To eat a burger with my hands?

[Happytobefree17]

In a gastro pub?

My friend is aghast that I didn't use cutlery. Thinks I'm some sort of Neanderthal for eating with my hands.

Who is right?

I don't like eating both pieces of the bun as it's too much bread for me so I use a knife and fork after taking the top off. But I also eat pizza with a knife and fork if out at a sit down type restaurant (i.e. not a good stand etc). Lots of other people I know do too but maybe we're all odd!

I always use a knife and fork when eating out. I just think it looks much better

I have to say I think it looks ridiculous. Some foods such as burgers, sandwiches etc are supposed to be eaten by picking them up with your hands! Certainly cut it in half if it's large and there's a possibility of the filling dropping into your lap but it just looks odd to eat a burger with a knife and fork.

I miss wimpys

I have never seen anyone eat a burger with cutlery! Burgers are meant to be eaten with your hands, as are pizza, hot dogs, wraps and sandwiches.
Your friend is odd and totally BU.

Aww she's alright really although right now she's giving me evils everytime I take a bite

But maybe it's because I'm mumsnetting

I use a knife and fork for burgers in a restaurant. Same with pizza. I have dental problems and find it easier to cut off bite-sized pieces.

Most people I eat out with do the same in a restaurant but personally I don't judge either way.

Looks ridiculous? Well, thanks for that.

Yep. I'm being rude.
Better go.

Depends on how big the burger is, sometimes they are so tall one couldn't possibly eat without a knife and fork, but just a normal sized burger I wouldn't pass comment on sombody eating with their hands.
you do need a fork to eat chips though when out and about.

If gastro pubs were so flipping pernickety about their customers table manners and eating nicely then they should have thought a bit harder about stopping serving food on proper plates and instead serving it on boards, slates, flowerpots and all the other garden rubbish they think is cute.

(Breathes heavily, goes into self calming happy place for a few minutes.....)

I think eating a burger with cutlery is very strange and probably 'bad etiquette'.

I cant figure how anyone could eat a gastro pub burger with their hands except a big hairy bloke. A small burger yes but these gastro ones are so big and messy, how does it not get all over your face, hands, lap?

maybe its just me that's messy I also use a knife and fork in a pizza restaurant

I always take the top part of the bun and make two open burgers kind of and then eat it with fork and knife.
I cannot eat it as a whole with cutlery and I cannot eat it with hands without it getting too messy and dripping everywhere which i hate.
My husband used to laugh at me but now he got used

Eating a burger with a knife and fork is so affected. Probably done by the kind of people who are so desperate to appear upper class that they print out and keep those preposterous (and amusing) guides to etiquette from that guy on the Daily Mail website.

I always eat burgers with cutlery and my DH takes the mic, but in my defence I'm a veggie and so the burgers make a lot more of a mess / fall apart.

I saw a man in the coffee shop this morning eating a croissant with a knife and fork. Weird as hell.

A burger is a type of sandwich, it's ridiculous to eat it with a knife and fork unless no choice, see below.

Burgers taste different (better) when eaten with hands.

I have occasionally had a restaurant burger that could not be eaten with hands due to way it was filled. Being forced to eat it with knife and fork made it less enjoyable than it should have been.

Nothing wrong with eating pizza with knife and fork though. Similarly, I eat all chicken (including KFC ) with knife and fork, despite hands being allowed, because I don't like getting fingers sticky.

I use cutlery for burgers and pizza, unless I'm at McDonalds or similar. But that's because I don't like getting food on my hands, and I don't give a toss how anyone else eats theirs.

In a posh gastro pub I would probably take the top bun off and put to one side (too much bread). Then I'd eat the rest with cutlery, mainly because I like to use a lot of mayo, which is messy.

Pizza - I've never managed to eat with hands and end up with it all down my front and over my face. Cutlery is the only way I can eat pizza.

Ok ridiculous is to strong. You can eat a burger with knife and fork every time, if you want to. But it's only wrong to use hands when it's so overfilled as to be unmanageable.

How do you possibly eat a huge gastro pub burger with hands is beyond me. Most of them are so big with so many ingredients inside that I wouldnt even manage to open my mouth that much, not to mention everything falling out and dripping over your chin

I can't stand it when people eat with their hands then lick and suck every finger!!

I agree, they are meant to be eaten with hands and view it as poor etiquette not to. Cut in half first if you need to. If it's that massive remove a bit to be eaten with cutlery. Pizza on the other hand, if they give you a knife a fork use it.
I assume your friend would eat sandwiches with their hands? The queen eats sandwiches with her hands so if it's good enough for her it goo enough for me.

Some gastro pub's burgers are so big that it's impossible to eat them with your hands.
I had one last week, and I tried with my hands first- it started to fall apart. So had to eat it with cutlery...less messy.

In a restaurant I go for knife and fork for a pizza or massively stacked (veggie) burger. Most thin crust pizzas are weighed down with stuff so they flop too much to eat by hand and crushing a stacked burger to be able to stuff it in would look pretty caveman like.