Is sharing food in a restaurant unfair.

meeeeh · 11-09-2017 01:53PM

Utter nonsense. I can understand the policy like that in fine dining places but pizza is the ultimate sharing food.

Winterlong · 11-09-2017 01:55PM

Only thing I could think of is that there was a queue of people out the door and this mother and her two kids were taking up a 4 or 6 seater table and the restaurant figured they would get more cash from someone else.

But that is stretching it.

my3cents · 11-09-2017 02:00PM

kurtainsider wrote: »

Sorry - I don't buy that for a second. How could it cost the restaurant money to allow 2 kids to share a large (expensive) pizza?

By being disobliging and a bit dickish about it they lost the sale of 2 pizzas, plus 3 drinks, plus 3 possible deserts, plus goodwill plus repeat business.

I'm not a restaurateur but I think that was a very poor business decision. Why can't some businesses recognise the importance of keeping the customer happy? It wasn't an unreasonable request.

Its very annoying that service industries need regular reminders who is paying for the service and it looks like the OP's friend did exactly that.

aristotle25 · 11-09-2017 02:06PM

There is a direct relationship with improvement in the economy to a downturn in customer service, manners and general cop-on.

During the recession there seemed to be genuine appreciation and good customer service from many places which is slowly going away (in my probably limited experience).

looksee · 11-09-2017 02:06PM

I'd think it was a bit much for two adults to share a main course, (Americans seem to do this?) but I would share dessert of the cake or similar type. And shared chips are nicer than your own portion

That kind of thing with kids is ridiculous though.

I had a similar experience in a local cafe/restaurant where I went into a (genuinely) half empty cafe, ordered and took a seat at a 4 seat table. The manager came over and asked would I move to a two person table. There were only two, one was reserved and the other was right at the back squished in behind the toilet door. So I cancelled my order and left. Half an hour later, during lunchtime I passed the cafe again and it was still only half full. I didn't go back till it changed manager, I note there are more tables for two now!

I did email the owners but didn't get a response.

Moonbeam · 11-09-2017 02:09PM

I would often buy 1 pizza between 2 of my kids,less waste but I am usually buying 4/5 other meals too.
Now if that was all that they ordered I might understand.

branie2 · 11-09-2017 02:17PM

Never heard of that policy either.

homerjay2005 · 11-09-2017 02:26PM

looksee wrote: »

I had a similar experience in a local cafe/restaurant where I went into a (genuinely) half empty cafe, ordered and took a seat at a 4 seat table. The manager came over and asked would I move to a two person table. There were only two, one was reserved and the other was right at the back squished in behind the toilet door. So I cancelled my order and left. Half an hour later, during lunchtime I passed the cafe again and it was still only half full. I didn't go back till it changed manager, I note there are more tables for two now!

I did email the owners but didn't get a response.

so you think its acceptable for one person, to sit at a table for 4 people?

:rolleyes:

seamus · 11-09-2017 02:33PM

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

How much profit do they make if the costumer ups and leaves? And how much extra space so two kids take up compared to one adult?

Well two kids take up as much space as two adults. And if the restaurant is busy, then they will make more profit from the 3 adults queuing at the door than the adult + two children who just walked out.

kurtainsider wrote: »

Sorry - I don't buy that for a second. How could it cost the restaurant money to allow 2 kids to share a large (expensive) pizza?

By being disobliging and a bit dickish about it they lost the sale of 2 pizzas, plus 3 drinks, plus 3 possible deserts, plus goodwill plus repeat business.

That's all presumption on your part tbh about what else they may buy and whether there would be any impact on repeat business. For all we know the pizza was a medium which she thought was too large for the two kids - who may have been teenagers - that she had no intention of buying anything else, and she was passing by and unlikely to come back to that restaurant anyway.

My point is that it's not a case for all restaurants that they have to treat every customer as king. Some restaurants need rules and exclusions which suit their circumstances.
Go to Dundrum, for example, sit six of you at a table in a restaurant and ask for 3 main courses and six cokes between you. You'll be asked to order more or leave. This is because teenagers will pull nonsense like this.

Having chairs occupied in a restaurant costs money one way or another. There are plenty of perfectly valid reasons why restaurants have "everyone must order a meal" policies.
Whether they were correctly applied in this case, we don't know because the OP is far too vague and unlikely to be any clearer about the circumstances since the story is second hand.

SAMTALK · 11-09-2017 02:38PM

homerjay2005 wrote: »

so you think its acceptable for one person, to sit at a table for 4 people?

:rolleyes:

I would think so if there was only 1 table squashed near toilets as they stated.

I would sit at a table for 4 if a 2 seat table didnt suit. Fair enough if someone
wants to sit and share it

lazybones32 · 11-09-2017 02:47PM

I would have ordered the 3 pizzas and casually left before they were served.

Never heard of a policy like that before and wouldn't tolerate it if it was put to me.

dan1895 · 11-09-2017 02:59PM

homerjay2005 wrote: »

so you think its acceptable for one person, to sit at a table for 4 people?

:rolleyes:

Perfectly acceptable in a half empty cafe.

freshpopcorn · 11-09-2017 03:01PM

Restaurants and staff need to learn to apply common sense in situations similar to this.

jamesthepeach · 11-09-2017 03:16PM

When we moved into the house we live in now we went down to check out of the local restaurants to celebrate. We weren't that hungry, but decided to go out to eat to celebrate. Went in sat down, ordered a bottle of wine, then we decided to order mains and leave out the starters so that we would have room for desserts.
Yer man was just opening the wine and the waitress came over to take orders.
Gave us grief about not being allowed to serve only mains on their own.
I said keep the wine, we're off. Then we went in across the road, had a lovely meal and have been there many many times since.

Malari · 11-09-2017 03:18PM

jamesthepeach wrote: »

When we moved into the house we live in now we went down to check out of the local restaurants to celebrate. We weren't that hungry, but decided to go out to eat to celebrate. Went in sat down, ordered a bottle of wine, then we decided to order mains and leave out the starters so that we would have room for desserts.
Yer man was just opening the wine and the waitress came over to take orders.
Gave us grief about not being allowed to serve only mains.
I said keep the wine, we're off. Then we went in across the road, had a lovely meal and have been there many many times since.

That's crazy! I never order a starter or dessert, and have never been questioned about it either.

mzungu · 11-09-2017 03:19PM

I would leave and there would be no chance they would get my business again.

johnnyskeleton · 11-09-2017 03:21PM

Each upward increment in a pizza is usually double.

For example, a 9" is roughly double a 7" (2" inches in diamenter * 3.14 = 6.5"), a 12" is roughly double a 9" (3" * 3.14 = 9.5"), 16" etc.

Yet the prices usually don't double. So it's excellent value to get a larger pizza and split between two. My local pizzeria will do this no problem. They will even do half and half on different toppings.

So it's mad that this restaurant doesn't allow it.

jamesthepeach · 11-09-2017 03:27PM

Malari wrote: »

That's crazy! I never order a starter or dessert, and have never been questioned about it either.

We do it the odd time and never had an issue anywhere before either.

branie2 · 11-09-2017 03:27PM

Same here

jamesthepeach · 11-09-2017 03:29PM

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

Each upward increment in a pizza is usually double.

For example, a 9" is roughly double a 7" (2" inches in diamenter * 3.14 = 6.5"), a 12" is roughly double a 9" (3" * 3.14 = 9.5"), 16" etc.

Yet the prices usually don't double. So it's excellent value to get a larger pizza and split between two. My local pizzeria will do this no problem. They will even do half and half on different toppings.

So it's mad that this restaurant doesn't allow it.

Back to school with you

And you had the whole interwebs to look up the formula.

looksee · 11-09-2017 03:31PM

homerjay2005 wrote: »

so you think its acceptable for one person, to sit at a table for 4 people?

:rolleyes:

I make a point of looking for a table to suit the number of people - if there are one or two of us I will look for a table for two, but if they don't have them then I will take what is available.

Obvious Otter · 11-09-2017 03:33PM

seamus wrote: »

I've definitely heard of restaurants being like this. Doesn't this go back to the whole "four tourists buying a pint and sharing it for an hour" story?

Ultimately where a restaurant sits someone at a table, they expect that person is going to buy something. Two people sharing a single meal are eating into profit margins, which are very tight as it is. So much so that if two people were to share a pizza, it might actually be costing the restaurant money for those people to be sitting there.

Now, one would expect common sense to be applied. If it's half empty, then there's not a lot of harm in letting the kids share a pizza. But if the restaurant is packed and she's ordering one pizza between two of them, then I'm inclined to side with the restaurant on that one.

You'll always have one or two complete oddballs on this site defending bizaree busines practices.

Wamwig · 11-09-2017 03:34PM

Order 1 pizza, say second child isn't eating. Pizza comes out and then share....done

Wildcard7 · 11-09-2017 03:49PM

lazybones32 wrote: »

I would have ordered the 3 pizzas and casually left before they were served.

Wow, what an incredibly crappy thing to do.

The restaurant tells you the conditions under which they serve you. You're free to decide those conditions don't suit you or are indeed a complete and utter ripoff, and just walk out. You're free to tell everyone who doesn't ask you about how horrible the place is. You're free to leave a 0 star review on TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.

You're not free to cause them financial harm.
You're not free to make them throw away food.

Wow...

Jayop · 11-09-2017 03:58PM

Wamwig wrote: »

Order 1 pizza, say second child isn't eating. Pizza comes out and then share....done

Or.... Don't bother, walk out and go somewhere with ****ty policies like that. Fairly unbelievable tbh and I've never seen that before, having g worked in hospitality for years and eaten in countless restaurants in many countries.

andekwarhola · 11-09-2017 03:58PM

There's nothing 'wrong' in this situation as it's clearly their policy but i wouldn't return again.

Seems bizarre to make the point to a customer to the extent of embarrassing them and losing future custom for a relatively trivial matter.

I can, however, understand the frustration of an establishment when you get single people or couples purposely hogging large tables or, especially, a group of people sitting around one or two drinks though.

rogercross · 11-09-2017 03:59PM

I've been to a few places where they force multiple courses on customers when all I would have wanted is a main, last time it happened i had to talk to two members of staff to get just a main, if it hadn't been a special occasion i would have walked. I don't go back to these places.

As for sharing a pizza with children I see nothing wrong with that. Restaurant pizzas can be huge and pricey.

Wamwig · 11-09-2017 04:00PM

Jayop wrote: »

Or.... Don't bother, walk out and go somewhere with ****ty policies like that. Fairly unbelievable tbh and I've never seen that before, having g worked in hospitality for years and eaten in countless restaurants in many countries.

I'm petty....I'd like them to know I can feed 2 with 1 pizza

Jayop · 11-09-2017 04:00PM

Wildcard7 wrote: »

Wow, what an incredibly crappy thing to do.

The restaurant tells you the conditions under which they serve you. You're free to decide those conditions don't suit you or are indeed a complete and utter ripoff, and just walk out. You're free to tell everyone who doesn't ask you about how horrible the place is. You're free to leave a 0 star review on TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.

You're not free to cause them financial harm.
You're not free to make them throw away food.

Wow...

I agree that ordering and leaving would be a dick move, but the cost price of three pizzas would be a lot less than a damming TripAdvisor review.

Santan · 11-09-2017 04:05PM

Wildcard7 wrote: »

Wow, what an incredibly crappy thing to do.

The restaurant tells you the conditions under which they serve you. You're free to decide those conditions don't suit you or are indeed a complete and utter ripoff, and just walk out. You're free to tell everyone who doesn't ask you about how horrible the place is. You're free to leave a 0 star review on TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.

You're not free to cause them financial harm.
You're not free to make them throw away food.

Wow...

i work in a bar and restaurant, and this is one of the dirtiest moves that I hate seeing people do, nobody has a problem if you just decide you dont want to eat there or dont want the drinks you ordered, but just be a decent human about it and tell the staff instead of just walking off. It is getting much more common I dont know how people think this is ok. Since the crisis people think they can demand anything now, and it just has to be accepted, I get that places took the mick in the early 00´s, charging €15 and more for a sandwich or baguette, that went on every where and a lot of those places I know of went to the wall when they did not change their ways in the last 10 years, but now I have people getting really angry at me, if they order a sandwich and dont like salad, why they must pay the full price, can the manager come out and explain why, if they dont want the salad or the chips, there is not a discount, and its when they get verbally abusive to staff because of it, especially after they have cleaned their plates. It just makes working in this sector so much harder. Why must people just be dicks for the sake of it.

Is sharing food in a restaurant unfair.

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