food from breakfast buffet
 

I have read a post or two in which someone said that it was possible to take extra food from the breakfast buffets in Norway to have for lunch. I am surprised that this can be done. What I want to know is this: how do you know if this is permitted or not at the hotel breakfast buffets? Is it possible all the time or just sometimes
and how do you decide?

This i believe was one of Rick Steves original tips so it must be OK

I just returned last night from Bergen and saw a few people fixing an extra sandwich to take with them. They were discreet. Of course, if everyone starts doing this, the price of the breakfast buffet will go even higher.

Duck everybody...Get ready for the food (Rick Steeves) fight.

A buffet is all you can eat while in the restaurant. I always take a few egg rolls home from our favorite buffet when no one is looking.... heheheheheh.

all those armies of Steves fanatics traipsing across Europe swiping lunch from their Breakfast buffets ( "but rick said it was OK!!" )

I can see it now -- "can you believe those ugly Americans - ripping off the B&B like that?"

Would that not make these B&Bs "full-board" (or is that half-board?), which would mean a higher price? B&Bs are bed and "breakfasts" not bed and "multiple meals" IMHO.

I don't think RS endorses that any more. An early mistake he has never lived down.

lorelle---it's only OK if you ask and they say it's OK.

I usually take a piece of fruit with me from the breakfast buffet and bring it to my room. I like eating fruit at night after dinner.

A piece of fruit is all I would consider taking away. Buffets here at home do not allow taking out (unless you pay for 'take out' and are given the containers to do it) so I don't think it would be any different elsewhere.
Note: sometimes buffets are not even "all you can eat" style - sometimes you are meant to make your selections on one pass.

This is a question asked by my husband Brad. Our hotel in Paris (The Mayfair) says we have the option of having our breakfast (Included in the room rate) served in our room? How can they serve a full American breakfast buffet in our room?

Try it both ways to find out..

I have, but that was in my wild college days! Oh wait we were talking about breakfast buffets.... Never mind.

>How can they serve a full American breakfast buffet in our room?<

They wheel it in on a huge cart.

If it's not enough, they bring you another cart.

You have to ask the hotel. Some places offer this for an additional fee. I would never just do it without asking.

<I don't think RS endorses that any more. An early mistake he has never lived down.>

or about taking off his shoes and letting his dirty socks stink up a train compartment to force others out - this or something to that effect was in his early books.

Yeh like politicians they change for public consumption but the spots on a leopard never..... one reason i still can't stomach RS - he was an ugly American and to take food from a buffet is being an ugly American tourist IMO

signed Ugly American Tourist

yk,
If you like fruit at night before you go to bed, do what you do at home: buy it in a store!

I don't think that taking food off the buffet for later is an accepted practice, at least not anywhere I have been. If you can do it without anyone seeing you, and want to risk it, then go for it.

On my first trip to Europe I was rooming with my brother and one morning I was running late and didn't make it down to the breakfast buffet. My brother brought me up a croissant and coffee, bless his heart, but he said the looks he got from the staff were...we'll lets just say "ugly American" doesn't even begin to cover it. This was in Paris by the way. I've stayed away from the Left Bank ever since...LOL.

I've done what your brother did but only after asking... and if i have an early train i will ask if instead of sitting down can i take something with me and they always understand.

Is this the same thing as taking the bar of soap you didn't use in your room along with you when you leave the room?

Yes, you paid for that just as you paid for the food on the buffet table.

No, you didn't use the soap right away but you plan to use it later.

No, you didn't eat all the food offered but you plan to eat some of it later.

How do people know the food-taking practice "is against the rules" if they never have asked what the "rules" are?

Perhaps this is one of those "unwritten rules."

i think this unwritten rule is easy to comprehend - you take the soap because you know you can - and would obviously steal from a food bar for the same rationale.

and i've never seen any rule against taking the TV, radio, sheets, blankets, etc. either - these are also unwritten rules but everyone understands that to steal them is theft.

taking soap or shampoo that was for you and you didn't use is to me justifiable the same as taking food from a breakfast bar if i couldn't make it down to the bar and had to hop - of course i'd ask because the staff may not know the reason.

I'd think that the price includes a "typical" breakfast. If someone takes enoguh food for 2 breakfasts, the price cannot include this. I guess a counter argument would be a real heavey eater at breakfast might eat enough for two.

I think it's the "optics" or better yet "manners" of walking away from a buffet/B&B breakfast table with extra food.

OK, here's my spin. Pretend...
I know I have 24 rooms. I budget breakfast for 48 people, just to be safe. I try to be sort of "posh" and add cheezes, meats, etc. to the typical outlay.
And some cretin takes other people's breakfasts away so that they can nibble their lunch? Gawd...that's cheap!
Paris Texas for them then!

That said, just because I can't go downstairs for Breakfast, there certainly should be no reason that I can't take it to the room if I've paid for it. Alls fair.

I just returned from a trip to Germany and Switzerland and at least 3 of the places I stayed had a sign at the breakfast buffet saying that people should not make sandwiches to take for lunch. We were staying at places where there was a lot of hiking activities

eri-

I buy fruit from fruit stalls or markets if there's no fruit at the buffet.

Why don't I just do that anyway?

I don't want to lug around a piece of fruit in my day bag all day - it's usually quite full already. Plus, I don't always find a market or a stall that sells fruit on a daily basis.

Having said that, my recent April trip to Germany, I bought my own fruit on the whole trip.

In one of our German B&B's last year, the hostess urged everyone to make sandwiches from the breakfast buffet to take for lunch. It's certainly not something I've done before or since, but we thought it was very nice of her to offer.

From the other side of the story:
Four of us came down to the breakfast buffet at a small hotel in Holland to find that the food had been pillaged and stolen by 12 English ladies who were motoring together. They had occupied the other six rooms in the hotel.
Their handbags were bulging and the guilt on their faces was obvious as we made considerable fuss with the flustered hotel owner who described the amount of food that he had put out, while staring at the ladies the whole time.
As it involved food, very dear to my heart, we joined in the discussion egging him on.

I think common sense should rule here, the buffets exists for guests having breakfast in the buffet room.
It is as simple as this. To take food from the buffet to eat later would not be right.

Quite simply it is THEFT. No two ways about it. You might as well empty the sugar bowl and take the 1/2 full box of Corn Flakes with you - its the same thing.
My father had a B&B on the south Coast of England and was more than happy to make up sandwiches and supply fruit for a pack lunch and he charged a modest fee for this. One day he saw a German woman carrying a plate of food out of the dinning room and about to go up the stairs so in a voice that could be heard by the other guests he said "Thank you so much for helping clear the tables, please leave it on the side in the kitchen and I will put it in the fridge in a second" the woman coloured up and did so whilst the rest of the guests clapped hands and laughed. It turned out that they were also german and had seen the woman doing it and had told her it was not acceptable practice and that they thought she was being dishonest.
She remained very subdued for the rest of her stay.

I would think that if you can afford to go to Europe, you should be able to afford to buy lunch somewhere.

I consider this kind of behavior unacceptable.

It is certainly NOT theft. Some people merely consider it impolite.

When I've paid $15-$30 for the breakfast buffet, damn straight I'm going to slip something into my purse for Lunch.

Sorry it is theft. A buffet is set for you to help yourself to food for that meal not to allow tight arsed tourists to get another meal on the cheap.

I guess from your posting you are American - enough said,

Thank god the majority of your countrymen and women are pleasnt and sympathetic to what is the normal custom and acceptable in a foreign country and that is why they are welcomed as tourists.

I have never been to the USA but I do know that i would not STEAL food in an atempt to save money on a lunch.

In the UK you could be prosecuted as it is considered theft as the buffet is "an invitation to help yourself to food to be consumed at the time and for that meal" not for you to do you daily stocking up of food.

blightyboy

As a matter of fact I am not an American, but I guess you're just so blindly and pathetically prejudiced against people you know nothing about that you can't help yourself. Maybe you should turn off your television and begi thinking for yourself.

In fact a number of previous posters have mentioned tales of stocking up by people of nationalities other than American INCLUDING those of the sainted UK.

Apologies to you, it was your terminology and the use of $$$ that lead me to assume that you were American. I am not "so blindly and pathetically prejudiced against people you know nothing about". Although I have never been to the USA I have worked on a US Airbase at Lakenheath, here in the UK for 5 years in the 1970`s.

But back to the question it is theft for the reasons I mentioned in my posting "In the UK you could be prosecuted as it is considered theft as the buffet is "an invitation to help yourself to food to be consumed at the time and for that meal" not for you to do you daily stocking up of food."

Why is getting value for your money a bad thing and therefore American?

Moving on to your other point:
"In the UK you could be prosecuted"

The legality of an action is in no way related to its morality. I read your newspapers enough to know the UK prosecutes people for a lot of outlandish reasons.

Obviusly we agree to differ, so tour not American, where are you from and in what contry do you live

How cheap could anyone possibly be that they need to "sneak" or "slip" food into their bag for later?
Or are they just so addicted to food that they have no pride?

It's obviously wrong or you would walk out of the breakfast room with the food openly in your hand, thanking the proprietor as you pass.


“When I've paid $15-$30 for the breakfast buffet, damn straight I'm going to slip something into my purse for Lunch.”

Since it’s a buffet, you had the option to look over the selection and see if it was worth $15 - $30 dollars. Why not just make better decisions for your money instead of resorting to thievery?

<It's obviously wrong or you would walk out of the breakfast room with the food openly in your hand, thanking the proprietor as you pass.>

Actually I have done that for my wife just as blightyboy has said his brother had done for him.
That having been said, I certainly don't try to contain my costs by subsidising my budget with the offerings of a buffet.

On another note, blightyboy you must visit the states one day. It might change your opinion of Americans and the sights are amazing. Not to mention the exchange rate is highly in your favor.

thereyet

There's a big difference between taking breakfast to someone who has paid for it but is in their room, and stealing an extra meal that hasn't been paid for.

If you think the breakfast is overpriced and bad value then simply don't buy it. To use that as justification for stealing another meal is the same as buying a TV set in a shop for £50 more than you know you can get it elsewhere, thinking 'well that's bad value' and slipping a £50 radio in your pocket (stealing) to make up for it.

Well, lorelle, I guess you can see that the overall result is no, don't do it.

I would only call it theft at a stretch. It's just really bad manners. It disturbs me when I see people doing things like this.