Why do you want the sauce, dressing, or butter on the side?

Because I don’t want my dinner all gunked up with a bunch of yucky stuff on it.

I would never ask for something that was integral to the way a dish is made to be served on the side. The only thing I ask for on the side is salad dressing because I don’t like too much salad dressing nor do I want the many calories it adds. I would not ask for Fettuccine Alfredo with the alffredo sauce on the side, that seems like an insult to the cook to me. Might as well just ask for plain pasta then. That’s just IMHO.

I agree with both ^^. When I ask for salad dressing on the side, it’s because I don’t want too much. Ranch or Roquefort soup with some limp floating greens is highly unappetizing. (I’m exaggerating, but only until you get to the bottom of the bowl, when that is what you’re looking at.)

No use in thinking of it as reducing waste, though, because they typically give you more on the side than they would put on directly

I virtually never request anything else on the side, unless it’s sour cream, and then it’s so I can heap it on.

I can’t speculate on anyone else’s dining habits.

I did this today for lunch. Grilled chicken breasts came with a choice of sauce. I chose honey mustard, but on the side for light dunking. I don’t want my bird swimming in sauce.

I remember my brother losing weight and I’d never seen a male ask for salad dressing on the side, but he did. Then he would dip a piece of lettuce in it so he could have dressing without overdoing it.

I agree with @janbb about not doing that with a sauce that’s integral to a dish.

I have a rule I don’t change more than one thing in a dish at a restaurant.

Last night I ordered a pasta dish at a chain restaurant, here is the description: Sautéed shrimp, asparagus, mushrooms and bow-tie pasta tossed in parmesan cream sauce. I asked for the sauce on the side. They brought it full of sauce and additional sauce on the side. I told the waitress it came out prepared with sauce, and she said they must have mistaken it for extra sauce on the side (which is what I assumed too). She was very nice took it back to get me a new one. Often I won’t bother even doing this, I’ll just keep it prepared incorrectly.

They brought out a new one full of oil with the seasoning all over the pasta. I ate ¾ of it, I wish I had not eaten any and just took it home where I would have added more pasta and veggies so it wasn’t so oily.

The worst part is the Parmesan sauce was delicious. If they had just served it with “dry” pasta I would have really enjoyed it. I should have specified over dry pasta.

I order pasta with no sauce all of the time at Italian restaurants and other chain restaurants, but I usually do say “no sauce, no oil, no butter, just dry.”

@janbb @jeruba I wanted plain pasta. No sauce is plain I would think, but I wasn’t clear enough. As far as an insult to the chef, would you feel that way at chain restaurant like Chilis or Red Lobster?

If a salad is typically dressed by the chef is it so different than wanting less sauce on a pasta dish?

I don’t ask for sauces on the side in restaurants. Maybe sour cream for the baked potato, because it comes that way.

Occasionally at home, I’ll eat pasta with butter (not butter sauce, but just a pat of butter melting on the hot pasta). To me, to pay a large sum in a restaurant for pasta just to eat plain pasta is kind of silly.

If the pasta is a side dish in a restaurant, then sometimes I will want no sauce on it, and I’ll just put butter. I will specify “plain, no sauce” and they understand.

@jca2 When the pasta is a side dish I almost always order no sauce because often the main dish is swimming in sauce.

I was trying to order something that was easy to reduce the fat, but it backfired this time, plus pasta sounded good at the time.

I don’t do that….but the main reason would be that you don’t trust the chef to put the ‘right amount’ on the food. Maybe you want a lighter touch because you’re watching calories. Or maybe you’re not confident you’ll like it and want to be able to manage it yourself. Or maybe you like it, but too much overpowers the taste of the food and so you want the flexibility to manage it.

If you don’t mind me asking, how often do you eat out? It seems to be a main source for you.

The only time I ask for sauce on the side is if it’s a dipping sauce. They never give enough dipping sauce.

@Jonsblond When things are normal I eat restaurant food one to two times a week.

During the first two years of covid I ate restaurant food once every 2–3 months.

Normal for us is once, maybe twice per month. We’re lower middle class. When we were working poor we ate in a restaurant maybe two times a year, if that.

@Jonsblond I assume you are including fast food as restaurant food, I am.

I grew up only eating out about 4 times a year, and like I said that was my situation during the first two years of covid. The main reason I eat out or do take-out now is a break from cooking and cleaning the kitchen. Or, a social thing with friends. My friends invite me out to eat quite a bit, and I turn it down a lot.

I don’t think of 1–2 meals out of 21 per week to be a main source, but I bet 1–2 meals can easily be an extra 500–1000 calories more a week.

@JLeslie we don’t eat fast food. If we eat out we only buy from locally owned restaurants.

@JLeslie I was just talking to a friend the other day about how when we were growing up, we dind’t eat in restaurants as often we we do now. We’d go out on special occasions, or maybe if relatives were visiting and of course if we were traveling, but now we go out several times a week, and it seems most people that I know do the same.

@jca2 Back in the day a lot of houses had a mom that didn’t work, or even if she did work, a dad that cared that she cooked.