Restaurant portion sizes

[dlu]

Do you think restaurant portion sizes are too big in America? Do you think restaurants should limit their portions or do you think it is up to the consumer to...restrain themselves? What do you think of eating a huge portions just to get your "money's worth"? What about restaurants advertising their "bigger and better" menu items (ex. Burger King's new QUADRUPLE "Stacker")? Etc...

DLu

[johnny-boy]

Do you think restaurant portion sizes are too big in America? Do you think restaurants should limit their portions or do you think it is up to the consumer to...restrain themselves? What do you think of eating a huge portions just to get your "money's worth"? What about restaurants advertising their "bigger and better" menu items (ex. Burger King's new QUADRUPLE "Stacker")? Etc...

DLu

My wife, Sandra, always asks for the children's platter when we eat out.

John

[debussy symbolism]

Greetings.

What do you mean by restaurant portions being too big? If it's too big then take the leftovers home. I believe that the restaurant portions are rather small sometimes, especially the lavish and the expensive dishes.

[dlu]

Greetings.

What do you mean by restaurant portions being too big? If it's too big then take the leftovers home. I believe that the restaurant portions are rather small sometimes, especially the lavish and the expensive dishes.

I do take leftovers home or only eat a little of my food. But huge portions aren't "too big" for some people. Don't you think some meals promote overeating (supersizing at McDonals etc...)?

DLu

P.S. I hope nobody takes offence to anything I'm saying. If you do please just let me know.

[BoliverAllmon]

Greetings.

What do you mean by restaurant portions being too big? If it's too big then take the leftovers home. I believe that the restaurant portions are rather small sometimes, especially the lavish and the expensive dishes.

I agree. I go to alot of restaurants and am left still hungry. It is up to the consumer to know when to stop.

boliver

[BoliverAllmon]

I do take leftovers home or only eat a little of my food. But huge portions aren't "too big" for some people. Don't you think some meals promote overeating (supersizing at McDonals etc...)?

DLu

P.S. I hope nobody takes offence to anything I'm saying. If you do please just let me know.

not sure if they promote overeating. I see it as promoting a large meal. Some people eat that much and are not fat at all.

I am reminded of some olympic swimmer. They were showing how much he typically ate for breakfast and I saw shocked. He ate more than just about anyone I have ever seen and there he stood with a six-pack and all. it all depends on your activity level.

boliver

[pianistimo]

i am not only offended at the portion sizes - but at the continuous decline in preparation.  you don't get a large salad - you get a head of lettuce - barely pulled open with a bunch of cheese and tomatoes on top (too big to eat). 

i want a little portion that has been meticulously prepared (lettuce torn into bite sized pieces) and some good salad dressing.  how hard is that?  i hate prepared salad dressing - especially if it is warm (unless it's meant to be warm and then it should be heated).

[jas]

I believe that the restaurant portions are rather small sometimes, especially the lavish and the expensive dishes.

True, it seems that the more you pay the less you get.

I do take leftovers home or only eat a little of my food. But huge portions aren't "too big" for some people. Don't you think some meals promote overeating (supersizing at McDonals etc...)?

DLu

P.S. I hope nobody takes offence to anything I'm saying. If you do please just let me know.

I definitely think huge meals promote overeating. Those McDonald's supersize meals were just unreasonably huge. Nobody needs that many chips. Just because you can stuff it all down doesn't mean you should. And it's only an extra, what, 40p or something, so I'm sure leaving the rest (if you've been daft enough to buy it in the first place) isn't going to damage the bank balance too much. I'm glad they've been discontinued.

But it's the consumer's responsibility, too. Wasn't there a court case where a couple of women who'd eaten themselves up to a morbidly obese size by going to McDonald's every day sued McDonald's for it? What complete idiots. I don't know what happened with that but I hope they were laughed out of the courtroom.

am not only offended at the portion sizes - but at the continuous decline in preparation.  you don't get a large salad - you get a head of lettuce - barely pulled open with a bunch of cheese and tomatoes on top (too big to eat). 

That reminds me of when I went to Greece a few years ago. I asked for a coleslaw salad and got ... a plate of coleslaw. We didn't go there again!

Jas

[Floristan]

The mid-priced chains like Ruby Tuesday, TGI Friday, Cracker Barrel, etc. serve extremely large portions -- typically enough for two.  The spin they all put on it is that then you have enough left-overs for another meal, making their prices "economical."

Every time I've been to one of those places, I see a lot of overweight people leaving nothing on their plates.

[debussy symbolism]

Overeating? There is no such thing. You choose if you want to overeat or not. You can either: a. eat enough till satisfied and then take the leftovers home for further nourishment, or b: eat everything at once and then sit around in a chair doing nothing, letting the fat set in. The choice is clearly up to the consumer so there shouldn't be complaints of overeating there.

Poorly prepared dishes is another thing. However, I think that what is more important is that they are healthy enough to eat. It is very easy to succumb to food poisoning from an undercooked hamburger. Then you won't be complaining about large portions heh.

[baron_von_heimlich]

Restaurant portions are way too big for me.  I can't recall ever completely finishing at meal at a mid-priced restaurant chain (like Olive Garden, TGI Fridays, etc).  Not only is the entree quite large, but they also serve you things like bread, salad, and then expect dessert!

I can't tell you how much food I've wasted over the years - its quite disgusting.  Leftovers don't always work either - pasta for example doesn't keep well at all.

I prefer quality over quantity.  I can cook better pasta than Olive Garden can - that's because I purchase higher quality ingredients and make less of it.  However, it's just enough to fill me, and it provides much more satisfaction.

[debussy symbolism]

Restaurant portions are sometimes too big for me too. I just pack them to go and problem solved, I have a very good food to eat later.

[prometheus]

I think customers should demand quality food from a restaurant. That mean healthy food as well. I don't understand fast food at all.

I have heard people propose propose tax on fast food.


As for normal restaurants and size of the menues. I don't really see a solution. Maybe have a buffet so that people can serve their plate with as much as they want. But you always will have leftovers there.

It is a problem in our culture. In my country 1/3 of all food is thrown away. People want fresh food. People want as much food as they can eat. Originally the limit was the amount of food there was. People just ate everything and then they were still hungry, though the bodies need was satisfied.

I guess that at some point in time we will see anti-hunger pills and ant-sex drive pills. Then one would just enjoy eating what the body really needs and then swallow a pill to ged rid of the remaining discomfort. I don't see this becomming popular soon, or ever. But people may see the need for it at some point in time.


As for the government. I think they should stop selling fast food in their schools. Schools here try to make some cash by selling fast food during breaks. Children and teenagers often throw their bread away. Most people don't even have breakfast anymore. I know I am guilty of this too. And then they eat fast food at school. This way the government is encouraging fast food at one point and trying to discourage it somewhere else.

[quantum]

What annoys me is when you pay for a good meal, and it ends up not being enough to make you satisfied. 

[musik_man]

anti-sex drive pills???    I think the opposite is quite popular.

I almost never finish a meal in a Restaurant.  Doggy-bags are my best friend.

[rc]

Eating habits make a difference... 

If you do as recommended and eat half a dozen small meals/day your body will adapt and that will be what fills you, but you'll also be drained if you don't get food every couple of hours 'cause your body expects it.  Works for losing weight, but you'll know if you've missed a meal 'cause you will go DOWN.

The opposite is storage mode, having one or two big meals that will give you energy throughout the day.

Back on topic, I agree that restaurant meals are too much, and generally unhealthy.  But putting the blame on restaurants or restricting them somehow is not that answer.  It's supply and demand and I believe the blame rests more on consumers.

[bflatminor24]

I do take leftovers home or only eat a little of my food. But huge portions aren't "too big" for some people. Don't you think some meals promote overeating (supersizing at McDonals etc...)?

DLu

P.S. I hope nobody takes offence to anything I'm saying. If you do please just let me know.

You must distinguish between fast food and other restaurants. They serve different purposes.

Fast food serves two purposes: being inexpensive, and being plentiful. The premise is to get as much food as possible for your money. In this way, I think it depends on the consumer. Unless a restaurant ONLY offers huge portions, it is up to the consumer to regulate his intake. Caveat emptor!

Non-fast food restaurants serve an entirely different purpose. The premise is not the most food for your money, but the best quality food, or in some cases, the most exotic food. The size of the portions here is hardly a problem. People should eat until they are full, and no more. There is nothing wrong with that. People take home leftovers if they need to.

The obesity problem regarding eating out is more caused by two factors: ingredients of the food and over-indulgence of the food. The portions at non-fast food restaurants are not a cause.

Restaurants should use healthier ingredients, and people should stop gorging themselves.

~Max~

[prometheus]

I think the main purpose of fast food is to get it fast and cheap.

[quantum]

Eating habits make a difference... 

If you do as recommended and eat half a dozen small meals/day your body will adapt and that will be what fills you, but you'll also be drained if you don't get food every couple of hours 'cause your body expects it.  Works for losing weight, but you'll know if you've missed a meal 'cause you will go DOWN.

The opposite is storage mode, having one or two big meals that will give you energy throughout the day.

Good point

I prefer storage mode, as I feel eating too many times a day incurs what I call to much administrative tasks in preparing food.  I like efficiency. 

[ada]

I think it's hilarious that when Americans talk about restaurants they mean fast food chains!

The restaurants I know are notorious for their ridiculously tiny portions of unrecognisable stuff stacked up in pretentious little towers in the middle of a plate, maybe with a ring of "jus"  drizzled around the rim.

I seriously doubt that Burger King would be regarded as a restaurant anywhere else inthe world.

But we sadly have our share of American fast food outlets here and I think the US obsession with big is obscene and disugusting. That's why the US is the fattest nation on the planet.

Starbucks has sadly made it's way here and I can't stand the way you can't buy a normal coffee. The sizes range from large to ginormous to f***ing monsterous and each one contains about half a litre of milk.

Barf. Disgusting. Absolutely no class.