Charged for an empty plate?!

[sandwichh]

I recently went to a greene king pub for a carvery. After plating up my dinner, I asked for a plate for my 10 month old, not to take any extra food but to take it off my plate to give to him. They wanted to charge me for it! Never had this issue before, AIBU?

YANBU OP. We went to a local hotel buffet restaurant the other night with family who were staying there. £30 each mind you (reduced from usual non-resident price of £40) but no charge for 15 month DS and he smashed through a good bit of food, encouraged and cheered on by the lovely waiting staff passing by the table. An infant is likely to be bringing at least 2 full paying adults with them and the amount most buffets restaurants chuck at the end of the night is insane anyway, it’s just good customer service to make it a good experience.

Its more standard at buffets to have a an age under which it is free. I think Toby is U3s eat free (but no extra meat).

Carveries give you a set amount of meat but the veg, potatoes, gravy etc is refillable. So, parents will get what they want and then also add on the potatoes and veg for their kid. So, you’re paying for one person but you’re not taking food for one person. You’re taking extra food which you wouldn’t have usually taken. They’re losing out, that’s why they usually have a kids bowl option.

Obviously some people will eat loads more than others, some people will take hardly anything and they don’t charge per weight of your plate so it’s easy to say, “well, that man has double what I have so I’m still costing them less” but that’s just now how it works. They want you paying per person who is eating from the buffet part of the carvery.

You can agree or disagree, but if you disagree then just don’t eat there again. I’m not saying what my opinion is on this btw, before anyone jumps on me.

But it was a carvery, so it was extra food.

Granted not much extra! But with an extra plate, there's nothing stopping someone filling that right up as a whole extra meal, so they have to charge for it, because people are CFs.

MN is so weird!

I think it's depends on if it's a refillable/ all you can eat style place where you pay per plate vs a normal set fee for one plate of food. In which case you're not getting anything extra so shouldn't have been charged.

Personally think YABU for feeding a baby a cheap pub carvery. It'll all be salty, processed and fully of nasties. It's basically a ready meal.

We didn't pay for it, the price is irrelevant. I fed him off my plate. It's a buffet style carvery so I can get as much food as I liked, baby or no baby!

In which case it's mad. You could have gone back and got more food for you and it would have been ok but it wasn't ok to have a few mouthfuls for your baby?

Make that make sense!

Ok so why not do that with your partner? Your adult child? Your teenager? Your tween? Where does it end? After all if it's all you can eat why pay for two people when one person can just keep refilling the plate and share, right?

It really is. Between this and the named driver ‘fraud’ thread, I think it’s given me to impetus to stop wasting my time on mumsnet. There’s no measured common sense at the moment.

So your sprogs eat for free?

I don’t see how this is any different to the greedy people who ram their plates full of food and only eat a mouthful . The baby isn’t going to eat much . Much less than how much some people think is acceptable to waste just coz they paid for it !

They also have to clean up after your baby. Clean the high chair, the mess off the floor and the plate they have given you. As well as get rid of the nappy if you change your child whilst their etc.
I think its fair.

Businesses charge because that's how they make money. They can either have higher prices and let people get away with more, or they can have lower prices but charge accordingly.
You're not paying for the plate, you're paying for the rent and the kitchen staff and the cleaner and the lighting and you get the idea.
There's a lot of non revenue generating stuff in a business and it all goes on the bits that give direct value to customers. If having your baby eat doesn't add value then don't do it.
You are right to feel hard done by though, if they were savvy they would have a cheap price for little ones, otherwise they will end up losing both your business in the longer term.
However maybe they are close to going bust so maybe the choice will be taken away anyway.

I often order 1 meal to share between my 2 young children and ask for a spare plate. Would be a complete waste of money ordering 2 meals as they can't eat that much!
I've never been charged for the plate. Can't see how this is any different?

So you put extra food on your plate to serve the two of you and then wondered why they wanted to charge you for it?

At 10 mths DS1 could eat a plateful of roast. He had a massive appetite.

Either you are feeding your child enough to need a plate so you need to pay or else you aren’t and you can use your plate.

This ^^

I am surprised that people see it differently, I thought everyone would say that the OP was on CF category.

Happy to be corrected but I think the way carvery’s usually work is you get 1 plate and 1 pass through - a set portion of meat is served to you and then you can help yourself to as much of the sides as you can fit on the plate but you can’t go up a second time. So it’s not an all you can eat, and as long as the OP doesn’t use the child’s plate to get an extra meal, she’s not getting anything more that she’s paid for out of this.

I think the restaurant should have given the OP a small side plate for the baby, so it was clear to staff on the carvery that it wasn’t a paid for meal. Sounds like they were being rather difficult / petty

The difference is this is buffet all you can eat style, not a set meal.
I still don’t think they should charge a child that age. Aren’t under 2/3 usually free?

Because you are ordering a set amount of food by ordering a meal.

The OP is ordering a carvery, paying for one plate, piling on enough food for two because you can help yourself.

Ok in this instance it was a very small baby that doesn’t eat much but anyone could do that with any child if it is allowed.

Seriously, how much solid food do you think a 10 month old is going to eat? Why can you not feed them from your plate?

I’ve never been to a carvery where you can keep going up and refilling your plate?

Yeah, those spoonfulls of mashed potato eaten by the hundreds of babies could come up to almost 3lbs of potato if you added it up. Those babies might eat some carrot too.

That's the profit margin right there.

If it really is only a few mouthfuls I guess just feed them off your plate. It does seem a bit odd to actually claim it's an empty plate you're paying for. They should've made it clear you're paying for a child's/baby portion of food.
Nobody would pay for an empty plate!

You go to a place that sells food from a buffet, pick up a plate and expect to fill it for free? That goes against the buffet idea. It would work if you were home with your family I suppose.