The economics of all-you-can-eat buffets

The only way to make it cost effective is to use the cheapest and most mediocre food that’s palatable. None of these are five-star dining.

All you can eat buffets bring out the worse and trashiest behavior. All that over mediocre food.

No, just no.

The Red Apple, particularly, is a rip off. It's the most expensive Polish buffet in Chicago, don't accept credit cards, and have an ATM machine with outrageously high fees to further rip you off. Better to go to Sawa's Old Warsaw on 22nd Street and 17th Avenue in Broadview. Better food and cheaper.

Buffets are generally gross but there is one Chinese buffet I do like. I have to be there the minute they open their doors, however. I'm not eating that food after it has sat there for hours and people have plowed through it. I also wash my hands after I get my food. I don't like the thought of handling the serving utensils after god knows who has touched it and god knows what they have on their hands.

Just don’t try to enjoy an Autumn Harvest when you’ve only paid for Once Around the Garden. They’re watching.

R2? Does DL bring out the "worse and trashiest" grammar?

I wonder if they have security cameras to see if people are stuffing their clothes and bags with food?

I've been to a few buffet lunches at Indian restaurants which are delicious and civilized but I really can't handle Golden Corral and those types of restaurants. Unfortunately, my mother loves Golden Corral, the food is fucking tasty, and it's fucking cheap. I can usually talk her out of it but sometimes she insists and since it makes her happy, we go. The place is always crowded so they must be making a profit on selling the low quality food.

i love it and indulge myself occasionally. i just tune out all that unsanitary possibilities and pigged out on lobster bisque, udon soup, sushi, sashimi, steak , spaghetti, etc . Repeat several times. I maxed out the 2 hour limit.

I know they're not really called buffets but the Mongolian Barbecue type places scare me. All that uncooked poultry and seafood is just laying around waiting to spread foodborne illness. I bet if they took a raw chicken juice detector around any one of those restaurants, they'd find it everywhere.

This is why I hate US.

Indian buffets are generally the only buffets with decent food.

I dunno. I've experienced some pretty tasty buffets in Vegas. NOT the one at the Flamingo. That one was nasty.

If you're in the neighborhood, try the Amish food at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Best AYCE I have ever tasted. They're real Amish/Mennonites, so they're not open on Sundays. But there is a parking area for your horse and buggy!

The whole idea of a buffet is foul.

There was a Mongolian buffet in the UK that banned two guys for making pigs of themselves on a nightly basis.

R13 The buffet at the Wynn is top notch.

You get out! This is not eating competition, fatso! Piggy piggy oink oink, waddle back to waller!

Usually the buffet in the restaurants of higher star hotels are delicious. But they love customers like me. I can’t eat a lot- 3 quick rounds and I’m done. I’m always amazed when I see skinny people come back with mounds of food on their plates and managed to polish it off.

As a Fat Whore, these buffet people underestimate my ability Eat It Out A Spread and to Swallow. I am a CHAMP.

Yeah, if I go to one of those buffets, I'll put just a very small amount of things that look yummy on my plate. I'll go back a second time if something tasted good. I would never go to stuff myself. That's the worst feeling...when you eat way too much.

Buffets prioritize the idea of gluttony over quality. It is just about celebrating the idea of putting an excessive amount of food into your body. The only way it can work is by cutting corners on the food, using cheaper ingredients.

Caesar’s Palace buffet is legendary and worth the price (I think close to $100). Every food you can imagine, and not the cheap shit.

The gluttony and waste is depressing, though. Seeing pigs take plates full of crab legs and only eating a few.

The buffet at the Aria in Vegas is among my favorites on the strip. Their prime rib is amazing.

Most buffets make their money by filling you up with carbs like Pasta, bread, rice

R22 I feel like most of the buffets in Vegas are different. They represent what that town is all about: decadent, over the top and, yes, gluttonous. No Gordon Food Service type offerings there. We ate at the Treasure Island buffet for breakfast one morning (of all places). It was inexpensive and quite delicious.

What I like best about buffets is the variety; a buffet simply offers more choice than à la carte dining.

It's not about gorging, at least not for me. I'm the kind of person who likes to try a bite or two of many different things, and maybe go back for seconds if there was one thing I found delicious the first time around.

That said, buffets do encourage overeating -- assuming the quality is decent (a pretty big if).

R9 you eat raw fish and you worry about unsanitary?!! Gimme a break.

Cheap bulimia session ?

Yes, the "all you can eat" business model has a fatal flaw.

r28, Nell Carter definitely looked like she ate at AYCE buffets.

I should probably leave this here too

A local Chinese buffet near me got into some hot water about a year ago, when the owners started requiring black patrons to pay in advance - rather than when you leave as they do for all other patrons. Apparently a group of 3 black women went there for lunch, and noticed that the other customers were paying on their way out instead. I had never been there, but now I will never go there because of that (I'm a white guy btw).

I believe it R33. Chinese are more racist against blacks than whites.

My favorite lunch spots are Chinese and Indian restaurants that offer a buffet lunch special. There are maybe 5 entree options with the rice/naan, plus samosas or egg rolls. All fresh and constantly turned over. Also of course i only stay for an hour max, and that’s if I have good company. I can’t stomach the places with dozens of lukewarm options that have been sitting there for hours. And I’m hardly a fitness model but the slovenly obese patronage are unappealing to be around. I’m not talking clean fat people, I’m talking garbage people.

When I was a kid my dad took us to a Chinese buffet. I think buffets were pretty new then. When the ribs were brought out I swear there was a stampede and some woman was thrown to the floor and stepped on. An ambulance was called. Thank goodness my dad had decided we would eat what was on our plates and if still hungry we'd go for more, including the ribs. We just sat back in shock and stared. We had never been to a buffet before and never went to one again. I never saw such a thing and being a kid it scared me and disgusted my dad.

If I want a variety of foods all at the same time, never have yet but if I ever do, I will save leftovers from each night's dinner and reheat different things all for one meal. But like I said, I have not had the desire as of yet. I do not enjoy things like Italian food with Chinese food and a side of meatloaf and mashed potatoes and 12 different kinds of crappy dessert.

R36 you seem to know a lot about buffets for only being there once as a kid.

[quote] That's the worst feeling...when you eat way too much.

I am sure the Darfur Orphan would disagree.

Sunday brunch buffets at nice hotels are fun for special occasions but I don't think I'd go to one of those chain Buffet restaurants.

Yes, I remember it very well as most people remember a frightening experience. I remember thinking how weird it was to have all these kinds of food together on one table. When we got there we walked around the buffet tables before we took a plate to see what was there. When parents take 3 kids to a restaurant like that a smart parent needs a plan of action so the kids don't wander around. Of course I remember it. I also remember amusement parks in different states that I only visited once in my life and the homes of school friends that I only visited once. Not every last detail of course but I remember. I was not senile as a child.

A starving person can’t eat a lot, at one sitting, or they get sick. If you take the Darfur Orphan to an all-you-can-eat buffet, you have to limit him to a peanut. Add one peanut a day for a week, before adding a tablespoon of jello.

I can think of someone who would sort them out.

Pizza buffets are good.

Especially Double Dave's

Pizza buffets?? Who eats more than 2-3 slices of pizza in one sitting?

R44, please, you know where you are!

Really R12? REALLY???

Trust me, I'm a Fat Whore too, but I still can't eat more than 3 slices (and that's if I haven't eaten all day!)

I can eat an entire large thin crust pizza in one sitting. I don't but I can. DL voices tell me to stop ("you fat ass") after 4 small square slices.

R47 are you eating Chicago style slices? We ordered one of those while in ChiTown recently and the pizza weighed over 10 lbs.

I actually like the food at the Old Warsaw, which I mentioned above. If you have never tried pickle soup, you have to try this place. Their fried chicken is better than any chain I have ever eaten at. What I do love to watch, however, are the old Polish ladies with the huge purses. They wait until no one is looking, and open the purse. They've lined it with a big plastic bag, and shovel a couple of spoonfuls of their favs into the purse when no one is looking!

Pizza buffet places don't serve full size slices, they serve half sizes

Americans are disgusting gluttonous pigs.

People seriously believe that Indian buffets serve higher quality food than Golden Corral? Really?

Pro Tip at any buffet: Use a big napkin to hold the serving utensils.

Best Buffet: Brazilian barbecue (rodizio/churrasqueria)

A stand alone restaurant where I live serve an all you can eat pizza buffet with so many huge delicious pizzas and a good green salad. There's always a lot of big office type guys who come in there in groups. I don't know how they break even. They do it once a week.

I dislike the crust on pizza, any kind of crust, so I just eat the cheese and toppings, usually the vegetable one with a good amount of cheese under it. But I still can't do more than two slices. I wouldn't waste my money on a pizza buffet. Are there any American buffets with things like roast beef and ham and chicken and maybe a baked potato? I'm not fond of pasta, not even mac and cheese but I like a baked potato with butter and sour cream and a little salt. I hate rice too. So I would need a very food specific buffet to get my money's worth. Oh, and in NYC, Manhattan and/or Brooklyn.

I’ve never been fond of buffets. Generally they’re mediocre to poor quality food served in large quantities.

I would rather have a little bit of high-quality, then a lot of low quality

There are two local buffets I like because you can do take-out from there and they charge you based on the weight of the food. (One place is Chinese/Japanese and the other is Brazilian.) I go there when I'm home during the day and I don't feel like cooking.

A third place I like - a northern Indian place that doesn't do buffet take-out - has a lunch buffet 6 days a week. I like to go there about twice a year. (It's a nice little place and the food is pretty good.)

Apropos of R52

If you're going to make gratuitous anti-American insults, you could at least mention of the country you are from.

R58, I am American.

Just not the gluttonous pig flyover state sort.

I'll have some of tha yella.

I occasionally go to a buffet maybe a half dozen times a year. I go to Indian and Asian buffets. i don't know a lot about Indian food other than it tastes good. So I usually take a spoon or each of the dishes. THis way I can taste a lot of different things and usually there are quite good. I am more familiar with the Chinese, Thai or pan-Asian buffets. Some are quite good and I will return to them others aren't so much and I don't return. My biggest complaint is that some are too salty.

Buffets?

FAT WHORES REJOICE!

R23 is right, the Bacchanal at Caesar’s is great quality and variety, but there’s no way I eat $100 worth of food when I go. It’s just nice to have the breadth and variety.

There’s a chain here in CA called Soupplantation (ugh, I know the name is #cancelled) that is veeerrry popular and a different kind of buffet. For 15 bucks you have 8 different soups, baked potato bar, breads and pastas and best of all a HUGE salad bar with healthy offerings like spinach, zucchini and quinoa. They went bankrupt a few years back but somehow still seem to be hanging in there. It’s ALWAYS packed, which is impressive considering they don’t serve any meat.

Remember the baghwan buffet attack?

I ate at Aria, which is top 3 buffets in Vegas in terms of quality, it was about $45 for dinner on a weekday. Yea you name it they got it.

Pizza buffets are very popular in Italy.

I went with some friends from work to Pizza Ranch (wasn't my choice). The pizza was low quality. They had pretty good chicken but I know I didn't eat enough to get my money's worth.

I can't even read these posts.

No buffets for me - ever! Ditto potlucks.

I adore buffets. The longest I stayed was 5 days. Their washroom was a disgrace.

When I was visiting SF I was taken to one at nice hotel. I ate the oysters and shrimp and bypassed all the cheap carbs.

[quote] my mother loves Golden Corral, the food is fucking tasty, and it's fucking cheap.

I don’t see the problem.

[quote]Does DL bring out the "worse and trashiest" grammar?

Apparently, R6

[quote] It's the most expensive Polish buffet in Chicago, don't accept credit cards,

[quote] and usually there are quite good.

Oh, dear!

That is so embarrassing...to get kicked out of a buffet, why would anyone stoop so low?

Anyone know a good buffet in Manhattan?

Please stay home, r55.

There's a pretty good Chinese buffet in town that keeps the portions sitting out pretty small, so that way nothing is sitting there for hours. The cold items are packed in mounds of ice. It's kind of pricey, but the food is actually good so I don't mind it.

We don't have any more of the sows-at-the-trough kind of buffets, they all closed down years ago.

[quote]I went with some friends from work to Pizza Ranch (wasn't my choice). The pizza was low quality.

Pizza Ranch is owned by fundies. They catered my partner's work event a few years ago and no one liked the food, even the fundies at work who patronize those places on purpose because they think Jesus will give them Heaven Points for it.

Have yet to see the Darfur orphan. Did he go into buffet heaven?

The Biergarten at Epcot (German pavilion) is quite good if I remember correctly. Spatzel, pork schnitzel, bratwurst, chicken...mmmmm! It's communal dining so you get to sit with random people.

My A1c was 8.3% last week. I'm done with buffets, I hope.

R64, we had six or eight of Souplantation's Sweet Tomatoes restaurants here in Dallas Fort Worth and they were always busy, too. My parents and grandma loved to go there every time they visited from out of state, and just raved about it.

Sadly, every location in the metro area closed abruptly about four years ago. Poor management, I guess, because they sure did the business. We still talk about how great that place was.

I was thrilled to find one while visiting San Diego last summer.

The big draw for most people with buffets and, in this case, soup and salad bars, is that everyone in your group can get what they want, or close enough. It really isn't so much the All-you-can-eat part, for_most_ people. The other thing is, you can get in and out quickly if you're traveling or on lunch break for work or just in a hurry. You just eat, pay, and get out.

R64, we had six or eight of Souplantation's Sweet Tomatoes restaurants here in Dallas Fort Worth and they were always busy, too. My parents and grandma loved to go there every time they visited from out of state, and just raved about it.

Sadly, every location in the metro area closed abruptly about four years ago. Poor management, I guess, because they sure did the business. We still talk about how great that place was.

I was thrilled to find one while visiting San Diego last summer.

The big draw for most people with buffets and, in this case, soup and salad bars, is that everyone in your group can get what they want, or close enough. It really isn't so much the All-you-can-eat part, for_most_ people. The other thing is, you can get in and out quickly if you're traveling or on lunch break for work or just in a hurry. You just eat, pay, and get out.

Speaking of sows at the trough, I remember DL fave Star Jones waxing lyrically about spending hours at some buffet with her friends. They'd arrive about an hour before the change from breakfast to lunch to enjoy eggs and such and then sit around gabbing until the meats and side dishes appeared.

When my parents used to stay in Sarasota, Florida they always went to Sweet Tomatoes and took visitors there. It seems to be an old people thing.

When I was a teen/early 20's I tore up the Wendy's Super Bar. That was some cheap eats and back then I could pack the food away on my lunch hour. Now I would need to go home and take a nap afterwards if I ate like that. HA

Wendy’s had a buffet??

This is years ago, but the Borgata in AC had an amazing breakfast buffet, complete with smoked salmon. Well, now that I'm thinking about it, the Copenhagen main train station had the best; it included caviar!

R14, if I ever get my lazy arse to Adamstown for antiques, I might check out the Shady Maple!

r86 they had a taco bar, baked potato bar, and salad bar. It was so good and cheap. I used to love the garlic bread (it was actually buns they grilled)

I love the buffet at Whole Foods.

Learning about Flyoverstani customs is one of the more fascinating things about DL.

You won't find this sort of insider information in a guide book.

Wendy's Super Bar I remember when it was $3

Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes has some of the fattest people i have ever seen in public. My friend is vegetarian and likes all the silage. And the endless cheap carbs. The dessert station is vile. Frau, frau, frau.

My dad worked with some "large" dudes when I was a kid. They went to a buffet in North Kansas City called the Gold Buffet. Cleaned them out entirely of shellfish. Got banned.

Honey, I’ll give you an economics lesson.

So funny R85, my first job was at Wendy's. I think I was 14. All they would let me do is stock that salad bar. When they moved me to fry duty I quit. I believe I was there maybe a month total.

I feel pretty done with buffets. The food quality is one thing. It's knowing that other people have touched all the serving spoons and whatnot with God-knows-what on their hands. That's what gets me. It's less about the cleanliness of the restaurant or quality of food and more about the dirty customers.

That said, like others here, there's one Indian buffet that I'll still visit for lunch occasionally, because it's a small buffet with limited options and they replenish the food constantly.

The trick with the Whole Foods breakfast buffet is to load up on bacon. They use the good, thick kind and it weighs almost nothing when it’s cooked. Since you pay by the ounce you get like 8 pieces for less than $1

I used to go to an Indian lunch buffet in DC, until I saw some curlies in the curry and noticed the sign outside that advertised Monday nights as (male) stripper night. Hard pass now.

Where the FUCK were you going that served Indian food AND had strippers??

I was at two buffets in Vegas during my visit. One was $50 and the other $60something.

At one, it didn't seem to me that there was ALL that much on offer - just that there were four different stations with the same thing. Prime Rib was out ("it's cooking! ten more minutes!") and it was a lot of desserts and starches that frankly was probably from Costco.

The 60ish one was nicer, but so small that any standard buffet would have been bigger.

If there was a point to raving about Vegas buffets, the charms of those places have escaped me.

I’ve never understood the appeal of prime rib, either. Old people like my parents especially love it. And any flyover wedding trying to be “fancy” serves it at the reception.

YOU GO NOW!

YOU BEEN HERE FOUR HOUR!

YOU NO EAT VEGETABLE!

[quote]I saw some curlies in the curry

Pics please.

Only the saddest, fattest, poorest masses go to Golden Corral.

Yeah, prime rib does not excite me. Neither do all-you-can-eat crab legs.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Chinese buffet. Do those just not exist in the Bay Area? Is it just a Midwest thing. There’s plenty of Indian buffets here but just a Panda Express-style buffet, no.

R97- I have to admit some of the prepared food (including the hot food bar) at Whole Foods is pretty damn good. I had manicotti from the refrigerator. It was really good. I had a brie, ham, pickle on french bread-also really good. I bought almond croissants ( heated up at home) really tasty. I've gained 10 pounds in 13 days.

r106, lots of them in DC, though mostly only open @ lunch time

The hot bar at Whole Foods was great before the Amazon takeover. Once that happened, the quality did a nosedive and they started to have the same item for a month or more.

And the planning was bad. At Thanksgiving they had turkey something or other for three weeks prior and through December. Everyone's tired of that shit by then.

I think Chinese buffets are a white thing. Since there’s so many Asians in the Bay Area, there’s no need for one.

It's funny that people here seem to think Indian Buffets are the cleanest.

I say go for the amish and the polish buffets. Cleanest and best food.

Chinese buffets are kind of gross. I always choose something from the menu.

I always order something from the menu at Indian restaurants but I think they just scoop something from the buffet and serve it to me. Do you think they do that and charge me more for ordering a la carte? Same if I order to-go. Can I request them to cook it fresh?

R90/YMF, for someone with such a rarified background, you sure have a lot of time to post prolifically on an anonymous message board.

R113, they get it from the buffet.

R114 YMF is a character who is really a 70 year old woman with a smoker’s cough.

Only in Vegas. Buffets generally disgust me but I loved going to the Asian one near my house as a kid.

I LOVE the meatless meatballs at the hot food bar at Whole Foods.

There is a Chinese buffet in Essex Vermont we used to go to. The food was meh, but my husband just loved the mushrooms in sauce. We stopped going after we saw a large family barrel up to the buffet line and the kids using their hands to pick food out to taste. The staff freaked out, but people would just take the food anyway. No more for us! BTW, I wish I had the recipe for those mushrooms and sauce.

r119, I hated that place!

[quote]The hot bar at Whole Foods was great before the Amazon takeover.

The hot bar at Whole Foods is great for lunch. By dinner time most of it is overcooked glop.

I'm probably the sort of customer buffets love. I dont eat meat, load my plate up with salad and a couple of bread rolls, and may or not get seconds Wouldnt mind going to Golden Corral one time just out of morbid curiosity. We dont have it here

R122 the ONLY thing I would go back to Golden Corral for are their yeast rolls. OMFG they’re so good.

Anyone remember Ryan's? I recall liking it when I was a kid, but now the whole concept of a buffet is unappealing because people are so GROSS. I just saw a video on Twitter of some woman picking over a chocolate cake someone brought into work, sticking her (used) fork all over and into it and licking her fingers. Nasty.

R122 Golden Corral has some positive aspects, but the salad bar is a tragedy. All the vegetables are soaking wet and floating in melted ice, while everything is sprinkled with ham cubes and cottage cheese that fell all over the bar in peoples’ haste to grab “the good stuff”

[quote] Anyone know a good buffet in Manhattan?

Manhattan doesn’t go for cheap food and cheap people.

Almost any decent deli in Manhattan has some type of food bar, purchased by weight. I’ve had some really good things, and some really not so good things. But I’ve never gotten sick in the years I’ve had a quick lunch from one.

No one is asking for pay by weight. We’re asking for boofays!

In another sign of society's downfall, there are apparently only a few remaining KFC buffets left in the US

I haven’t seen a salad bar in Wendy’s in I don’t know how long. Remember in the 80s-early 90s they had hot food bars?

Where do you imagine that food comes from, r127?

R131 I know they don’t make it in-house, I’ve seen them being it in (covered) from delivery trucks outside.

^^^ bringing it in

R131, Please don't say Wuhan!

The Pirate's House in Savannah has a decent southern lunch buffet. Cheap (around $15 if I remember correctly). Don't go to Paula Dean's Lady & Sons. They have a buffet too I believe but the food is crap.

How is $15 cheap?

$15 is expensive to you??

I won’t spend more than $5 for a buffet.

Nothing says “fresh” like “trucked in from Queens.”

R138 gets food poisoning a lot.

Have you been to a restaurant in the last ten years R136? The fajitas at Chili's will set you back $15 easy. $15 is not a lot these days, especially for a boofay.

Where are you, R136?

I like to eat for under $10 including a 25% tip and tax. I don't usually eat at buffets but I don't eat fast food, either.

You'd be surprised what hot meals you can get inside ethnic grocery stores for $5-8.

Where are you, R136?

I like to eat for under $10 including a 25% tip and tax. I don't usually eat at buffets but I don't eat fast food, either.

You'd be surprised what hot meals you can get inside ethnic grocery stores for $5-8.

I’m in SF. You can get lunch for $5 to $7 from a lot of restaurants, especially ethnic or fast casual.

Another vote for Indian buffets, if any, these days.

I also had a harrowing experience at an Asian buffet once that almost turned into a fistfight between black patrons and the Asian owners. The animosity was off the charts so I believe the poster above.

The table of guests had about six people still in their Sunday clothes. They emptied each pan of crab legs the minute it came out then yelled into the kitchen and at the cashier to bring more. They also kept telling the poor woman cleaning the tables that they wanted more crab. Finally a withered old man came out from the back and said something along the lines of "You pay for everything, not just crab" and it was on. Two men stood up at the table, the women started yelling and the Asian workers lined up at the corner of the steam tables and everyone started yelling at the same time.

Everyone in the place stopped eating and was gawking. I was already on edge and it became too uncomfortable to watch. Since we had already paid we got the hell out before I could even get my soft serve cone :-( I did go back there again because at the time I was dating a fat whore.

If I'm paying $3,700 per month for rent in SF, $5-7 for a meal is going to bust my budget.

I just remembered the vilest yet most fun boofay I've been to: Paul Revere Smorgasbord in Ocean City Maryland.

About a 40 minute drive for me in Michigan there was a buffet owned by a family where they had homemade breads, the noodles were homemade and not like a pan of Costco, crab legs, steak, the most wonderful chicken, homemade desserts, etc. for $18.95. The place is very clean and the place is nice, you don't see the Golden Corral types there. They are closing after 50 years which is a shame but I can understand how much work it is and they are old.

Every time I go to a Mediterranean buffet I get overcharged one way or another. Those places are deceptive, at least in the Dallas area.

r120 I think one family owns the one in Essex Junction, South Burlington, Berlin, and other places in Vermont.

r148, if you didn't do the steak and seafood you could do the ham and chicken plus all the homemade sides and desserts for 8.95. That was a bargain. Sad they are closing but the couple who own it are in their 80's. I will miss their homemade raisin bread with icing.

[quote]boofay

I love, love, LOVE this spelling!

There's a place around here that advertises, "all you care to eat"

R90

I wonder if you're feasting on the entrails of the midwestern poor in your skyscraper penthouse in manhattan while you type that, Lex.

Do you realize that you sound like a fucking supervillain and that, since you actually have that attitude, it kinda makes you a fucking evil person? Do you care? Or are you a sociopath?

"I don't rlly care, do U?"

[quote][R148], if you didn't do the steak and seafood you could do the ham and chicken plus all the homemade sides and desserts for 8.95.

How do they enforce that? If I pay the $8.95, what’s to stop me from partaking in some steak and crab legs?

One thing I don't like about buffets is the temptation to try a little bit of a lot of different foods that don't really go well together, so when I leave I have an unpleasant taste in my mouth and am oddly unsatisfied.

Damn you cunts! Now I’m considering going to the Buffet Palace (actual name) tonight!

I know I will leave disappointed and diarrheal.

R156, are you talking about buffets or Super Bowl parties?

r155 it was an honor system. These were people like my grandparents, Dutch immigrants who took a lot of pride in their business. They had white linen tablecloths and napkins, it was not your typical buffet.

When my parents moved to Florida the husband and wife in the condo next door called it a buffeT with a hard T. My parents found out that Floridians are a different breed.

What do you call a sideboard?

I give up, R161, what do you call a sideboard?

A buffet.

It's NOT BUCKET, it's BOOKAY.

So....a buffet is a lot like a bathhouse in the 1970s and 1980s?

[quote] [R58], I am American. Just not the gluttonous pig flyover state sort.

There are plenty of gluttonous pigs in coastal states as well. California has some BIG ol’ fat fatties.

Buffets are so disgusting. And so your know, Vegas is serving the low quality food in their buffets.

Haven't read the full thread. Has this been posted yet?

Isle of the Wicked Spoon Buffet at The Cosmo in Vegas.

I love the fried chicken and squid risotto. There's even macarons for dessert!

No, r168, it hadn’t been.

[quote] How do they enforce that? If I pay the $8.95, what’s to stop me from partaking in some steak and crab legs?

Humiliation. They blow a whistle then speak over the PA “Hey! You in the disgusting teal sweater, put that crab leg down! Nobody pays for Once Around the Garden and then enjoys an Autumn Harvest on my watch!”

One of my favorite things to do in Vegas is get super high and dive head first into the buffet at the Wynn.

[quote]One of my favorite things to do in Vegas is get super high and dive head first into the buffet at the Wynn.

Pics please.

Which head, r172?

Years ago my Drag queen friend Billy, “Big Maureen the Safe Sex Queen” would stand at the door of Chaps Boston and hit you up for charity money. He had one of those big white foam fingers they used at ball games and if you didn’t give anything, he’d blow a whistle at you and point it your way.

On one side it said, “CHEAP QUEEN”.

He raised hundred of thousands of dollars too.

That’s hysterical, Sage.

In the 80s a Beefsteak Charlies on Broadway (now site of GMA studios) had a buffet. A waiter noticed a woman taking food multiple time. At the table he saw her emptying the plate into a plastic bag. When he explained it's "All you can eat, not you can take," she said "I'm having a party and shrimp is very dear" He told her not to come back.

What does dear mean?

My parents love to tell the story of their visit to Lawrence Welk Village in California where the buffet was clearly marked No Seconds!

Dear is a quaint or British way of saying expensive

[quote] When he explained it's "All you can eat, not you can take,"

She should’ve replied “it doesn’t say all you can eat RIGHT NOW.”

About 20 years ago I went to a buffet-style place called The Blue Willow Inn in Georgia. It was inside an old antebellum house. Southern home cooking and nothing remotely good for you but everything was really tasty.

Ooh there's this really great place in Nashville where you sit at a communal table (think a table sat 8-10, if you were there alone you had to wait until a spot was available for you) and they brought the most amazing southern breakfast/lunch foods family style. Plate after plate of yummy stuff and you could take whatever you wanted and ask for more if you wanted. Probably one of my favorite dining experiences.

There's a Chinese restaurant in my neighborhood that's been run by the same married couple since the mid-1980s. A few years back, they changed their buffet format. They got rid of the buffet station and instead you're given their buffet menu. It includes a about eight entrees, a half-dozen appetizers/sides (wings, wontons, egg rolls, etc), plus of course fried rice and white rice. You order whatever combination you want. They cook it and bring it to you on a plate, so it is hot and fresh. They come by frequently and check to see if you want more - when you do, you select whatever you want and again, you get another plateful, cooked hot and fresh. $7.95. So - best of both worlds. Cooked to order, but if you want to try more than one dish on the menu, here's your chance. And if you're not in a buffet mood, you can order off their regular menu.

There's a local family-owned Italian restaurant that mostly does catering and serves lunches in their cafe, but they have once-a-month themed buffets in their dining room. Italian night, Chicken night, Prime rib night. Each buffet includes a table of trays containing assorted breads and rolls that are so fantastic, I frequently joke I could just eat at their bread buffet.

As for the Pizza Ranches, they're famous for their broasted chicken. Hot out of the cooker it is really crispy, juicy, delicious. Their pizzas are just so-so, but if you're in a pizza mood, your best bet is to special order one while you're paying for your meal (you pay in advance). You can order whatever combination of crust and toppings you want. There's no extra charge for a special order. When it's ready, they bring it to your table hot and fresh. They serve you as many slices as you want, if there's any left they put it on the buffet for the other customers to try.

I prefer to take my elderly mom to buffets since she's getting crankier about what she eats. Whatever she orders off the menu, she'll invariably complain, "That's not what I expected!" With a buffet, if she doesn't like it, she can try something else.

More on the Blue Willow Inn:

The worst thing to ever happen to the Las Vegas buffet industry was the legalization of weed. Legions of stoners with an insatiable case of the munchies.

I still get the dry heaves when I think about the scene I witnessed back in the late 90s. I needed to make a purchase at a stationery store in a shopping center that had a standalone Golden Corral on the property. It was horrendously crowded that day and the closest parking spot I could find was way out in the GC parking area. When I returned to my car from Office Depot I noticed something behind a parked car in the GC section. As I got close enough to it to see what it was I was presented with a 6" high pile of freshly undigested Golden Corral vomit that was still steaming. You could still make out what types of food the farm animal that purged itself in the parking lot had eaten.

Thread closed...!

I don't like buffets, but sometimes friends want to go (e.g., for their birthday).

My strategy is to look at everything on the buffet first and decide what I really want to eat. I bypass tossed green salad and filler-type stuff. (Most of the filler-type stuff will be at the beginning of the buffet.)

I focus in on what I think is good value and take a lot of that item.

Mary!

R188, if one is going to binge, they must purge.

R183, that sounds so gooooooood.

I type fat.

I think my gardener went to a buffet once. He told me they didn't have a sommelier visit the table the entire time they dined. I shall not visit.

I don’t blame you for a minute, r193.

How déclassé.

Niles Crane at r193, you forgot to sign your post.

The Chinese buffet in my town has Cheetos on the buffet!! Why????

The Indian ones are as dreadful as the Chinese. The best I've encountered usually have been at business class or better hotels (Hilton, Marriott, but not Hyatt which usually has awful food service) and more for breakfast rather than for other meals. The economics are simple---you get what you pay for. At a Hampton Inn--it's all prepackaged food and basically "fuel". A ta Chinese restaurant it's going to be soggy eggrolls, soggy veggies and flavorless chicken dishes. At an Indian place, it's going to be limp Naan and dishes that are either bland or sacrifice spice for heat.

The only buffets I do are at Disney World.

Chinese buffet owners getting mad? Lol

There used to be some really good Chinese and Thai buffets in Columbus, OH when I was going to college there (80s).

Mark Pi's in particular, had a terrific Sunday buffet. I miss going there.

I would like to escort an American eldergay to a buffet and nibble on mozzarella sticks

I find Indian buffets rather hit or miss. I'm not going there with high expectations, but for a decent, if not outstanding, lunch.

How do you eat a buffet at Disney World and then walk the park? I would be crapping my pants or wanting to take a nap afterwards.

I eat at a buffet at WDW at the end of day, not for fear of crapping my pants, since I don’t do that, but because eating a big meal slows the pace. I would eat at a buffet at Epcot before the nightly show, for example. The other time I would eat at a buffet would be on a non-park day. My favorite buffet at WDW is Boma.

Makes sense r204. I was kidding about crapping your pants but I do miss my 20's when I could pig out at a buffet and then be physically active. Now I want to do an Al Bundy and sit on the couch afterwards with my pants unbuttoned.

R43 CiCi's is also a pizza buffet chain, but it's awful. The dough tastes like cardboard and they are really skimpy with their sauce, cheese and other toppings. Not to mention it's been sitting under heat lamps for who know how long. Plus the place is packed with little brats that pick over all the pizzas with their filthy hands.

CiCi's pizza buffet is awful. Dried out pizzas sitting under heat lamps all day, dough that tastes like cardboard, and they are really skimpy with the sauce, cheese and other toppings. Plus the place is usually filled with little brats.

[quote]not for fear of crapping my pants, since I don’t do that,

I love this comment.