Buffet Breakfast

The London hotel I have just been looking at charge an extra thirty pounds per person for 'breakfast included'.

I just might get brave and take a large handbag.

You are paying for food in a hotel, so I wouldn't feel quite as strongly about that as I did when a couple of relatives we hadn't seen for a while, turned up at my daughter's 30th birthday party, loaded their arms with cakes and then went home !

It's all about manners for me a sachet in the handbag is one thing a hand of bananas is another. Filling your salad bowl to the top is fine as long as you don't then waste it because your eyes are bigger than your stomach.

I'm guilty of sometimes taking a banana for a mid morning snack if we're walking but otherwise we just eat what's on offer for breakfast at the table. Apart from anything else it never tastes the same later in so you end up chucking ( you can tell I tried it when I was younger). It does sicken me a bit watching people stuffing things in their bags and then eating a full breakfast. I'll think more carefully about the banana now. Last week in a hotel with breakfast included, I watched a boy taking 2 boxes of cereal but no bowl and the server asked if he needed a bowl. He proceeded to eat the dry cereal and drink a glass of milk while his mum explained that he hated soggy cereal and didn't like cooked breakfasts.

There's a big difference between taking a piece of fruit and making up a "packed lunch " for later. Who would seriously enjoy a lunch that had been wrapped up in napkins hours earlier? I don't think people think of it as stealing just a bit penny pinching.

It is good to hear a B&B owners views Lyndie . Don`t people who stuff themselves and their bags feel embarrassed ? As my AS spectrum son says " have they no dignity"

When we were in Mexico we were horrified to see an American mother laying the table for her family with platefuls of everything from the buffet. The family would then sit down as if they were at home and proceed to leave half of it.
I don't like waste, and am happy for people to take as much as they like as long as they eat it! We brought our children up this way and am pleased to see they follow suit with their children.

I have a small appetite so have no problems asking for half of my meal to be put in foil-never been refused yet-and then I enjoy it again the next day at home.
When away I see nothing wrong in taking a banana/Apple/orange away for elevenses. As I've said I don't eat much at the breakfast in any event, usually some meusli. I have occasionally made up a sandwich for lunch too when where we were staying was a bit remote and we would be out walking.
One of the reasons I would never cruise is I would find (often obese) folks piling their plates with food obscene-apart from the fact that I'm a terrible sailor?

Oh God! I don't think a hotel breakfast isever going to be quite the same after this thread! I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone do this! (Apart from DD and her croissant ) Perhaps we frequent completely different hotels.

The last time I was staying away there was a fruit bowl in the room. That was in the uk .abroad fruit is usually so cheap that it seems daft to sneak off with the buffet in your handbag. I hink Norway is very expensive but in the hoteli was in (it was pretty down market) there was a notice in several languages saying do not take food from the buffet out of the dining room. If required they said they would make a packed lunch at x kronor . It was in most European languages so it's not just the English. In Thailand(in quite an upmarket hotel) it was different there was a notice in the room listing everything from the soap dish to the mattress and the cost . Presumably to discourage theft of ornaments and towelling robes! I kept trying to imagine guests staggering out nonchalantly with a king size mattress under their arm.

How about BA business class lounges? I would so love to take a big bag of those delicious cookies out of there! Usually just settle for a bag of crisps though.

Food definitely figures very highly in my holidays.

You shouldn't allow your prejudices to stop you enjoying a sea voyage, Newquay
I went on the QM2 to New York a few years ago. Neither I nor MrA is obese, and nor were any of the other passengers whose tables we shared.
The food was served by waiters and was exquisite. What made it even nicer was that it was served in very moderate portions, so you didn't feel you were pigging out at every meal.
And arriving at NYC at 6 in the morning in a Force 11 gale is quite an experience too. Stugeron is very effective against sea sickness

I'm afraid I do think it's rude and penny pinching. Like wise over stuffing your plate at Chinese buffets and carveries. Those people who ask for beef, lamb, chicken and pork with all the trimmings on one plate!
I once saw a very large man at a carvery who piled his plate so high it looked like mount Vesuvius, then poured on so much gravy that it was pouring over the side of his plate as he made his way to his table. Utterly gross!

Why even bother to say that?

I hate the phrase "get a life", but it's getting so tempting.

I don't agree with it either. It's a vicious circle , I should think: the more food people take out , the more has to be put out, to ensure there is enough for everyone.

Yeah, and of course, it's all totally free isn't it?

My personal gripe is when people pile their plates with tons of stuff and then leave most of it.

Ah well, you are just too posh for me- just can't compete. Never stayed in a Hôtel where breaky is 30 quid ;) that's class, that is enjoy.

My personal gripe is when people pile their plates with tons of stuff and then leave most of it.

That annoys me too, although I sometimes have taken something that looked tempting and didn't like it, so may I be excused for leaving it?
We did stay at a hotel where brekkie was about £35 (depending on exchange rate) but we got a 2 for 1 offer. However tempting it would be to eat our way through the menu (which included everything from Miso soup through lots of cooked items to delicious pastries, we just couldn't!

So it was fruit, yogurt, eggs, mushrooms and bacon and I confess that I took a Danish pastry for Ron.

)

How do you feel about those buffet restaurants who now charge if there is anything left on the plate- from £3 to£20 - happening all over the world. I think it's a great idea. We go to a 'all you can eat Chinese' in our local French town- and I admit we always have a second helping- but never take more than we can comfortably eat (it's 11euros50). Hate to see how much people leave on their plate.

Never heard of it, granjura. How on earth can they justify that? Someone may just have become too full, or disliked the item of food they left.

I certainly wouldn't be patronising one of those places.

Neither would I! Have never come across such a thing.

I very rarely leave anything on my plate.

And, thinking about it, wouldn't that encourage people to tip the remains of their meal into their handbag (or whatever) rather than pay such a ridiculous charge?