Portion sizes in pubs and restaurants-why are they so big?

[AlternativelyWired]

Unless of course it's somewhere very fancy.
Inspired by the calories on menus threads I was wondering why portions are so big. One place we go to does a children's pizza, chips and peas. This is just short of 900 calories. It's a Chicago town style pizza with a large handful of chips and a portion of peas. Even the adult menu has very little that's below 800 calories. Starters to share (for two people) are over 1000 calories. Some of the meat 'challenges' are over 4000 calories each! Why?
Surely if portion sizes were smaller or rather, appropriate, this would be better than stating calorie values and would help avoid food waste. Food waste induces a lot of guilt in me, and the calories do too as a former anorexic, and although eating out is a treat that we don't do often, I don't want a huge plateful of food that I won't be able to finish. I think the meat challenges are obscene but that might be my eating disordered and veggie brain speaking.
Why are pizzas so big? And burgers? Over 1000 calories for a burger and that's without the chips.
Could places offer small portions? Although even the seniors menu is a larger than normal portion.
I don't particularly want to know the calories of the dishes on offer but I do want a choice of smaller portions rather than contributing to food waste.
And while I'm at it, what happened to sandwiches on menus? In the 80s and 90s everywhere we went had a sandwich section with egg mayonnaise, prawn mayonnaise, beef, ham, cheddar ploughman's and now sandwiches don't seem to exist except in cafés. A nice sandwich with a salad garnish and maybe a handful of crisps. My mum would be so happy if they came back. And omelettes.
Bring back proper plates, the ones we had in the 80s not the huge ones we have now.

Genuinely perplexed by all the comments about waste, is it really that uncommon to take leftovers home in the UK?

If the main argument against taking leftovers home is that the food isn't tasty/nutritious enough to eat twice you could try eating somewhere that you actually like the food?

If portions were smaller then there'd be room for a first course and a pudding. Now that would be a treat to me, not just a main course. No one is suggesting tiny portions should be served, just that they should be smaller in a lot of places, not all. If people have bigger appetites then order a first course and a pudding too. I'm all fit sharing and asking for a second plate or bowl but with my family it's not often we can do that.

@BookFiend4Life

Genuinely perplexed by all the comments about waste, is it really that uncommon to take leftovers home in the UK?

If the main argument against taking leftovers home is that the food isn't tasty/nutritious enough to eat twice you could try eating somewhere that you actually like the food?

It depends what you order really, something like pizza/pasta/salad is nice, can't think of much worse than something like cold chips or cold bits of burger though (even though they probably tasted good to start with).

@CheesusWept you're either lying for some reason or massively under feeding your poor child if one meal can serve you for a WEEK.

@BookFiend4Life

Genuinely perplexed by all the comments about waste, is it really that uncommon to take leftovers home in the UK?

If the main argument against taking leftovers home is that the food isn't tasty/nutritious enough to eat twice you could try eating somewhere that you actually like the food?

You got to a restaurant for a meal out, just make the portion appropriate for an average person for one meal rather than expecting everyone to take leftovers. No they’re generally not as good heated up and having had food poisoning before I’m personally pretty careful about what I reheat and how long things are out of the fridge. If you eat out during a day out/ prior to the theatre or cinema or drinks or whatever do you carry round a bag with leftover food in it?

@PlacidPenelope

Here we go with the piss taking because people can't bear to admit that they eat far too much.

There's a middle ground. Yes SOME portion sizes can be somewhat big but you're going to invite ridicule by trying to claim the average restaurant meal should feed a family for a week. That's just extreme and impossible to take seriously.

Eating 3 courses is significantly more expensive than eating one. Where I work people often order 2-3 starters instead of a main bit it's pricey that way. A smaller portion also wouldn't be significantly cheaper. The food is not the main expense in a pub/restaurant kitchen. You still need the same electric/gas to cook it. The same wages paid to staff to make and serve, the same costs to to the building. That's why starters/deserts/light bites are not proportionately cheaper than a large main course. By doing what you suggest you're putting costs up for everyone, especially those with larger appetites.

@PlacidPenelope

Here we go with the piss taking because people can't bear to admit that they eat far too much.

But what's wrong with that? I rarely go out to eat, if I want to eat too much when I do so what? If I become overweight it won't be because of the 2 meals I eat out every year.

I’m small and slim and it is obscene what I can take down on a meal out. And I eat out at least once a week. Tonight it’s Thai and I’m going wild.

@Florenz

Restaurants should be legally required to offer a half size portion of every dish they offer, at half the price of the full size one.

That's nice. Do you understand that the cost if a meal is not made up from food costs alone right?

Taking into account premises, staff, equipment, VAT etc one half portion does not cost the restaurant half the amount of money to make.

Don't eat out. Or take the rest home. Or share a meal. Or take your magnanimous 'just a small portion for me' and shove it up your bum.

@Deadringer That looks like a lovely meal and the sort of thing I might make at home. If I go out, I'd like something that I find more challenging to get right /is more time-consuming to make/uses equipment I don't have (such as a deep - fryer or pizza oven). So it might be a roast, or fish and chips, or a pizza. All of which are more caloric and "treat" foods. I really don't think larger meals out are responsible for larger people! It's what people are eating at home regularly that matters.

@Florenz

If you order two of the same thing at a restaurant, they don't give you a discount, you have to pay twice the cost. So it's no different to offering a smaller, half sized portion at 50% of the cost. If you want a larger portion, just buy two.

Are you really as unintelligent as you are pretending to be? Even if it financially made sense to offer half size portions for half the price, and we lived in the sort of society that could mandate that restaurants do this, it's not always that simple to halve a portion. Half a fish fillet? Half a Portobello mushroom? Half a Yorkshire pudding? A half size burger bun? Use some common sense!

Eating a large high calorie meal out occasionally will not make you fat.

If you are unable to understand that eating too much every day at home does make you fat, smaller restaurant portions are going to do nothing to make you moderate your calorie intake.

I'm sick of the blame culture regarding obesity, it's not the supermarkets fault, it's not the restaurants fault, it's not the fast food manufacturers fault, it's yours. You don't have to eat everything on your plate whether you are at home or eating out.

@CheesusWept

I always ask the restaurant to box up the leftovers and then that does me and DD for dinners for the rest of the week.

Crikey! A week?!?!

Interesting feedback. It was a perfect portion for me, and I am a fatty so I am sure I would be assumed to have a massive appetite. I don't but I am inclined to graze which I think racks up the calories. I did have soup to start, and a lovely dessert which is unusual for me as I don't have a sweet tooth but it was a special occasion in a Michelin starred restaurant so what the hell.

Crikey! So many of you with no idea about the fucking huge mega plate deals. Round here we had 5 pubs offering meat/burger challenges, bin lid pizza, Sunday lunches on a serving platter, all sorts of humongous meals. Aimed at those brave men who see eating as a challenge, like Man Versus Food every bloody week.

Our lovely closest pub has just taken his large plates off the menu and has downsized all of his meals. You can still get a bin lid pizza but he sells them in halves, quarters more often now.

What happened? Covid and a lack of pensioners. 'Normal' food portions went out of the window when click and collect came in. Stayed whilst people who wouldn't normally eat there were still replacing the pensioner trade. And then suddenly, about 3 months ago, one by one, the food challenges stopped, outsizing portions to get customers through the doors stopped and they stopped advertising BIG!

The pensioner trade has also started to return, though they still do deliveries for some of their oldest customers - they became an unofficial meals on wheels, many of the volunteer drivers are still doing it, me included. I am trying to get them more funding to make it more official.

That's why humongous portions arrived out here, rural, farming, edge of civilisation.

I wouldn't expect a half portion to be half price, maybe two thirds, just as much work goes into making it, the ingredients are probably the cheapest cost in a restaurant unless you are eating lobster or something.

I'm not sure where you eat. Everywhere has sandwiches here, ate a sandwich in the pub today. I've never seen chips served with pizza (not since the 80's at least). Portions vary but mostly they are about right, I don't go to hungry horse type places though.

And fish and chip shops. They seem to be the worst for it.

If we used our nearest we'd have to get one portion of chips between the two of us, and we'd be still waste some. Even their kids portions are huge.

So we wait for the posh fish van and get smaller portions of slightly different fish for a bit more money, and order small chips.

And yes, I am overweight, have what I think of as a large appetite.

@SexyLittleNosferatu

Oh look, a MN food thread. What a joy. Eyes down, "I can't possibly eat a full one" for the full house.

You forgot 'we always ask to take the leftovers home and they last us for a full week.' Not only unlikely but rank -- who eats seven day old leftovers? People seem incapable of asking for a small portion, or eating a starter as a main course. Or two starters, no dessert, etc etc. I've always found restaurants to be very obliging in this respect, they want your custom, maybe even repeat custom, favourable online reviews and for you to tell all your friends what a great restaurant it is.

Had a lovely meal the other day .My Son had got us a voucher for Miller and Carter Steakhouse .Starved myself till Dinner .Ate a Starter ,Mains and room for a pud! Just right .Didnt go mad with steak size / sides though

@MrsWooster my local pub has small plate options, I think most better places do. Actually even Wetherspoons has small plates

@Deadringer

This was my main in a restaurant yesterday, I am curious to know if people think this is outrageously huge, about right, or on the small side. There were more potatoes and green beans on a side plate, this is how much I took. Just curious.

Thats small and wouldn’t be enough for either of us, even if we ate the rogue bean from the table.

@aSofaNearYou but the people claiming that they could feed their family on the leftovers were trying to be ironic and were actually taking the piss…

I don’t care what others eat, however I don’t restrict food, I don’t ‘eat like a bird’ I’m not anywhere near under weight so if I can only eat half of the food served I think the portions are way too large. It’s by no means every restaurant that does this but I think OP was fair that it’s common is some types of places

Order a couple of starters instead or go to Tapas bars. I often do this when I’m not keen on the mains choices.