Eating Out .

[Jenarry]

Is it normal practice to charge for a meal when someone doesn’t turn up ?
I was out with a work group for dinner last night . it was booked in advance for 13 and we’d pre-ordered our main meals .
One lady couldn’t make it and let the restaurant know earlier in the day .
Then unfortunately another lady didn’t make it .
The restaurant had cancelled the meal for the lady who’d rang in but they said they’d cooked the other order so they’d have to charge for it.
is this usual practice . i’ve never come across this happening before .
I thought with the drinks and food the rest of the group had ordered ,it would absorb the cost of that one meal or am I way off the mark .

[david small]

It’s fair enough if they had already prepared the meal, maybe a small discount would have been amicable.

[woofgang]

I think that is reasonable if the meal wasn’t cancelled well ahead of time.

[andy-hughes]

I think the restaurant are within their rights - they prepared what was ordered, why should they bear the cost because someone didn't turn up - it's not their fault.

They are running a business, and I think what they did was acceptable - and common practice.

[jno]

sounds fair enough, if they've prepared the meal. They budget for the meals as ordered; they might absorb it themselves if you were regular customers, in the interests of good will, but if a customer doesn't pay then someone else will have to.

[Canary42]

Pay up for the item which was ordered and prepared.

[Buenchico]

It's increasingly common practice for restaurants to charge a cancellation fee in respect of 'no shows'. So you were lucky not to get charged for the lady who phoned in:
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/restaurant-customers-pay-fine-no-shows-table-booking-costs-the-clove-club-the-fat-duck-next-chicago-a8186926.html

Gordon Ramsay charges between £30 and £150 (depending upon the restaurant and the time of day) per head for people who drop out with less than 48 hours notice. In some cases his restaurants can charge the full menu price of £140 when someone drops out with under 7 days notice:
https://www.gordonramsayrestaurants.com/terms-and-conditions/

[Mamyalynne]

I hope someone asked them to box up the meal to take home.

It would have been a nice gesture given they may have lost repeat group bookings but they are within their rights.

[ummmm]

It is common practice but I would have done what Mamy said and asked them to box it up.

[Jenarry]

yes that’s exactly what I did before we started eating as a solution to the problem of being charged for it .
it was something my hubby would order so i thought he could have it for his dinner today .
we got a vibe that they weren’t pleased that we were taking it away. .. I don’t know why as someone was paying for it !
unfortunately the rest of the service and the food on the whole was pretty poor . my meal wasn’t great (i left half of it ) so I was dreading the take home meal being really bad too but as it happened my hubby said it was nice .

[Maydup]

Its very common for groups of 10 or more. Otherwise the restaurant are at risk of having empty tables on what should be a busy Friday night if the group or part of the group fail to show.

Shame it was disappointing though. Did the colleague who pulled out at the last minute pay for her meal with the pre order or did you all have to chip in?

[Caran]

I organise a U3A lunch club for 40/50 people each month. The meals are all preordered. If someone cancels the day before they usually do not pay. If they cancel on the morning and I can let the venue know in time they are usually ok. But if they do not turn up they usually have to pay.

[andy-hughes]

Caran - // I organise a U3A lunch club for 40/50 people each month. The meals are all preordered. If someone cancels the day before they usually do not pay. If they cancel on the morning and I can let the venue know in time they are usually ok. But if they do not turn up they usually have to pay. //

That chimes with common practice - advance cancelation is fine, but if the meal is prepared, the restaurant charges for it.

[lankeela]

If they let people take it away they are leaving themselves open if someone said they were ill through eating it. They could not prove it was not their preparation/presentation/storage etc that had caused it.

[lankeela]

I would have asked for the meal to be served and shared it out amongst the rest of you!

[ummmm]

Just like all takeaway food then?

[andy-hughes]

ummm - // Just like all takeaway food then? //

Not really - takeaway food is prepared and packaged specifically to be delivered, restaurants may not have the facilities to package the mean for transport elsewhere.

[Mamyalynne]

Obviously there are times when you are going on somewhere that it won't be practical to do but until itis outlawed we should do it.

https://resource.co/article/brits-waste-4-billion-year-unfinished-food-when-dining-out-12222

https://www.lifegate.com/people/lifestyle/france-food-restaurants-doggy-bag