Should You Take Your Leftover Food To Go On A Date?

Let’s set the scene: You’re on a date , sitting across from a guy you really like, at a restaurant you’re really loving. The conversation is flowing, the food is to die for, and you could definitely see there being another date. The dining portion of the date is starting to come to a close; you’re both sipping on and savoring the last of your wine, wondering if you’ll say goodnight and head home, or go for a post-dinner stroll. All you know is that every aspect of this date has been enjoyable, and you want things to keep going well. Then, the waiter approaches the table and asks if there’s anything you’d like to take home. You look down at your plate, and there’s definitely enough left on it that it would be worth it to take home, and under normal circumstances, the answer would be yes… But is that weird to do on a date? Is it acceptable to take your leftovers to-go when you’re on a date, or does it make you look bad? Well, there are a couple of cons when deciding to take your leftovers home: The first worry? It’ll make you look stingy. When it comes to being on a date, it’s easy to wonder whether or not taking our scraps to go is the no-brainer we’ve always thought it was. After all, we’re trying to make a good impression . We worry that taking our leftovers home with us will make us look stingy, as if we can’t afford to feed ourselves and need all the charity we can get. Or worse, that all we came for was a free meal or two. It could also get in the way of the rest of the date. Anyone who’s ever been on a good date can attest to the fact that it doesn’t always end exactly when or how we expected it to. While we’d only made plans to get dinner, we might find ourselves wanting to extend a really good date by taking a walk, spontaneously going to a movie, or grabbing drinks somewhere else. And if we’re pretty sure the date is going to go that way, we’ll second guess getting our leftovers bagged up simply because carrying a to-go bag could end up getting in the way or creating awkwardness. We don’t really want to be carrying a bag of food into a crowded comedy club, right? However, there are a few pros to taking home your leftovers. You don’t waste food. Taking home leftovers is the perfect way to get two meals for the price of one. Plus, it simplifies the trouble of having to figure out our next meal. And for many of us, it’s simply something we were taught: You don’t ever waste food. It shows gratitude and that you don’t take him for granted. Even with all of our worries or second guesses, choosing to take our leftovers home can show gratitude; it lets our date know that we recognize he spent his hard-earned money on this meal , and we aren’t taking it for granted or treating this gesture like it’s meaningless, or like we believe we’re entitled to it. Closing Thoughts Taking our leftovers to-go isn’t always the best decision, especially if we want the date to extend beyond dinner because it could be made awkward by carrying around a bag of food, but otherwise, we should feel free to take leftovers if we want to and feel comfortable doing so – every date will have a different answer to this question. Love Evie? Sign up for our newsletter and get curated content weekly!