Me and a friend, who are both banded, went to Chili's this weekend for lunch. We both decided to order a whole meal so we could take the leftovers home to our spouses.

Our waitress walked by about 6 times looking at our full plates with concern. I couldn't help but laughing. She finally came by and asked if there was something wrong with the food or if she had done something? We of course told her she had done a wonderful job we just couldn't eat that much food and would need to go boxes.

I guess it was a lot funnier in person, I really enjoyed it!

I can relate to what you are saying. Seems like everything in life surrounded going out to eat as a pass time. Like on Friday nights. Everything is too large of portions, and they won't let us eat off the Childs menu. Which causes me to over eat sometimes. Like Friday night I got a belly ache from you know where. So it's time to eat at home for me. I guess I need another place to have fun at......

LOL! I've had the same experience many times.....I guess they are worried they won't get their tip if you don't eat it all! And you know they can't believe that a 'big girl' like us isn't licking the plate clean and ordering dessert!! :hungry:

My most 'memorable' dining out moment was going to a Chinese buffet with my family. Everyone else hit the buffet and I ordered a pot of hot tea.....they waiters stalked me and eyed me the entire meal......guess they thought I was going to swipe an eggroll off everybody else's plate and cheat them out of a couple of bucks. I never did that again. :paranoid

LOL-I've had that happen so often! We did tell the waiters at our favorite Mexican place we were banded and that's why we always took food home, they were starting to wonder why we kept coming in and not eating much. So now, they bring boxes with our food everytime.

If a waitress asks if the food was OK, I usually say it was good and I just wasn't as hungry as I thought, so I'd love to take the rest home for later.

My funniest eating out experience is when I PBd right at the table back into my clam chowder! I was so happy no one in the restraunt saw me.

Last time I went out to eat, I told DH I can't keep goin to restaurants. Now that I got a little unfill, I'll try again.. but I took a bite of mashed potatos and was dying.. I kept running to the bathroom, and was debating what I could throw up into at the table that wouldn't gross people out (trying to be inconspicuous). I finally told DH to get my food to go, and I ran to the back of the parking lot sliming and PBing. But I'm really working on an invention I can keep at the table, I can not get over the emberassment of running to the bathroom several times during a meal!! Again, hopefully it's over now

My funniest eating out experience is when I PBd right at the table back into my clam chowder! I was so happy no one in the restraunt saw me.

NASTY!!! lol!

My funniest eating out experience is when I PBd right at the table back into my clam chowder! I was so happy no one in the restraunt saw me.

eww that is just nasty.

If we go out to eat and they don't allow me to order from the kids menu, and if my DD is with us, she will order a kids meal I want and I will order what she wants off the adult menu and we switch. I still don't understand why they can't come up with menu items that are half the protion size of what is on the regular menu. Or why can't I order off the kids menu?

I've found a little trick when eating out. When they bring my food I ask for a box right away, I tell them I'm not very hungry and I know I'll need to take it home. I put most of it in the box and leave what I think I can eat on my plate. Sometimes I even pick at that. I prefer to share a meal. I still love chinese buffets and I get a little bit of everything I love and take about one bite of each of it. Some people think its a waste of money but what difference does it make if I'm full on the first partial plate or full after 3 plates?

I get the worried waiters all the time, it's become almost annoying at times if the waiter keeps badgering me about why I haven't eaten much of my food. I have yet to have a restaurant let me order from the kiddie menu, and I even have a card that Dr. Spivak's office gave me that asks for permission to do so. :mad:

why is it that I can order a kid's meal at any of the fast food chains but I get the feeling that once I am banded I will have a hard time ordering from the kid's menu at a sit down place???

Hey good thread!

Biggest problem we have is when they ask what to drink. We used to say water just to keep them happy but now we just say nothing thank you.

o boy does that freak them out!. Last week the waitress said 'nothing? are you sure? you dont even want water?'

If we get water sometimes we forget a drink a little by accident.

ITs weird..only in the USA do HAVE to drink with your meal. In England we didnt worry about a drink with dinner unless it was wine.

some places allow me to order the childrens portion without question, others balk, so I just pay it---figuring, in the past I have more than made up for it.

I noticed a HUGE difference in the looks I got before losing much weight and now that I have lost a considerable amount. Back when I was still near my heaviest, and would only pick at the huge plate of food, they would always ask, but had this look about them that was like "who do you think you are fooling"----but now they tend to ignore my not eating as much.

We have found ways to save a few bucks when we go out at some places. One place offers a side kick of ribs or a skewer of shrimp that can be added to an entree---there we just order me the sidekick! Other places like our Chili's, never balk at me ordering from the kids menu. I too have a card, that requests them to allow me to order from the childrens menu, because I have had WLS. One of our local buffet restaurants honors it, another only discounts me to a senior buffet cost---saving about a quarter!!! In fact we don't go there anymore, because the manager was such an a$$ over it, he tried his best to embarrass me---asking loudly if my surgery was not working!!! I told him to skip it, charge me full price, I could fill as many plates as anyone else, whether I ate it or not! Other places that refuse to allow me to order from the childrens menu, if they can't because of company policy, I figure that is fine. I am out for a good time, and not having to cook, it is worth it, and I take leftovers home.

BUT---the funniest thing to happen to me eating out was about a month ago we were in Applebees for lunch, and I was slowly and sparingly eating---it was one of those days things were going down very slowly---and this woman, sitting accross from me was heavy, close to my starting size, not quite, says to me across the aisle "If I could eat like you, I wouldn't look like this!"

I was so shocked by it at first I said nothing, but smiled. Then I finally stopped at her table and told her that I had a lap band and ate small amounts slowly and with it I had managed to lose over a hundred pounds. She took my email to get more info!!

Kat

The restaurants could care less about you ordering from the children's menu or not, and if you complained to the manager of any halfway decent restaurant, most would let you get away with it. For those that don't and the wait-staff that puts up a blocker, the reason is obvious: money. 15%-20% of a $20+ meal is a lot better than 15-20% of an $8 meal. Of course, when I've run into the same situation, I usually explain if I am "forced" to order something I truly do not desire, then the amount of my tip ($0.00) will reflect my displeasure, and if it is the manager, then I will explain not only will the tip be zero but my future patronage will equal that amount.

Of course I am the same way with car dealers too. When they ask me to name a starting price, I always use my staple line, "I don't want to pay anything for this car; let's start from there." :mad:

I had a funny experience at a Mexican Food Resturaunt once. I guess I ate too fast and so I excused myself to go to the restroom. The waitress asked my friend if I was ok and if I was enjoying my meal because I had hardly touched it and my friend just told her I wasn't feeling well. I came back and thought I was ok until I felt more wanting to come up and had to go back to the restroom. I must have gone about 5 times and we had to be somewhere soon so I just asked the cashier for a styrofoam cup while we were walking out and decided I thought it was going to be the last time so I ran to the restroom with the cup in my hand and got everything up finally. A few weeks later my friend that works at that resturaunt said that the cashier told a bunch of other people that I was taking a pregnancy test in the bathroom :mad:. WTF? First of all I was drinking a margarita, why would I be drinking if I thought I was pregnant?It was very amusing.