Agree with all this. And when I was serving we occasionally had an issue where a plate with leftovers to be packed was mistaken as heading for the dishwasher, and the leftovers trashed.
But I still prefer if the resto packs mine up 
. Not needing to handle dishes or scrape leftovers/clean up is part of the appeal of dining in a restaurant versus takeout, delivery, or cooking at home. Pamper me! 
But that’s not exactly the issue, right?
It’s not whether it actually happens, it’s just the mere possibility that it could happen is enough to have restaurants leave the packing to the customer.
Sure, but we don’t know that that’s the reason. vs taking it off as a thing for staff to do, or not risking it being thrown away and not packed as requested because there’s not enough space or organization in the kitchen, or whatever else.
A lot of us eat out a lot, and bring home leftovers a lot. If what you’re saying was the driving reason, we’d be packing up our stuff a lot more often than we do at nice places like the one @paryzer described.
I’ve encountered it mostly as mid to low priced places so far, and it’s not care for the customer or leftover food driving those, it’s available hands and space.
At our restaurants, if the guest requests it, we will pack their leftovers for them. No problem.
But as a default, it’s generally a “you” problem. 
I only really ever ate out at Chinese (Cantonese/Hunan) restaurants as a kid, and they packed ours up for us. Maybe that’s where I got the preference.
In Austria it’s generally frowned upon to pack up leftovers. But then, portions tend to be smaller.
As a child who grew up in Chinese restaurant kitchens, I feel like I need to ask you for next week’s lottery numbers.
Cuz, you are one lucky gal …
Haha. 
When DH & I have too much food to finish comfortably and are confident that we will eat the leftovers if we take them home, we consolidate what we want to take with us on one of our plates. That way, if the server packs our leftovers, we get what we want and if we’re given a container at the table to pack our own it’s already sorted. Unless we both get very disparate meals and each of us wants to save them separately. And we do have dogs - sometimes we just ask for bits to be packaged for them.
Pictures of our Aussies who love doggie bags
It was Haircut Day.
Which means Wegmans.
But I wasn’t in the mood for scallops. 
Wandering around the meat department I saw their 1 lb packages of ground lamb.
DINNER.
Lamb burger. Ground lamb mixed with minced red onion and s/p, and seared in butter for 3 minutes each side on a toasted brioche bun.
Thought I would use some feta in the fridge. It had gone bad. So some goat cheese stood in for the “sauce”: whole milk Stonyfield yogurt (should have been Greek, but didn’t have any), crumbled goat cheese, s/p to amp up the saltiness, some dried mint, and a leeeetle bit of lemon juice for tang.
A salad of diced English cucumber and grape tomatoes with honey-mustard dressing (to use it up from my fridge) and L-W fries with ketchup.
Surprisingly, it worked!
Stag’s Leap Karia Chardonnay as the libation.
The weather was absolutely disgusting today: pouring rain and chilly. Unfortunately, we had to leave the house to purchase a few things that couldn’t wait, including more shrooms & a fat slice of ham for our pasta dinner tonight: ondine rigate ai funghi, piselli e prosciutto con panna. The pasta was supposed to be al dente at 8 min, but was decidedly undercooked. I would estimate it cooked at least 4-5 min longer, including finishing it in the sauce, but then it was the perfect texture 
I’d bought this fun pasta shape at an Italian store in Philly, and it seemed like the perfect match. Sauce was made with the usual suspects – olive oil, RPF, shallot, a couple-a cloves of garlic, a sploosh of white wine, a lil pasta water, a squeeze o’ Meyer lemon, a splash o’cream (“best before 1/11” – riiiiight!!! 
), fresh parsley, grated Parmiggiano Reggiano over the top. The mandatory side salad.
I made enough pasta for an army, so we have leftovers.
Movie night tonight. Perfect weather for an evening on the couch curled up with the chonkster (that would be my cat, not my PIC 
).
Wow! That’s a LOT of very thin lasagna layers! Looks amazing!
Those layers are insane 
It was delicious. Best Italian food I’ve had in quite a while!
A few good dashes of green Tabasco to give it a kick 
.
One grilled wagyu beef patty, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – on a sesame seed bun.
Convection oven fries to go with.
Staggs Leap wine . A favorite of mine .
We enjoyed another outstanding dinner at Drew’s Bayshore Bistro, in Keyport, NJ. It was worth the 1 hour harrowing ride in a non stop torrential downpour with zero visibility both ways. We enjoyed fig and gorgonzola toast, spicy Cajun crawfish, Cajun meatballs, pate de foie, blackened pork chop, and Nashville hot chicken and crispy fries. It all went great with an excellent red blend and Zinfandel.
