OK, let’s talk about the Never Ending Pasta Bowl at Olive Garden. First of all, shouldn’t it be the Never-Ending Pasta Bowl? Second, is it possible to stop thinking about The NeverEnding Story while you’re eating? Because I’m having a hard time doing so now (Atreyuuuu!).
Sorry. Anyway, I just saw a Tweet from a frustrated Pasta Bowl customer after being told very late in the game that he wasn’t allowed to take home his leftovers. I’m wondering if 
this is this the case at all Olive Gardens.
If this is indeed the policy, I can see the restaurants’ perspective–diners will abuse the system by loading up their plate on their final foray. Yet, what happens to the remaining food from customers who simply took more than they could handle on their last trip up?
Seems like we all suffer (and much food is wasted) to prevent a few from doing wrong. (Kind of like another pet peeve of mine–the checking of receipts at the door of a retail store.)
If doggie bags are banned, they should clearly state it on the menu or elsewhere, because hopefully that would affect how diners approach their meal. Maybe folks would make more trips and/or take less food each successive time.
This gets to a larger question of leftovers at all-you-can-eat buffets. Do any buffets allow leftovers to be taken home or have we betrayed the trust to the point where it’s not allowed?
Comments
7 responses to “That Last Plate”
All buffets I’ve been to ban taking leftovers away, with one exception. Breakfast buffets at hotels don’t seem to care whether you take food away or not. On the whole, I sympathize with them. The likelihood of gaming the system is too strong, and if you want to avoid waste, take more, smaller portions.
I know seniors who take a large Ziploc in a large purse to late-afternoon-cheap-senior-special casino buffets.
At our rehearsal dinner and wedding, we were told that health department regulations forbade taking leftovers from buffets and family-style dinners. So that may be the issue.
That said, I encourage people to take home leftovers anyway from the buffet and family-style meals at organizational meetings. As long as the leftover-sneakers are willing to assume the risk, I don’t see the problem because we had ordered a set amount of food, they produced an overage, and we’re taking what we paid for. So far the catering hosts have not said anything to us, if they even noticed anyone stuffing a lunch bag.
Hmmm, I can see Olive Garden’s dilemma there.
I do agree that diners should be warned ahead of time, because Olive Garden will end up losing money on this if diners keep ordering large bowls when they’re already full.
Without prior warning, no one benefits.
The reason that all you can eat buffets do not allow people to take the food home is because that eliminates the control of cost for the all you can eat in one sitting method that the large scale food service industry operates under.
If anyone else who works in large scale food service wishes to also reply, I implore you. The people must know about how many billions of pounds of food waste are created by the residence halls of any kind of institution in this country. University residence halls, assisted living and hospitals, jails and prisons, and the many other “all you can consume in one sitting” style buffets offer the kind of options that are prepared in volume to anticipate consumption based on population or target audience. This means that they are trying to find out how much do they have to spend on food per the meal period, day, week, etc. The amount of food wasted only comes into the equation when factoring in the costs of hauling the trash away. Some, and it is a rare few, have started pilot composting programs to reduce the amount of produce scraps put in the landfills, however this does not catch the other 75% of the food waste which consists of fried foods, bread products, soups and gravies, meats, and other animal based products that will produce harmful bacteria in compost. So much waste happens behind the scenes that consumer waste is just considered part of the production. I guarantee that we can feed every hungry person in america with the amount of food that is thrown out each year. It’s not that the food banks do not pick up as much food as they can use, it’s that there is too much wasted food. Local food banks simply cannot handle the amounts of certain types of food that are not consumed during meal periods. Most of the food that is unusable has also been sitting out on the hot line for 4-5 hours after being prepared, so that renders it useless.
I think we can all agree-prior warning would be great.
That’s cool, Ziplock bags in the purse for the leftovers. Of course it is a little shady if they take more plates just to load up…Keeping a container on you isn’t a bad idea to reduce the to-go box waste at other restaurants.
tg, that’d be really frustrating. I’ve heard similar complaints from catering clients. The venue is on the hook, liability-wise, so they often won’t donate stuff that’s been out in a self-serve fashion (see below). That’s why some people choose to have events at their home, to eliminate the leftover conundrum.
Josie, Interesting points. Commercial composters and anyone who really knows what they’re doing (unlike me) can compost meat scraps. Basically, if your pile or row is getting hot enough, it’ll be fine.
Food that’s been out on a self-serve buffet is technically not safe to be donated. People may have sneezed in the potatoes and grabbed the chicken with their hands.
That said, I wouldn’t call the food unusable after 4-5 hours. After all, supermarkets still sell rotisserie chickens up to 5 hours. Of course, it may not have the ideal texture…but I’d still eat it.
The difference between a buffet and rotisserie chicken may be the temperature. If food has been “out,” defined at 40-140F, then it has to be ditched after a period of time (typically 4 hours but it depends on the food). If it’s kept cold (under 40F) or hot (over 140F), then it can be kept longer.
Or maybe supermarkets remove chix that are out longer, although that seems very wasteful. Hmmm, wasteful. There may be column in this: how long can supermarket salad bar and rotisserie food be kept out and how much of it gets thrown away.