# Clean your plate or eat somewhere else!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 4, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930 "2010-06-04T14:52:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/41 "2010-06-05T05:13:01Z")
> [@Apocalypso](#):
>
> Wait wait wait…they deny single people service? Do they ask for proof that you’re married? What about divorcees?..
Single as in “somebody who’s eating along” not relationship single.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/42 "2010-06-05T05:18:24Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#):
>
> She has long refused entry to singles and people she doesn’t want in the place.
Um, and what sort of people doesn’t she want?
This is legal in Australia?
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/43 "2010-06-05T05:33:48Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#):
>
> Single as in “somebody who’s eating along” not relationship single.
Yes and it’s only anecdotal at that. When I was recommended the place I was warned not to go alone, something I do a lot. I had assumed it was because the place is small and they didn’t want to waste a table on one person.
They have always been upfront about their policies and the people who go there aren’t being abducted and then told to follow her rules. You choose to eat at her restaurant, her way or go somewhere else. Big deal.
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### Author:  [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/44 "2010-06-05T07:50:58Z")
Its mottainai - the Japanese concept that wasting things is very bad.
[Wikipedia explains it pretty well.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mottainai)
I teach at a public school in Japan and it is really important that everyone eats all their food. If there is extra food because someone is away, others will try to stuff themselves so it isn’t wasted. If there is really too much for everyone to eat, there will be a lot of discussion about mottainai.
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### Author:  [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/45 "2010-06-05T08:23:53Z")
> [@Manwich](#):
>
> it is really important that everyone eats all their food. If there is extra food because someone is away, others will try to stuff themselves so it isn’t wasted.
As with so many solutions Japanese, the solution contains its own problem.
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### Author:  [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/46 "2010-06-05T08:59:34Z")
Well to clarify, only the younger more active teachers will take extra food. And the big, growth spurting boys are always more than happy to take up the slack if there is too much food for students.
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/47 "2010-06-05T09:51:43Z")
Sounds to me like she has found an angle, and she’s milking it: some people (witness this thread) are going to get all RO about what an offence it is that she isn’t treating the customers like gods, and others (easily enough to keep her tables full, I’d guess) are going to go to her restaurant because they agree with her ideals, or just because they’ve heard of her restaurant because of outrage like is being expressed here. You can get RO-ish about it but she’s being upfront about her policies and if you don’t like them, rack off. It’s her restaurant.
Fair play to her, as far as I’m concerned.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/48 "2010-06-05T10:12:39Z")
It’s not an angle. [Here](http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/real-iron-chef-will-make-you-pay-20100510-uo3p.html) is a more revealing article about the whole thing. It’s pretty old news, she’s been doing it for a while now.
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/49 "2010-06-05T11:12:58Z")
Yes, sorry my post makes it sound like I think she’s being cynical. I just mean by “angle” that she’s found she can enforce her particular point of view (which point of view is hardly unjustifiable) and while it may upset some people, it probably causes admiration in others. Fair play to her for doing what she wants to do, while not going broke doing it.
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### Author:  [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/50 "2010-06-05T13:55:33Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#):
>
> What a storm in a yu-nomi.
>
> I have eaten there years ago and the owner/chef circulates among the diners all the time, making sure that people are happy and assessing how hungry they are.
>
> She is simply asking that people don’t order more than they need. She would rather you order two things that you will finish than 5 things that you will eat bits of. It wouldn’t be a concern if she was running a western restaurant - people don’t order three different mains and eat bits of them but you often see it amongst greedy people in Asian places. That’s why she suggests sharing the plates.
>
> Oh, and she won’t care about people not going. She has long refused entry to singles and people she doesn’t want in the place. And business seems not to suffer.
Wow. She sounds like the Soup Nazi. Or if she’s Chinese…Restaurant Commie?
I don’t think people order more than one plate because they’re greedy. They do it because they want a variety. Last time my extended family and I went out and we had a lot left over. We had it taken home with us (no, we did not bring our own boxes because this was a normal restaurant), but I just don’t see the big deal.
I kind of would like to go to that restaurant, order eight plates, take a bite, pay, and then leave, just to see her head explode. Too bad I’m not in Australia…
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/51 "2010-06-05T14:35:39Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#):
>
> I kind of would like to go to that restaurant, order eight plates, take a bite, pay, and then leave, just to see her head explode. Too bad I’m not in Australia…
No need to come. I’m sure we have Aussies drunk enough, dumb enough or both that will do stuff like that.
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### Author:  [@KatK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KatK)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/52 "2010-06-14T22:24:31Z")
Ooh, I would LOVE to see her open a restaurant and try to pull the same thing here, where I live. She’d be out of business within the week!
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### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clean-your-plate-or-eat-somewhere-else/541930/53 "2010-06-14T23:36:36Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#):
>
> I wouldn’t eat at a buffet that would charge me for uneaten food. The whole point of a buffet is to decadently waste food.
>
> .
And I wouldnt want to eat at a buffet that allows you to totally waste food. I’d rather not subsidize the needless throwing away of food because you find it fun.
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