[jayceedenton]

Yes it is. Asking your waiter to wrap up the rest of your food to go almost never happens in the UK.

Maybe this is creeping in due to seeing Americans doing this in movies. You start to realise how people cope with those huge portions sizes in the US. Many people don't eat everything in one sitting.

It's hard to explain why we don't do it in the UK. We generally assume that packaging is not free so therefore wouldn't expect someone to give free takeaway boxes. Also, like almost everything cultural in the UK, I expect it is rooted in class snobbery. If you need to take away, maybe this indicates that you're poor and need to make a meal last. These aren't conscious prejudices, they're relics of the past and subconscious.

[lnxg33k1]

As italian, this kills me, what if there’s leftover? The restaurant just throws it away? Food? For class snobbery? Like the restaurant can’t reuse it, no? So it’s just thrown away?

[CogitoCogito]

I assume people would just adapt to the culture by generally not ordering more than they will eat.

[pjc50]

Indeed - this goes along with other cultural values of clearing your plate and not wasting food. Some pubs offer "senior" portions for adults who don't eat much.

It is definitely rare, but not completely unheard of; more common if you're in a sitdown place that also does takeaway/delivery. I've done it a few times. One memorable incident was in Bradford where we arrived late at a curry house after interminable faffing around, were all extremely hungry, ordered more than we usually would, and halfway through the starters and giant naan realized that we'd overdone it. Think we got more than one meal out of the leftovers.

[lnxg33k1]

Leftovers happen (semiquote)

[znpy]

Very bland reply.

Portion sizes vary by restaurant, and also you’re not always the same level of hungry.

Just yesterday i tried a new restaurant, the meal was delicious and the portions were unexpectedly large (and i had a single dish, a single course).

I happily took the leftovers away.

[ric2b]

I regularly ask the waiter how large is the plate or if they do half-plate (quite common) if I'm not feeling very hungry.

If they don't do half-plate and the plates are large I might ask around the table if someone wants to split or take a portion of mine.

[CogitoCogito]

What's your point? That there might sometimes be leftovers even if you plan to finish it? So what? People also take left overs home and sometimes never eat them. It could very well be the case that places that don't send home boxed leftovers result in less overall waste than places that do. Especially when you consider the boxes sent home as well.

No system is perfect and a culture of taking home leftovers does not necessarily reduce waste overall.

[hk__2]

> No system is perfect and a culture of taking home leftovers does not necessarily reduce waste overall.

Well not being able to take home leftovers does increase waste, because as others have pointed out there will always be cases where you will have leftovers, no matter how careful you are.

[CogitoCogito]

I’ll explain why this is not necessarily true. If you are able to take home leftovers, there is less incentive not to end up with leftovers. Hence the amount of leftovers should _increase_ as a whole. Some of those leftovers will be left in the restaurant by customer choice (resulting in waste) and some will be taken home. Some of the food taken home will not be eaten which then also will become waste.

So the question as to which system results in less waste boils down to a question that must be answered experimentally.

Reducing waste on a societal level is complex. Cultural practices of restaurants boxing food to take away may result in less waste but it may also result in more waste.

[rovr138]

> I assume people would just adapt to the culture by generally not ordering more than they will eat.

How do you adapt and order less than 1 thing?

[diggan]

Restaurants are sometimes OK with splitting a dish in two/half if you ask nicely. Sometimes I do this for lunch when I'm not very hungry, and can't remember a single time someone said no.

[CogitoCogito]

Is this a serious question? Order the smaller food items?

[Dalewyn]

That's kind of tedious to do when a single menu item here in America is usually, to describe it aptly, infamously yuuuuuge.

[CogitoCogito]

We're not talking about America, we're talking about the UK.

[Jochim]

Outside of fine dining/small plates, portion sizes are fairly large in the UK if you're planning on eating three courses.

[Dalewyn]

Apologies, the original story was about Simon getting overwhelmed by American servings so that context stuck.

[lnxg33k1]

If anything, it shows us that life is short, and can end at any moment, and maybe we shouldn't fill it with non-problems, like calculating the size of the food we order in order to don't have to take it away .-.

[paganel]

You're not going to eat re-heated food that you've had at the restaurant a few hours prior, no-one who cares about food ever does (unless you're an American, maybe).

[defrost]

This sub thread is filled with many examples of non Americans happy to take uneaten leftovers for later - it varies by country and culture.

> no-one who cares about food ever does

That's a bit universal for what's simply your opinion.

[paganel]

Even if they're non-Americans, this is a verily heavily American-influenced forum so the people here most probably have more American habits compared to the average people in their countries.

> That's a bit universal for what's simply your opinion.

Yes, and that's a feature, not a bug, we're here to share our opinions, this is not a peer-reviewed forum.

With all that said, I still cannot understand how come a person who says he/she cares about food could eat re-heated takeaway stuff (supposedly at the microwave, which makes it double yuck-y).

[hk__2]

> Yes, and that's a feature, not a bug, we're here to share our opinions, this is not a peer-reviewed forum

If it’s your opinion, you may want to introduce it with "Personally, I would never …" instead of writing "no-one who cares about food ever does", which is obviously false.

> With all that said, I still cannot understand how come a person who says he/she cares about food could eat re-heated takeaway stuff (supposedly at the microwave, which makes it double yuck-y).

There are other ways to re-heat food, you can mix with other things, you can also eat it cold if that’s your thing. It’s also not just about caring about food, it’s also caring about money: when you eat your leftovers, you don’t have to pay for new food.

[Reason077]

> "Asking your waiter to wrap up the rest of your food to go almost never happens in the UK."

It happens, I've done it. Certainly at pizza restaurants and such where we've over-ordered. It's easy to chuck half a pizza or whatever in a takeaway box, and they're always happy to do so.

It's just less common in the UK because meals generally aren't so oversized like they can be in the US. In the UK we usually order what we can eat. If there's food left on my plate, it's because it didn't taste good and I don't want it.

[fingerlocks]

The meals aren’t actually oversized in the US, they are serving you 2 or 3 meals when you order. Nobody expects you to eat all of that food in one sitting. Many restaurants even place the to-go containers on your table without asking because it’s culturally ingrained.

[gbuk2013]

No it’s not - we’ve done this many times in London in all sorts of places, chains, small restaurants and even a very fancy restaurant (the waiters there looked positively happy when we asked).

We don’t do it often only because we don’t over-order as a general rule (c.f. my wife’s Chinese family in Canada who over-order every time we go out and take whatever is left home).

[michaelt]

> If you need to take away, maybe this indicates that you're poor and need to make a meal last.

I'd say it's the other way around: The British norm of eating everything on your plate was traditionally to avoid food waste.

And even though supermarket food is incredibly cheap these days, the norm is maintained by parents who want their children to eat their vegetables.

So Brits rarely see one another asking for to-go boxes even though many restaurants will offer them for free.

[politelemon]

> It's hard to explain why we don't do it in the UK

I wonder if you're assuming I'm not from the UK, I am. I've seen it regularly, across strata. You are not speaking for the entire nation.

Clearly (judging by the mixed comments where some say it's not common, and some say it is) this is a regional thing, but the assumption being made in that thread, and your comment, is untrue.

[justinclift]

> ... almost never happens in the UK.

Maybe it's a regional thing?

Seemed to be fairly common in London when I lived there for a few years.

[dfawcus]

Look up the demographics of London.

It is an exception compared to the rest of the UK.

[jjgreen]

... about to post the same, particularly in curry places ...

[Jochim]

This simply isn't true anymore. Even pre-covid, many restaurants were delivering food and it was becoming normal to box up leftovers.

I've had upmarket steakhouses offer to box up my remaining food despite them not offering delivery.

[vr46]

You're definitely not speaking about the UK as a whole, this is completely normal and rooted in not wanting to waste food.

[Fluorescence]

The wasteful step is to order more food than you will eat. Someone not finishing their meal is what I don't recognise. If someone has a small appetite I am used to them enquiring about portion size and arranging to split dishes with others rather than expect to bag up an excess. There are always people keen to get their hands on anything going spare anyway.

I only see it happen if someone falls ill, is called away or there was an error in the order e.g. you manage to order four entire chickens instead of four portions.

[fingerlocks]

But why is it wasteful if you intend to eat a portion of your dinner for tomorrow’s lunch? All the food is eventually eaten.

Is it because a small paper box is involved? Would you find it less obscene if everyone carried a reusable food container with them to a restaurant to mitigate the risk of offensive boxed leftovers?

[hk__2]

This whole discussion feels like "why would you need debuggers, you should not introduce bugs anyway". Even if you are careful you will eventually end up in a situation with leftovers; it may be your fault, but it may also be the restaurant’s fault.

[vr46]

Not really, because different people are different. Some may not have the capacity to eat fewer large portions - like me - and eat less, more frequently.

Many people eat more than they need to at any given time, that is arguably greedy and argubably wasteful in a different way.

Portion sizes are static, appetites vary, letting people manage for themselves is perfectly fine.

[robertlagrant]

> It's hard to explain why we don't do it in the UK

Due to various factors, we can't afford to make more food for that price. So we charge the same (or more) for less food on the plate compared to other countries.

> Also, like almost everything cultural in the UK, I expect it is rooted in class snobbery. If you need to take away, maybe this indicates that you're poor and need to make a meal last. These aren't conscious prejudices, they're relics of the past and subconscious.

This is just you having a hammer and everything looking like a nail. If you're shamefully poor, you're not eating out at all. Cheap takeaway food like fish and chips is definitely not shameful, and people of all socioeconomic classes eat it.

[petepete]

Also this anecdote is from 2006, nearly twenty years ago. It definitely wasn't popular then and now is only likely in certain types of establishment (probably places that do deliveries).

[lowercased]

> You start to realise how people cope with those huge portions sizes in the US. Many people don't eat everything in one sitting.

Yep. It conflicts with the "clean your plate!" mentality many kids were brought up with, but realizing that a meal you buy is often really enough for two meals and that it's OK to take some back with you can help both your weight and your wallet.

[pbhjpbhj]

I do it -- 'please put that meat in a container for me' -- and have for a couple of decades. But then I rarely can afford to go out and most places provide normal portions you finish in one sitting.

[_joel]

I do it all the time, mainly to keep for the dog. I was asked this week at a pizza place if I wanted to take the rest home too. I don't think it's as uncommon as you think.