Would you say this was a red flag on a date?

Good that you understand. Learn from it.

Honestly OP as soon as I saw your post I knew this would be how it would go. MN seems very old fashioned on issues like this and all the 'ooh etiquette' shite, like street food isn't a huge and popular thing in the UK! It feels very Hyacinth Bucket to me. My mum did say she was brought up this way but she acknowledged times were changing (and this was when I was a child in the 90s!) and said she would have to get used to it.

I'd suggest throw this bloke back and one of the pearl clutchers are welcome to him. They can discuss how uncouth and poorly brought up people are these days while you live in 2025 with the rest of us who are perfectly capable of enjoying food in a normal way x

Eating a sandwich while walking is "pretty weird"?! The actual fuck? Honestly, OP, I cannot imagine anyone actually being offended by this.

My take is that he probably imagines you're not being honest saying you're happy to walk, and has taken it upon himself to impose presumed comfort upon you. In which case, I'd say amber flag; have a chat with him and say something to the effect of "next time I say I'm happy doing something, please just take me at my word" and move forward based on his response to that.

Yes, I'd find it very awkward walkingnalong with someone eating..it'd put me off..I think he wws trying to be polite. Sorry OP. On the plus side, not a red flag and quite possibly a green one.

Am I the only person who has never been told, and doesn't think, that walking and eating is rude? Am I the problem?

But why is it bad manners ,? Because you might drop crumbs falling down off of you ? Or because of that prostitute thing like the pp said ? Why isn't it bad manners to eat at a table ?

Sidestepping the whole walking and eating issue, he was perhaps ill-mannered to make you feel as though you'd committed some kind of social indiscretion. Rather than hassling you, the polite thing to do would be to pretend he needed to sit down for a few minutes, which I'm sure you'd have agreed to. Might have been first date nerves.

Perhaps he was just trying to be chivalrous? He probably (wrongly in this case) assumed that you would be more comfortable sitting down to eat but didn't want to make him sit down with you. He insisted to stress the point that he really didn't mind at all...?

Sounds more like he was concerned for your comfort.
I didn't realise 'til now that eating a sandwich whilst walking is bad manners!
If, as it seems by the comments, some people really do have an issue with it and he is one of them, then his insisting that you sit down would have been reasonable to him. Maybe judgemental, maybe not! Who knows. Ask him? Interesting topic of conversation.

Not a red flag though.

The big question is, are you going on a second date ??? 🤭

Seems to have. I’m not sure I’d personally have done that on a date as I’d be too shy in all honesty and not because I consider it bad manners. So here’s the thing, I enjoy taking day trips to different places in the UK and almost everywhere, people are eating outdoors whilst walking about especially when it’s sunny weather. Also, why are some types of foods okay like ice cream to eat whilst walking about enjoying your day out (and they are often messy as heck!) but your common sandwich isn’t okay?!

Some of the responses are hilarious on this thread 😂

But this is serious business…I can’t make up my mind without the salient information, @Margaretbaxter. What kind of sandwich was it? What kind of bread? (I’m hungry and my slow cooker still has over an hour left on it).

Sounds controlling it's up to you how / where you eat your sandwich and I am someone who considers it bad manner to eat when walking in the street.

I would consider it a red flag. Although I'd probably raise it with him to ask why he was so insistent before drawing any final conclusions.

It's not for him to police your manners.

@MoominMai She was on a date. She was on a date when she started her food and then took leftovers from the lunch with her into the next part of her date (they were still together).
My personal view is that’s a bit odd. Fair enough she was full and find to take the leftovers, but to get them back out again (on the same date) and start eating again is strange. That’s why I queried the timeline.
Did the date go on for hours?

I was brought up to think it was rude. He was trying to be polite. You were completely within your rights not to be dictated to. I think you are probably not a good match 🤷

OMG HE INSISTED THREE TIMES! MAJOR RED FLAG.

Same! I wouldn't dream of doing that on a date. Maybe a few months into a relationship if that's your vibe, but on a third date? Definitely no. It's bad manners in the situation you're describing.

I'm imagining the scenario:

OP: I'm hungry again now. I'll eat my doggy bag sandwich while we walk.
OP's Date: Oh, would you like to sit down?
OP: No, I'll just eat it now [continues walking, rummages for sandwich]
OP's Date: Are you sure you wouldn't like to sit down?
OP: [chomps] No, I'm fine [commences eating sandwich]
OP's Date: There's a bench over there, shall we sit down?
OP: YOU ARE COERCIVELY CONTROLLING ME! THIS IS A RED FLAG!!

I don't understand why the people who seem to think eating and walking as rude seem to need to make out like the op is eating in such a piggish way that she's scoffing, guzzling, get food everywhere... She's eating a sandwich, its not like she's trying to eat soup with her bear hands 😂
Also questionable that the pp thinks it's 'sad' that others haven't heard it's rude. Maybe we should decide wearing a blue shirt on a Monday is terribly uncouth and disgusting and it's terribly sad others haven't heard it's rude

Again with the "scoffing"! What is it about walking that turns eating into scoffing?

What are the rules? Is eating on a train OK? Would it have been OK to eat on the park bench? Is that scoffing?

Is it permissable to eat in the car? Is that scoffing or eating?

I love the how easy it is to cause a scandal in 2025 - eat a sandwich while walking,!!

The fact that you’ve never heard of it is sad, but now you have. And if you’d been on a date with the guy in question, you’d have had an opportunity to behave in a much nicer way.

or you could have doggedly persisted being a bit crass, scoffing as you walk along.

I’m amazed at how many people think it’s rude or embarrassing to eat whilst walking, I’ve never thought anything of it!

Thank you, OP - I think this is my favourite mn thread ever! The amount of huffing and puffing and outrage about EATING WHILE WALKING is making me laugh so much, I had no idea people were so uptight about it! It's like finding hundreds of my 85 year old mother in one place and it's cracking me up.

OP I think you have good instincts - a bloke's reaction to you saying no - to anything - is very telling. And who wants to spend time with someone who either thinks he knows better than you what's good for you, or who gets his pants in a knot by someone eating in a park?