Well, actually this is exactly what is happening in the case of a chain of restaurants in the Netherlands. They are called Instock and their story began a couple of years ago when their founders started working for Albert Heijn (one of the most extended supermarket networks in the country) and came up with the idea of setting up a pop-up restaurant in a busy area of Amsterdam as a way to tackle food waste in the company. Their supplies for the meals of each day would come mostly from food which otherwise Albert Heijn would throw away. Don’t get it wrong, this food has not gone bad and is not expired. They were focused on those cases that for example bananas are a bit black so people don’t buy them anymore, or peppers are not so perfect shaped, or meat expires the next day and it’s not going to be sold out, or one day old bread, or food with damaged packaging, etc etc. So the Instock team would organize themselves in going around every day to pick all the things that Albert Heijn stores would have otherwise thrown away, bring the food in the restaurant, have their chefs deciding the courses of the day and serve them! There is a catcher though: if you go there again and again hoping to eat what you tried one week ago… well… probably you won’t! The menu changes every day. The concept as described above was a success and the idea has now resulted in a network of 3 restaurants around the country, a food truck (cantine) and many more.

We visited the Amsterdam restaurant recently to experience the whole thing at first hand. We reserved last minute so when we arrived they actually didn’t have a table for us, since they hadn’t seen the reservation, so we ended up having dinner at the bar. The waiters and waitresses were very friendly. We ordered their home made beer and the four-courses menu. The portions were not very big, so if you are really hungry you may not feel super full, but if you are normal hungry it is perfect. All courses were surprisingly delicious and I am using the word surprisingly because I am not a big fun of some of the ingredients they had harvested that day (cowley flower and nuts) but still: I liked a lot everything I ate. The bill was 67euro for 2 beers, 2 four-courses menus and a side dish with crackers and olive oil since the bread was over (you can see the menu prices here). You might think of it as a bit pricey since there is no choice in what you eat (unless you are vegetarian or allergic to something, which the chef will take into consideration) and I would be inclined to agree with you but… every time I have been in a restaurant (not a burger place), I never pay less than 20-25 euro per person. And usually I never have 4 courses menu, it’s either 2 or 3. Therefore, if I make this analogy and combine it with the level of flavors I tasted, the ambience of the restaurant and the service, I think the price is decent.