Value: Are the Portions Too Small?

Is this cheeseburger too small for you?

I found myself nodding and smiling during a controversial conversation that broke out  at the Green Banana Cafe (see page 75 in the new Top Maui Restaurants 2010 edition) when a fellow foodie made a complaint something like this:

“When I spend $120 in a restaurant like Capische? or Mama’s Fish House, I want to get a lot of food.”

I gulped. My position on portion sizes is influenced by many things – including some intensely personal weight struggles and a passionate (but usually private) concern about the food industry in our country.

My role as a food writer means I have to weigh a lot of factors before opening my mouth when someone says this. For one thing, I want to hear as much as possible about what they feel and think, because it helps me to do my job. My little writing ears perked up. What is he looking for? I thought.

He made it clear: he’s looking for a lot. Great food lovingly prepared is not enough. He wants more of it, too.

I can’t argue that he’s wrong (that would be like telling him that his preference for blond-haired surfers is wrong). I just don’t feel the same way he does.

I love the portions at Capische? and Mama’s Fish House. I think they’re perfect. I couldn’t possibly eat any more than what they give me. Each bite is so rich and flavorful … I savor it. There really can be too much of a good thing – especially when I’ve ordered another course.

If I were designing the perfect meal, it would be a Henry VIII feast. It would meander all over the map in terms of cuisine, and it would feature as many courses as it needed to in order to induce nirvana. Maybe a week’s worth?

I would always rather have two bites of a dish that tastes incredible than ten mouthfuls that are just OK.

If the tiny cheeseburger in that picture were the best in the world, I would pay for it.

I know I’m in the minority, of course. As a food writer, I have to remember at all times that there are many people who would never pay as much as I have for certain dishes. I never want a lot of bad food. If it’s bad, I don’t swallow … so why have more of what I can’t use? Super-sizing does not add value for me.

The hardest part of my job is to describe why a very expensive dish is worth what I paid, and why I feel that way … so that the reader can understand how I make the judgment and whether they would agree with me, given their own perspective. Actually, it’s just as hard to say why a very inexpensive dish is, in my opinion, not worth what I paid for it – especially when that dish is popular.

In this tough economy, James and I have noticed several restaurants shrinking their portions (and not always the prices attached). A lot of the fixed price menus so popular right now feature smaller plates, too. In the new edition of Top Maui Restaurants we rate every restaurant on a 5 point system that includes a rating for Value. I always try to rate a restaurant on a more generic, less extreme-foodie scale than my own … but it’s not always easy.

Where do you stand on portions? Do you subscribe to the “less is more” theory, or to the “more is more”? Leave your comments below.