Do you stack the dirty dishes when eating out?

[Sebastian Cobb]

I wouldn't dare bring my own food into a cafe but I'm totally not above quickly scanning a croissant on the way/outside it then going in and just having a coffee.

Apparently some places in Berlin have taken to renting out working areas after loads of freelancers started spending all day working in there and not buying much. Dunno who's in the right there really.

[a duncandisorderly]

that episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry is thrown out of the clothes shop for trying to re-fold the sweatshirts being a twat.

[Neville Chamberlain]

I can't remember the last time I went to a restaurant where the position of the knife and fork actually meant anything. I just indicate when I'm done by leaning back and making general noises to indicate satiety. And pointing at my plate and making waving gestures towards the kitchen, of course.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I can't remember the last time I went to a restaurant where the position of the knife and fork actually meant anything. I just indicate when I'm done by leaning back and making general noises to indicate satiety. And pointing at my plate and making waving gestures towards the kitchen, of course.

Basically imagining this as whale noises.

[Blue Jam]

I wouldn't dare bring my own food into a cafe but I'm totally not above quickly scanning a croissant on the way/outside it then going in and just having a coffee.

Apparently some places in Berlin have taken to renting out working areas after loads of freelancers started spending all day working in there and not buying much. Dunno who's in the right there really.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11808037/Where-do-we-stand-on....-bringing-your-own.html

Southwold Pier banning picnics so people will buy overpriced food at their own outlets seems a bit greedy and mean-spirited. Ditto for cinemas trying to stop people bringing in their own popcorn and sweets- I remember when the Sainsbury's near the Odeon in Wrexham sold no popcorn at all, and I had to wonder if the Odeon's manager had bribed them or something.

I don't like to eat food in cinemas but I will sneak my own booze in if it's a big chain multiplex. I pay full-whack for drinks at my local independent cinemas because I like to support them, plus they tend not to take the piss with drink prices.

[paruses]

... Also this article by Eva Wiseman in The Guardian about bringing her own croissant to a cafe. I just don't know what sort of person thinks it's acceptable to take up a seat in a restaurant or cafe, get waited on, and have someone clear up after them when they haven't paid a single penny for the privilege.

I fall on the side of the manageress although it seems like she didn't handle it that well and in the journalist's defence she had asked if it was OK to eat it (but I disagree with her decision).

I just hope that she was made to eat it like Private Pyle eats the doughnut in Full Metal Jacket while the other customers did press ups.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I don't like to eat food in cinemas but I will sneak my own booze in if it's a big chain multiplex. I pay full-whack for drinks at my local independent cinemas because I like to support them, plus they tend not to take the piss with drink prices.

Same.

Don't get me started on pseudo-public (privately owned) spaces banning drinks or food.

[Dr Rock]

I've done it in the past to be nice but now I think the waiter will think 'you stupid cunt' so fuck that. And I'm not taking empty pint glasses back because surely that puts glass collectors out of a job? Like I don't use automatic tills at Tescoes.

[Neville Chamberlain]

I've stopped drinking booze in cinemas because my "getting up to go to the toilet" anxiety has cruelly increased in direct proportion to the frequency with which I now need to go to the toilet. :-(

[Neville Chamberlain]

I've done it in the past to be nice but now I think the waiter will think 'you stupid cunt' so fuck that. And I'm not taking empty pint glasses back because surely that puts glass collectors out of a job? Like I don't use automatic tills at Tescoes.

I thought you didn't use any tills at Tescos? ;-)))

[asids]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11808037/Where-do-we-stand-on....-bringing-your-own.html

Southwold Pier banning picnics so people will buy overpriced food at their own outlets seems a bit greedy and mean-spirited. Ditto for cinemas trying to stop people bringing in their own popcorn and sweets- I remember when the Sainsbury's near the Odeon in Wrexham sold no popcorn at all, and I had to wonder if the Odeon's manager had bribed them or something.

I don't like to eat food in cinemas but I will sneak my own booze in if it's a big chain multiplex. I pay full-whack for drinks at my local independent cinemas because I like to support them, plus they tend not to take the piss with drink prices.

Don't all the cinema chains basically allow you to bring in your own food/drink? Well, less allow and more that they can't/won't stop you.  I think it's only hot food and alcohol that aren't allowed.

I always bring food/drink but I try to be subtle about it, putting it in my pockets or in a bag. I wouldn't flaunt it about although you technically could.

[Dr Rock]

I thought you didn't use any tills at Tescos? ;-)))

YOU MAKE ONE MISTAKE AND PEOPLE WON'T LET YOU FORGET I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE WHY WON'T YOU PEOPLE LET ME LIVE? LIIIIVE?

[Neville Chamberlain]

Aw come on, it was a classic thread! I can't even look at a torch now without chuckling to myself...

Anyway, back to moaning service personnel who don't appreciate a bit of help from friendly customers!!!

[Blue Jam]

Don't all the cinema chains basically allow you to bring in your own food/drink? Well, less allow and more that they can't/won't stop you.  I think it's only hot food and alcohol that aren't allowed.

I didn't know this until I read that Telegraph article, but I had a suspicion that cinema chains can't stop you bringing in other food and drink, though they will try. I've never noticed any signs up saying "only food bought on the premises can be consumed", probably because they can't legally enforce this.

The "no alcohol/hot food" thing makes sense and I could understand it if cinemas didn't sell their own alcohol and (very smelly) hot food at inflated prices. The Odeon near me has a pizza restaurant in it and allows people to take pizzas into screenings. The thought of trying to watch a film with the smell of pizza wafting around me has really put me off going there.

[mothman]

No. Having waited tables I know how this just makes a mess and how it's a pain in the arse for staff when a "helpful" customer hands them a stack of plates which all have food (and sometimes cutlery and napkins) in between them and then have to be prised apart and scraped. Ever noticed how waiters often don't stack plates but will carry one in each hand and balance a third on their arm? That's why.

Best to just let the staff do it.

I'm with BJ. Though I'd suspect that MrsMoth would, like MrsIL, occasionally do a bit of organising because she can be a bit of a control freak. My atiitude is, we're paying for the meal, we're acknowledging the service by leaving a tip, leave it to them. I spend enough time stacking and scraping plates at home, for Christ's sake.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I don't buy or take any food into cinemas because it makes a racket and 2 hours doesn't seem like a particularly long time to go without eating.

[Dr Rock]

I don't buy or take any food into cinemas because it makes a racket and 2 hours doesn't seem like a particularly long time to go without eating.

Or desperately chugging on booze like a filthy tramp.

[Neville Chamberlain]

I shall reconsider my stance on plate-stacking.

[Blue Jam]

I don't buy or take any food into cinemas because it makes a racket and 2 hours doesn't seem like a particularly long time to go without eating.

^^^ This, plus I dislike the whole mindless eating aspect. I also just don't like popcorn, hotdogs, burgers, Haribo and most of the other food commonly sold in cinemas.

Or desperately chugging on booze like a filthy tramp.

^^^ This however is something I have much less of a problem with.

[dallasman]

Ask your mum

[mothman]

Don't all the cinema chains basically allow you to bring in your own food/drink? Well, less allow and more that they can't/won't stop you.  I think it's only hot food and alcohol that aren't allowed.

I always bring food/drink but I try to be subtle about it, putting it in my pockets or in a bag. I wouldn't flaunt it about although you technically could.

https://youtu.be/0JXmUSMPUpA

[Twit 2]

My father in law won't take his empties to the bar as apparently when he was in Ireland during the 70s, it gave you away as a brit, since the IRA don't return empty glasses. Or he is just really lazy but very good at making excuses, not sure, maybe I can tweet Gerry Adams and get this confirmed?

Did the LAZY CUNT sit in the silence in the pub, then, or adopt an Oirish accent? I'm calling bullshit on this feckless dickhead.

[littlenell]

Depends on who I'm eating out.

Can't believe it took so long for this sort of reply...:)

So, why does it depend on who you're eating out dear?

[machotrouts]

We have a dishwasher in this house, but my parents pile up dishes on a counter instead of just putting them straight in, adding a completely redundant extra step where I have to prise them back out of each other and get all their sauces and gravies and custards over my hands. Mum eats a curry and I'm branded for the rest of the day with turmeric fingertips. Even back when we washed them in a sink, I had to double the washing time to accommodate the plate bottoms. I hope never to spend another night scrubbing my mother's crusty undersides.

I'm trying to imagine circumstances where stacking dishes makes sense; perhaps if you have 1 square foot of counter space and you are too busy battling a blazing inferno to wash them, and you have no other surfaces, not even floors, just that one counter then everything else is a big fucking pit and you live your life constantly hanging on to the counter and screaming, in that circumstance I will accept that stacking dishes is rational, but otherwise it's just one of those deranged and repulsive things people do to prove they're human and fallible, like religion

[mrpupkin]

I will stack in a Spoons or similar where I want to forget that I've eaten their ropey food as soon as possible and turn the table into a drinks-only zone. A spiritual cleansing really, like deleting your browser history or getting baptised.

[DArtagnan]

yeah, scrape leftovers onto one plate, try and generally do as much as i can apart from cook and wash-up, eating out only happened quite late in my life as we were shitpoor and i think it's good manners and only comes undone if they have some different system and you fuck it up, but even so the intent is nice. i think?

Promise me that I just had a temporary brain malfunction, and I didn't just read that, also that you
actually typed, "Scrape and stack plates, who the fuck would do that, a brain dead troglodyte?"

[Black Ship]

Answer from the shop floor:

Stack the plates. Please stack the damn plates, because speaking from experience, when they get to the KP area the waitstaff are literally going to leave plates where there's space, regardless of size and shape of the plates underneath and whether there is sauce still clinging to it or not. Also despite there being a segmented cutlery rack, most will throw it in an old how (usually with the steak knives blade upward ffs). I've literally had plates thrown at me.

So if you aren't going to stack the plates for the convenience of the waitstaff, think of the poor fucker who has to scrub the bastards.

[dallasman]

Can't believe it took so long for this sort of reply...:)

That's what I thought, but only because I didn't see marquis' post and thought I'd made a scoop

[Blue Jam]

This thread needs a poll.

[Dr Rock]

It needs more first hand experiences from waiters/waitrsesses.