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A pub landlord has warned customers he will charge them extra for large amounts of food they do not finish from his all-you-can-eat roast dinner buffet.
Mark Graham, of The Star Inn, in Vogue, in St Day, Cornwall, has spoken of his frustration at people leaving excessive waste on their plates from the locally sourced Sunday roast.
He has issued a warning sign on the policy and has charged customers who breach the rule £2.40.
Mr Graham, who has been the pub landlord for 20 years, told The Independent said: “Any chef in the world would be annoyed or insulted by waste.
“It’s only for the buffet, I give other dishes on the menu a doggy bag if they are not feeling well. But I tell the ones piling it up ‘You put it on the plate so you should be respectful.’”
He added: “People all over the world have sent their support to me. They have seen others walking by in a carvery with a pile of food they will never manage and they think it’s disgusting.
“If you are from the older generation like me if I left any food on my plate my mother wouldn’t let me leave the table. We are old school like things used to be.
“People now are so entitled. They think if they have paid the money they can do anything they well like.”
The landlord claims people come from all over the world to try his crispy Cornish spuds with all meat and vegetables sourced just a stone’s throw away from the pub.
The furore erupted when an irate 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 adding she thought signs warning of leftovers “were a joke”.
But Mr Graham was not joking, replying 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.”
On the backlash from the policy, Mr Graham told The Independent: “There are a couple of keyboard warriors on social media who are up in arms but they haven’t got the nerve to say anything to my face.”
He says “The proof in the pudding will be in the eating” if customers have got the message on a fully booked Sunday.
