I’m not saying I agree with Czarcasm. I was just clarifying his point since it seemed he and Dewey_Finn were talking past each other.
You would think the restaurant would not even allow it to happen if it could be helped.
How can they possibly prevent it from happening? It’s true that anybody can sue for anything and being sued is going to cost something, guilty or not - but that means the restaurant can end up being sued even if no one actually got sick at all, and I doubt the odds went up a whole lot because the plaintiffs accepted pizza from another customer who adulterated it somehow.
That’s what I’ve been asking.
I definitely understand the concern given how litigious the US population is, but there are a few things in place that would shut this down pretty fast.
The restaurant will have a record of your tab for at least a few months. It is very easy to pull up what exactly the couple ordered. Even comps (items that are voided or removed) will show up in the restaurant’s records.
The other thing that would help shut this down is the prevalence of cameras. Camera coverage definitely varies by restaurant, but all the fine dining places where I worked at least had cameras covering the expo line (where the food is picked up from the kitchen), freezers and fridges, and the bar (registers).
Maybe they were traveling and knew that they wouldn’t have a chance to eat it before they got on a plane home, or something like that. I’ve turned down the option of a doggie bag for that reason; otherwise I am big on not wasting food.
As to the OP’s question, I’d probably take the pizza. I might not if I disliked the toppings or knew I had a big order on the way.
And as many have said, pizza is different. Someone’s half-eaten plate of spaghetti I would turn down!
The only sort-of buffet places I’ve ever seen that ever didn’t charge when you entered are the kind that aren’t really buffets, but have certain all you can eat items on the menu - maybe bottomless fries or an endless soup and sandwich lunch special or a salad/hot food/cold food bar that can be added to a meal. And every time I’ve been at one of those places with someone other than my husband, there are people sharing.
Yep - I was on a cruise once and there was a beer tasting at a bar as part of an excursion. Some people ordered a pizza at the bar, didn’t finish it and had it boxed. They carried it around for the rest of the walking tour , on the bus back to the ship - and then had to throw it out because they couldn’t bring it on board. Would have been better off not taking it.
Not always.
I was sued in small claims court for $1,300. Actual demonstrable damages to the idiot who sued me was $45 (which I pointed out as I was Pro se).
I missed half a day of work, but it was worth every penny to see how the system works. When I repeatedly objected to hearsay statements the dude blew his top. I laughed in his face walking out of the magisterial courtroom. He could have sued his friend for $45 and won, but his friend had no money.
I meant the original owners taking it home. And no, I wouldn’t want the remains of your spit flecked quesadilla 
I’d gladly accept food from a clean, well-groomed, kind-looking person. But from someone who’s sneezing, coughing, dripping sweat, oozing pustules, covered in scabs and grime, wearing a ‘Biological Warfare Rocks!’ tee-shirt, looking like they’re auditioning for a zombie apocalypse? Yeah, probably not.
…unless they’re offering a sizzling porterhouse steak with a baked potato—because, let’s be honest, who can say no to that?
Small claims is the exception.
I’d accept it. Absolutely no problem. Hell, I was at a bowling alley in Sheboygan a couple years ago when some dude, presumably from the kitchen I hope, showed up with an aluminum pan filled with mashed potatoes. “We had an event and have leftover mashed potatoes. You want it?” I paused, taking in the rather odd situation of being in a bowling alley and being offered mashed potatoes, yet reconciling it with being somehow appropriate for Wisconsin, and said “yes!” I’m still alive, and they were good mashed potatoes.
I don’t see how there’s anything either legally or ethically wrong with that; somebody paid the restaurant for the food, and all of the food being consumed in the restaurant was actually purchased there. People in restaurants consume food they didn’t personally pay for all the time – pretty much any time someone orders an appetizer or dessert to share, or one person picks up a tab for a group. I don’t see how it makes a difference if the purchaser is / was sitting at a different table. (Presumably, if the purchasers had decided to stick around and finish their pizza, they would still be occupying their table.)
If I liked it and had room in my stomach, the answer is, yes!
They’re offering it to me. By that act, they are renouncing their claim to it. So if I don’t see any evidence that the food is laced with drugs or that the people are dirty, I would eat it.
I have given and accepted “what’s left in the pizza box” at least once. It was at a pizza place full of families after their little league games. None of us knew each other, we were just sharing with one another. It seemed fairly common.
It was pre-covid. I’d be surprised to see anyone do it these days though.
I think all of that was assuming that the recipients didn’t order or pay for any of their own food and were taking up a separate table from the people who did order and pay for the pizza. (meaning that two tables needed to be cleaned and so on) I’m not sure if I think there is anything ethically or legally wrong with that - but it is not terribly uncommon for certain types of restaurants to charge a “plate sharing fee” or to have a minimum spend per person if , for example, my husband and I want to share a main course or four teenagers want to share a single order of fries.
Maybe they were staying in a hotel? I’ve ended up with too much food when I was staying in a hotel and had no place to store it. Even with a typical hotel room fridge, pizza would be a tight squeeze.
Definitely! Other restaurants? Depends. More likely if it is something which is pre-portioned by the kitchen.
I might accept it. Do the people look healthy? Are they not on my official enemy list? Is it a kind of pizza i like? Is that something I’ll eat in addition to my meal, or something I’d enjoy as much as whatever i planned to order?
I’ve mostly given restaurant leftovers to people i know or to beggars.
why i often gave food to beggars
When i lived in NY, i often walked with leftovers from a meal or just a sack of food, and was often asked for help from beggars. When both those happened simultaneously, i offered my leftovers to the beggar. About half, maybe a bit more, accepted happily, and the rest gave me a dirty look and quickly moved away from other people who had seen the interaction. Most street beggars were happy, subway beggars were more likely to be unhappy. But i saw a lot of happy people eating a bagel or some mandarins I’d been carrying, and i gave away a lot of leftover Chinese food.
But I’ve also left food in universities, and sometimes grazed on food others left. I don’t think “poisoning random strangers” is all that popular, and if the food is clean and fresh, eh, it’s food. And leftover pizza is usually clean, and keeps for a long time.
I’ll admit here that I have also in the past grazed food left by others.
I’ve been in the same situation. Some hotel rooms have only those little dorm-size refrigerators, not good for much more than chilling a couple of bottles of water. And they may also have no microwave. And I may be checking out the next day.
Maybe I’m an outlier, but I’ve often left pizza on the counter and eaten it cold for breakfast the next day.