"One yuan," I read the price tag on a dish package and said to my friend who was on a business trip to Beijing, "Isn't the service nice in the capital city? You can have alternative dishware if you want."

"Yes, but we don't need that. This restaurant looks pretty nice and its own dishes should be fine," said my friend, who works in Shanghai. You know the rational Shanghai style. Then I asked a waitress over.

"Shall we pay for that broccoli dish?" my friend asked, trying to remain elegant. "No, that's from our own supply, not from sanitized dish providers," the waitress answered.

"Then please give us some dishes of your own," my friend said.

"," the waitress smiled, said nothing and walked away.

Two minutes later the waitress returned and I was promptly told there wasn't a free option to choose from. I had to order a pair of sanitized dish packages so that we can start our meals; the cost of losing "face" in front of my friend was a meager 2 yuan.

Local authorities started to promote sanitized dishes in restaurants in 2007 in a bid to ensure customers have clean dishware and reduce the spread of disease. But customers are not required to use these dishes and authorities have no right to ask them to do so. Equally, restaurants are not obliged to provide sanitized dishes as an option.

This said, I did have the right to refuse to pay 2 yuan and the waitress should have immediately offered me clean dishes from the restaurant.

Common sense says that restaurants must provide customers with clean dishes at no extra cost. But restaurants are now infringing on customer rights by charging for this standard service.

There are more than 100 licensed companies producing sterilized dish packages in Beijing, accommodating 40,000 strong-and-medium-sized restaurants, according to media reports.

But are these so-called "sterilized and germ-free" dishes really clean? Beijing Daily reported on Oct 21 that a man, surnamed Zhang, complained he saw water vapor and rice in a sealed package when his family visited a restaurant in Jinsong. Zhang left angrily with his family.

So you can imagine the atmosphere my friend and I experienced that noon. The kung pao chicken looked good, the fish tender and the fried pumpkin cake crispy, but my friend and I don't feel right.

The good news is that local authorities has started to check producers of sterilized dishes from Oct 21. I hope local authorities will spend a little time to expose restaurants forcing their customers to use sterilized dishes. It's not about offering clean sanitation dishes, it's about fulfilling a responsibility to provide a clean and free option.