Do any people use the idiom "take pot luck" like this where you live?

I've heard similar usage in UK. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/pot-luck#:~:text=phrase,full%20dictionary%20entry%20for%20pot

The OED says potluck goes back to 1592 and is used by both Brits and Yanks. The only difference is that Brits stress it on the last syllable but the Yanks stress it on the first. And I quote: "One's luck or chance with regard to what may be in the pot (i.e. cooked and available to eat), used originally and chiefly in reference to a person's accepting another's hospitality at a meal without any special preparation having been made. Frequently in to take potluck: to dine on whatever happens to be available; (now also more generally) to take one's chances, to take whatever is available; to be willing to take whatever one is given.".

I've heard it like this in the south, basically means you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

Is it possible that they were saying "you will have to take a look" and the voice to text configuration on whatever software was used to pull that text misunderstood?

Totally would say this. Totally have had it said to me in similar circumstances. It’s not weird. If you insist that “pot luck” entails more persons than one contributing to the pot… okay, but I’m just not that strict about speech that’s already a scosh facetious

I have not heard this in the US

I've read it in old novels. I assumed it was an obsolete usage, but maybe it was just British.

>It's at least in 4 different dictionaries so it should be a real thing people say somewhere. Sure, and the dictionaries that I saw clearly stated "in British English." So apparently this is a British phrase. As an American, I have never heard it used that way. If you're primarily communicating with Brits, then go for it. If you're communicating with Americans, I wouldn't use it - they almost certainly won't understand.

Nope. I only know a potluck as a type of party where everyone contributes an item.

I would be very confused if someone said that to me, but I would eventually figure out what they meant. My first thought though would be they were teasing or shaming me for not bringing food.

It's a pot luck dinner **because** everybody just takes what they feel like taking, and everyone has to take their chances that there's not 20 tuna casseroles or whatever. You get what you get. That's taking pot luck

Yes, but it's not common.

“Take pot luck” is something my grandmother would say, I’m not sure it’s still a current expression in that form. It comes from people eating whatever was on the hearth, as often there would be a pot of something stewing all day. That expression came to mean something that would reveal itself by chance, but the term “potluck” branched off to a more literal interpretation truer to its origins, which is an event where people would bring whatever dish they want to share.

I have heard it used, if not often. Southern California USA

Where I live, we would call this sort of dinner "catch-as-you-can"

In American English, I'd understand potluck to be a get together where everyone brings a dish of some sort, and then you all eat together. I'd tell a guest to feel free to have anything they like, or I'd list specific things I could give them and prepare it for them I'd call a meal made out of random things left in the fridge "everything but the kitchen sink"

I’ve never heard it used like that (Northwestern US).

Only ever heard "pot luck" to mean an event where people each bring their own dishes to share. It's possible that it also means what it implies in your sentence to someone, but it doesn't seem common.

UK. Yes. My mum would say this. Unexpected visitor, of course you can join us, it'll be nothing fancy, you'll have to take potluck.

I’ve never heard it used that way before. It sounds weird.

It’s not used that way. Potluck means that everyone shares the responsibility for bringing food. Everyone brings something. It’s not “whatever I find in my fridge.”