Restaurant Tells Diners To Eat Everything On Their Plate 126
Chef Yukako Ichikawa will offer a 30% discount to patrons who eat all the food they have ordered, and will kindly ask those who don't clean their plates to not come back. "Finishing your meal requires that everything is eaten except lemon slices, gari (sushi ginger), and wasabi," says the menu. "Please also note that vegetables and salad on the side are NOT decorations; they are part of the meal too."
Re:I like the idea (Score:4, Interesting)
My wife and I tried a new sushi place a couple weeks back (free plug: Amura in Lake Mary, for Central Floridians. Best sushi we've had yet.). As usual, we kept it simple and ordered a sushi and sashimi platter. Their platter had less sashimi then we're used to getting, but more rolls, and heavy rolls at that. Absolutely delicious, like to the point that we ate past the point of discomfort, and yet there were still a couple pieces of a tuna roll left. Fortunately nobody decided to shit on such a great meal by giving us crap about not eating those last two pieces that we didn't psychically determine beforehand would be too much.
This reminds me of a thread on another site that was about a sushi chef kicking people out for not eating sushi the way that he wanted them to. Is this sort of crap common with sushi places?
Re:I like the idea (Score:3, Interesting)
And even that's enough: how am I supposed to know exactly how much food will satiate me, before I eat it? I can often guess how much I need to feel full, but fairly often I end up grossly overestimating how much food I need.
Re:Mottainai (Score:2, Interesting)
It's a very Japanese thing. It's probably based on the concept of Mottainai [wikipedia.org], where wasting something (such as food) is seen as wrong/immoral. The meaning is more nuanced than "wasting" but it is as close I can describe it without copying the entire Wikipedia page.
This is very interesting. Where I live it is so multicultural that I try and be careful as to whether I am supposed to leave food on the table or not according to the culture of my hosts. When dining with Philippinos for instance, I may finish the food on my plate, but always leave food in the serving bowls so as not to make it look as if they didn't prepare enough food. With Nepalese there is generally too much food, but I'll happily finish it without fear of embarrassment. Sri Lankans don't know when to stop cooking anyway, so there is always food to take home no matter what and with Sudanese I eat until I am very full to honour my hosts - if there is still some food left they are not offended, as long as I finish all on my plate and have had a second helping!
Trying to enforce social or cultural mores on another culture in a restaurant/business context is a bit over the top, but I don't know Japanese culture well enough to comment too much.
Re:I like the idea (Score:4, Interesting)
Just look at how many Dr. offices have no cell phone signs and have no problem being 20 minutes late to an appointment, but will throw a hissy if you are 5 minutes late, even though they were not going to see you anyway. They expect you to sit quitely and non-productively in their lobby until they decide it is time to honor you with their presence.
Look at how punctual the phone company and cable companies are when you call for an install.
I'm sure if you thought about it, you could think of a couple of dozen industries where they treat their customers like garbage.
In trendy restaurants it often even increases their business.