Breakfasts in hotels

JaneJudge

Norah

We've a favourite hotel on Lake Como, the food is magnificent (as Italian food is). Breakfast is glorious, however we're typically with young GC/GGC - we pay for extra fruit, bread, cheese and juice for them to savour at the pool.

Staff are happy to provide boxes, we're content to pay.

I think fruit and buttered bread are the best takeaway!

Perhaps paying for extras is a good option?

Yes, I will ask ❤️I’m not unhappy to pay really, there is just no option between breakfast and dinner unless we have afternoon tea and then it would be too much. We spend our money within the hotel generally

Boxes make everyone happy, there is no lunch option and Italians eat dinner at a lovely later hour - children need to eat.

I suspect as the entire world is experiencing low profits, the cafe is quite happy to provide paid boxes to hungry children/people!

I say, do whatever you think is reasonable and honest. If it makes you feel a bit guilty, don't do it and if you feel it's your privilege, then do it. Someone has to purchase and portion the menus of the breakfasts. They are the ones paying for everything than choosing what to budget to offer a decent breakfast.

I suppose if their were a sign saying, "Take extra in your bag for your lunch, too!" then you wouldn't feel guilty.

If you can afford lunch, then be proud that you can. If you can't afford your lunch then you have to do things to sustain yourself until you are better off.

Galaxy

To be honest Jane I think it's for the best if you hand the holiday over to me and sit in a dark room and contemplate your behaviour (that didnt happen).

😂😂😂

Have a great holiday Jane

Mollygo

Wow!
Greedy
Stealing
Undignified
Whatever next GNs?

I know right? And all because I said I wouldn't steal bread roll!

Some people!!!

To be honest Jane I think it's for the best if you hand the holiday over to me and sit in a dark room and contemplate your behaviour (that didnt happen).

Wow!
Greedy
Stealing
Undignified
Whatever next GNs?

Norah

We've a favourite hotel on Lake Como, the food is magnificent (as Italian food is). Breakfast is glorious, however we're typically with young GC/GGC - we pay for extra fruit, bread, cheese and juice for them to savour at the pool.

Staff are happy to provide boxes, we're content to pay.

I think fruit and buttered bread are the best takeaway!

Perhaps paying for extras is a good option?

Yes, I will ask ❤️I’m not unhappy to pay really, there is just no option between breakfast and dinner unless we have afternoon tea and then it would be too much. We spend our money within the hotel generally

I hope you have a lovely time away. Looks like good weather.
As to the breakfast question, I’m afraid it’s a no from me.
Have a treat in a nice coffee shop instead.

Lake Como is so lovely!

When I stayed in Venice, the hotel staff made us lunch but it wasn't very nice so we fed it to the pigeons in St Marks Square! Long time ago now.

I think you get what you pay for and it's better to have what you like.

We've a favourite hotel on Lake Como, the food is magnificent (as Italian food is). Breakfast is glorious, however we're typically with young GC/GGC - we pay for extra fruit, bread, cheese and juice for them to savour at the pool.

Staff are happy to provide boxes, we're content to pay.

I think fruit and buttered bread are the best takeaway!

Perhaps paying for extras is a good option?

I was just curious. I’m not very curious anymore 😅 I’ll buy a sandwich at Tesco express or similar x

LOUISA1523

OnwardandUpward

We stayed at a Holiday Inn near Cadburys world once when the kids were younger and the breakfast was a help yourself buffet of all kinds of things. It was a "no frills" cooked breakfast with things on the side like fruit, yoghurt, pastries, cereal etc. It was an "all you can eat" breakfast, so we were shocked to see a large family where the kids were being sent up to get yoghurts and other food "for later".

The most recent hotel we stayed in was child free and had a really luxurious spread for breakfast. We enjoyed a leisurely
breakfast where DH opted for a full English and I chose scrambled egg with smoked salmon and a side of mushrooms, but we also went up to get croissants, pastries , yoghurt and fruit which we enjoyed at the table with pots of delicious lavazza coffee.

I dont agree with stealing . Why not enjoy a leisurely breakfast, eat as much as you want to, knowing you won't need to eat again for ages and leave with dignity?

You see to me ....this is just pure greed ....bet you don't eat like that at home.... salmon, eggs, mushrooms, yoghurt, pastries , croissants and fruit .....would play havoc with my digestive system....so who is the 'thief'..... the person who has egg on toast and takes a single pastry and a peice of fruit for later? .....or the person who stuffs their face at the table ? ...... and who is the most dignified? 🤔

Lousia, your comment is extremely rude and full of assumptions.

It worked wonderfully for us to have a larger meal because we were booked in the spa for the afternoon and evening, and with our treatments we knew we wouldn't want to eat a meal in that time.

Our hotel was extremely dignified and luxurious, with original Victorian furnishings, including four poster beds and breakfast was included. It was like waking up in a stately home and we thoroughly enjoyed being so looked after.

Obviously if someone rushed their breakfast and bolted their food, I agree that it might affect their digestion, but I can assure you that was not the case. When I described a leisurely breakfast, I meant lots of chatting and a s-l-o-w morning. (yum!) It was so wonderful that everyone there was refined and well mannered as is often not the case in ordinary hotels.

As is often the case in more expensive hotels, the breakfast was on the smaller side, including the dainty mini Croissants and Danish pastries, so it was actually like having many tiny titbits. It was lovely.

I mentioned your rude assumption to my husband and we laughed a lot. Neither of us have any regrets as we had a fabulous time . No, we don't usually eat like that at home, but who actually does the same at home as they do on holiday?

You can try to shame me for enjoying a lovely break, but it won't work because we had a fabulous time.

OP
"My question is..is it extremely wrong to discretely put a couple of pastries or some bread, cheese and fruit in a zip lock bag so that we could have that for lunch?"

Why would you "discretely" do this, wouldn't it be polite to ask if it's ok? Generally if someone asks to take a small amount it will be allowed - most restaurants don't want to embarrass their guests by refusing, but no hotel would encourage it unless they have budgeted for it (some, as mentioned do but they will recoup the cost one way of another).

Caleo

Scraps for the dog is okay but not food for yourself. Would you take food away from the dining room in a small friendly B and B. You would not. Even scraps for the dog you would probably ask the landlady if she would mind if you took them.

We stopped in a seaside café early one morning last week for coffee. On our way out we walked past a table where the people had left their plates with sausage and a few baked beans. It was all I could do to drag the hound away and out of the door!

What really makes me mad is seeing people taking a lot of food from buffets (breakfast or otherwise) and then leaving much of it.

The bloke sitting next to me at a wedding dinner took a stack of really good roast lamb - and left a lot of it on his plate. I badly wanted to have a go at him - but didn’t.

I think food shouldn't be taken away.

Scraps for the dog is okay but not food for yourself. Would you take food away from the dining room in a small friendly B and B. You would not. Even scraps for the dog you would probably ask the landlady if she would mind if you took them.

Can I remind people this was in chat not AIBU

I’ve never taken anything from a buffet for afterwards ever 🙈😂😭🤷‍♀️

Love to all ❤️

Mollygo

LOUISA1523
again...I don't judge
Good for you.
Speck and beam.

Yep....Good for me

Cold

I was staying at a hotel a couple of years ago where there were signs saying that if you wanted to take food from the breakfast buffet outside of the hotel then there was a £10 pp pack lunch charge.

More and more hotels are doing this, or they reduce the amount put out on the buffet at any one time so folk don't take loads (some still do).
If everything goes out at once so much is often taken there isn't enough left for people breakfasting later.

when you order they take your hot order and say help yourself to the continental which is quite normal these days
anyway as I said I'm not going to do it and I can afford to buy lunch elsewhere it's just we wont be that hungry

LOUISA1523
again...I don't judge
Good for you.
Speck and beam.

Calendargirl

At home, I have the same breakfast year in, year out, summer and winter alike.

Porridge, toast, orange juice, coffee.

When I go away, I like to have something different.

We stayed in a very nice hotel abroad in January. I had lovely granola, fresh fruit, Greek yogurt and a delicious prune compote for starters (this was breakfast) followed by a bit of bacon, a fried egg, half a tomato and a few mushrooms. Then toast and marmalade. Plus orange juice and coffee.

I had this every day for the week. I don’t feel I was greedy, everything was eaten, but when I got home it was nice to get back to my usual breakfast.

Going away is a good excuse to indulge, but not too much.

And we didn’t take anything away with us for lunch.

We all eat way differently... I wouldn't eat porridge and toast at home....it would be one or the other ....but I certainly wouldn't judge you for eating both....and you are definitely overeating with a holiday breakfast like that....tou said it yourself....but again, you are in holiday and even if you weren't ...I wouldn't judge you for eating much of your daily calorie intake at the breakfast table ..... but when I eat my single slice of toast and the equivalent of 1 egg scrambled .....and take a croissant and apple for later , its seen as 'theft' and 'undignified and 'shameful' .... not saying you PP are one of the 'judge and jury' ....find it 🤣🤣 actually ..... obviously none of you have ever been to the buffet breakfast at any of the disneyland paris hotels....now that is an experience if ever there was one....families take butty bags, clingfilm, tin foil to the table and make up butties to order for their kids....ham and cheese....cheese and tomato.... they fill up drinks bottles from the juice machine ....they wrap up choccy muffins, pain au chocolate. .... all the fruits .....no one does it covertly....all very open.... no shame some on this thread would say🤣🤣... but then food inside the Disney parks is horrendously expensive so lots of families do this...not me I will add!....but again...I don't judge

Go for it, I would, no problem whatsoever, a piece of fruit, a croissant, and a piece of cheese to enjoy later, no problem.
It sounds as if you are paying for whatever you eat. What's the time of day got to do with it?