How to Politely Refuse More Food as a Guest
You are a guest at dinner with friends or colleagues (people you work with), and you are offered more food. You’re full (not hungry). How do you refuse (say ‘no’) politely?
This is a question we received recently and I thought I’d answer it here. If your host (the person who organized the event) cooked the meal, it is considered polite to compliment or say something nice about the food before refusing more. There are many ways to give a compliment about food. Here are a few:
- That was delicious.
- That’s the best meal I’ve had in a long time.
- Your cooking is such a treat (something that gives people a lot of pleasure, but that isn’t experienced often).
- You’ve outdone yourself.
(This means, “You have cooked a meal that is even better than the delicious meals you normally make.” To outdo (oneself) means to do or perform better than you have ever done before. You can use this compliment for other situations.)
To refuse more food, you can use one of these phrases:
- No, thank you. I couldn’t eat another bite.
- Thank you, but no more for me.
- That was very good, but I’m full.
- I’m stuffed (very full) and I can’t eat anymore.
- No, thank you. I don’t have room (space) for more.
I hope this is helpful.
~ Lucy
April 14th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Good…. Is it the dish makes by Lucy ? LOL
April 14th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Thanks you so much Lucy, it’s absolutely helpful, my friends sometimes invite me to have a meal. actually when i get full i dont know how the best polite way to respond to them thought i’ve spoken English long time. now i get various ways of saying, thanks for things you made that seem to be normal but really meaningful.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:14 am
T h a n k y o u v e r y m u c h , that will be helpful.
April 14th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Lucy
Great tips to be polite in a situation that I´ve never thought about.
bye
April 14th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
so useful, thanks
April 15th, 2008 at 1:53 am
Good topic. In addition to the information it would not be bad to tell about words / phrases / expressions English-speaking people usually use by offering meal to others / guests / colleagues.
Thanks.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Now that I cook from the last 10 years, I know how much cooker apreciate kind words about the cooking. Also cooker likes to see people eating their plates so it is quite important to know how to say politely “no more food please”.
Take note all of you that not cook, say always something pleasant about the cooking to the persons who has cooked it, which ever place you are, home, friend’s house or similar. And if you are at home, even more.
Todays lesson is very useful, thanks a million Lucy.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:48 am
Thanks, i found lots of useful sentences int his post!