Is this strange?

Hi,

It's a very natural thing to say. It's also very informal.

Clive

Thank you so much!

then, is there any 'formal' one?

Well, in a really formal restaurant, the waiter would never dream of asking you if you were finished, let alone say, "You still working on that?" which I have heard on occasion. "May I take your plate?" is about as far as they would go, that is unless the service is silent, invisible, and perfect---alas, a quality that only exists at the kind of restaurant we can't often afford

Yet again these curious differences between AmE and BrE - if I had prepared that meal or maybe invited someone to dinner and they said that, I think I would be quite surprised, or even slightly upset, by such a comment. To me it seems to imply that the food isn't very good, that you are having to work to chew it or digest it.

Is it just me because I would find the comment strange?

Taking your time to enjoy a meal instead of wolfing to down like someone starving is insulting? Some people eat slowly. Some people enjoy conversation as they dine. It takes longer to eat that way.

I agree completely. I just don't expect either the question from a waiter or the diner to use the word 'work' in such a context. Am I right in assuming that it is an expression that can be used in AmE?

'May I take your plate, sir?'

'Have you finished?'

'It's lovely! i'm just taking it slowly. It's so nice'

Many expressions are possible but not - 'Are you still

Alan, I agree absolutely. This is one "Americanism" I find vulgar and embarrassing. I believe I remember a meal when someone chastised a waiter for such a remark. She said something like, "I beg your pardon? I don't have to work to eat this, it's delicious."

Perhaps this curious expression arose from the current practice of serving gigantic portions in many American restaurants,

Thanks for that, Delmobile, I was just beginning to think that I was showing my age. I can't remember ever hearing it in a UK restaurant but maybe I go to the wrong places.