Just walked past a sushi bar in Bangkok, 20 minutes before closing, no customers but still lots of plates going around on the conveyor belt... so that got me wondering - what do they do with those leftovers?

Considering most of them contain raw fish I'd assume (and hope!) that they don't reuse them... but it's a lot of wasted food.

  • I'd assume the same as other restaurants. It's just more visible, as one usually doesn't see the half-full pots at the end of a day in regular restaurants. – Boldewyn Mar 15 '17 at 15:12
  • So what do other restaurants do? Leftover boiled potatoes, sauces and other stuff can be used the next day or given to a soup kitchen, but I would guess that raw fish is a whole other thing..? Also, the sushi dishes are fully prepared dishes, whereas normal restaurants would mainly have ingredients (potatoes, sauce) left over? I mean it seems quite unnecessary to carefully prepare all those plates of sushi just to throw them away 45 minutes later... – Magnus W Mar 16 '17 at 11:12
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    The staff eats it all I would have thought. – dougal 5.0.0 Mar 16 '17 at 14:15
  • @dougal3.0.0 My initial thought as well - they might eat some of it but there is no way they cold eat it all, there were a lot of plates and not a lot of staff (it's quite a small place)... and every night? They'll get really tired of sushi after two weeks :) – Magnus W Mar 16 '17 at 17:49
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    I worked in a sushi bar. Whatever couldn't be put back in cooling, we ate. You develop an appetite after a 10h shift. – henning -- reinstate Monica Mar 18 '17 at 10:42

At the sushi belt restaurant I worked at the cut rolls are taken off the conveyor at closing time and the remaining staff takes home whatever is wanted, in the morning the leftovers are disposed of.

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Thailand many places have a closing time. After took of the counter. The help gets what they want. The rest goes to the food truck that comes around. Has about 6 55 gal. drums in the back. Soup goes in one, bread & noodles another & such. That is took to the poor areas & some have it for breakfast at a Government food line. In some city;s. Think Bangkok is that way. The truck comes early morning. Philippines in many city's a person may be a kick back. Has a right to dumpster dive. Then resale the 2nd hand food in the slums. In Asia you will find in many places that a certain person has rights to collect all scrap paper from dumpsters. Another food, & such. Little goes to waste in Asia. Your starting to see a end to this at the bigger Malls were they have bailers & such for paper today bail there own & sell it as scrap.

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    Are you talking about sushi with raw fish? You mention soup, bread, and noodles - doesn't exactly sound like it. – Cascabel Jan 11 '18 at 19:09
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    What does collecting scrap paper from dumpsters or bailing and selling scrap paper have to do with the question? – Cindy Jan 12 '18 at 10:04

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