Do you allow guests to serve themselves?

[DisneyBeagle]

If you have guests for a meal, do you allow them to serve themselves food or do you serve them a preloaded plate of food?

I have always placed the food on the table and let everyone help themselves with the exception of small kids who need assistance.

 

[PatsMom]

I let my adult guests serve themselves. That way they can chose the items and portion size. Instead of putting everything on the table though, I line up the serving dishes on a bar near my kitchen. The guests can serve themselves like at a buffet and then seat themselves at the table. That eliminates all the passing around of dishes and allows parents to help small children.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We have guests serve themselves as well.

 

[Tinkh]

It is serve yourself around here unless little kids and/or if it is like a chili party or something. Every Halloween, we have chili and hot dogs with all our friends and their kids and ours before trick or treat. I always hand out disposable bowls to everyone as they walk by to get their hot dogs.

 

[NMAmy]

Yes, I absolutely have guests serve themselves. I have a SIL who is a fabulous cook but she drives me crazy by plating the food and if you don't eat all that she gives you, she gets offended.

She once prepared a vegetarian meal that contained parsnips, summer squash, and eggplant--my own personal trifecta of vegetables I despise. And, yes, I ate every bit of a huge serving so as not to offend her. DH was very impressed.

 

[golfgal]

Adults??? I would never serve up a plate for an adult. I would either have everything on a table or we usually have a buffet style set up. I would only dish up plates for my own kids when they were toddlers.

 

[mamacatnv]

Always family style, I would never prepare anyone other than a very small child without a parent present a plate. We eat family style every day as a normal practice.

 

[PixieTl]

Yup, I almost always have guests serve themselves! unless it's like soup or chili, then I just go ahead and put out filled bowls. I would hate to make someone feel that they had to eat everything I put on their plates if it was something they didn't like. Unless it's the my kids of course! lol then it's eat or be hungry! they have to at least try it...

 

[pilotwife_02]

I let them serve themselves. I set the plates/utensils out on the kitchen island and then put the food on the island buffet style.

 

[taylor3297]

I let my adult guests serve themselves. That way they can chose the items and portion size. Instead of putting everything on the table though, I line up the serving dishes on a bar near my kitchen. The guests can serve themselves like at a buffet and then seat themselves at the table. That eliminates all the passing around of dishes and allows parents to help small children.

We do the same at our house.

 

[grafxgirl]

Guests serve themselves in our house because I don't know what they like or how much they like. We will help the kids if they need it.

 

[Aimeedyan]

It depends. For a formal dinner, we plate the food ahead of time. For more casual dinners, we serve family style around the table.

 

[hopemax]

I prefer to let guests serve themselves, but when we lived in apartments, our table and kitchen were so small, it was easier for me to pre-plate some stuff. This would be things like the main entree, like a chicken breast or steak. Or a side like a corn on the cob. Things where a serving was completely obvious. I would still let people serve their own mashed potatoes, vegetables, things that needed to be scooped.

 

[luvmy3jewels]

I almost always serve family style. Everyone has their own likes/dislikes and appetites, and I wouldn't want someone to feel obligated to eat something that they don't want to.

 

[rewok]

I plate everything, all the time! But that's pretty normal around here, I had never heard of "family style" before I went to live a few months in the "Rest of Canada". I only do buffet if there are tons of guests.

On a side note, when you have guests, if someone is a fancy cook, it's pretty normal to plate everything, since presentation is often a big part. I play around with veggie colours, place everything neatly, ... Putting big pans of food on the table wouldn't do justice to my fancy dishes.

 

[Bethenny]

Putting big pans of food on the table wouldn't do justice to my fancy dishes.

If they taste good, it shouldn't matter.


I've only once ever received a plate of food at someone's house and I did not like that. There was some sort of side dish with chopped up tomatoes. I can't (won't) eat tomatoes. And I sat there and stared at the tomaotes the entire meal trying to talk myself into eating them so as to not be rude to the hostess. I can think of a million things that I prefer not to eat but that I would choke down if I needed to. Nope, I couldn't do it with the tomatoes. I finally had to tell her that everything was wonderful and I'm sorry but I just can not eat the tomatoes. Fortunately, she was gracious about it.

 

[We_Love_Disney]

I prefer the have family style.

This reminds me of a funny incident. Years ago, my mother invited my youngest sister's boyfriend and his parents over for dinner. Mom made her amazing spaghetti and meatballs. There were 7 of us at dinner. The sauce is in a big bowl. The pasta was in the pasta bowl. His parents begin the self serving. After the two of them, there is no pasta left. My mom had been serving this same recipe to our family of 8 for years and we always had left overs!! My mom apologized and quickly made more pasta. We still chuckle over it.

 

[Mrs. Darcy]

It depends. For a formal dinner, we plate the food ahead of time. For more casual dinners, we serve family style around the table.

This is how I do it and how my mother did it. Because of my husband's and father's jobs, we have formal dinners a few times a year and everything is plated for that. But my mother taught me to "announce" (lol) what the meal is before dinner and asks if anyone has special preferences. It always worked out fine as far as I can remember. But when we're having friends or family, it's buffet or family-style.

 

[Handbag Lady]

Family / Buffet style but I make the portions look good. I sort of "plate" the servings on my mid-century plates and service items so that my guests can see something nice, then they can take from that platter to place on their own plate.

Does that make sense?

 

[Mrs. Darcy]

Family / Buffet style but I make the portions look good. I sort of "plate" the servings on my mid-century plates and service items so that my guests can see something nice, then they can take from that platter to place on their own plate.

Does that make sense?

Yes it makes sense to me. It sounds lovely.