Two diners in Austria bit off more than they could chew when they dared to complain about a mix-up in their food order and were compelled to run for safety from the enraged restaurant owner, police said Thursday.

Police in Upper Austria said they were called to a restaurant in Bad Schallerbach, about 200 kilometres from Vienna late Wednesday, when the owner went beserk and hurled abuse - as well as dinner plates piled with food - at two customers who pointed out that he had got their order wrong.

"After being confronted with a complaint about an order mix-up, the 56-year-old innkeeper... threw plates and their contents in the customers' faces," the police said in statement. 

The two customers - a Hungarian and a German national aged 40 and 41 - suffered facial bruises and a cut lip, the statement said.

The owner then turned on a group of four other diners who wanted to leave the establishment following the incident and repeatedly hit a 43-year-old man and his 71-year-old father.