A pub landlord who charged ‘entitled’ customers extra for their Sunday carvery due to their ‘excessive’ leftovers has vowed to continue the controversial policy.
Mark Graham, 62, is landlord and chef at The Star Inn at Vogue in Redruth, Cornwall, introduced the policy after noticing an increasing number of incidents.
Mr Graham said customers leaving copious amounts of food on their plates was happening ‘more and more’, with large quantities going to waste.
But his draconian rules sparked a furore after grandmother Verity Farmer complained about being charged an extra £4.80 for her £12-a-head carvery.
‘I’ve never heard anything like that before,’ she said. But not one to back down from a fight, Mr Graham has hit back saying the pair’s leftovers were ‘excessive in the extreme’.
The food which was left resulting in the charge of £2.40 each at The Star Inn
Mark Graham, 62, made the decision after he noticed the two women leaving a lot of food
The pub has a clear policy surrounding the £12 all-you-can-eat carvery pinned up on its walls
He wrote on Facebook: ‘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.’
Backing up his claims to the BBC, Mark continued: ‘When we looked at this plate, they piled it high so you could put a ladder and a flag on top of it.
‘It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet, not all-you-can-carry buffet.’
The pub has a clear policy surrounding the £12 all-you-can-eat carvery pinned up on its walls.
Mr Graham said: ‘I just think they had an entitled way and thought they could do whatever they wanted.
‘As well as being bar staff I am also the chef. I came out and spoke to them and explained the charge was for excessive waste.
‘One said she could not eat it all and I told her I had watched her piling up about two meals worth of food on one plate and then just leave it all.’
Mr Graham explained he introduced the policy after the lockdown when the pub trade was scrambling to get back on its feet.
‘After Covid there was an awful lot of wastage going on,’ he said. ‘We run more than one “all you can eat” – we do curry nights, Indian nights and all kinds of things. People were just filling their plates up really high so it was dripping off the sides, and we started to find it disrespectful.’
The Star Inn in Cornwall is an awarding winning pub which offers a variety of dishes
Mr Graham, who has worked in pubs since he was 14 and has been the landlord of The Star Inn for 20 years, added: ‘I say my mind and that’s how it is. That was the first time we’ve ever had to put the charge on, and the first thing I did was send my staff back out to ask if everything was all right.
‘The customers said the food was lovely and that was it. I don’t care about a couple of potatoes getting left. It’s just stupid, excessive waste that bothers me.
He continued: ‘We are just a village pub untouched by time. I’m here to make a living, not make a killing. I don’t rip people off. But it’s a two-way street and customers should play fair too.
‘I was serving the carvery that day and I remember they loaded their plates sky high with food, so high you could’ve put a ladder on the side of it and put a flag on the top!’
He said the two women only went up to the carvery counter the once, but added: ‘There were easily two portions of food on each plate.’
Mr Graham took a picture of the plates showing they were filled to the brim with slices of meat, roast potatoes, plenty of vegetables and some crackling.
He said the small surcharge would only help towards the cost of raw ingredients but wouldn’t cover any costs of equipment used to make the food or to pay the staff.
Pub landlord Mark Graham outside The Star Inn at Vogue in Redruth, Cornwall
‘You can take as much as you like, come back as many times as you like and, as the old Navy saying goes, you can fill your boots. Do whatever you want, just don’t waste it,’ he continued.
‘We get people eating a plate’s worth, then coming back for more and, instead of eating it, they ask for a box to take it away.’
He said that the pub was happy to accommodate such requests from the a la carte menu, ‘as the pricing is accounted for’. But he added on Facebook that the ‘excess food’ policy was ‘only for all you can eat where you serve yourself’.
Verity Farmer, one of the customers who paid the surcharge, complained on Facebook saying: ‘Just been for a Sunday carvery at the Star Inn, Vogue, St Day.
‘We paid for our meal at £12 each, and when we got our bill it had got an extra £4.80 added. When questioned about it they said it was a charge for not eating all our meal. I’ve never heard anything like that before.’
Since her post more than 400 comments were made, including one from The Star Inn’s account, which read: ‘We just try and make sure there is enough food for everyone.
‘I’m sure if you were a customer later on in the day and I had to tell you I had no food left for your booking because it had all been wasted and gone in the bin you would not be very happy and would have made another social media post too.’
