I was in a meeting recently in which we had boxed lunches from Jimmy Johns. I don’t know the size of the sandwich, but it looked bigger than the standard 6" sub. But maybe not. It also came with a two-ounce bag of chips, and a 3½ ounce raisin-oatmeal cookie.
Totally agree. I never truly realized how huge restaurant portions are until my wife and I started making a concious effort to stop eating when we were satisfied, not when we were full. Oh my god! Those Cheesecake Factory entrees are enough food for three separate dinners! Now we take home a week’s worth of leftovers practically every time we eat out. I suddenly understand why people become overweight without thinking that they’re “pigging out”-- after all, they’re just eating everything they were served.
Exact opposite here. I would rather have 4 ounces of exquisite fillet minion cooked to order, than all-u-can-eat shoe leather.
I had a friend raving about some all you can eat chain restaurant. I pointed out that the food was mediocre at best. His reply was, “sure, but you can eat all you want”. :dubious:
I ordered a small popcorn at the movies this weekend, and it was $5.50 and huge.
The problem here was that I went to the burbs for the movies. The indie theaters I go to in the city have $3.00 smalls, and I usually take some of that home with me.
Not only that. . .the movie started 15 minutes after the advertised time due to previews, and as I mentioned in my thread in IMHO, we got ratted out for sneaking in beers.
And, the movie was supersized. . .2:40. Way longer than it had to be.
Even here in the relatively modestly portioned UK, I very rarely clear my plate in a restaurant. The exception tends to be at more expensive fine-dining places, where the emphasis is on quality and interesting flavours, rather than “How much lard can we pile onto a plate?”. In this respect I am totally with vetbridge.
Personally I hate the feeling of having an over-full stomach – it makes me feel really uncomfortable. I’ll eat until I am no longer hungry, and then stop. I can’t see how it can be considered pleasurable to go out for a meal and cram your belly full to bursting point. In a lot of “American diner” type places, there’ll still be over half the food left on the plate. When I visited the States, even when I ordered the lighter meal options I rarely got more than half way through most portions.
It’s such a shame to see the food go to waste. Why do they do it? Surely kitchens must see the amount of food coming back on the plates and wonder if they couldn’t cut back a little?
Food is too cheap, is the problem. The actual food on your plate is such a minuscule part of the cost of a restaurant meal that they can just pile obscene amounts onto every plate. Sad really.
I asked the owner of a local Chinese restaurant (as I was loading 75% of my meal into a take out container). Her reply, “That’s how you people eat”.
Was it Groucho Marx who said “The food is terrible and the portions are too small”?
How did you find your steak, sir?
Why, I just lifted up the potato chip and there it was.
Waiter, what is this fly doing in my soup?
The backstroke, sir.
Someone will be along who knows, but when my parents lived in Seattle in the 60s there was an ice cream place with some sort of safari dessert for many (The Volcano, maybe?). They’d bring it in on a litter and beat drums as they did, and there may have been flaming torches involved; talk about fame!
Oh, and check out this 11-pound burger! Scroll down here to see the record-breaking burger. And their Lenten specials :smack:
One pound crab legs, 2 doz mussels, 1/2 pound shrimp, veggies, potato, garlic bread.
Lent is supposed to be a time of restraint, not just less red meat. :smack:
We were given a gift card for this place for Christmas. One of the first things I noticed were the size of quite a few of the the people there - a lot of folks that must have weighed in the 300-400 lb. range. And that’s not something you usually see much of here.
When the waitress came to take our order, she told us they have ‘bottomless fries.’ So even if you only order a burger, you can have as many fries as you want. I had to wonder if there was a connection there.
Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour had one called ‘The Zoo’ that they brought out on a litter to the blare of sirens.
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Carl’s has COME TO TOWN! (Spokane, Washington) I was so excited. Mmm… Carl’s Jr… drool
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Back on topic… I’m with Oakminster. I like big food. I like lots of food. I like looking at a plate and thinking, “damn, I’m not sure if I can eat all of that”. I can always take leftovers home, after all.
I think this springs from my youth. There was a time where I was not sure where my next meal would be coming from, or if there would be one at all. Even though I’m able to actually go out and buy food pretty much whenever I please (subject to budget 
) these days, I still tend to make sure I’m getting my money’s worth… and to me, that means I better be full, dammit.
I like being with Oakie. And it’s because I like having lunch the next day!
There was a place in Denver that had a 10-lb. pizza. If you ate the whole thing, you got it for free. They had before and after pictures of the people who pulled it off, and they all looked like they were going to keel over. What was the name of that place???
Yes! I ordered the pork tenderloin. I brought it home and ate again until I was full and then Mr. K (who’s a big fan of “Man Food”) pigged out as well!
Beau Jo’s. They’re still doing this, as far as I know.
Scary, scary thread.
Isn’t there a place in Texas where you get the steak for free if you can finish it–like a 3-lb steak or something?
Then there’s the Newport Creamery Awful Awful–awful big, awful good thick shake. Drink three, get one free.
Oh, it’s 12-14 pounds for two people. That sounds doable.
<<“The Challenge” a 12-14 pound pie probably could have saved the Donner Party. The pie’s appropriate name also serves as an invitation for two people to eat in one hour, at one sitting. If they succeed, the pizza is free and they win $100 plus 2 Beau Jo’s Tee-shirts. And almost unbelievably, such a feat has happened about a dozen times in Beau Jo’s history. “And not by huge people”, says Bair, “Usually they’re pretty fit people”. In celebration of the restaurant’s 25th year anniversary…“The Challenge” prize went up to $500. Despite the extra reward, the challenge was met only once, by two high school students. >>
To be fair, the whole POINT of a fried tenderloin is that it’s bigger than the plate. Of course, that’s supposed to be because it’s pounded out very, very thin.
And to Colophon, in America we tend to take the leftovers home with us. No waste. I know it offends European sensibilities, but it’s what we do.
That’s the place! I’m feeling a little woozy after reading that!
— signed, Two-Slice Kalhoun
Me, too. The whole “gorge yourself on Thanksgiving” concept gives me a headache. I eat the same amount I’d eat any other time of year. When I overeat, I feel lousy for hours and hours afterward and I’m incapable of clearing the table or even thinking about dessert.