Doggie Bags

[Barb Dwyer]

An article I read this weekend mentioned that restaurants are seeing an increase in the number of people who request doggie bags. They say this is a sign of the slowing economy. Perhaps.

But I have always requested one - for a couple of reasons. One, of course, is because of financial considerations. Especially in upscale restaurants - there is no way I am leaving any food behind when the check is over $200! Secondly, the portions they serve these days are so huge, I can't possibly eat the whole meal in one sitting.

My friends seem to get embarrassed when I ask for a container and I am not sure why this is. Do you ask for doggie bags? Or am I just cheap?

 

[OUTSIDER]

I'm a fat greedy bastard so it never comes up

 

[Wizard]

I take one home all the time and never give it a second thought..........Hell I bought it, I'm taking it with me......

I agree with ya Barb.........

 

[Bigdog]

Doggie bags are a must, sometimes I will even order more than I can eat just to take it home. Makes a great lunch at work, beats hell out of fast-food.

Once in a while it actually goes to the dogs.

 

[Bob Peale]

Depends on the restaurant.

I tend not to when I'm dining in one of those places where they name all of the dining rooms and you need a presidential reference to sit at the bar.

If I'm at Applebee's, you bet your ass I do!

 

[Debbie]

If at a fancy restaurant then no way! Might show my fine self up! lol Otherwise yes a doggie bag is a must!
And I can't help it! I'm part Irish and scottish and Kiwi!

 

[pabloback]

[Secondly, the portions they serve these days are so huge, I can't possibly eat the whole meal in one sitting.



oh the wonders of the great usa
come to this country and wonder of the miniscule portions on offer and crappy service thrown in to boot

 

[Barb Dwyer]

Now this is what I don't understand.

Debbie and Bob - you won't ask for a doggie bag at a nice restaurant but you will at a chain style one? This doesn't make sense.

You're paying a premium for food and service yet you are willing to throw it away for the sake of - pride??? Do you really care that these people - most of whom you'll probably never see again - will think you are gauche?

Pablo - this is truly the land of excess. The portion sizes could feed 4 people. In order to justify their high prices, restaurants serve larger portions than in the past so that the customers will feel that they are 'getting their money's worth'.

I feel like I am getting my money's worth if I take it home and use it for 2 more meals! LOL

I must be cheap. Or shameless!

 

[Bob Peale]

Now this is what I don't understand.

Debbie and Bob - you won't ask for a doggie bag at a nice restaurant but you will at a chain style one? This doesn't make sense.

well, for starters, there's never enough food for the meal, let alone, a doggie bag.

secondly, many of the better restaurants here don't even have provisions for doggie bags anymore.

 

[lobito]

Barb, you're not cheap, or shameless... (about money either)

I do the same, I can't stand paying so much money and the people I'm with wasting good food!

Applebee's, Lone Star, Outback, any of those places where they serve MASSIVE proportions, probably know the customers are going to want to take some of it home, otherwise they wouldn't have those little styrofoam thingies so handy.

 

[pabloback]

I must be cheap. Or shameless! [/B]

can we meet?

 

[Barb Dwyer]

I may be cheap fellas, but I ain't easy. Don't even think it, Bob!

Oh, who am I kidding?

 

[teresafannin]

I always bring my extras home. Like most people I know, I eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. I love the Olive Garden & have them on the speed dial of my cel phone. Pasta, salad & breadsticks for under $10.00 makes for supper & lunch the next day. Can't beat the price, especially as I am saving to try to move after the first of the year.

 

[pabloback]

I may be cheap fellas, but I ain't easy.
Oh, who am I kidding?

hey i love a challenge

 

[Barb Dwyer]

Pablo- I say... jolly good!


Thank you teresa! Let's do lunch or dinner sometime - I love Olive Garden and now I am getting hungry for their stuffed chicken parmesan!


Hate to beat a dead horse here (and I probably would skip the doggie bag for that!) but I am talking about places like Ruth's Chris or Morton's - where entrees are the size of all outdoors. There is just no way I am going to leave a $50 dollar steak to be thrown away.

 

[Bob Peale]

There is just no way I am going to leave a $50 dollar steak to be thrown away.

Oh, now if we're talking steak, it ain't going home because it's gone!

I'm a growing boy and I need my vittles!

 

[Desert Amazon]

 

[beckbabe]

I've noticed a change in "doggie bags." They used to be these weird bags that looked like the vomit bags on the plane. A lot of them actually had pictures of dogs on them. The whole thing was to save face, as the food was ostensibly being taken home for your dog. I haven't seen one of those "doggie bags" in years, everyone has Styrofoam boxes and the new PC term is "to-go box." I thought this indicated a general acceptance of taking home the food. Even if it doesn't, I want a to-go box and I'll even take it doggie style but I'm not letting a plate full of perfectly good food go in the trash.

 

[PacificBlue]

In the town I went to college you couldn't find a piece of styrofoam to save your life...it was banned. Ok...so it was a "Artsy Fartsy" college...I told you we are all tree huggers out here! and DAMN proud of it!!!

Now where did I put my birkenstocks???

 

[Shelby]

Personally, I wouldn't dream of taking home a doggie bag (Though I probably should, my doggies don't eat human food) I just couldn't do it. Food is meant to be left at the place it is served.

 

[Barb Dwyer]

DA, I have never heard of that place. Must be a regional thing?

Beckbabe- that was hysterical!

Shelby, that may be true in a private home. Then again, you usually control the portion sizes at a friend or relative's dinner table so the likelihood of having food leftover is minimal.

But I must respectfully disagree with you. Your philosophy is wasteful and disrespectful of the environment. At least the other folks in this thread have said that they would consume the entire meal on premises or they might feel embarrassed to ask for a container.

I can't even begin to decipher your attitude on this subject. But if you have the wherewithal to thumb your nose at the principle of cost vs. value of goods and services, then, as the restaurateurs themselves would say, be my guest.