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Hashtags about the restaurant have been viewed more than 300 million times on Weibo
A restaurant in central China has apologized for encouraging diners to venture out and order food afterwards.
The policy was introduced after a national campaign against food waste was launched.
The beef restaurant in the city of Changsha placed two large scales at its entrance this week.
It then asked diners to enter their measurements into an app that would then suggest menu items.
Signs reading “be negotiable and eager, promote empty plates” and “low plate operation” were added.
- Xi from China tells people to stop wasting food
The policy caused uproar on Chinese social media.
Hashtags about the restaurant have been viewed more than 300 million times on the social platform Weibo.
The restaurant said it was “deeply sorry” for its interpretation of the national “Clean Plate Campaign”.
“Our original intentions were to advocate for stopping waste and ordering food in a healthy way. We never forced customers to venture out,” it said in an apology posted online.
President Xi Jinping ignited the campaign this week, calling the levels of national food waste “shocking and distressing”.
Following Mr Xi’s announcement, the Wuhan Catering Industry Association called on restaurants in the city to limit the number of dishes to eat – implementing a system where groups have to order one dish less than the number of dinners.
State TV also criticized livestreamers who filmed themselves eating large amounts of food.
