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I think the OP is right in that restaurants should serve a proper amount of food for that meal, not enough food for three meals. I do to-go boxes, but to be honest, in most cases I'd rather just have a proper amount of food to begin with. I think huge portions encourage over-eating and are wasteful.
^^^^^ This!
That's when the obesity problem started!
When eating at many restaurants, it's hard to miss that portion sizes have gotten MUCH larger in the last few decades. Some dishes are 3000+ cal. Mostly cheap fillers/junk like starches, gravy, fat, breading, canned veggies... The American public has now come to associate quantity with quality.
I really have no idea why restaurants serve more food than one person needs, or is able to consume at one meal. The larger a serving placed before a consumer, the more they will eat, regardless of typical appetite. As they consistently overeat, their stomach stretches and their appetite increases, causing them to need more food to feel satisfied or full.
Most of us are left with no choice but leave most of the food on the plate, share one portion with 2-3 people, or take leftovers to go and consume it later (but often just toss it into the trash - what a waste!)
The trend has also spilled over into the grocery store and vending machines, where a bagel has become a BAGEL and an "individual" bag of chips can easily feed more than one.
I read a report a while back where restaurants are using specific colors of plates that makes
the meal look larger. The link below demonstrates the illusion.
What does this even mean? That any problem that doesn't involve a person's direct survival is superfluous and they are a snob if if they recognize it as a problem?
I think the OP is right in that restaurants should serve a proper amount of food for that meal, not enough food for three meals. I do to-go boxes, but to be honest, in most cases I'd rather just have a proper amount of food to begin with. I think huge portions encourage over-eating and are wasteful.
This plus I actually don't like leftovers and don't like to be wasteful either so that is the main reason why I order mainly appetizers when I go out to eat. Or I prefer restaurants that do several small plates like Spanish. Indian or Korean etc.
I wouldn't be offended but I too wouldn't go back to that restaurant the OP described.
This plus I actually don't like leftovers and don't like to be wasteful either so that is the main reason why I order mainly appetizers when I go out to eat. Or I prefer restaurants that do several small plates like Spanish. Indian or Korean etc.
I wouldn't be offended but I too wouldn't go back to that restaurant the OP described.
This. I can't eat large portions of food. And, I would hate to have to take home most of my meal, could have just cooked and ate it at home myself.
Restaraunt portions have really balooned over the years. I don't take offense, but I can't eat everything either.
I've kinda been steering towards the lighter faire menu side- smaller portions and smaller sizes. However not every place has that. Just tonight I went out to eat at a nice Rib and Chop place in Miles City MT (I'm traveling all week on busines). I ordered an appetizer of fried green tomotos and the marlin steak entree. I received twelve large slices of fried green tomatos topped with a bit of crab and some sauce, then I got a massive salad with my meal AND the marlin was around 10 oz plus the steamed veggies. Waaaaay more than I could eat, and I can't take a to-go box with me.
I ate 1/3 of the appetizer, all my salad, most of the marlin, and a few bites of steamed veggies- all the rest went to waste. What I ate stuffed me to the gills too.
So yeah- it's a tad over the top in portion sizes.
Many restaurants plate and price their appetizers 'to share', not expecting you to eat them all yourself.
i often make the assumption that the food isn't as good when it comes in huge portions. otherwise i'm not bothered, i can eat what i want and leave the excess.
Three of us went to a restaurant this evening and ordered rather pedestrian meals. One of us ordered a pasta dish, one ordered a short stack of pancakes, and the other ordered an omelet - nothing extravagant.
Well, the waiter arrived at the table with six plates of food - two plates for each of us. There were three pancakes the same size as the dinner plate, bunches of bacon, a plate full of potatoes, an omelet the size of the dinner plate, a large salad, a heaping mound of pasta topped with three chicken cutlets, bunches of veggies, marinara, and covered in a mound of melted cheese.
The waiter saw our expressions and exclaimed "We have the largest servings in town!" The food was pretty good, but we only managed to eat less than a fourth of what was in front of us. Everyone was leaving the restaurant with stacks of "to go" boxes.
Is it me or do others get offended when served gigantic portions? We were embarrassed at how little of the food we actually ate. We all agreed that we'll never go back there unless we agree on a single menu item and split it.
The food costs have to be incredibly high with portions like that.
Are you sure you didn't eat at a truck stop? The places that I consider to be real restaurants aren't the kind of places where the guests at a single table order a mishmash of pasta, omelet, and pancake meals with all of the fixin's for the evening meal. I think you may be exaggerating just a bit on the portion size.
On top of that, you all ordered items made from cheap ingredients, that a typical evening breakfast or pasta ordering patron would expect to be of a size to fill them up.
To put it into perspective, you should spend a few hours at an all-you-can-eat buffet such as Golden Corral or Ryan's. Watch what portions people who serve themselves devour. I bet they would make your pre-plated meals look positively parsimonious. Very few customers (except for C-D posters) return as regular patrons to a restaurant because they serve small portions for the price of large portions.
And being a snob against leftovers and to-go boxes really doesn't help your case. Many people DO appreciate having food they can eat the next day without having to prepare a meal.
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Everyone was leaving the restaurant with stacks of "to go" boxes.