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I went to a buffet in London that claimed to do this. I didn't see anyone get charged, so I don't know how much it was used. It really only makes sense for buffets since you can't take anything home with you. I see nothing wrong with taking home the excess from a regular meal.
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My assumption is that all buffets do this, and I tackle buffets keeping that in mind -- only taking a tiny bit of everything on the first round until I realize what I want and don't want and go back and take more of what I want during Round 2. Even if I wasn't going to be charged for excess waste, this is the way I would handle it.
For non buffet meals, once you buy it, a customer should be able to do whatever he/she wants -- finish it, throw it away or take it home. While I hate throwing away food, I can't always take it to go when I'm out of my home city. If I'm in a city, I will usually take my leftovers and leave it in an area where I think a homeless person will come across it (DH hates it when I do this as he thinks I'm littering). But in other areas where you really don't see too many homeless around, I've got no choice but to throw it out. I'm not going to force myself to finish it.
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hmmm...i dunno, this reeks of restos telling us how much we should or shouldn't eat. I can certainly see a restaurant encouraging people to only take as much as they will eat, but enforcing it?
I can somewhat understand it in buffet restaurants, because yes, a lot of food does go to waste...however, what happens if you pick something up that you haven't tried before, and you don't like it, you get charged for that? And because I may realize that my eyes were bigger than my belly and decide to put the fork down, I get charged more than somebody who decides to lick their plate and leave the place feeling sick, having gorged themselves?
What bugs me is that I have never encountered a buffet where they will allow you to take what you have left on your plate home. I can understand how this could be abused, but i'd rather see a charge go towards something like that than towards someone who couldn't finish what was on their plates. .
As for places like TGIF's..I wouldn't particularly want more of their food anyway, however, patrons have been paying for the same serving sizes for a while now, and this to me seems they are just jumping on the economy bandwagon as an opportunity to give smaller portions for the same price.
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I see the "I tried this and really didn't like it" objection....but apart from that I don't see how this is a restaurant telling anyone how much they should or shouldn't eat. At least, not any more or less than any restaurant ever does. Restaurants set their portion sizes. If you're still hungry, order more. If you're full, you take the rest home or let it get tossed as you wish. At a buffet, take only what you'll eat....that is, don't take huge plates of food each time. Just take a little...you can go back and get more. Besides, they do pack it up and send it home with you...you're simply paying 3% extra for the packaging. (That's about 81 cents, by the way.) Seems like a deal, really...you can load up an extra plate and take it home for less than a dollar.
So long as its on the sign, and it clearly is, I have no problem with this at all.
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I think the reporter got the percentage wrong. The sign in video says '30%'; it looks like the reporter misread the '0' in the 30 as part of the % symbol. That makes it an $8.05 surcharge. I am also not sure you actually get to take the food home with you. The sign says nothing about that and the reporter may have made an incorrect assumption. There is a reason all you can eat places don't allow doggie bags. If customers could load up a to go container for 81¢ the restaurant would be out of business in a week.
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Then it wouldn't be a deal.
I still don't have a problem with the policy as the only thing anyone need do is take a little at a time.
Or, of course, eat elsewhere.
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If buffets were smart, they would allow people to load up whatever they wanted after a meal, weigh it, pay something reasonable per ounce, and take it on home.
The restaurant could make even more money than before - and probably half would be selling food that would otherwise get thrown out.
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Do I get a refund for eating more than the average diner?
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