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.

[quote BungleandGeorge]@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[/quote]
I think there have been lots of serious comments on this thread arguing that a very, very small amount of food is their norm.

"Half a fish fillet? Half a Portobello mushroom? Half a Yorkshire pudding? A half size burger bun? Use some common sense!"

You can cut a fish, or a mushroom in half, or just buy smaller fish or smaller mushrooms. It's not complicated. Yorkshire puddings and burgers are even easier, can already get smaller hamburgers or smaller yorkshire puddings. Just give the customers the choice of a large one or a smaller one. It's quite reasonable.

@Florenz

"Half a fish fillet? Half a Portobello mushroom? Half a Yorkshire pudding? A half size burger bun? Use some common sense!"

You can cut a fish, or a mushroom in half, or just buy smaller fish or smaller mushrooms. It's not complicated. Yorkshire puddings and burgers are even easier, can already get smaller hamburgers or smaller yorkshire puddings. Just give the customers the choice of a large one or a smaller one. It's quite reasonable.

And if no one else wants the other half then they get thrown away. Business loses both on food waste as well the actual meal cost which as said covers way more than the actual ingredients.

I agree with you. I am going to put my tin hat on but we have a big obesity issue in this country. In Japan for example they don’t serve plates of food groaning with chips, pizza and greasy sausages.

Some of these comments are batshit. Most of us who enjoy the large portions probably won't eat much other then the meal out. My BMI is 21, I need 2300 calories to maintain my weight. So a big 1000+ calorie meal won't hurt me.

And as for these people taking home leftover kids pasta when their toddler has been at it, grim! Slobbered on, half eaten pasta, yuk.

Love a good MN food thread. With competitive under/eating. Come on OP, what did you expect, if autism then restrictions are commonplace?

@Franklin12

I agree with you. I am going to put my tin hat on but we have a big obesity issue in this country. In Japan for example they don’t serve plates of food groaning with chips, pizza and greasy sausages.

That's the types of food, though, not the portion sizes. When I visited Japan a lot of the portions were massive.

@aSofaNearYou I don’t think there has?
The only one I can recall was someone saying they’d have leftovers of a child’s pasta for their lunch. Most of these places have a set 3 course menu for everyone up to 10 so when served to a toddler there’s potentially going to be a lot uneaten

Because your implication is that we are all fat pigs because we don't mind large portions when eating out

But a lot of people who want large portions of cheap food when eating in pubs or chain restaurants are fat. A lot of people are fat. A lot of the snarky replies on here and piss taking about teeny tinies will be from fat people offended about being thought of as fat and greedy and unhealthy. I’m no teeny tiny but portions are massive. And I’m not remotely interested in taking leftover burger, chips, pizza etc. home with me. Sounds revolting.

@liveforsummer

And if no one else wants the other half then they get thrown away. Business loses both on food waste as well the actual meal cost which as said covers way more than the actual ingredients.

It's perfectly possible to have smaller "half size" portions without cutting something in half you know! You can buy smaller buns, make smaller burgers, make smaller yorkshire puddings, etc.

@Franklin12

I agree with you. I am going to put my tin hat on but we have a big obesity issue in this country. In Japan for example they don’t serve plates of food groaning with chips, pizza and greasy sausages.

Not been to Akiba Tolim then?

@AlternativelyWired

When I was in hospital recently, I had to do the usual 'tick the box' menu. For every meal, you could tick either "small" or "large" portion. Restaurants ought to do this, and you could then pay half the price. I'd eat out more often then. I find a massive plate of food completely off-putting. I don't like puddings anyway, but I'd happily have a starter and a main course if the starter wasn't already the size of a normal main course.

Restaurants ought to do this, and you could then pay half the price.

Loving the maths skills.

It's like chocolate, they banned the "King Size" bars so that if people want to eat a lot of chocolate, they have to buy two bars. Which people are less likely to do as they don't want to seem greedy.

@Simonjt

Restaurants ought to do this, and you could then pay half the price.

Loving the maths skills.

I never said I was any good at Maths. I'm shit at Maths.

I still don't want to eat a massive food mountain.

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

I didn’t think so. Certainly not from the reactions I have had when asking.

I've never experienced portions being too big. Ever.

If you don't want a big portion, ask for a smaller portion...it's quite simple.

"I've never experienced portions being too big. Ever."

Either you have a large appetite or you have never eaten in a Yorkshire pub.

Pizza AND chips? I am not surprised there are too many calories with that combo! I have never seen a restaurant offer this combo, it strikes me as too carb heavy and not enjoyable.

@TheLette

Pizza AND chips? I am not surprised there are too many calories with that combo! I have never seen a restaurant offer this combo, it strikes me as too carb heavy and not enjoyable.

Well if you like pizza, and you like chips, then of course it’s enjoyable!

@Florenz

It's like chocolate, they banned the "King Size" bars so that if people want to eat a lot of chocolate, they have to buy two bars. Which people are less likely to do as they don't want to seem greedy.

I think they do buy 2 bars. Although 2 bars is probably slightly more and people just end up eating more than if they had bought the king size bars in the first place.

Never bought a single chocolate bar because buying 2 would make me look greedy.
Most of the time I buy several bars at once.

It's like chocolate, they banned the "King Size" bars so that if people want to eat a lot of chocolate, they have to buy two bars. Which people are less likely to do as they don't want to seem greedy.

But is there any evidence that things like this make people eat less overall? They might not buy two chocolate bars, but if they're eating a smaller bar then they might well eat more later.

I think pub portions tend to be way too big. Agree that reducing them will not solely solve the obesity problem. We needs loads of things to do that including standing desks and those ones you can cycle on too

This thread has made me as one of my children had pizza, chips and beans for a pub meal last night. The other had chicken nuggets, chips and beans, and shared some nachos with a friend.

The missing bit of info is it was at an Outdoors Pursuits centre and they had spend all day doing activities like obstacle courses and climbing, as well as exploring the site and were ravenous.

Ding ding ding!

I think we’ve had our first “plates groaning with…”