Lunchbox. Photo: VCG

A restaurant in North China's Tianjin Municipality drew controversy recently over its decision to launch gender-specific boxed lunches, in which the "female version" lunchbox has fewer dishes than the men's but costs the same, reported guancha.cn on Wednesday. 

At the same price of 15 yuan ($2), the male version has two meat and two vegetarian dishes, while the female version has only one meat and two vegetarian dishes. 

There is also less rice in the female version lunchbox as it is "more suitable for women customers," according to promotion from the restaurant.

After leading to an avalanche of criticism on social media, where netizens wondered if the restaurant was promoting gender division, Li Jiajin, head of the Tianjin Restaurant Association, explained to the media that the initiative for the special lunchbox was developed under the city's Professional Committee on Dietary Nutrition in order to avoid food waste. 

The restaurant was rated as a model restaurant for economizing on food during the Clean Your Plate Campaign, Li noted. 

Despite Li's explanation, many netizens felt offended by the absurd menu. 

"It's always a better choice to use the words 'large' and 'small', instead of male and female," wrote one netizen.