Eating in Everyman

[AlexaAmbidextra]

Prompted by the eating on a train thread, how do people feel about cinema goers eating in Everyman, a cinema group renowned for serving food and drink to patrons whilst in their seats?

I was really excited when I discovered there was an Everyman near me and am now using it in preference to the Odeon. You get to sit in lovely comfortable armchairs with loads of leg room and they have a menu you can choose from which includes hot meals, nibbles, wine, hot drinks etc. which is delivered to your armchair before the film starts.

I ordered some hot food last week and got the decided stink-eye from the woman sitting next to me. I felt really uncomfortable and was very conscious of trying to eat as discreetly as I could. As the food is advertised as a big part of the Everyman experience is it unreasonable to take advantage of this?

It’s expected to eat in there, you were definitely not being unreasonable.

Yeah. It’s the thing.

You’re meant to eat in Everyman. That’s the point of Everyman! YANBU.

My whole family.adore our Everyman cinema. We go regularly (it's also our Christmas Eve treat every year). We always eat. I normally go for flatbreads and hummus washed down with milkshakes. Yum!

Every time we've been the vast majority of people are eating and enjoying a drink. It's the absolute norm and what Everyman is known for. The woman giving you the side eye is being very strange. Try and ignore. People need to do their research into where they're going.

If you get that next time, point out that the cinema actively encourages it. Of course if you'd known that you could have advised her given that this person appeared to have lost the art of speech for a short time.

Thank you all. I wish though that the 2% who voted YABU would clarify their reasoning.

I don’t have an issue with the eating in and of itself but it’s the way some people eat at Everyman that gets my goat. Mid-film is not the time to swap, to critique what you’ve just eaten, to chew like a slurpy bovine or to start trying to hail the staff and complain that your food is too hot/cold/spicy/whatever.

plunkplunkfizz

Well absolutely. That would be unacceptable behaviour wherever you are. I can’t say I’ve ever seen any of this at my Everyman. In fact I’m pleased to have found a cinema where people behave in a civilised manner. No talking, phones or people getting up and down thank goodness.

It won't be the fact that you ordered food as she would have known that the place is a cinema/restaurant. It will have been because you were annoying her in some other way, (whether you were aware of it or not).

We all think that our own manners and way of eating is acceptable but we find the way some others behave intolerable.

Maybe have a think about how you were behaving and if you are happy that you were being reasonable then the problem is more than likely with her.

A new one has opened by me and I had no idea you could eat hot food in there! I don’t really like sweets and chocolate so this is amazing news for me (especially since they changed the cheese sauce in nachos in the odeon )

AgeShallNotWitherHer

I’ve had a think about how I was behaving and reached the following conclusion. I absolutely was not annoying her in any other way. I was sitting quietly in my seat, perfectly still. The initial dirty look I got was when the staff member handed me my tray of food. I hadn’t even started eating ffs! My manners are fine thanks and my ‘way of eating’ hadn’t even commenced.

Maybe you had ordered the last portion of what she wanted to order.

It sounds like the type of place I would avoid to be honest. I don’t like being near other people when they’re eating so if just go to a standard cinema chain to try and avoid that.

That's the whole point of going there surely?
Saying that, my friend and I got shushed at a singalong show at our local cinema, WTF

It sounds like the type of place I would avoid to be honest. I don’t like being near other people when they’re eating so if just go to a standard cinema chain to try and avoid that.

QuestionableMushroom. Well that’s fair and reasonable isn’t it? What you wouldn’t do though is go to Everyman and disapprove of people doing what you do there which is eat.

My local cinema is an everyman. The last time I went I was sat next to a family who ordered ice cream for the little boy.... It came in a glass jam jar with a mental spoon. The constant clinking noise of metal against glass drove me nuts so I now drive 30 minutes to the nearest town when I want to go to the cinema.

Yanbu - I have just learnt if I want to concentrate on a film to not go the the everyman.

I was really excited when realised that they are serving food to your seat. We had pizza and hot drinks, the family in front of us had milkshakes, everything was fine until the pair next to me started eating crisps or something. It was a big bag (not from Everyman) and they produced a LOT of noise with it.

'to the everyman' ... Typing to quickly

You weren’t at all unreasonable

I do however think the cinema is unreasonable.

It will make a significant profit on the food it sells. However serving hot food puts too much trust in an unknown. Someone could be seated next to someone with an appalling way of eating - therefore ruining their enjoyment. It’s one thing to shovel popcorn in.

It’s another to be sloshing, slurping etc hot food.

You weren’t unreasonable but I don’t think a cinema is the right place to serve hot dinners.

Nope @AlexaAmbidextra cos I’m not a knob head and side eye giver clearly was.
Admittedly I think wine is an excellent idea at the cinema.

It's annoying when you're in the row behind and the waiting staff are blocking your view.
Can't understand why people can't manage for two hours without stuffing themselves!
They are lovely cinemas but they'd be even lovelier if they had a food-free zone. But the clientele do have better manners than the nachos-chobblers at my local Odeon.

It makes no sense that she gave you 'the decided stink-eye'.

She probably just wanted to see what you were having and you perhaps misinterpreted her look.