Ohhh la la. Recently I read an article saying that “Restaurant fines diners who leave food on plates.“
So now I’m in fear.
The day this was written, I left 1/5th of my merlan and veggies uneaten (PS I finished all my tapenade, soup, langoustines and dessert.) So did they charge me? No.
But I find, even though I’m not a real Food Critic, but do write every meal up, that the Big Boys don’t polish off every dish; FS says he often has bottled water and part of one course.
In often told stories (by me) there are three incidents that spring to mind when I haven’t finished my meals and would have had a fit if I’d been charged.
The first was at an Alsatian place which will go un-named where we simply ordered too much flamenkuche and my buddy said “get out one of your bags, John and we’ll dump the excess in a Vigipirate container on the way home.” Dutifully I did and a few blocks away, he said ‘OK here’s one, dump it there” and I realized I’d left it on the floor of the restaurant. Go back? Are you kidding, we high-tailed it away.
The second was at Helene Darroze with the same pal and our wives where the food was so dreadful we got out our sacks, carefully emptied our almost full plates and purposefully left them on the floor a a gesture of disgust at Ms. Darroze’s cooking.
And third is an occurrence that occurs everytime I have steak in France. It is simply too much to finish. So once again out comes my handy ziplock bag, in goes the steak and that night the remains are perfect with Worchester sauce.
