Pub charges customers for 'excessive' leftovers

Customer who leave leftovers deemed "excessive" by the pub face the charge

Customers at a Cornwall pub are being charged for leaving too much food on their plates.

The Star Inn, in Vogue, near St Day, is charging people if they fill their plate at their all-you-can-eat carvery and leave "excess leftovers".

One customer said she was surprised when she was charged £2.40 a plate for leaving waste food on two plates.

Landlord Mark Graham called the amount left "pure waste" and said it was clear from signs in the pub that "excessive waste may be charged for".

Signs warn people that they could be charged

A customer wrote on social media that she paid £24 for two meals at the pub "and when we got our bill it had got an extra £4.80 added".

She questioned it and was told it was "a charge for not eating all our meal".

"I’ve never heard anything like that before," she said.

She said she had read the signs warning of leftovers but "thought it was a joke".

Mr Graham replied to the customer's post: "If you leave a few spuds, etc, there is obviously no problem. Where the problem arises is just pure waste.

"It's just not practical to allow such wastage when the margins in business are so tight.

"If everyone did the same as you. I would have to prepare enough food for 200 people just to serve 100."

He said the policy was "rarely enforced" but "yours was excessive in the extreme".

Mark Graham said one leftover plate had food so high "you could put a ladder and a flag on top of it"

He told BBC News that incidents were "happening more and more".

He said: "That's why we brought the policy in play, just to slow it down, to stop the waste, to stop the excessiveness of it.

"When we looked at this plate, they piled it high so you could put a ladder and a flag on top of it.

"The only problem we've got is people come in, take a plate, eat it, come and load the plate for a second time, then either just leave it and waste it, or try and take it home.

"It's an all-you-can-eat buffet, not all-you-can-carry buffet."

The pub has seen an increase in food waste

The post prompted more than 50 comments, most in support of the pub's policy.

One wrote it was an "excellent idea to stop greedy people", adding "fair play to them".

Another comment said that a sign "clearly stating" there was a charge was "a fab idea" to stop "those who take far more than they can eat".