Family Kicked Out of Buffet Restaurant

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Fri May 5, 5:36 PM ET

DES MOINES, Iowa - Wendy Dershem may think twice before leaving that egg roll on her plate at her next Chinese buffet. The Des Moines woman, her boyfriend and her two children were kicked out of a restaurant last week after management accused her of leaving too much food on her plate.

"They told us we are not welcome there anymore," said Dershem, a repeat customer at the Dragon House buffet. "We waste too much food. But the buffet is all you can eat. And you know kids. They won't always eat everything and they want something else."

Dershem said she paid her $5.95 fee on Saturday but was abruptly told to leave after eating one plate of food.

Employees said they had been watching her family on previous trips to the restaurant and were fed up with her habits.

"They just take one bite and throw it away," said cashier Lin Huyen. "They take four egg rolls and crab ragoon, take one bite of egg roll and throw the whole plate. That is wasting food."

Dershem said she was shocked by the scolding and complained to management when she paid her check. "It was embarrassing. ... If it's a one-stop buffet, post it," she said.

Dragon House manager Kent Cao said his restaurant offers all you can eat buffet, not all you can waste. Dershem's family took food, didn't finish it and then piled on the same food again, he said.

"Shes done that too many times," Cao said. "We would welcome her back if she has respect and knows what she wants."

Bob Oberbillig, an adjunct professor at the Drake Legal Clinic, says the patron would have no legal case against exclusion from a business unless there are other factors such as racial discrimination or mental health issues.

"An establishment can exclude people if they smoke or waste food," he said. "It's still a private business."

If what the restaurant says is true, then they had the right to kick them out, especially if they did it on repeated occasions.

Do you guys think they [the restaurant] were too harsh in evicting them out, or were their punishments justified?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well, I can understand where the guys in the buffet are coming from, considering my background. However, I do think they should have refunded the meal, at least for the time where they were kicked out. Although, isn't the point of going to buffet to eat as much as you want? Then why do people take stuff that they won't be able to eat just to thrown away? I wonder sometimes.

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Well, if they were as bad as they say, then I can understand. Not finishing everything on your plate is one thing, taking a full plate a food and barely eating any of it is just wasteful. I think if you're going to eat someplace, you do have to be considerate of others that are dining, whether that be by not talking loudly on your cellphone next to people having a conversation or not taking a large amount of food when you have no plans to eat it. If they don't know what they want, they could just take a plate with one of each thing and try each out, no sense taking 3 or 4 pieces of something and then even finishing one of them.

Then again, I hate to think of how much food these restaurants throw out at the end of each day anyway...

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I wish more Restaraunts did this. Shit, what I REALLY wish is that restaraunts wouldn't have to do this because parents would teach their kids responsibility and maturity. Of course said parents would have to have those qualities themselves to teach them.

How ya doing, buddy?

That's bullshit. BULLSHIT. Buffets are all you can eat for a reason: they're usually not as good as one stop food. Who can blame anyone when they don't like it? And as mentioned before, the point is to eat all you can and not only that, that you can taste whatever you want without worrying that you'll get stuck with food you don't wanna eat. If the case is that you don't like it, too bad; switch it out. Buffets know what they're going into; I bet this happens all the time. Maybe they like the egg roll, but they can't eat all of it. Some people can just take little bits of anything at a time. Does that really mean they can't take an egg roll because they know they won't finish it? Fuck, buffets suck.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Props to the restaurant workers. Wasting food like that is rude and stupid.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

If what that article said is true and not over-exaggerated, then I believe that the family deserved it. Trying something and and not liking it is one thing, but taking one bite out of something and throwing out the whole plate makes no sense. The family could have taken one egg roll, for example, instead of 4, if they didn't feel like eating it all.

FELIPE NO

If they had seen her doing it multiple times it might have been an idea for the staff to explain to her that they didn't want to have her wasting food beforehand as opposed to waiting for her to spend money and THEN kick her out after she repeat offends.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'd like to see pictures of this family. It might shed a little light on the issue. :P

On the other hand, I believe it was also the restaurant's responsibility to clearly post its policy on wasted food. The family had no way of knowing what they were doing was rude or impolite. At one Chinese restaurant I went to, there was a sign that said, "Take all you want, but eat all you take." Like the article says, buffets are all you can eat, not all you can waste.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

There's a reseraunt in downtown toronto on church street that me and my gf went to for a sushi buffet - the deal was if there was anything left on your plate you had to pay for it, that's perhaps a little more fair then getting kicked out - but still, don't waste fucking food, there's less fortunate people out there.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I really understand can understand why they got kicked out.

I worked as a busboy in a Chinese restaurant. They had an all you can eat buffet featuring Crablegs. Going around and picking up plates only to see nibbled on food was very pleasent. I had to throw away so much food because people were simply nibbling off of so much and then tossing it aside. Especially the children. Seeing how much food was wasted just sickened me (that and the fact that I actually was picking up people's table waste).

I remember there use to be Crableg shortages at the resturant. A lot of people were getting mad because they could get the Crablegs (which was basically the only reason some of them came, especially the blacks). While going around picking up plates, I got to a table that had a whole bucket full of crablegs yet they only nibbled on 2 and left. So, basically, the people who actually needed the crablegs couldn't get it because of the wasteful people before them.

I've noticed at the restuarant that the majority of wasteful eaters were caucassion families.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Paying for what's left on the plate is highly intriguing! That's some good incentive.

I think that woman, from how it looks, might as well have taken the food straight from the tray and put it in the washroom garbage if she was being that wasteful. That's pretty sad to blame it on kids. If the kids are wasteful, then at least teach them not to be, and stomach the leftovers yourself!

I would be just a *hint* merciful, but not by much. If this happened 3 or so times, I would warn her, and then boot her the hell out if it happened again. It's really inconsiderate, and not to be overly critical, but I seriously can't fathom why she didn't think of people who aren't so lucky to be able to go to a buffet.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Americans are so fucking wasteful! My children were taught to eat what's on their plate...ESPECIALLY if they served themselves. :You know children" my ass. It's about time somebody took some action against picky, wasteful retards like these people. If the restaurant owners are really Chinese, they probably had about as much as they could take of us wasteful, spoiled Americans and just snapped.

Also, I like how this article proves my point that restaurant workers really do notice their guests and will start to get pissed off at repeat customers who are too demanding/don't tip/don't know how to conduct themselves in public.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Summonmaster

Paying for what's left on the plate is highly intriguing! That's some good incentive.

I dunno, seems like that would encourage overeating instead...not everyone can estimate exactly how much they're going to eat. Then again, maybe it's not as much of an issue with something that comes in small portions like sushi.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

There's a Japanese restaurant that I go to that charges extra for any sushi left uneaten. They're rather strict with the sushi, but not with any of the other dishes.

I've always been taught to eat everything on my plate, but I'm still not surprised that people can waste that much food.

FELIPE NO

That reminds me of the sushi buffet that I ate at yesterday, now that I think of it. The policy is that you can take your leftovers home, when you're full, but you have to pay extra for them. That's mostly to prevent you from ordering the whole menu and then taking it home for only 12.99+tax.

I think they stop coming to you when you order too much, or are perceived as wasteful, in order to deter you from decreasing their supply.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Dhsu

I dunno, seems like that would encourage overeating instead...not everyone can estimate exactly how much they're going to eat. Then again, maybe it's not as much of an issue with something that comes in small portions like sushi.

Well, just take a little of something and try it. If you like it and if you're still hungry, go take some more. If not, try something else.

They deserved it. Its a shame to see people waste so much food. I mean, one single bite? Come on.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Seriously though, who knows if the manager's being stingy and his idea of wasting is leaving a small pile of rice and some meat on a bone? If this policy was implemented everywhere, there'd be no reason to eat at buffets anymore. I'd rather pay for one really good dish than a bunch of subpar entrees.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

This policy is pretty much everywhere. Every chinese buffet I've went to has signs up saying not to waste food. Also, it says they would take for egg rolls and some crab dish and then eat one bite of an egg roll. You can't tell me that taking 4 egg rolls, eating on bite out of one and throwing the rest away isn't wasteful. That is not being stingy on the managers part.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I hate it all to hell when I see people grab a ton of food, or order a ton of fast food, and then just leave 3/4ths of it and say "Oh I'm full now" like that.

People need to learn to manage their food consumption just as much as they need to learn how to manage their time. If you want to eat a little, order a little. If you want to eat a lot, order a lot and fucking eat it.

I side with the managers here as well. Paying for the food then throwing away 80% of it is not only disrespectful to the people that made the food, it's wasteful as fuck and you wonder how much people take food for granted. Imagine all the people that would kill to have even a little of what you've just tossed away.

Respect++ to any establishment that follows this.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

It's one thing to taste something and not like it and another thing taking a crapload of food and throwing it all away. I agree with what the restaurant did.

I was speaking idiomatically.

This has got to be one of the stupidest things I've heard in a while. First off, they deserved to not get their money back, not because they wasted food, but because they were stupid enough to spend the money just to eat barely anything in the first place. Why even go to the buffet if you know you don't like anything there to begin with (and you know they knew, since they had been there multiple times)? These people are truly idiots.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Well, it's not McDonalds or some cafeteria where everything comes from a can. Each pan contains maybe about a dozen servings or so at the max, so it's not like their food is completely disposable.

FELIPE NO

Don't these buffet joints just take all the dumped food, join it back together with tape and Play-doh later that night and serve it up the next day? And they should have just kicked out part of the their bodies. Right feet can stay, rest needs to go. "THIS IS AN OUTRAGE" they'll say, as they walk home without their right feet.

Then they trip over and go to sleep for the night only to wake up the next day as buffet food.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I was under the impression that a lot of buffets have charges if you leave food on your plate. Not sure how they measure such a thing but the last time I went to a buffet, there was a sign posted that if you wasted food, you would be charged extra money.

Jam it back in, in the dark.