Because servings are so large in US restaurants, we often ask to have left overs wrapped to take home. Is this done in London and Paris? If so, what is the phrase in Frence?

Most servings are rather small, I can't imagine having leftovers at all. I've never seen anyone taking home a doggie-bag in either London or Paris. I have a friend who said he left every meal in Paris still feeling hungry ...

Portion size is scaled down from the US equivalent.

Even if there are leftovers, no one asks to bring them home in France. It's considered impolite.

The dogs there refuse to eat leftovers.

Thanks for the information.

It is certainly OK to ask for a takeaway container in a London restaurant. No one will bat an eyelash. My Aunt Judith regularly takes leftovers home from places like Gordon Ramsay, Ivy, and and the Groucho Club. The staff is thrilled that someone loves the food so much that they want to take it home rather than throw uneaten portions away.

The French are another matter.

Twiggy

I've been fortunate enough to enjoy a few dinners at Gordon Ramsay in the last year or so and have seen more than one patron ask to take something away. They were accommodated in the same seamless fashion that every other patron received.

This question has been asked numerous times regarding restaurants in France and Italy. The discussion can get quite contentious with those in disfavor raising doggie bags to the level of cultural heresy.

Twiggy, dear, you rock.

~It's the sort of thing my mum does but I would be far too embarrassed. She asks for a 'doggie bag'.The only exception is in pizza joints where it is perfectly normal to ask to put the remains in a takeaway box!

We only serve one meal sized portions here though, so it is unlikely you will have much left over anyway, unless you didn't like it.

I've never had leftovers in London.

No, that's not done in Paris, London or anywhere in Europe....!!!

This is beginning to sound more and more like a "dress code in Europe" thread...

What do you do with the leftovers, when you get to your hotel room?

You've got a cockroach homing device!

"No, that's not done in Paris, London or anywhere in Europe....!!!"

Oh yes it is.

Last night's doggie bags make up today's breakfast frequently in this household. How else can you get the world's second greatest breakfast (after beans on toast with black pudding) - cold curry?

I don't know where you stay, tedgale, but the hotels I frequent have mini-bar refrigerators. I also don't stay in hotels with cockroaches.

Mirror, mirror
on the wall
Who's the thinnest
one of all?

I am, sweetie.

Because of recent enforcement of DWI laws in France, it has become commonplace for bottles of wine to be re-corked for take away if not fully consumed. It seems restaurant wine sales were effected by the enforcement and restaurants want to encourage wine purchase so they will recork. Some restaurants also have nifty bags for the wine - gotta love the Europeans when it comes to giftwrapping everything. I've found food portions too small to ever have a leftover.

European portions aren't too small, the problem is that American portions are ridiculously large!

I wouldn't do it, but each to their own. In my state in Australia they have introduced health laws that restaurants are not allowed to repackage leftovers for the patron to take home. This doesn't stop it happening though.

You could always do what my 82 year old grandmother does.. wraps her half eaten piece of deep-fried fish in a serviette and pops it in her handbag for dinner! This always comes with a disapproving look from me, but if she doesn't mind her handbag smelling of fried fish or the risk of food poisoning then I guess she's old enough to make her own decisions.

"Mirror, mirror
on the wall
Who's the thinnest
one of all?"

Twiggy, you silly twit, and don't you <b>ever</b> forget it!

There is no need to take leftover portions home (or to an hotel) with you. One dines to satisfy their appetite, both for the food, and the experience of the restaurant (if applicable). Anything that you choose not to eat should not be removed, if you feel you must do that, then you really have no manners and should be dining outside of your own home.

Even if I lived in America where huge portions are commonplace, I would not take them away with me, it is quite simply uneccessary. It is rather like watching someone smoke a cigar all the way down to the band (yes...they left the band on) getting their last pound's worth out of it, how vile!