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Hayashi Ya, a Japanese restaurant on the Upper West Side, charges $26.95 for their all-you-can-eat menu, but if you don't eat every last bite, they slap on a 3% charge. This raised eyebrows at WCBS, and reporter Kristin Cole trooped over there to measure the outrage. Only everybody seems pretty okay with it; diners insist it "helps with their waistlines," and the manager says it helps "with the restaurant's bottom line." Er, anyway, compared to the penalties at other restaurants—like that place in The Great Outdoors that was going to charge John Candy the full price of a 96-ounce steak if didn't eat all the gristle and fat—3% of $26.95 seems reasonable. Plus, according to WCBS, one in six Americans can't afford enough food, while an estimated 27 percent of all food in the country ends up in the trash. To get involved locally, here are links to the Food Bank For New York and City Harvest.
Japanese Restaurant Charging for Uneaten Food
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all you can eat sushi is penny smart and dollar dumb.
skip it a few times and get omakase at a halfway decent place.
all you can eat or not, charging 3% for not eating what's on a plate is outrageous. if that's their attitude, then a 3% tip should be ours.
as far as I know, this policy in one form or another has been around for years at all you can eat sushi places.
There's usually more rice than fish so you're just loading up on the carbs.
Ridiculous, but for the record the restaurant is not in the UWS (it's CBS' mistake). It's in Hell's Kitchen.
Some restaurants should learn to give smaller portion sizes. Then again they probably give the bigger ones to make the price higher.
Yep ^
Yep, I've been to many places that charge for extra left on the plate, most notably at Kinoko on 72nd street (Not sure what the surcharge is).
This is hardly a new practice and anyone "outraged" should just forgo the "all you can eat" menu.
American needs to eat less and stop wasting food.
Yeah, nothing new here.. most buffet places also charge you if you take sushi and don't eat the rice.
3% is less than a buck, so anyone getting outraged needs to reassess their priorities.
The first time I experienced this was in LA and I threw a fucking fit. Little did I know that that is pretty much customary for all you can eat sushi.
In chicago if I seriously can't eat another bite i pretend to sneeze in my napkin and spit the food out. Then I go downstairs to the bathroom and flush the remaining sushi down the toilet.
matty, you really need to get a life bro...do you even live in new york? every post you make references chicago. what does that have to do with anything?
J&R's Steakhouse, which has two or three locations on Long Island, has an absurdly large steak on the menu. If you can eat the entire thing in under an hour it's free, and you get your picture on the wall, while if you can't finish it you pay $50 or thereabouts.
Nothing wrong with this. They're not talking about asking you to clean your plate when you order off the menu.
You can still eat as much or as little as you want. Just don't load up your plate like a maniac and then leave a mound of wasted food behind. Small plates, multiple times. Which you should be doing anyway.
btw Matty, you seem to have all sorts of troubles with restaurants :-(
Good thing WCBS is on this. They should next tackle this insane issue of tipping 15-20% in eating establishments. THE OUTRAGE!
This makes sense. If this practice could only increase the number of buffets in NY, I would be a happy camper.
Can we next tackle the issue of bodega coffee places not letting you put your own half and half in coffee? That practice has kept me going to Starbucks for years.
Must be a really slow day at CBS. Hayashiya is only a few blocks away from CBS & this has been their policy for a while. 3% is nothing to complain about.
Free publicity may be the best thing that happened to this little joint. They never have any customers.
I think it makes sense. I hate food waste.
henricus: That is done to prevent people making a "ghetto latte" at Starbucks. Did you mean to call Starbucks a "bodega coffee place"?
nik13: The article says that it's been the policy for 2 years, and that there is a sign. I don't think that there is anything that could be more "non-story" than this.
I didn't realize it, but unless they expanded this restaurant has 3 tables how can accommodate an all-you-can-eat menu?
Just sayin
There are lots of innovative ways to turn all you can eat sushi into all you can eat sashimi.
It's pretty common practice, actually. NYC has very few all you can eat places compared to the rest of the country. Stops asshats from loading up their plates and wasting food.
What's even more perplexing, on their site they have the address for 857 9th Avenue at 56th Street, but have this below it:
Subway: B,C at 81 Street, 1,2,3 at Broadway
If they want the correct subway, they would have to put:
Columbus Circle at 59th Street
Subway: A,B,C,D,1
More stupid people.
I think this is an excellent idea. I fully support it. People should pay for wasting food.
Nothing wrong with this -- and no one seems to mind except the reporter.
My only concern would be if you were to take two small rolls of unknown design because they looked like tuna -- only to find out that they're pickled octopus loaf or something -- and then only eat one. (But I'm guessing they apply the rule with common sense and understand what an uneaten pickled octopus roll means -- so even then I doubt there'd be anything to complain about.)
I thought this was standard practice for every all you can eat sushi place. It makes sense, and the charge is a pittance.
Does it take 27 comments to realize that it's 30%, not 3%? You're all a bunch of illiterates!
Makes plenty of sense to me. I've been to buffet places where so many people had eyes lots bigger than their stomachs. Guys, it's all you can eat. Just take smaller loads on your plate, especially as you start feeling full, and you won't have any problems. If you're still hungry, you can always go back for more.
csk you really should double check things before calling people illiterate...
Yuka on UES charges too I think.
Politburo, come again? Look at the picture, ya douchebag!
The picture says 3%. There is a small ambiguous blob near the top of the slashmark that might suggest it is the o part of the percent sign, thereby leaving the larger o as the 0 in 30, but that would be pretty odd sizing and placement.
Anyway, I'm sure WCBS factchecked when their reporter "trooped" down there.
Also, is all the namecalling necessary? Why so angry?
I've been eating at "all you can eat sushi" here since the 80's and all restaurants I went to charged for uneaten food.
csk- ignoring the fact that the picture actually does say 3%, if someone didn't see an accompanying picture they wouldn't be illiterate...douchebag!
Burger King has a wonderful dollar menu. You can eat until you explode for under $5.
Great idea! Far too much food is wasted in this country of fat asses. Didn't you guys' mom teach: "don't help yourself to big portions if you're not gonna eat it"?
#15 if you don't wanna tip, don't eat out, it's that simple!
All you can eat sushi = contradiction in terms.
This is actually a common thing in Asian countries at all you can eat buffets. It really makes you think about what you eat, and your portion sizes. I think its great!
it IS 30%...check the 0s, man. there are 3: one in 30 and 2 at either end of the % slash
It's hard for people to understand why not cleaning up after yourself would cause you to get charged, when manners here dictate that you shouldn't clean up your plate. Amazing isn't it? Well guess what, this manner is bad, outdated, and it needs to go.
I called the restaurant and it's confirmed at 30%. More douchebaggery folks.