"Wafu" restaurant in Sydney requires customers to finish all their food

Yukako Ichikawa is a chef at Wafu restaurant in Sydney. It has an interesting policy: the guests have to finish all their food, or else the staff won't clear their plates. A snippet from their web site:

In keeping with our ethos, we ask that you understand and respect the following:

Please be mindful of the amount of food you order – consider ordering just the right amount, in harmony with your appetite!
To find pleasure in our dishes is to finish the meal. Please don’t leave anything on your plate.
Please consider sharing meals as you would at home, by eating together you will be reducing the amount of wasted food.
Whilst you eat, savour the food, and think “Arigatou” (“thank you” in Japanese) to our Earth!
If we all do our part to minimise waste, it can make a big difference!

It's a bit ironic that they call it guilt-free dining, since really, it sounds to me like they're trying to guilt you into finishing the food. But if I was in Sydney I think I'd definitely want to try it out. Looks yummy.

via Reuters

Comments

[Saint Isaac]

It's important to have this culture of "mottainai". When I was child I remember my mom telling me to not left a single grain of rice in my bowl. Dad always reminded me that wast food is desrespectfull to the people whom worked hard to make it possible.
It's shame that even Japan, a country that has a history of famine, waste the amount of food that it do nowadays.

[Rainbowhill]

No way I'd eat there. I don't like being told how to enjoy food.

[Cryptnotic]

Japan doesn't have the concept of taking your leftovers home with you. In the U.S., however, taking leftovers home is so common that many restaurants make the meal portions so big that you will only eat half of the meal and take the rest home with you.

What is the custom in Australia?

[Cyrion]

In the Netherlands I know several Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurants that will charge you extra for leftovers.
It's a good idea, it's shamefull to see how much food people will sometimes leave at their table in all-you-can-eat restaurants.