@csdiego:
I don't like carrying doggie bags out of restaurants either, but my wife has no problem with that. She's also the one that usually eats the leftovers.

I also have a psychological issue with wasting food, but as you said, portions are sometimes twice what you consider normal sized.

People don't complain about their food when they're in the restaurant and it will continue to suck! Complaining here on Blame the Consumer™ gets you nothing but feigned sympathy.

@ChuckECheese: Nix on the Mexican food. Here in Houston, exactly ONE place I know of uses vegetable shortening and oil instead of pig lard. And they don't cater.

@Papagoose: And that, ladies and gents, is why I never eat out!

Check out the health inspection reports for the places you like to eat in...You'll likely be horrified.

@less_is_best: Get the desi-injuns some cheese enchiladas and refried beans, and stop teasing them. They have it hard enough doing trying to answer all our phone calls.

I think I know what you mean, though. Sometimes places that were good in the past and are now riding on their reputation are the ones that make all the travel guides.

@less_is_best:
Nice guy.

I work with a bunch of Indians who refuse to eat meat. So every time we have a lunch meeting there has to be special "meat free" itmems just for them. Last year when there was a "meatless" chili made, we dropped in one itsy bitsy piece of meat that would never be seen, according to their beliefs we sent one of them to hell! LOL! Good times!

@csdiego:
It's a little known fact that just because a restaurant serves you a huge entree, you aren't compelled to eat it all. Restaurants are happy to wrap the remainder for you to take home and perhaps get another meal from it. That is not only frugal, but is the answer to some of the overweight problems we have.

Nah, for the "2nd wave" marketing, they'll just switch to "upsizing" with cheap, empty carbs and such: "Now, with MORE spaghetti!"

Tortillas and other tasty corn products are surely one reason that the population of Mexico is now Almost As Fat as Us. Not that I'm some pork-rind chompin' carbophobe or circle-of-life-hating vegan, but I do agree with "In Defense of Food" author Michael Pollan's words of wisdom: "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

I do feel bad for independent restaurateurs, but I won't cry for Cheesecake Factory or Olive Garden any more than I did for Enron, or do for Bear Stearns. There's a special place in hell for the movers and shakers who long ago replaced scads of Real Food on chain menus with six kinds of rubber chicken salad and a dozen kinds of rubber chicken pasta. There's a particular abomination in my area called McCallisters, where the food is so great that their ads go on and on...about their (seriously mediocre) sweet tea. I notice that their recent new-strip-mall locales are charging unprecedented high prices, and find it mind-boggling that we are such creatures of habit that good holes-in-wall are failing in the current environment.

Are those sorts of comments really necessary?

Technically, it should be called the "Dollar and More Menu" at McDonalds.

And who pays almost $7 for a hot dog?!?!?!? Admittedly, I don't eat them so...

Worrying about quality or sanitation would put me off going to a restaurant more than dropping an extra $10 on a couple.

What year do you think it is?

It's tough, being an time strapped undergrad, to do just that, so I'm willing to risk a bit eating out. I hope I can eventually have a career that gives me some time (or have a wife that's a good cook or have the money to hire a good cook altogether)

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@stanfrombrooklyn: ROFLMAO! Having a disproportionate amount of Jewish friends, I really can't help but wonder how many times they are eating non-Kosher food when they think they are.

And yeah, hamburger is almost always the trimmings. If you want to be served a disgusting piece of meat, order something well-done, and you're sure to get the oldest, skankiest piece of beef the restaurant's just been waiting to have the chance to get rid of.

All the food reuse "techniques" that people are listing here is ILLEGAL in the US as a violation of sanitation. Once the food hits the table it's going with you or it's going in the garbage (or down the disposal).

This is why we have health inspectors!

I just ate dinner at a fine Italian restaurant in South Philly. I thought the tunafish on my antipasto was Jonah and the whale himself sitting on my plate. There was only some small tomato wedge though. Pity. Expensive too. But, I showed them. I had a gift certificate in these pressing times.

@johnva: Ok, fair enough. The last time I was there was before their "cheese surcharge." And it was NOT marked on the menu, IIRC. It was on a homemade sign on the wall, and listed as a line item on the receipt (I wouldn't have bought it for myself, but I needed to pick up an enchilada for my coworker's lunch).

I worked in a pizza place once that was hosting a huge bar mitzvah. The cook started to walk out with a dozen pepperoni pizzas before someone screamed "JEWS DON'T EAT PORK!" and then all of us hurriedly took off the pepperoni one by one and replaced them with pineapple, hamburger, chicken, and whatever else we could find. No way was the owner going to throw away all the pizzas.

High end restaurants are all about the atmosphere and service--their food is usually not that great. If you want great food, hole-in-the-wall places are where you should eat, but those are usually only known by the locals.

Btw, most people don't realize that hamburger meat is traditionally the leftover trimmings of higher cuts of beef from things like tenderloin, ribeye, NY strip, etc., along with other cuts that are more flavorful but not quite as well marbled/tender.

It ultimately depends on your butcher but if you need hamburger meat you're better off buying hamburger meat instead of asking him/her to grind some from other cuts. Ask your butcher first what leftover trimmings he uses.

@Papagoose: Yeah, what Papagoose said. Where the hell were you working?!?

So glad I got out of that line of work.

Chacho's Mexican restaurant here in Houston has imposed a surcharge on each and every dish they serve that contains cheese (which is damn near all of them). They cite the rising price of cheese as the reason for this. Anyone else run into this? Do you think it's legit?

I've never heard anything so ridiculous since the time a restaurant tried to charge me extra for leaving the meat off a Philly cheese steak (leaving cheese, onions, peppers, and sauce) on the grounds that it was "extra work for the kitchen".

Don't have time to cook? Tough.

I guess it's a good thing that they are not wasting as much.

lol The fancy "la-de-da!" place I worked at years ago ALWAYS did this! Of course, you could argue that its the preparation by the "master chefs" of cheap ingredients is what you are REALLY paying for.

Reminds me of the scene from "European Vaction" where the grizwolds were eating at a fancy french restaurant & in back the "chefs" were taking food out from tv dinners & passing it off as their own! LOL!

Note: I saw on the news a while back that it is common practice for some restaurants to strain the unused butter (left from people's plates) to be reused later..... blech!!!!!

this comment thing needs an edit button