Drinks in restaurants?

[SlushMountain]

Say a family of 5 go to a restaurant, is it acceptable to buy only 2 refillable drinks and share them or is that not allowed/ frowned upon? Last time I went we spent £20 on just drinks! What do other people do?

Omg of course you cant

We don't tend to eat in chain restaurants

We don't eat at high end places either, just at the local Indian or one of the pubs in the area.

None of them offer refillable drinks, and all of them are happy to provide tap water. It is not uncommon either for tap water to be offered when taking our food order.

It's the refillable thing that makes it dishonest. If you order a plate of food for you, and 1 plate for 2 kids to share, you have paid X amount for the food you wanted to eat. There is nothing dishonest about not buying a third plate which no-one actually wants to eat. The place is not spending the effort to cook and deliver the third meal, so you ordering one had saved them effort.

With refillable drinks, you are paying X amount for unlimited drinks. If you just refill double the number of times, you together have not consumed less than one person, you've simply paid less.

I would definitely just order tap water, and do regularly, even in very nice restaurants. Please don’t be embarrassed about it, it’s a very normal thing to do. The refillable drinks are for the individual so I agree that they shouldn’t be shared.

How bizarre to be so weird about tap water! Even when I ask for it I always need the jug or glass refilling because everyone drinks more than one glass with their meals.

In the USA you usually get given tap water without asking; sometimes there are jugs with lemon or mint in for you to help yourself in more casual places.

It should be automatic here imo not something you should have to keep asking for!

The sooner you can stop caring what people think of you and being embarrassed the better. No one gives a fuck if you drink tap water.

Why would you be embarrassed asking for tap water, but not be embarrassed effectively stealing from the restaurant?

We always ask for tap water, it’s not even slightly embarrassing. We don’t ask due to cost, just as standard. Many restaurants bring a jug automatically.

So strange that ordering tap water is embarrassing.

Not acceptable.

Asking for tap water is fine. I do it all the time (assuming I'm buying food) as that's what I prefer with food anyway.

Never been to a restaurant that does this but then we mainly eat in chain restaurants

I was once chancing it and tried to fill a water cup at a refill station. A security guard came over 😅 my daughter was so mortified I thought she'd run out. Lesson learned. Yes I was unreasonable

I paid £4.50 for a coke this week. It was supposed to be a large but it was that inbetween a small and pint sized. On reflection, i feel like they did me over…I could buy two 2L bottles for that 😳 no wonder pubs are struggling ffs

It’s not snobby OP but you wouldn’t go to an all you can eat and ask to just pay for one kid, it’s just not how that works.

Tap water is the first thing I ask for when they bring the menus over, perfectly normal

You would be embarrassed to ask for tap water but not embarrassed to steal from the restaurant by ordering refillable drinks for two and using them for four people?

We have one DC who only drinks water, I often have water with my meal and a coffee afterwards.

So you'd make your children go without any sort of drink because asking for tap water is embarrassing, yet you are happy to share two refillable drinks between five people? Add me to the group of people who don't understand this logic.

The best outcome here is that your server would silently judge you, the worst is that you would be called out on this in the middle of the restaurant and asked to pay for the extra drinks. I mean you are free to make your own mind up but for me one of these is clearly 1000x more embarrassing than the other.

Share a refillable but don't refill, probably OK.
Share a refillable and refill? No.

Nothing wrong with asking for tap water!

I get what you’re saying OP, I always hate paying so much for a refillable glass but never refill it so pay £4 for one drink. I can’t refill because it fills me up so much and I’d rather fill myself up on food than fizzy drink that probably costs less than 20p to make. When you then have 4 people and it’s costing £16 it’s so annoying. However, I still pay for a drink each because it’s a bit trashy not to.

Sharing a ranked service plate is totally fine. Sharing a buffet plate is not. You can't just pay for one buffet meal and have two people eat with the price of one. Same with drinks. You can't buy one unlimited refill cup and have more than one person have unlimited drinks. It is not snobbery.

This is so weird that you'd be more comfortable ordering 2 refillable drinks between 5 than ordering tap water with food

Sharing refillable drinks is against Pizza Hut’s (and as far as I’m aware, every chain that offers it) fair use policy.

You could share non-refillable drinks because what they provide isn’t priced based on the idea that it will only need to satisfy one person, but refillable are not shareable. It’s no different from salad bar or buffet lunch type offerings - you can’t just pay for one plate between 4 of you and keep going back 4 times as often as you would if there was just one of you. They don’t price it with that in mind.

Taking a drink for before and after sounds way cheaper, OP. But don’t be embarrassed about asking for water, it’s a sensible, healthy, and environmentally responsible option that loads of people go with. You can still have a bottle of Coke in you bag for after, but some water will probably make the pizza go down easier.

You've never been to a restaurant that does tap water?
Did you quote the wrong post there otherwise i can't understand it!

Sharing refillable drinks is not on. Asking for tap water is very acceptable.

Weird post isn't it

Chain or non chain give tap water if asked for

No you can’t, and it’s not the same as kids sharing one plate. Kids sharing one plate = a set amount of food being shared, so you pay for that amount of food.

Refillable drinks you will quite obviously have more if shared between 5.

I’d be more embarrassed doing that than simply asking for tap water! But £4 per drink sounds pretty standard to be honest for coke/fanta etc

I find it odd you've never been to a restaurant and asked for tap water. I've asked for tap water for years, often it's offered by the waiter anyway and they just bring a jug or carafe. Often we have wine too but sometimes just have water, and that's in expensive non-chain restaurants, it's perfectly fine and normal.