Guilted into a Box

In my last post, I mentioned that Hubby & I tried a new to us, but old to the location, Italian cafe'. I'm a review addict when it comes to almost anything & I'd read several reviews that just praised this place for having great Italian food, in big portions, for cheap. The crazy thing about this is that the restaurant was located about a block from the college I attended for 5 years...seriously, how did I never know about this place back then? Because it really was fairly cheap!

Alright, let's get back on track. We arrived, took a look at the menu & ordered. I remembered basically right before we received our food, that a couple of reviews had mentioned ordering the lunch portion. When I see lunch portion, I obviously normally think this means that I can only order a smaller sized dish at lunch--however, I should have asked this time. Hubby & I both ordered pasta dishes & when the waiter sat down our plates, I'm sure my mouth hung open. It was one of the largest plates of pasta I'd ever seen...easily enough for probably 3-4 people. I'd already had bread & salad and after only eating for a short time I was done...full...stuffed.

I'm normally good with pasta leftovers, but we had plans to go watch a movie & I also didn't want the pasta to make my car smell horrible. After some internal debate, I decided on a box since I still had enough pasta for 2 people sitting in front of me. Hubby was less than pleased with his dish & I just knew that he'd decline any offer for a box. Imagine my surprise when the waiter asks "Would you care for a box?" and we both respond "Sure." What? Hubby didn't like his meal, why would he box it up and take it home to smell up my car!

Apparently, he was guilted into a box. He felt bad for having so much left in front of him & declining a box so he said yes & knew he would take care of it later. So...we both walked out of the restaurant with heavy, full to-go boxes. We drove to the movie & promptly discarded both to-go containers in the nearest trash can...Hubby, because he didn't like his meal to begin with & me, because I'd decided I couldn't handle the smell that was bound to exist once we came out of the movie theater.

So I say all this to ask...Are you ever guilted into a box? Do you ever just get a to-go container to make the waiter/waitress not feel bad? Seriously, how silly is this?!? I'm gonna pay for the meal, I've eaten what I want, and I don't want to take it home...what is so wrong with that? Nothing!

Credits for this post idea definitely go to Hubby...thanks Hubby!