To be put off by date eating pub leftovers

[Runki]

I have never posted on here before so please be gentle! 😉 I just wanted some honest opinions from people. I've been seeing a man for a number of months. We went out yesterday to a pub for something to eat, at lunchtime. When we got there, the table next to us hadn't been cleared yet and there was quite a bit of food left on plates. I asked him what he wanted to eat for lunch, and he said he would just eat some leftover toast and sausages from the uncleared table. I thought he was joking and laughed. But he actually meant it. He took two pieces of left over, cold toast and some sausages and proceeded to eat them, with no plate. I said I would buy him lunch and he didn't need to eat leftovers! He said he couldn't stand wasted food. I ordered my own lunch and ate it, alone, as he had already gobbled up the leftovers from the people who had left. Would this put you off someone? Or should I more be accommodating?! In all honesty, it made me feel very uncomfortable and I found it very unattractive. How would this make you feel, can I ask? Look forward to hearing what people think. For context, he has never done this before, but has alluded to wanting to do it when we've been to other places. I asked him yesterday if he was worried that someone's saliva might be on the leftover food, but he said he couldn't care less.

That would activate an ick for me

Eww

That's fouler than a foul thing.

People have TOUCHED it. Breathed on it. I don't even eat the children's left overs even though they wash their hands before eating.

Bleurgh 🤮

This is grimmer than grim. Eww what if someone had put it on their mouth then back on the plate, sneezed on it, picked the food up with hands theyd just been holding their d* with! Absolutely disgusting! And you would be kissing him afterwards

I will confess that DH and I did once swipe several left-over scones from someone's fancy cream tea at a very expensive hotel, but (a) we had bought our own food and drinks and were sitting at the table next to the othe rpeople before they left, so we knew the scones hadn't been handled/sneezed on, and (b) no way in hell would I do it on a first date!!

Grim. Run OP run!

Ewww! Put him in the bin.

(not like he’d starve in there 🤮😂)

I'd definitely be put off too.
But I'm kind of embarrassed by how bourgeois we all are on this thread. As people have pointed out, there isn't really a hygiene issue here - other things that you are eat happily are also very likely to have been breathed on/touched by other people (like the people serving it).
Our collective disgust is a bit revealing I think of a very conventional group of people who hate people who break our social codes - even when those social codes are pretty arbitrary.

Many people are saying "what if they licked it?" What if they dropped it?" "They could have sneezed on it"

All true. And even if they didn't, the likelihood is very, very high that the previous customer moved said sausage around or even just touched it using their cutlery. Cutlery which has been in their mouth and therefore has their spit on.

I used to work in one restaurant where if a serving dish came back untouched (often large tables would get too much but we always served it from those dishes in the centre of the table then left customers to get extra themselves) I and other staff wouldn't think twice at popping a honey roasted parsnip in our gob but it was extremely unlikely to have been touched and at a table with lots of people, sneezers wouldn't be sneezing near it. But even now I think back and yeah, it's a bit gross.

Nah, that's absolutely disgusting.

My DH was the child of refugees and experienced some severe poverty in his childhood. He has done some pretty fucking grim things to avoid wasting food, it's like it's pathological with him. He has eaten expired and spoiled food more times than I can count. He ate cookie dough that had been contaminated by onions in the freezer, resulting in foul onion cookies.

He still wouldn't do this and it would definitely be a deal breaker for me if he did!

Yes, it would put me off. Not just because of the hygiene factor, but because it shows a total lack of social awareness. Basically, if someone doesn't know (or care) how to behave in public, it would put me off, and grabbing leftovers of a stranger's abandoned meal and eating it without a plate in a pub would definitely fall into that category. I'd die of embarrassment if I was with someone who did that.

It also suggests he is tight as a duck's arsehole, which is also off-putting. If someone said to me that they were skint and really couldn't afford to go out for a meal, that would be fine; I'd just suggest we did something else. But if someone agreed to go out to eat and then started scavenging for leftovers like a stray cat sniffing round a bin rather than just ordering a meal, I would probably walk out of the restaurant there and then!

I bet you're a right laugh at parties

My older brother used to do stuff like this, partly because he enjoyed the shock value of being disgusting. When we were teens, we went to the cinema together and sat on the front row. There were Smarties scattered on the floor in front of our seats and he gathered them all up and ate them. I wonder if he does does it. Probably.

Really off putting and really gross. I’m just as concerned by the 2% of people who’ve voted yabu!!! 😩☹️

Aside from the hygiene aspect, which is rank, it was only two years ago we weren’t allowed to be within 2 metres of a stranger let alone eat their unwanted food. But chances are he’ll be fine and we never really know who has breathed on or touched our food before it’s put in front of us.

For me it’s the etiquette aspect, I mean where was he brought up to think that’s ok? It’s the lack of manners. Stealing half eaten food, not paying for any food, and letting his girlfriend eat alone. There are so many aspects which make this scenario a total turn off.

I’d be mortified if my dog did this, let alone a human.

That would definitely give me the ick!

They probably didn't eat the sausage as they accidentally dropped it on the floor. That would be the last date I'd have with him.

This is strange and very off putting. But if he's great in every other way, I imagine it's something he'd probably stop doing if he knows how unattractive you find it

I wonder if this man went to boarding school. I know quite a few ex-boarders and they will absolutely wolf their food because they say that was necessary a) to stop other kids eating it and b) in case there are seconds. This sounds rather like a boarding school scenario.

That's disgusting who knows if they spat in it dribbled in it, sneezed covid into it, and the list goes on. No way would I be with anyone like that

Yeah sorry Op but it is grim no matter how I look at it, I guess he might be hard up but you offered to pay for his food so no excuses. It would be a bye from me.

@SpicedAppleAndFreshCider fingered the food 🤣🤣

Ew beyond ew.

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