Taking food from a hotel breakfast buffet- cheeky??

@Pebbles16 you sound stoned.

I will take fruit and a pastry or mini muffin. If I’m with my (3yo) daughter I might take a roll and a piece of cheese because it’s really hard to find a simple lunch when out and about that she will eat.

Im fine with this because I’m petite and barely eat 1/4 of what I see other people eating at buffet breakfasts. I’ll have some toast, coffee and maybe a boiled egg or piece of cheese. I can’t eat that much at breakfast but might need a little something at 11am. I’m basically subsidising everyone who fills their boots for the day.

Of course it's cheeky. Snaffling an apple isnt the crime of the century but making up a tray of butties is!

Those tiny pots of jam bring me an irrational amount of joy. 😂 Surely a hotel can’t begrudge me simple happiness?

She’s saying he would tuck into the breakfast buffet at whatever hotel they’d gone into so she could take a shit.

What are you saying your husband did, because of your IBS?

In plenty of hotels in Europe the staff are hired to watch for this behaviour, and stop anyone taking food away from breaky. You can have what you can eat but I don't think it's fair to take anything away for later on.

I think it depends how much breakfast you eat. I generally have a small breakfast but would have no qualms about taking a roll and fruit for lunch. The total amount I have is still less or comparable to other people I see eating. If I've paid about £10-15 for breakfast, I think that more than covers what I've eaten/taken.

Yes, I hate this.

Totally this. I’m not proud of myself but I have taken a couple of hard boiled eggs to keep us going at lunchtime when we didn’t want a full meal. Felt very guilty but still did it. I wouldn’t make sandwiches or fill a box though….

I recently stayed in a hotel with a take out coffee cup station. Every day I had a full breakfast, left with an extra cuppa and a pastry/fruit for later. I loved it but wouldn't take more than that and if that hadn't been so easy to do I probably would have consumed the same items in the restaurant and got to the office a little later

We were half board abroad in June. On the days we weren’t going out for lunch I’d take our toddlers snack box and fill it up with the various meats, cheeses and salad bits then buy a couple of baguettes from the Spar and make sandwiches later. I'd often take a few pieces of fruit and pastries for the kids to snack on through the day too.

I have to say there was mountains of food and I wasn’t the only person doing it 😂 I was quite discrete about it (DH didn’t even notice I’d done it!) while others just walked out with armfuls of stuff and none of the waiters said anything.

Overall it probably balances out. I had a coffee and a small smoothie this morning as did my colleague. Will likely do the same again tomorrow. The real issue with excessive consumption probably comes from the people who gorge themselves to ‘get their moneys worth’ with several plates piled high, rather than a sandwich per person.

Having said that, I think it’s one of those excessively frugal things that priorities ‘value’ over enjoyment a bit too much, as it’s unlikely to taste great by the time it’s eaten.

Depends what the rules are and what everyone else is doing. Quite obviously packing up all the soft drinks is simply stealing but apart from that surely we can all apply a bit of context to when it's fine and when it's a bit...scummy.

Well done!

There's an excellent episode of the Adam Buxton podcast where he debates this very aspect of breakfast buffet etiquette with Louis Theroux. www.adam-buxton.co.uk/podcasts/128

I don't take anything for myself but I have been known occasionally to take a couple of slices of turkey/ham for stray cats I've seen in the vicinity 🙈🐱

That’s Barcelona for you 😂 Love the directness of the staff there! I would have been tempted to stuff it in my mouth just for the comedy!

I always take a pastry and coffee back to my room!

I just fill up on the hotel breakfast. Usually the DC will have a cooked breakfast. So their usually ok with a snack until teatime.

We’ve taken takeaway tubs with packed lunches for the plane. Then been grateful we still had them as last year the ai evening meal was so busy and my tired 2 yo especially was getting overwhelmed/overstimulated. There was also no air con in the restaurant. So we took the takeaway tubs and gota take out. We had an apartment with kitchen and a dining table my children were much more settled, calm and cooler. So he could have just been doing the same.

Yes, I will take extra food - a roll, pastry or fruit because there is only so much I can eat at breakfast and some people just seem to sit for ages munching.
I have a holiday to get on with. Most European hotels accept some level of 'extras' (very surprised by Barcelona, unless it was a small hotel).

Have to say that DH did take this a little far some years ago. I have a bowel condition which meant I frequently had to "play the tourist" and make use of hotels' facilities whilst out. (I look very British and have a "determined: I am about to shit myself face" so am never challenged). I would frequently emerge to him partaking in the hotel's cava/prosecco breakfast treats!). He's very charming though.

It's greedy

and mean as not willing to pay out later for lunch / snacks.

I think it is one of those things where what is culturally acceptable varies from country to country. As mentioned some places put out paper bags but now on the continent I think you are seeing more notices saying 'please do not remove items from the breakfast buffet - packed lunches can be provided' or similar. I've also seen places where you can pay a small amount, 5 euros or so, to take lunch from the breakfast buffet.

We stayed at the Cinderella hotel at Euro Disney once and I’ve never seen such a display of greed and bad manners as I saw at breakfast. People were filling up Tupperware boxes with anything they could get their hands on no sooner had the buffet been replenished when they were empty again. People can be disgusting.