Saddle Ranch is freakin INSANE! i love that place. I usually don't eat much of what I order, and save it for later cause it's just WAY TOO much.

holy crap that is a lot of waffles!!!

I think every order should have at least a half order available and not at a ridiculously high price either. Half is HALF.

I usually end up taking food home, or just not eating it. My father-in-law gets so upset. He's a large guy and cleans his plate every time, while I eat until I'm full.
Why is it so hard to just get one egg, one pancake, and a couple pieces of bacon at a restaurant? I don't need three eggs, three large pancakes, 6 pieces of bacon, and one whole potato worth of hash browns.

I'm with Kiwi. But I also like eating out because I know that I can take something home and eat it later. Half portions make a lot of sense though.

I think almost every restaurant you go to serves you about 3 times as much food as you ought to eat. My in-laws always do this, and my hubby and I started too: split an entree, so that you can have room for an appetizer or a dessert (or both if you're really hungry!) That way, we don't feel like we're wasting food. A lot of times leftovers aren't that great the next day anyhow (unless it's pizza, that's always good leftover!).

restaurant portions are ridiculously huge. I can never eat the whole thing, and most people get appetizers on top of it.

I went out the other night, ordered a Greek salad and the plate could have been used to toboggan with.

I think it depends on the restaurant. The small plate trend is so popular in small boutique style restaurants. However, in mass chains like Applebees or Macaroni Grill, the food is ALWAYS too much.

Most restaurant portions are crazy BIG!! Even salads at Cheesecake Factory are too big to finish in one sitting. At least for me they are. My husband can usually finish his meal though.

i've always thought that a restaurant portion is too large, but that it's what a person really WANTS to eat, as opposed to what a person NEEDS to eat. IMO all restaurant portions excluding appetizers need to be cut in half. I usually end up getting the appetizer myself.

absolutely - i think that restaurants feel like people want all that food but to be honest for me, it's not good. i don't like leftovers...and i hate wasting the food. and since i'm a vegetarian, it's not always easy for me to share my plate w/ someone who wants a meat dish.

Yes, I agree portions are too big. Besides that, the waffles do look really good. And I noticed you're eating your breakfast al fresco. I'm so jealous!

It totally depends on what kind of restaurant it is and in which country you live.

For the most part restaurant portions are way too large! Fast food portions are way too large. I always order from the kids menus.

When I eat at chains, like Uno's or Outback, I always order off the kid's menu. hah - I like to save room for dessert and I hate taking leftovers home as well.

Nine times out of ten I'll need a doggie bag.

Nope, I just eat what I can, and take the rest home. I like leftovers -- no need to cook later.

Split with my husband and both end up satisfied. It sucks specially at dinner time, which should be the SMALLEST meal, to get this incredibly big portions in most restaurants.

It's annoying to me when you want to split an entree with someone because of portion sizes, and there's a $3 split plate fee! If you are going to charge for split plates, MAKE HALF PORTIONS AVAILABLE!

Portions for your average restaurant these days is getting out of control (like claim jumpers) and our nation is wondering why there is so much obesity? I'm not saying that you have to finish what they give you but I know a lot of people who would rather cram it all down than waste it by leaving it or taking it home and dumping it. I wish the majority of restaurants would include the option of cutting the portions in half and cutting the price in half..that in the most part would be a perfect portion for me.

I agree with PartySugar, the chain restaurants (Friday's, Max & Ermas, O'Charley types...) are waay out of control on some of their stuff. It's so wasteful.

OMG ... thats disgusting. And yes there is no portion control in most restaurants.

I think people should have the option of picking their own portions and the first one should be the amount people are SUPPOSED to be eating. Yes, portions are too big, especially in the places where the food is fattier and less nutritious. This is why I prefer eating at home more often than not. I also like being able to control how much of an ingredient goes into the food.

Wow, that picture is just crazy! I've been out twice in the last week - which is unusual for us - and both times the portion sizes were perfect. We're in Manhattan and I think the portions aren't as big as other places. I know when we lived in San Antonio, th e portions were enormous and I could eat two more days on what I took home.

Absolutely...I very rarely finish a meal in a restaurant. It's great to have leftovers!

Yes, they are way too large here in the US! But now the sucky part is, when I go home to visit my family, i'm still hungry after I polish off my meal...sigh.

if it werent for the prospect of constant dog-baggyness, i would probably never eat out.... id be so fat!

They're for the most part way too big for one person.

Eat half and take the rest home, or split, or order an app.

I'd love to know how many calories is in that dish of waffles - even though it's total eye-candy.

Many dishes are HUGE. I generally order one and split with someone at my table.

Depends on the restaurant however 99.9% of the time the place gives too much food.

If there's too much food, I'll take the leftovers home and eat them later. But, I've found it really depends on the restaurant. There used to be a pasts place where I go to school where the portions could easily serve three people, but at a Indian/ Mexican place, the portions are just the right size.

I agree, most restaurant portions are waaay too large. We normally don't eat out at that kind of restaurant though, if we want take out we get from places where you can order sides separately so we can get some to just share, or take the "lunch" combos at the chinese place.
Thought sometimes we still go to those places with large portions, and have to take left overs home, sometimes i take the ingredients and add stuff to it to make it taste fresh, and well...better.
Thought if i'm visit my parents I know my little brother, who I sometimes call Hog Beast, can eat the leftovers all up...but he's a growing boy who works out at least 3 hours a day, so I guess he works up an appetite! haha

I do think that most places have ridiculously huge portions for one meal, but I actually kind of like them, at least in dishes that are easy to divide in two. (I avoid pasta dishes, because it's often impossible for me to tell just how much I've eaten from them.) I like knowing I can have several meals of leftovers, because I usually never eat the whole portion (unless it's sushi!). But I suspect not everyone has this kind of self-control...which is unfortunate.

It depends on the restaurant most of the time. Any chain restaurant (like TGIFridays, Outback, Olive Garden, Chili's, etc.) almost always serves portions that could feed a whole family off one plate. Most fancy restaurants I've been to have pretty normal or small portions though. Although, there are a few Mom and Pop-style diners around here that serve food in portions that would put most chain places to shame. There's this one diner here that makes a 1 lb burger...and that's their "normal" size! If you're really hungry, you can get the 2 lb version.

Sorry, but there is no one out there that needs to be eating 2 lbs of meat all at one time. It really IS no wonder that the obesity problem is so huge in our country, especially among those people that eat out a lot.

I think it depends. I've been to some chains and it may be a large portion but it's either wilted greens or overly cooked foods so I'm only left to pick.

I've also gone to some non chain eateries and been like this is it?!

I almost always wind up taking home half of my plate. The only places I usually don't take food home are Japanese restaurants and burger joints.

At fast food joints, I generally order the kid's meal or the junior-sized burgers. Otherwise, it's a waste of money and food. Who needs a liter of soda or a mountain of fries?

Last month, I went to breakfast with some of the Executive Committee members from work, and I happened to be the only female present. I ordered waffles, and as good as they were for a 4-diamond restaurant, I couldn't even finish half of one! They were huge. It just felt awkward, as all the men cleaned their plates, and it appeared as though the female in the group barely touched hers.

When the smallest steak available is an 10 oz., portions are too large. There is one place that won't allow split meals so I always have to take more than half home with me. I don't like paying for two meals when one is enough to feed an army of people. Ridonculous!

Too much food!

Heck not in the UK!