was craving Oakberry and I saw the most disgusting thing – it was crazy,’ she said. 

‘The girl that was working there was cutting up the fruit, licking her fingers, putting  the fruit in the cup, licking her fingers, served the cup to other people then stood there licking her fingers.’ 

Sophia asked another employee if she could have her order made by someone else and added the finger-licking was even more bizarre as the girl had gloves on. 

‘I told one of the workers there about her licking her fingers and she didn’t seem to care that her co-worker was doing that??? How is this hygienic,’ she said.

Sophia asked another employee if she could have her order made by someone else and added the finger-licking was even more bizarre as the girl had gloves on

Sophia’s video racked up more than 135,000 view with many users outraged by the worker’s behaviour however others were convinced it ‘wasn’t that bad’

Sophia’s video racked up more than 135,000 view with many users outraged by the worker’s behaviour however others were convinced it ‘wasn’t that bad’. 

‘They don’t use gloves?’ one viewer asked to which Sophie replied: ‘They use gloves – She was licking the gloves… that were on her hands/fingers.’ 

‘She thought she was at home. She forgot she was at work,’ another wrote.  

‘Having worked in three different Michelin places during the 90s, I can assure you that chefs stuck fingers into sauces all the time. Every time,’ a third admitted.  

‘It’s not that bad,’ commented a fourth while another joked: ‘Builds up your immune system I guess’. 

A spokesperson from Oakberry Australia said they were ‘very disappointed to hear about the incident’ and that they had since spoken to Ms Kim, ‘who is one of our valued customers’.

‘The incident outlined in the video does not reflect the Oakberry standard of operations,’ they said.

‘We expect a high level of hygiene and cleaning processes in all of our shops, and our staff are required to follow a very strict training guideline that covers all areas of shop operations.

‘In addition, we can confirm that we have reached out to Sophia privately to thank her for bringing this to our attention and have apologised for the incident.’