Dinner with friends

[Amy_jellybean]

Def leave it there, the only exception for us is it we take a bottle of spirits and only have a few drinks from it then we will take it down. Beer, wine and food we always leave.

[Novella]

food we leave, even if told to take it we tend to leave it and the same happens at our place. If its a family event and there is always way too much food so if we stay to the end the host normally says take your plate and some bits to put on it. It can be nice to take a few different things home, leftover cakes tend to go in lunch boxes.

drinks - soft drink/ a couple of beers/open wine we leave. Spirits we take home unopened wine ot a six pack we might take home depending on where we are. If we are taking a lot of drinks or pre mixes we will take a small eski bag so we can pick the bag up on the way out without it being an issue.

[Boo Boo]

Leave everything...

[fionas]

Usually if I've gone to dinner at a friend's house, I can't remember what I've taken and am certainly not going to waste time at the end of the night faffing about looking for uneaten food or drinks. Ruins the vibe.

[Deedles]

If its close friends, then we take all our unopened food home and vice versa.
I guess we have all been friends since yr8 and tell each other how it is.
If it wasn't one of our close friends we would leave it, unless they tell us to take it with us as they have plenty of food/ drinks. Which does usually happen.

[Meercat]

Food we leave. Unless the host insists. I am one who likes to send people home with as much much as possible so I don't eat it all when everyone leaves!

Drinks we usually will take. But only if it is a byo thing and heaps of our own drinks are left. We have one friend though that arrives with a bottle of spirits, drinks everyone else's drinks, then trots home with their unopened bottle. Every. Time. It infuriates me!

[Miss_Dee]

Food we always leave. Drinks it depends - beer or soft drink we leave, but spirits we'll take home....usually. There has been the odd occasion where we've taken food home but that's because the host has insisted multiple times when we've left. If it's a bbq or something with EVERYONE there's usually so much food left over that everyone will take some home with them. Though unopened chips/dip we'll still leave. We tend to find that the friends that don't do this and will take everything of 'theirs' home are the ones who don't really seem to get social situations or the ones that are super tight with their money.

[briggsy's girl]

We have one friend though that arrives with a bottle of spirits, drinks everyone else's drinks, then trots home with their unopened bottle. Every. Time. It infuriates me!

We have a friend like this! Although he shows with a six pack of beers, drinks at least a dozen then hubby's top shelf as well, has a feed of whatever's on offer, gets into the red, invites his wife over to help drink the red, then goes home with a couple of beers as travelers!

So glad we aren't local any more. Hubby's grog actually lasts now!!

[Rouge]

Although - I went to a lovely BB lady's house and after some people were unable to make it, it turned out she had a lot of food left over. She insisted i take it home - and to be honest it felt weird, but completely made sense - you can only have so many muffins/cupcakes/slices at home!!!

Was this a shower by any chance

I love feeding people. I would never be so bold to take food back unless it's family and it was something I really wanted to eat. But I always tell friends to take unopened food that they brought.

But I'm a feeder. And unless someone brought something as a token intending not to eat it and take it home again after gorging on my food then I wouldn't be offended if they asked to take it home. But then again maybe not because I love it when people gorge my food. And if someone was intentionally rude I probably wouldn't invite them back

[Aries]

Leave it for sure.
My grandmother taught me to never arrive empty handed (even if told not to bring anything) and to leave it when you go. I just see it as a thank you to the host and tell them to enjoy at a later date.

[Jewel]

yeah, leave it.

[peanutter]

We absolutely leave it, unless:-

1. it's a drink we've brought to share in general or have ourselves, and the host doesn't like that kind of drink;

2. the host insists we take stuff with us.



I would also understand people taking stuff home with them if it was a specific/allergy/whatever thing which is tricky/expensive to make/buy.

[krysalyss]

We would leave it unless asked to take it. Having said that, I wouldn't think it was weird for a guest to take their food either. Wouldn't bother me unless it was something really amazing and I was hoping for sneaky seconds later

[becnxavi]

I agree, leave it. Unless the hosts insists. Drinks wise, I'd take spirits, but leave soft drinks, especially if open.

I was at a party once where a lady had to leave early, so she got up and started putting the corn chips she had bought (which were served on a plate with some dip) back into the bag. Same lady came back to a friends house a few days after a party to retrieve her half a bottle of coke, and was quite annoyed to find someone had consumed it! Wowser!

As for special allergy stuff, I admit I often bring it with me and take it home, since I'm usually to only Ceoliac there and noone would bother with GF food if they didn't have too!

[~clover~]

Depends for me... Food I'd generally leave, but at the same time I'd take it sometimes too. If I could use it for the kids for school or something. I'm way shorter on snack money than my friends/family are. I still usually leave it though... even though my head is telling me to take it

[chody47]

Usually if we take a drink it's a bottle of wine and is therefore opened and drunk. If it hasn't been drunk it's usually because we've drunk the hosts wine and I therefore don't mind if they keep it (and our friends are the same when they come over).

Food wise, I'll always leave it, unless told otherwise and even then I'll try to convince them to keep it. When we have friends over the argument is the other way lol.

[SunnyRain]

Well I just want to add that I think it's good etiquette to serve what your guests bring so they don't feel like lepers who brought something no one wanted. If you open the dips, put them on a platter, serve them with the other nibblies then you'll avoid causing them the social discomfort of wondering if they should drag their sorry offering home with their tail between their legs.

I would leave any thing I brought, but have you ever taken something no one touched? It's disheartening, so be easy on your friends. They probably had no idea what to do, and they were polite to bring something in the first place.

[chody47]

Well I just want to add that I think it's good etiquette to serve what your guests bring so they don't feel like lepers who brought something no one wanted. If you open the dips, put them on a platter, serve them with the other nibblies then you'll avoid causing them the social discomfort of wondering if they should drag their sorry offering home with their tail between their legs.

I would leave any thing I brought, but have you ever taken something no one touched? It's disheartening, so be easy on your friends. They probably had no idea what to do, and they were polite to bring something in the first place.

I totally agree, and I was trying to say this (in a round about way) in my post above. We always make sure we open what our guests bring and we expect the same when we take something to a friends house.