AIBU to conclude that "Fine Dining" restaurants more often than not offer miserly portions of food?

Apologies for the bump, but this post reminded me of the time that DP bought me an afternoon cookery lesson with a Michelin-starred chef. We were cooking guinea fowl breast as the main. There were 20 diners, so we had 10 birds. After the breasts had been removed, the carcasses of each bird went into a huge stock pot with other good stuff, where they simmered for several hours. Then the resulting stock was reduced and reduced and reduced until there were two tablespoons of sauce for each diner, so each bird had become 4 tbsp.

There is so much richness in the sauces in these places that you fill up quite nicely, especially since fine dining restaurants tend to serve yummy bread to mop the sauce up with. But as PP mentioned, it probably helps if they are not all plant-based.

I’ve eaten at many fine dining restaurants and never came away feeling hungry, more often than not I’m stuffed and struggling to finish the last course.
If you were hungry, you’re right to be annoyed and should raise this with the restaurant directly, but I think YABU to label all fine dining restaurants the same.
Also a bit perplexed by the cost, £60 doesn’t sound a lot for a full tasting menu, not saying this means you should have left hungry, but made me wonder if the place you went just wasn’t all that great, as it seems a bit off to me.

Why do they do such things? It's the same with fruit gums, vegan now

I'd go for the trad jam

I'm shocked at how many of these places with supposedly skilled chefs will not cater for food allergies. I get that it's a mixed kitchen environment but "lesser" places manage it.

I’ve never left a fine dining restaurant hungry and my go to order at McDonalds is a Quarter Pounder meal with fries with Chicken Selects with BBQ Sauce on the side so I don’t think I fall into the competitive under-eater bracket.

I suspect that being vegan may be the issue as a lot of the calories in classic French cooking come from obscene amounts of delicious butter, cream, rendered animal fat and the like.

Most Michelin starred restaurants I’ve been to do indeed serve tiny plates but the number of courses and the richness of the food has always left me full.

Somebody above mentioned Alchemilla in Nottingham; I don’t know if they are still doing the hay baked celeriac course but I’ve had it twice, once before and once after it got its Michelin star and it was divine. I wonder if their vegan menu might be worth a try for you.

I love people who don't wither under the pressure to be more elegant.

Reminds me a bit of my dad. We'd all be giving it our best "ber ren henna freeto con albon deegas. And then he'd say a seventeen and a twenty two.

Op you are spot on. About 20 years ago I had a "proper" job and often took clients out. A few of us went to a very high level restaurant. I and my lead client ordered chicken...well it was described as chicken, sparrow was nearer. It came with two piped potato things. The waiter asked my client "would sir like vegetables". My client who was very very good company said in his broad Glasgow accent "eye chips". I hurt for about two days from laughing. We drank up, I paid the Bill and went to pizza express.

The down side was the grief from the boss at having bought two lots of meals. But at least we were full.

In my experience fancy dining is emperors new clothes

I’ve only ever done a 7 course taster menu once. It was fun but expensive and we went for cheesey chips straight afterwards as we were so hungry!

I was going to mention Alchemilla. Same with me. As I was eating it felt small, but after seven courses (plus cheese plus amuse bouches!) I was stuffed. (And I can put away plenty!)

I think people are scapegoating the fact that it was a vegan tasting menu here.

If it’s genuinely a Michelin starred fine dining restaurant then the vegan menu and each dish should work perfectly and be of the same standard as the rest of their offering. The vegan option shouldn’t just be a shit version of the meat option with a slab of flesh removed and replaced with a single mushroom. Establishments of this caliber have no business advertising a “vegan tasting menu” if it’s just a half hearted after thought defined by the absence of meat.

Most places offering a vegan tasting menu will ask for a few days notice as they have to order in extra ingredients. Typically, they are heavy on the mushrooms and theres truffle in almost every dish, but I’ve always felt that they were thoughtful vegan plates, and not just the meat option with most of its ingredients removed.

I agree, some of them are a complete piss-take.

Do you mind me asking where you went?

(Although we are also gannets, so maybe it’s not the best idea to pay them a visit!)

We did a tasting menu at a Michelin starred restaurant in Spain. Almost every course consisted mainly of foam (and tasted of mushrooms). It was interesting, some of the courses were delicious, and it's put me off mushrooms for life.. We did go and buy a packet of biscuits after, to take away the taste of mushrooms...

We went to a rooftop vegan Michelin Starred restaurant in Rome last summer which was exceptional and unusual in that there is nothing of the kind in the UK.

I had a 2 Michelen star tasting menu and was really full by the end of it. I remember by the time they got to the meat "main event" type part of the meal it was a bit of an effort to get it down. It was an amazing, memorable night and I felt I really did get my monies worth.

I have been left hungry often though at lesser places, where its like £30 for a seabass main and you get a tiny piece of fish and a few veg / 2 potatoes with a tiny pot of sauce.

Has anyone been to the Fat Duck in Bray? 5 hours we were there for, they block out the light from the windows and there didn't seem to be any heating. Each course was a work of art but not in a million years would I repeat it.
I'd rather have a simple, whole plate of food of the freshest ingredients.

Oh absolutely. They come round with bread every 3 minutes which being starving you grab. Worst are Michelin tasting menus. A spoon of something delicious then 20 mins wait for the next spoon etc

Well you might be charged a little extra (probably varies depending on the place), but no restaurant is going to refuse a customer who asks for bread.