'Small plates'

I love small plates as I have a very small appetite. They are lovely to share too if you get two or three. My poor husband may not agree, he has had to share his food with me all our life!
Have one as a starter and one as a main!

My friend and I often have the ‘3 plate option ‘ ….you get a choice of about 8 plates ….choose three….add the dips ….and share with friend . No knives or forks …only fingers!

We eat small meals, at home. Soup plates, salad plates, bread plates, keeps everything easy. Not impressed by extras needing binning.

Lord above! Is this to save on washing up?

I often have one starter as a starter,and then another as a main course.

I do that too in places that have starters, mains and puddings. The places I was referring to in my opening post only offer small plates. It's up to diners to choose individually or mix and match. I don't like this.

For years I've been having starter and dessert. In restaurant anything more is too much for me.

I haven’t seen small plates here though we do have tapas. If you want a small meal you usually just have an entrée. Mostly the serves are on the large side, can’t often manage to eat everything. Most people share Chinese food, Thai food and Indian food in fact probably all sorts of Asian foods, except for the starters and desserts. Much more interesting than having one stonking great plateful of the same stuff.

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Here's a couple of the sorts of menus I'm meaning.

Don’t like the look of them at all. Just restaurants being scungy I reckon. We do have ‘Senior’s Meals’ which are a lot cheaper and a bit smaller but not that much, still pretty big. You have to prove you are a Senior and show your Senior’s card.

Lots of restaurants I have been too lately seem to use a tea plate for things other than a full meal so the amount is smaller ie I use to get a jacket potato with a good salad, crisps and coleslaw in a pot ….now on a teaplate a smaller jacket with perhaps just a lettuce leaf or a bit of coleslaw Definitely cutting portions down while putting prices up
I ve never seen a menu with a small plate section obviously now got out to here yet

I wonder whether, with more and more people choosing to have 2 starters, rather than starter and main course, restaurants are just choosing an alternative generic name for the group of dishes previously described as starters.

I haven't seen the 'small plate' description very often, but when it is on the menu, there is no separate heading for starters and the dishes offered on the 'small plate' menu are similar the the dishes previously described as 'starters'

It seems to be all the rage here. Very trendy. Obviously, I'm not! I put up those menus to illustrate what I meant. Sharing platters are also v popular. We went out for dinner with a younger couple and they chose one for us all. Lots of posh cheeses, cold meats, nuts and bit and pieces of raw veg. We went home quite hungry but with indigestion!

‘Small plates’ isn’t a new dining concept.
Tom Kerridge has served this style for many years in his Michelin starred pub in Marlow.

www.thecoachmarlow.co.uk/menu

It's pervading though.

I often have 2 starters instead of a main. I often fancy them rather more. And if they turn out a bit small, there’s room for pudding, too.