Visitor ordering only for themselves

[boingbat]

Invited friends round for drinks and dinner. Things were a bit delayed because I was sorting out kids etc. Served dinner, heard a knock at the door my male friend had ordered a takeaway for one and was incensed when we pulled him up on it. AIBU?

I've just the whole bloody thread and still don't know what time the guests arrived. Come on OP, come back and put us out of our misery.

@cariadlet

nobody knows. We have only the prospect of a chip butty amuse bouche to console us.

Maybe op will come back after the dinner party, they might have made it to the cheese course by now

We have only the prospect of a chip butty amuse bouche to console us.

😂😂😂

Both parties at fault. Guest should not have ordered takeaway but the host was clearly not adequately hosting for him to have to order takeaway! We don't eat dinner until 8ish on weeknights (much to my chagrin) as we dont get in from work until 7.30pm at the earliest, but if we're hosting guests, invite them for 6pm and have dinner on the table for 7pm. Simple.

In Spain they eat late, but they know that

if we're hosting guests, invite them for 6pm and have dinner on the table for 7pm. Simple

I've never had a invitation to dinner earlier than 7.30 pm to eat at around 8.30 pm at the earliest. Unless it's a sort of 'late tea' that children are sharing as well, I suppose.

I normally eat my main meal around 6pm so I'd be starving by 9pm. Sounds like you thought 'let's invite x to dinner' but then didn't organise yourself properly. I think that's pretty rude and it would annoy me tbh.

What time anyone else on this thread likes to eat, is irrelevant. If you have been invited to someone's house for a meal, and you are invited for any time, it is not unreasonable to expect you will eat within 30mins or so of that time. The implication from the OP - with the information she gave - is that the guests had been there some considerable time before this takeaway arrived.
Yes, if he didn't offer the other guests, then it was selfish, but, for all we know, he might have offered the other guests.

Thanks amicissima I couldn't understand the comment!

Well they were probably both rude. If the host invited everyone for say 5, and it had been 4 hours - clearly, the host is being rude. But to order a takeaway is responding to rudeness with rudeness. If I hadn't been fed in 4 hours, I would have grumbled to myself, but as I am not a toddler, would have been able to grin and bear it.
If the invite was for 8 or 8.30 then I think only the guest was rude.

Maybe he thought the oven chips were the meal.

He was still hungry so he ordered a take away.

I want to see this episode of come dine with me.

Starter-oven chip butty with a side of ketchup
Main- rustler burger and potato waffles.
Pudding-frozen mousse you're supposed to defrost but no one does.

Washed down with a carton of wine and a can of Asda vodka tonic.

I’m dying to know more

This whole debacle is hilarious. I just don't understand why he didn't just go home and order his takeaway when it looked like no food was forthcoming! Odd.

Not enjoying some of the food snobbery though. I'm guessing it was naice bread as the starter instead of a sliced white loaf. The oven chips however... 😐

Can't believe a previous poster mentioned part bake rolls in the same breath as Pot Noodles. Are part bakes considered not middle class acceptable enough for MN? They're bloody delicious!

Perhaps the guest has type 1 diabetes and needs to eat at certain times.

In any case, when holding a dinner party it is rude of the hostess not to serve the meal on time.

In what universe is it ok for a guest to order a takeaway at someone else's dinner party??
If she was running late then perhaps an offer of help, or to enquire as to the expected time of the meal. Or if you really couldn't wait any longer, you would make excuses and leave.
Most people would just suck it up and complain later.
No one in their right mind would order secretly and only for themselves.

You were both rude. I couldn't wait until 9pm for my tea.

This must have been done purely for affect. Was he a little drunk ? No need to see him again.

This is precisely why I don’t have dinner parties, because I have 3 kids 5 and under and I can guarantee that it would all go wrong and dinner would be late!

YANBU. I have a friend who brought her own fish and chips to an evening when she knew I was cooking for people. She was working late and was running late and said she wasn’t sure there be any food left. This was years ago and I’m still gobsmacked.

Downright wierd behaviour. Eating is social. If you’re a guest and the food is delayed, you just make polite conversation and hope your stomach doesn’t rumble too loudly.

I get really irritated with parents who can’t organise their kids to be upstairs before the guests arrive. They don’t have to be asleep, and we used to hand round nibbles in our nighties for a treat, but they do have to be corralled. Nothing must stand between me and my supper!

But as for Mr Takeaway - he can fuck right off.