Charged for an empty plate?!

If she's giving food to someone else then obviously she's just putting the extra food on her own plate.

I don't know why on earth people seem to think their kids should be able to eat for free! It's YOUR job to pay to feed them, not Greene King's!

Mind you I’ve also never been to a Greene King, just local independents. Perhaps someone who has eaten at Greene King can confirm if the sides are ‘all you can eat’ or single pass?

Makes a change though to the scenario of bringing in a mini picnic for the child in a cafe while an OP just eels out a coffee

I recently went to a buffet breakfast at a lovely hotel £40 for adults (champagne breakfast type thing) £19 for children. I didn't pay for my 1 year old. She had a piece of toast and a yoghurt. They didn't try to charge me but now reading this I'm wondering if I'm a CF? I assumed I wouldn't pay for an under 2. I have 4 children. I paid for the older 3.

I wouldn't have expected to pay for the baby either tbh.

The thing is, when it’s a buffet cavery, you are in a sense paying for the plate to put the food on. Children’s portions get smaller plates.

If you have a separate plate for your baby, you may well be getting separate food for them. And the restaurant has no way of knowing that you’re not, as presumably you can go back up for more food like at most carveries?

Plus where do they draw the line?

You can see how they would soon be losing money if a lot of people cottoned on and asked for a separate plate for children to “share their food”.

The alternative is to do a “kids eat free” like at premier inn breakfast (or similar) but then the adult prices would go up.

Totally different.

What you describe is the equivalent of asking for one dessert with two spoons. So a fixed amount of dessert, to be shared/sampled between two (though to be honest, I prefer not to share my dessert).

However, here with we have an unlimited buffet. That you then share with others, even asking for a plate, and that's qualitatively different. Even though it's 'just' a child who is the additional diner in this case

Everyone with a plate can. If you don't, you can't.

There's nothing to stop people supplying their entire family from an unlimited plate ...except they will all have to share off that one plate

That's the entire point. Pay per plate.

because too many people have done the same but they lie and just fill up an extra plate for free

comment of the night !!!

That's exactly what op was doing, feeding the baby a few mouthfuls from her own plate. But she wanted to put that food off her own plate onto a clean plate.

You go to a place that sells food from a buffet, pick up a plate and expect to fill it for free? That goes against the buffet idea. It would work if you were home with your family I suppose.

If it really is only a few mouthfuls I guess just feed them off your plate. It does seem a bit odd to actually claim it's an empty plate you're paying for. They should've made it clear you're paying for a child's/baby portion of food.
Nobody would pay for an empty plate!

Yeah, those spoonfulls of mashed potato eaten by the hundreds of babies could come up to almost 3lbs of potato if you added it up. Those babies might eat some carrot too.

That's the profit margin right there.

I’ve never been to a carvery where you can keep going up and refilling your plate?

Seriously, how much solid food do you think a 10 month old is going to eat? Why can you not feed them from your plate?

Because you are ordering a set amount of food by ordering a meal.

The OP is ordering a carvery, paying for one plate, piling on enough food for two because you can help yourself.

Ok in this instance it was a very small baby that doesn’t eat much but anyone could do that with any child if it is allowed.

The difference is this is buffet all you can eat style, not a set meal.
I still don’t think they should charge a child that age. Aren’t under 2/3 usually free?

Happy to be corrected but I think the way carvery’s usually work is you get 1 plate and 1 pass through - a set portion of meat is served to you and then you can help yourself to as much of the sides as you can fit on the plate but you can’t go up a second time. So it’s not an all you can eat, and as long as the OP doesn’t use the child’s plate to get an extra meal, she’s not getting anything more that she’s paid for out of this.

I think the restaurant should have given the OP a small side plate for the baby, so it was clear to staff on the carvery that it wasn’t a paid for meal. Sounds like they were being rather difficult / petty

This ^^

I am surprised that people see it differently, I thought everyone would say that the OP was on CF category.

So you put extra food on your plate to serve the two of you and then wondered why they wanted to charge you for it?

At 10 mths DS1 could eat a plateful of roast. He had a massive appetite.

Either you are feeding your child enough to need a plate so you need to pay or else you aren’t and you can use your plate.

I often order 1 meal to share between my 2 young children and ask for a spare plate. Would be a complete waste of money ordering 2 meals as they can't eat that much!
I've never been charged for the plate. Can't see how this is any different?

Businesses charge because that's how they make money. They can either have higher prices and let people get away with more, or they can have lower prices but charge accordingly.
You're not paying for the plate, you're paying for the rent and the kitchen staff and the cleaner and the lighting and you get the idea.
There's a lot of non revenue generating stuff in a business and it all goes on the bits that give direct value to customers. If having your baby eat doesn't add value then don't do it.
You are right to feel hard done by though, if they were savvy they would have a cheap price for little ones, otherwise they will end up losing both your business in the longer term.
However maybe they are close to going bust so maybe the choice will be taken away anyway.

They also have to clean up after your baby. Clean the high chair, the mess off the floor and the plate they have given you. As well as get rid of the nappy if you change your child whilst their etc.
I think its fair.

I don’t see how this is any different to the greedy people who ram their plates full of food and only eat a mouthful . The baby isn’t going to eat much . Much less than how much some people think is acceptable to waste just coz they paid for it !