Reasonable to fine diners for taking too much food at a buffet or not?

[ScotBkk]

6 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

If the picture in the OP is the total amount of leftover food from 20 guys having moo gataw, then I think the owner was over reacting. In large groups yo have lots of people bringing back extra for others to share, it's the culture. with 20 people you are going to get people bringing too much. That's just the way it is.

If the picture was just from four or five people, the I can see that the customers were taking advantage.

Buffet should say'

All you can eat Personally!!!!!

[stoli]

I remember one episode where Al Bundy was upset when he came home with empty grocery bags after going to dinner at a buffet. He stated "Hey, it said All You Can Eat", not "All You Can Eat Today!

[dcsw53]

Presumably the photo is the leftovers from 20 people. THB 5000 does seem disproportionate for that.

We go to a buffet where they have a sign up warning of THB 100 for leftovers. If she had done this I am sure 20 grown men could easily have polished everything off and avoided any unpleasantness. If not she should have asked for a token amount, seeing the noodles and sauce THB 500 - 750 should suffice.

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, fiddlehead said:

I know I  personally would feel very guilty for leaving anywhere near that much food. 

I always try to eat all I take at one of these barbeques.

Maybe I was brought up differently. 

 

That makes 2 of us. I would feel guilty to. What is that old saying the roots of our making run deep.  A few small trips is much better than one big haul. Food is fuel for the body and the soul lets not run out and leave some for others. I vote in favor of the lady owner. 

[elgordo38]

4 hours ago, hansnl said:

Are you for real?

 

You  have to understand it takes all kinds of people to make a world. We are not clones. Just be thankful that your you and not him. 

[Chicog]

2 hours ago, KKr said:

If you put it on the plate, you eat it. 
Old-fashioned?
Not at all, I was brought up in a place where people experienced a shortage of food during a war.

That's precisely it I think.

I wonder if these people cook three times more than they need at home and then throw away what they don't eat. 

[Jim walker]

I took my Thai wife to a Chinese buffet in London it was very small tables seating for 2 people only and the plates were huge, and a big notice posted all over the restaurant if you don’t clear your plate we don’t clear your table and as there was no room on the table for four plates you had to be careful how much food you put on your giant plate but the food and service were both very good obviously they did not like people leaving large plates of food and had come up with a very good solution.  

[smotherb]

9 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Wow. Very short sighted of an owner to be so petty on such a large check.

From my POV, when eating at a buffet sometimes the eye is bigger than the stomach.

To force people to finish their plate promotes obesity.

Sometimes I'll take a portion of something that looks good but it turns out it's awful tasting, so don't eat it.

Sure there are limits such as if someone hogs a whole tray of seafood and then doesn't touch it but I doubt that happens that often. 

Cost of doing business.

Short-sighted? Business is business; you have to reconcile revenue with cost. A restaurant which offers all-you-can-eat must forecast what its patrons will eat. If everyone simply takes everything they can and not eat it, there can be no profit—plain and simple. Consequently, if you take more than you eat, you are wasting food. Sorry, if your eyes are bigger than your stomach or if eating all you took will make you fat; it was your decision to take it. So, yes, a patron should be charged for wasting food.

When I was a freshman in college in rural Virginia, a group of my football buddies and I hit this all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch run by two little old ladies. We, of course, were challenging each other on who could eat the most—and we ate copious amounts of the food offerings. After a couple of hours, the two little old ladies came over to our table, one of them, in the sweetest little old lady voice imaginable said, "Boys, I am happy to see you enjoy our food, but I think you've had enough."  One of the boys yelled back, "The sign says, All-you-can-eat."   "True," said the other little old lady in not so sweet a voice, "and that my boys, is all-you-can-eat."  We looked at each other and realized, yeah, we had eaten a lot, every one of us in fact had had more than we wanted to eat, we were all stuffed.  The first old lady interjected in her sweet voice, "Boys we would love to have you come back, but when you do, we will have to limit each of you to 12 pork chops, 15 pieces of chicken, 10 steaks . . . " When we heard that, we were almost ashamed, all of us had, in fact, eaten much more than the very liberal amount of food the old lady offered as our limit. We did return almost every Sunday.

 

[Jingthing]

5 hours ago, hansnl said:

Are you for real?

 

Yes.

Maybe you don't go to buffets.

People who do have had the experience where they put a portion of something on their plate and then don't find it appealing enough to eat all of it.

Yes, that can be dealt with by taking smaller portions, but sometimes food look better than they are.

Or you get them back and they are too rich, too salty, too sweet, and you realize if you finish it you won't want to eat other foods on the buffet that you'd rather eat.

This is more of a problem when the portions are set and you need to take a whole portion instead of a small amount.

An Italian buffet I go to sometimes has lasagna. The portions are precut. If you cut that up at the buffet people will look at you in a rude manner, so the polite thing is to take the entire portion. But this is very rich creamy lasagna and I'd never want to eat that much of that one thing in a buffet that has ten other things.

Get it now?

Real enough for you?

Or are you just into insulting people? 

[The manic]

As long as you are allowed repeat visits there is no reason for over loading.  

[Alwyn]

"Fine diners"? I don't think so.... The clue is in the name; "all you can eat", it is not "all you can not eat and waste so other customers can't get a prawn". What the hell is wrong with people? It's really simple, you load up a plate, eat it and then if you want more, go and get more.

[Jingthing]

29 minutes ago, Alwyn said:

"Fine diners"? I don't think so.... The clue is in the name; "all you can eat", it is not "all you can not eat and waste so other customers can't get a prawn". What the hell is wrong with people? It's really simple, you load up a plate, eat it and then if you want more, go and get more.

That's ridiculous and it promotes obesity. So you put something on your plate that looks good and you start eating it and you realize it doesn't taste as good as it looks or you can now tell it's a really unhealthy food, and based on your "morality" preaching you're still supposed to clean your plate?

You know a sleazy tactic a lot of buffets use is to offer those kinds of very high fat and high sugar foods that will fill you up really fast and hope you eat those foods and not the more expensive often healthier items. 

Of course if you've been to the same place multiple times you have a better idea of what the food is probably going to be like but when it's a new buffet or new foods on the same buffet, really, you can't always tell just by looking at it whether you're really going to want to finish it.

Of course I'm not saying it's reasonable or right to empty out a tray of food and then barely touch it. 

Such extremes are rare. The OP was not about that kind of extreme. People who do that should be told please don't come back. 

More like my example of the precut lasagna portion where it's socially awkward to cut it at the buffet and then you don't want to finish it. 

[bazza40]

It's a buffet. It says all you can eat. Usually establishments charge a premium per head to cover the cost of the big eaters, and food that goes to waste.

Personally, I've given up on buffets because I always feel overfull afterwards.

Prices seem to vary wildly. There's one hotel in Chiang Mai which was advertising a buffet lunch for 499 baht, now it's 199 baht. Possibly the food is not the same.

 

[Jingthing]

I agree large buffets average out the big eaters from the small eaters. In any large group of people there will  be both. It could be argued buffets attract more than an average percentage of big eaters, but on the other hand most buffets don't have gourmet food anyway, and if they do, they charge a lot for the entrance. There is a difference between leaving stuff that you realize you don't really want to eat and gross abuse like hogging a tray of prawns and then not eating them. Again, the gross abuses are not that common and buffets would not be in business if they were. I think a sign warning of fines might be a good idea, but actually enforcing it I think (for PR reasons) should be done only on GROSS abusers. 

[Chicog]

12 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I agree large buffets average out the big eaters from the small eaters. In any large group of people there will  be both. It could be argued buffets attract more than an average percentage of big eaters, but on the other hand most buffets don't have gourmet food anyway, and if they do, they charge a lot for the entrance. There is a difference between leaving stuff that you realize you don't really want to eat and gross abuse like hogging a tray of prawns and then not eating them. Again, the gross abuses are not that common and buffets would not be in business if they were. I think a sign warning of fines might be a good idea, but actually enforcing it I think (for PR reasons) should be done only on GROSS abusers. 

Or just ban fat bastards.

You'll be doing them a favour anyway.

 

[tuanku]

7 hours ago, AlphMichaels said:

If it's an "all-you-can-eat" buffet, and you decide to arbitrarily decide when a table takes too much and doesn't eat that you'll penalize them on the check..., you better state it up front.  

Its "all you can eat" They obviously couldn't eat it. It is not an "all you can take" buffet. Perhaps what she should have done is bagged the left over food and charged for it but let them take it away?. Many restaurants are willing to do this if you accidentally over-order.

[jayceenik]

This not understanding proper buffet etiquette reminds me of a story I read in a US paper a while back.

This small sushi restaurant had come up with an all you can eat option for a set price.

This guy shows up, piles loads of sushi on his plate and then eats only the fish part (ie the expensive part).and leaves the rice rolls wasted.

The owner threw him out and told him never to come back.

This indelicate customer went to see a lawyer and sued the owner for USD50000 for "hurt feelings' or the like.

I don't know what happened next. I hope a judge threw the case out of court and blamed the lawyer for taking up such a ridiculous case.

I think also that the sushi restaurant owner made a business mistake and let himself open to such abuse.

 

[Jingthing]

Yeah that sushi issue is common. Obviously not an issue for sashimi. Here's where it's not that black and white. Like if the fish is OK but the rice is disgusting and overly sweet. Not only the rice but the sugar fills you up quicker. That's by design. I've had that experience. Buffets often play tricks like that. 

Morality lecturers here, let me know how you'd deal with the precut lasagna issue I mentioned. At the buffet table there is no tool to cut it. You could cut it with the serving spoon but then  you'd leave a BIG MESS of what you didn't cut. Suppose you even know you only want to eat 1/3 of the portion. You paid for the buffet and you want that 1/3. Seriously, you wouldn't take it? Well, I would with no guilt whatsoever.

[NanLaew]

5 hours ago, KKr said:

If you put it on the plate, you eat it. 
Old-fashioned?
Not at all, I was brought up in a place where people experienced a shortage of food during a war.

Basil said don't mention the war!

[fabrizio garbo]

UWaste food, usually have been made from people with a lack of education. I wad teached from young to eat all The food ihto The plates. If not like that , just take a small portion. Don't be aftraid to be more hungry but too late to take more. 6 people in The family....so if this The way should prepare every time 50% more only for The eyes? I have to say thanks to my father for all what He tried to teach to me, even if I only 10% of what He is! 

[Jingthing]

Another thing with the sushi.

Many people are on low carb or no carb diets. 

So they're not allowed to take any sushi if they don't want to eat the rice?

Again I think this moralizing about finishing all the food on your plates is very destructive and promotes obesity.

People going to buffets aren't people with a food scarcity problem. Buffets by definition are more of a food abundance environment which I reckon for 99 percent of the people reading this forum, is their lifetime reality. 

[jayceenik]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Another thing with the sushi.

Many people are on low carb or no carb diets. 

So they're not allowed to take any sushi if they don't want to eat the rice?

Again I think this moralizing about finishing all the food on your plates is very destructive and promotes obesity.

People going to buffets aren't people with a food scarcity problem. Buffets by definition are more of a food abundance environment which I reckon for 99 percent of the people reading this forum, is their lifetime reality. 

Well, not from a eat all you can buffet.

They can always eat the pay by unit sushi.

[jobwolf]

2 hours ago, smotherb said:

Short-sighted? Business is business; you have to reconcile revenue with cost. A restaurant which offers all-you-can-eat must forecast what its patrons will eat. If everyone simply takes everything they can and not eat it, there can be no profit—plain and simple. Consequently, if you take more than you eat, you are wasting food. Sorry, if your eyes are bigger than your stomach or if eating all you took will make you fat; it was your decision to take it. So, yes, a patron should be charged for wasting food.

 

When I was a freshman in college in rural Virginia, a group of my football buddies and I hit this all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch run by two little old ladies. We, of course, were challenging each other on who could eat the most—and we ate copious amounts of the food offerings. After a couple of hours, the two little old ladies came over to our table, one of them, in the sweetest little old lady voice imaginable said, "Boys, I am happy to see you enjoy our food, but I think you've had enough."  One of the boys yelled back, "The sign says, All-you-can-eat."   "True," said the other little old lady in not so sweet a voice, "and that my boys, is all-you-can-eat."  We looked at each other and realized, yeah, we had eaten a lot, every one of us in fact had had more than we wanted to eat, we were all stuffed.  The first old lady interjected in her sweet voice, "Boys we would love to have you come back, but when you do, we will have to limit each of you to 12 pork chops, 15 pieces of chicken, 10 steaks . . . " When we heard that, we were almost ashamed, all of us had, in fact, eaten much more than the very liberal amount of food the old lady offered as our limit. We did return almost every Sunday.

 

 

It not the eyes too big, it's his brain too small.

[Jingthing]

1 minute ago, jayceenik said:

Well, not from a eat all you can buffet.

They can always eat the pay by unit sushi.

I don't agree.

Not going to be shamed by buffet church lady moralists to stuff calories in my belly I don't want there. 

I've left the rice and got some dirty looks but never a fine. 

But I don't take much because usually the fish isn't very good either.

[fabrizio garbo]

Sushi and don't eat rice.LOL. Really could be real such idi..t? Better to choose a restaurant that serve sashimi and so You'll have The right food. It is like going to Spain, order Paella valenciana and start to eat only The fish as maybe The One is vegetarian, do no meat and also throw away all The rice, because of a "diet"???. Ridicolous

ps: we speak about 100 baht on 5000 total amount, so it's nothing... much more if compared to some of ours restaurant (North Europe) where they charge 10% for tips on The Bill!!

[Jingthing]

Choosing the foods you want to feed yourself and rejecting foods you don't want to feed yourself is far from ridiculous. Going back to the lasagna, suppose someone is lactose intolerant. Are they supposed to not take the portion when they could simply take it and avoid eating the dairy parts of the dish?

Speaking of intolerant. I see a lot of intolerance here of people's personal choices about foods they choose to eat. People should never allow themselves to be socially shamed into eating something they don't want to eat. 

[fabrizio garbo]

For me The solution is quite simple.If were me The intolerant to The lactosium, surely I would never take lasagna, even a small spoon. The same for every food, I will keep The right one for my strictly diet. Easy for me...but it looks far from common use. :-)

[Thian]

This is why at Sizzlers you have to ask for ketchup these days. 

I have a thai friend who litterally used more than a bottle of it on his plate while eating there. His kids also started doing so.

Also he likes to take loads of food from the buffet and of course won't eat it.

In Sizzlers some people buy a salad for takeaway, it's a fixed price but they load all the bacon bits into the bowl.

Also in Sizzlers many people don't eat their dinner, they let them pack it to bring home..They ONLY eat from the salad bar because that's included in the price......VERY ashaming.

[Jingthing]

11 minutes ago, fabrizio garbo said:

For me The solution is quite simple.If were me The intolerant to The lactosium, surely I would never take lasagna, even a small spoon. The same for every food, I will keep The right one for my strictly diet. Easy for me...but it looks far from common use. :-)

Are you a Virgo or something? 

[DipStick]

Many years ago in Singapore it was common policy to weigh left over food and charge by the gram .. So it's nothing new