Abstract: In order to solve a problem in conventional dish collecting apparatuses that it is not possible for conventional plate collecting apparatuses to determine and collect multiple types of dishes with different shapes, a dish collecting apparatus for causing a dish that passes through a collecting slot to be collected in a dish collecting portion in restaurants includes: a determining part that determines whether a first-type dish has passed through the collecting slot or a second-type dish whose shape is different from that of the first-type dish has passed through the collecting slot; and a processing unit that performs predetermined processing according to a determination result of the determining part. Accordingly, it is possible to determine multiple types of dishes with different shapes that pass through the collecting slot.