I my house it’s: “May I offer you a beverage?”
I usually say, “Can I get you a drink?” and follow that immediately with the types of juice and pop we have.
When I order a Coke, I mean, and always get, a Coke. When a restaurant moved from Coke products to Pepsi products they started to ask if Pepsi was okay. The servers told me it was a requirement (I don’t know if by management or someone else) so that it didn’t look like they were selling Pepsi as Coke.
I can’t imagine any server asking a woman if she meant Diet Coke after she ordered Coke and expecting a handsome tip. When they want to refill it as they pass by the table I understand, but don’t look at me when I order and ask me if I mean Diet.
It’s a requirement of trademark law, consumer protection law, and unfair business practices law.
I avoid this whole Coke situation by ordering beer.
Yeah, but if you do that, they might bring you something like Miller or Budweiser, instead of an actual beer.
Not sure it’d get that strong a reaction, but yes, IME taking home your leftovers is very unusual. I first came across it on TV and it’s only from conversations here that I’ve gathered it’s quite routine in the US.
I guess restaurants over there don’t go way, way oversized on servings like a lot do here.
Really? You must be in Europe, then, Charley. What country?
When I take my leftovers home from a place like Texas Roadhouse (I get the smallest filet) I can usually get two more meals from it. Most restaurant portions are way too big for me.
I have spent time in over 20 different European countries, and have eaten hundreds of meals in various restaurants during my travels, and I can’t ever remember any of the servers acting like getting me a container to take away my leftovers was unusual or a hassle for them…
UK. Maybe it is related to portion size in some way. Logically I suppose it makes sense - this is food you’ve paid for, if you can’t finish it then and there why wouldn’t you take it with you? I have to say though, it just feels weird to me. That’s probably not helped by the whole English thing of
not drawing attention to yourself in any way at all - asking for a doggy bag would involve all sorts of conversations and imagining about one’s personal situation that we just can’t cope with at all :D.
No, as I say, not sure you’d get any real reaction but it isn’t a usual practice IME.
I suppose it’s what you are used to; Here in the USA, when I eat meals out in a restaurant, from fine dining to fast-food, I will bring some of the food home with me at least 90% of the time, usually regardless of the actual portion size or how hungry I am at the time.
It’s just something I always do; For some reason, I must like having restaurant leftovers for later in the evening or sometime on the next day…
Huh. Well, good for you, you’ve managed to find nice and accommodating wait staff - but being from Europe and having travelled to at least as many countries, I guarantee you that it is highly uncommon. I had never heard of people doing this until I met Americans who did it. I’ve never done it myself, nor have I been at a table with anyone who asked for this other than Americans, nor can I recall this happening more often than once or twice at another table in any restaurant that I’ve been in.
Not that there’s anything wrong with it - it’s your food, you paid for it, and I think it should be a more common practice in Europe as the alternative is to throw it out, which is wasteful (although I agree that portion size might have something to do with it, as people have mentioned).
So, do you guys just pork out and usually eat everything brought to you, rarely order more than you can eat, or just regularly throw food away? My dad taught me #3 was a sin, with all those starving kids in China and whatnot.
As a somewhat skinny American, I can tell you that the vast majority of time that I eat out (and its rarely the supersized version of the meal, extras or an appetizer) I get nearly two full meals out of whatever I’ve ordered.
If I had to guess I’d say it’s mostly #2, although I’m sure there’s a fair bit of #3 as well. Portion sizes are way smaller. People do not usually have a problem finishing their plates, IME. When you can’t finish your plate, the waiter takes it away and throws it out. My first impulse reaction to asking for a doggy bag is that it is a bit of a cheapskate thing to do (and indeed that you would be asking to take your leftovers home ‘for the dog’ does suggest that there’s a certain stigma attached to the practice in the US as well, although I’m not too sure about that conjecture).
Interesting and fair enough. Though I think we would probably both agree that the possible stigma of being a cheapskate because you don’t wanna waste food is rather unfortunate. To me the sin of wasting food is WAY worse than asking for a “doggy bag” But in the US I think you could safely say that unless you are eating at a fairly upscale place, asking for something to take the leftovers home in gets about as much bad reaction as asking for extra ice water at some point in the meal.
I can see people looking at it like that, but the thing is, I DON’T GIVE A FUCK about what people who work in restaurants (or those dining around me) think about me…
I am polite to a fault, tip exceedingly generously, and if someone (be it in Milwaukee, Melbourne or Madrid) thinks I’m a cheap bastard because I don’t want to throw away perfectly good food, fuck 'em.
(Fuck 'em with an antique Bavarian walking stick.)
Tipping generously - or at all - is also something that people in Europe don’t do - but I don’t think everyone’s ever given you the stinkeye for that anymore than they have for asking to have your leftovers wrapped up to go. That does not make it standard practice, though.
I don’t think you should mind if people think you are a cheap bastard, and as I said in my first post reacting to yours
[QUOTE=me, Josef Švejk]
Not that there’s anything wrong with it - it’s your food, you paid for it, and I think it should be a more common practice in Europe as the alternative is to throw it out, which is wasteful (although I agree that portion size might have something to do with it, as people have mentioned).
[/QUOTE]
So I endorse the practice and wish we did it more - but my impulse reaction is still to think it’s a bit cheap, and you’re certainly wrong to argue that taking home leftovers is a common thing to do in Europe. It may not have been a hassle for the waiters who served you, but it certainly was unusual for them.
I was at a restaurant in Brasil and I ordered a pizza. (Yeah, it’s a strange thing to order in Brasil but I think it’s fun that what’s called a pizza differs greatly from country to country. Also about half the menu at this particular restaurant was pizza and I’d been eating more typical Brasilian food all week so I figured I’d see what it was like.)
What was strange about this experience was instead of bringing the pizza to the table they kept it in the back and anytime someone wanted a slice we had to flag down the waiter who was usually off somewhere smoking and ask him to bring out a piece.