Holy Portion Size, Batman!
 

Me and my friend went out to dinner tonight at an Italian place close by where she lives (to celebrate my new promotion at work).

After having a couple of pieces of bread and a sharing an appetiser, they used a forklift to deliver the food to our table. I had Veal Salvatore and it must have weighed 20 pounds. It also came with penne pasta on the side just in case the mound of meat wasn't enough food.

I only ate about a third of it and was stuffed. It is now in my fridge to be lunch and dinner tomorrow.

We split a bottle of wine which was actually pretty modest for us...usually when we are out we go through 2 bottles. Plus, we skipped on the desert.

So I'm rather proud that I didn't force more of the food down to where I became uncomfortable.

Why oh why do some restaurants give you a weeks worth of food for dinner? I don't understand that.

Good for you Matt for bringing home food. I often bring home food after a meal out. I sure don't know why portions have to be so big. They charge enough for it though.
Congrats on the promotion.

Isn't it something how much they haul to our tables at restaurants and to our cars at drive-thru windows? Makes me think of the Flintstones' car tipping over from the weight of that huge rack of ribs!

Howie and I usually split an entree now, just ordering an extra salad and maybe and extra side dish of steamed veggies. Most restaurants serve two grilled chicken breasts in a dinner, so there's certainly no lack of food.

It's the way America has come to expect it. We want to feel we are getting our monies worth. The normal serving at Mcdonalds when they opened campared to now is crazy. What they serve as a kid's meal is what you used to get as an adult. Same goes for all the other places. I just hope we start to see the light as a country and get back to what it should be. I'm the same way I remember going to our friends resteraunt down town and thinking how small the servings were but in reality he just stuck with what was right though the years.

What, The Eatery, Howie? You're right!

It is amazing, isn't it? I've been having my meal in the beginning so I won't be tempted to eat it all.

I'm still trying to convince my boyfriend to split entrees with me, but he's not convinced yet!

Hey Matt, good for you, bringing home the extras.

Me and my sister were talking about this exact thing last week. We used The Outback for an example.

We'd start with an appetizer (the Bloomin' Onion for those of you who know the Outback), a salad or a soup each, bread comes to the table as soon as you sit down, a meal that is actually 3 portions (enough for 3 meals), a dessert to share which was actually big enough for 4 adults, plus drinks and coffee. In my estimation that was roughly 7 meals I was eating at once. There's really just no need!

~Dee

Food is so expensive in England, that people expect value for money when they eat out, and to them value is quantity rather than quality. It's crazy. I often have kids portions, or appetisers rather than a main, and we pick places where the desserts are small ( a girl has to have her sweets!!!!)

DH & I do this too. As long as we order other items, i.e. salad, side dish, shared dessert etc., I don't feel badly about it like I used to feel. We leave a good tip & I can't help it that their meals are so huge. If I had the willpower to eat one portion and leave the rest, I wouldn't be here :lol:

You know, DH and I could probably chart our weight gain according the eras when we did not split meals at restaurants and our weight loss according to the eras (like now) when we did.

yea baby i'm back in the building had a well hectic week i have put on about 20lb in beer in the last two weeks been through at least 100pints in 14 days. still thats freshers out of the way now its time to work back in they gym rugby training has started and this past weekend i had football camp. i've been signed up to play DT on the local uni side :D fun fun fun still saturday night i had 3 half pound cheese burgers after training naughty but nice ;)

Good to see you back Si. Sounds like you better stick around. 3 half pound burgers and 100 pints. Why does that have to sound so good and fun. Sitck with it man. Not the burgers and pints but the diet.

When the Cute Boyfriend and I went to France we remarked how small everything was but it was just ONE portion per person. AND in France, it's considered very lowbrow to ask for a doggie bag. :)

I used to feel that way; one of my major criteria for ordering was how much I'd get for the price. I was also the queen of free food -- leftovers at the office often made their way to my house, whether or not I scarfed up as much as reasonable at the time. After I started my program, one of the hardest things I ever did in my whole life was throw out a tray of sandwiches left over from the lunch provided at a training session I conducted. It nearly physically hurt to see that perfectly good food, food I really liked, food that was FREE, go into the garbage.

Now, I would much rather pay whatever for an appropriate portion than the same amount for too much food that will be a temptation. Restaurant food, even "healthy" dishes, are usually richer than I eat at home, so the doggie-box option isn't really helpful for me all the time. If I order something that's more than I should eat, I usually leave the remainders on the plate and feel OK with that. When I let go of the "I need to get my money's worth" mentality, I really freed myself to enjoy a meal out for the experience. I rarely order entrees, I usually order those entree salads or appetizers, even in fancy restaurants. One restaurant I frequent is high-end; appetizers run $7-$9. I'll order one of those and have some wine. While the portions are a little smaller than I would normally eat, especially given that there is not much in the way of vegetables, it's still plenty of food. I think my definition of "value" has changed -- to me, value is high quality (I'm no longer satisfied with a lot of chain-restaurant crap), appropriate portions so nothing is wasted, good service, etc. I do eat the occasional chain restaurant, fast casual, or fast-food meal, but I follow my typical ordering guidelines there as well, and I'm happy with what I get.