Plate & silverware with leftover pizza pieces (© Thinkstock Images/Comstock Images/Getty Images)

All-you-can-eat buffet fines diners who don't finish meals

5/18/2012

What kind of restaurant charges $31.50 for two onion rings, a sliver of shrimp toast and a spring roll? The all-you-can-eat Kylin Buffet in South Shields, England, does, after adding a surcharge for diners who don't clean their plates. Beverley Clark was fined a $31-and-change "wastage fee" after her 10-year-old son and 6-year-old niece left those four items on their plates -- a penalty that cost more than the meals themselves. After being scolded by a waitress, Clark hid the leftovers so it looked like they'd scarfed them and complained to manager Sam Fung. "They left a lot of food from the buffet on their plates," Fung said. "We stand by our policies." You might be standing beside a lot of empty tables, too, buddy.

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Bad business or good idea to prevent waste?