How do people do it?

[Bathtubbathing]

I've just got back from Harvester.

I had a main, 1 bowl at the salad bar and a drink. As did my daughter.

We both rolled out of there stuffed.

How do people do 2, or even 3, courses at a Harvester? 🤷

@OldReliable

Same. That salad is rank. I wouldn’t even eat half a bowl.

It isn’t normal to be in actual pain after a main course and side salad.

To all the PPs saying how unhygienic the salad bar is, last time we went it wasn’t self service, you tell the server what you want and they put it in the bowl for you. I think they started doing this when they reopened after Covid, and they decided to stick with it.

Having said that it isn’t great quality food. Just cheap, child friendly and readily available. We won’t be going again unless nothing else is available.

@Bathtubbathing
I've just discovered that lettuce causes that painful bloated feeling.
Three bowls of chili ? Not a problem.
A small lettuce based salad?
Agony for 45 mins.
Apparently it's reasonably well known.
So maybe it's the components of the meal rather than the quantity.

Says the person who has nothing better to do than create a thread with wide eyed faux naivety, completely perplexed at how someone else can do something that you apparently cannot

🥱

I haven’t set foot in a Harvester in years. Are they any good?

No, they’re really pretty ropey now. Everything just tastes insipid, is really poor quality or has a strange flavour, like sage & onion chips. I go once every few months as one of my friends loves it there so picks it whenever it’s her turn to choose where we eat. The best I can say is that it’s edible. I’d rather go to a burger van.

Calorific requirements vary. Men obviously need to eat more than women, so if portions are geared to male appetites, especially young male appetites, then they are likely to be too much for most women.
Most people are overweight so they may be used to eating oversized portions.
Pain thresholds vary.
it seemed a reasonable question to me.

In the OP's defence restaurant portions (particularly chain and pub portions) are typically larger than the standard portion you'd serve at home. And the op hasn't actually said what she ordered as her main course. If the op is used to eating standard size portions of home cooked food and only one course, it's understandable that a restaurant main with salad and a drink could have been very filling.