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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Taking food home from a pub/restaurant

107 replies

storminabuttercup · 03/01/2012 15:44

My grandma often does this, say for example she orders a roast beef baguette and she can't finish it, she wraps the other half and pops in in her handbag. Years ago this would have really embarrassed me, but she did it today and it didn't bother me, was I being unreasonable before to be embarrassed or now to not care I wonder?

Thought I'd pass it over to the mn jury! :-)

OP posts:

Bogeyface · 03/01/2012 21:07

Ooh piglet I am not sure that I would be ok with that!

Taking home what has been served to you on a plate is one thing, but doing a buffet run with a tupperware is a bit off imo!

TastesLikePanda · 03/01/2012 21:09

Whn I go out with my work-friends, most of them will have tupperware boxes in their handbags for just this occasion!
One Indian place near us used to charge for the takeaway containers, but ridiculously loads- something like 10% of the bill - which in a large group could be £10 or more - thats where that tradition came from!

flossymuldoon · 03/01/2012 21:11

Yup, they do it in America and the first time i was asked if i wanted my leftovers to be wrapped up i didn't get what he meant. It took me a couple of minutes staring at him with a gormless look on my face before the penny dropped!
We went to an Indian buffet a couple of months ago and one lady was filling her handbag.

whackamole · 03/01/2012 21:12

HOw weird.

I thought it was the norm to ask for a doggy bag if you hadn't finished it!

hellsbells4 · 03/01/2012 21:13

storminateacup- i do agree with you about takeaways but our chef just says that he would not want to work in a take-away business and that he never uses take-aways himself. He is ultra, ultra cautious by nature but makes up for it in other ways - his cooking is good. I agree with you about the labels too - but it is what we have agreed for now.

moreyear · 03/01/2012 21:18

@ LaCoccinelle here in New Zealand there is a definite move to discourage this by the health and safety offices of some city councils. Their arguement being that there are stringent proceedures to be followed at every stage of the food delivery/preperation process in order that any reported case of food poisoning can be traced to the exact point of contamination ie food delievered by the butcher 1 degree outside of the allowed temperature range. If food is allowed off the premises this chain is broken, people might store it/reheat it incorrectly but the restaurant can still be held liable. Thus in order to protect themselves and their health and safety record restaurants can refuse 'the doggy bag'. Very silly - hopefully most people have the commonsense to think 'hmm forgot to stick the chicken in the fridge last night when I got home so I'll just bin it', but more the result of buracracy gone mad than individual restaurants being difficult.

BrianButterfield · 03/01/2012 21:21

It isn't Ok at a buffet though! How cheeky!

pigletmania · 03/01/2012 21:24

Thats my mum, thank god she does not eat out often at all. This happened about 7 years ago. When I have been out to a buffet with friends and have told her, she has asked me whether I have taken some of the buffet home, and that I must do this in the future . Hence we don't take her out to eat as she will probably do something embarrassing.

Irishchic · 03/01/2012 21:34

A bit off topic but we went on holidays last june to a really lovely hotel in Tenerife (11 years married and 5 kids, first time we have ever gone abroad, so a big big deal for us) There was the most amazing all you could eat breakfast buffet. We ate shameless amounts of food, and sometimes took a few apples or bananas back to the room for snacks.

BUT....this other family, took a massive rucksack with them to every breakfast, piled their plates high with everything possible, (2 adults and 2 kids, so quite a bit of grub going in) and the hilarious part was they used to look around furtively, and then kinds of casually shovel it in under the table cloth and thought no one could see them, when in fact me and my dh, and all our kids, and several other guests saw them at this every meal.

Thought it was funny, but also a bit naff of them.

Traceymac2 · 03/01/2012 21:47

My toddlers will often not even touch their food when we go out so now I do ask for staff to put it into a container to take home as I know that they will ask for something to eat and there is no way I am going o prepare another lunch/dinner when the one I have paid for is perfectly good to give them again. I would only do this if they ate very little. Haven't reached the point of wrapping fish in a tissue and popping it into my bag yet!

exoticfruits · 03/01/2012 21:59

There is nothing wrong with it-if you ask they will wrap it for you-there is no embarrassment.

PercyFilth · 03/01/2012 22:03

here in New Zealand there is a definite move to discourage this by the health and safety offices of some city councils. Their arguement being that there are stringent proceedures to be followed at every stage of the food delivery/preperation process in order that any reported case of food poisoning can be traced to the exact point of contamination ie food delievered by the butcher 1 degree outside of the allowed temperature range. If food is allowed off the premises this chain is broken, people might store it/reheat it incorrectly but the restaurant can still be held liable. Thus in order to protect themselves and their health and safety record restaurants can refuse 'the doggy bag'.

But surely they can't forbid people from taking away food that they have paid for? They can decline to package it for them, but how could they stop people packing it themselves? And where does this leave take-away restaurants?

breatheslowly · 03/01/2012 22:03

Wouldn't fish or curry make your handbag smell?

EttiKetti · 03/01/2012 22:06

I always ask for the rest to take home when we eat in an Indian restaurant. I can only eat half, our one does takeaway anyway...no issue!

Grumpla · 03/01/2012 22:32

Leftover wine is definitely a staff perk. NOT for other diners to snaffle.

If you had done that to me when I was waitressing for minimum wage and nicked my only chance at a decent drink at the end of a twelve hour shift I would certainly have spat in your dessert been most put out. Actually I probably would have picked the bottle up and told you that we couldn't possibly allow you to drink it on health and safety grounds. And then I would have spat in your dessert anyway .

Taking leftover food with you is absolutely fine, however. Often used to wrap up food and if there were ever leftovers on my plate at a restaurant (unlikely) I'd not feel embarrassed about doing the same.

emsyj · 03/01/2012 22:35

I would like to clarify that the full bottle of wine I took home from the Chinese restaurant was my wine that I had bought, not half-inched from another diner's table! Stealing other people's wine off their tables is really not acceptable!!!

breatheslowly our preferred Indian restaurant puts the leftovers in takeaway foil tubs and then puts them in a paper takeaway bag THEN puts a plastic carrier bag round it too, so no need for a curry/handbag 'situation'.

breatheslowly · 03/01/2012 23:10

Emsyj - you might not do the curry/handbag thing, but it appears that the relatives of some of the posters on here do. Strangely no one has posted who actually does this themselves.

HarrietSchulenberg · 03/01/2012 23:16

I haven't read everyone's replies, but I take home food I can't finish, as long as there's enough of it left to make a meal/snack with later or the next day. I'm forever taking bits of pizza home with me.

One of the most disappointing nights of my life was when I returned home after a very large and very delicious curry that I couldn't finish, only to find that I'd left the bag of leftovers in the pub that we'd popped into on the way home. After 3 pints I was really looking forward to tucking into it, and it was just not there!

In my younger, less "grown up" years, I have been known to take home half bottles of wine that other diners have left behind, but only after they'd paid and left. Even I'm not low enough to actually take it off their table while they're still sitting there!!!

emsyj · 03/01/2012 23:35

They obviously don't eat in the sort of high class establishments that I do!

I hear you Harriet - DH once left an almost full peshwari naan (only slightly nibbled at the edge) in a foil bag on the worktop at his parents' house after an evening out and by the morning his mum had binned it! He did go through the bin, but it had been contaminated with used tea bags by the time he got up. I have never really forgiven her...

Bogeyface · 04/01/2012 00:02

Irishchic what you have described there is known as the "Disney breakfast-to-lunch snaffle* :o

There have been several MN threads about it!

CheerfulYank · 04/01/2012 00:21

Y'all don't get the rest of your food wrapped up?

You Brits. And here we are, getting the blame for being wasteful with our tumble dryers and whatnot.

MartyrStewart · 04/01/2012 00:24

I used to wrap leftover paella in foil and make it into a swan when I worked in a Spanish restaurant

CheerfulYank · 04/01/2012 01:04

Hey Martyr ! How's every little thing?

FunkyChicken · 04/01/2012 01:05

Check this out re taking food home when you eat out....

www.toogood-towaste.co.uk/

Fishpond · 04/01/2012 01:40

Yank my kindred spirit - that was my reaction when I clicked on this thread too. Although you have Kentucky ancestors?

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