Should Restaurants Charge Customers a Fine for 'Food Wastage'?
SodaHead Living
2012/05/18 18:00:00
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We'll admit it: Sometimes our eyes are a little bigger than our stomachs. But we don't expect to pay extra just because we're feeling a little full! The Kylin Buffet, a Chinese restaurant in England offering an all-you-can-eat buffet -- has posted a notice warning customers of a $32 for "food wastage" fine, The Daily Mail reports.
One mom was told she had to pay the fine after she, her 10-year-old son and 6-year-old niece left two onion rings, a piece of shrimp toast and a spring roll on their plates.
"After we had our starters, we went up for our main course. But a member of staff came over and asked if we weren’t going to eat the food on our plates, and said we would have to pay an extra $32 to cover food wastage costs," Beverley Clark told the Mail. "I was furious and said we were already paying $28 for three meals, but the staff kept checking if we had eaten the food. In the end I wrapped it up in a [napkin], and put it into my bag when they weren’t looking, so it looked like we had eaten it."
After Clark complained, the restaurant deducted about $5 from her bill. "In the end I didn’t have to pay the extra charge, but it felt as though they were trying to rip me off," she said.
"After we had our starters, we went up for our main course. But a member of staff came over and asked if we weren’t going to eat the food on our plates, and said we would have to pay an extra $32 to cover food wastage costs," Beverley Clark told the Mail. "I was furious and said we were already paying $28 for three meals, but the staff kept checking if we had eaten the food. In the end I wrapped it up in a [napkin], and put it into my bag when they weren’t looking, so it looked like we had eaten it."
After Clark complained, the restaurant deducted about $5 from her bill. "In the end I didn’t have to pay the extra charge, but it felt as though they were trying to rip me off," she said.
Sam Fung, manager at the Kylin Buffet, is standing behind the policy. "I accept that my staff should not have spoken to the family about the food on their plates more than once. However, they left a lot of food from the buffet on their plates and we have to charge for wastage of food," Fung told the Mail.
Now, we don't know how it is in England these days, but in America, you're often given way more food that you could possibly eat. And we also have a growing obesity epidemic ... if anything, restaurants should pay you for NOT finishing your food!
Now, we don't know how it is in England these days, but in America, you're often given way more food that you could possibly eat. And we also have a growing obesity epidemic ... if anything, restaurants should pay you for NOT finishing your food!
Top Opinion
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Revolution 2012 2012/05/18 20:07:55
Only thing I let people take home off a buffet was bare bones (for the dogs), and would pour their drink into a paper cup for them- rest of the actual food stayed, unless they paid for carry out
Try running food cost, and making enough profit to stay in business by allowing people to take "excess" home, eventually, REALITY of keeping your doors open will hit you
90% of all profit in a buffet comes from the drink. If a salad bar is included, and the customer drinks water, you are lucky to break even, so If you let people take doggie bags, either prices will go up, or the restaraunt closes down
and that was after sitting on I30 near Mt Pleasant while a Central wiggle wagon burned to the ground for almost 2 hrs
But this poll question was started over an incident which happened in England, and I have no idea whether the doggie bag option is even customarily offerred to British diners.
How about this... cancel the buffet and serve pre determined portions based on what the average person would eat. Or keep your buffet plan, stop inspecting the customer's plate and shut up.
Will my grandkids be told NOT to clean their plates because fat grandpas are dying in Canada? Who will speak for us?!!!
P.S. I like your mailbox plan!
As far as a buffet is concerned, you don't have to pile the food on your plate all at once. Take a few things, eat that, then go back and get a few more things. Easy Peasy. It's extremely stupid to take food off the buffet just to leave it on your plate to be trashed ten minutes later. If you're not going to eat it, don't take it.