What's your experience with Buffets? (All you can eat style)

[Xanthe_2871]

What is your experience with buffets? Do you like all you can eat restaurants? I've always loved them, even as a kid, but now I know some people can be really gross... So the food might not be very clean. But at the same time, I love it. Stuffing myself until I can't move. Eating the poor restaurant out of all their profits (ok, they usually still make money off of me). But what do you think? Are they vile pits surving the lowest of humanity? Are they fun places where you can sin in peace? Are they just another place to eat?

[WindirBear]

I like eating little bits of everything! Then, I finish off with whatever tasted best!!! And dessert!

[dalekphalm]

Unlimited Buffet style restaurants can be very good. No doubt about that.

 

I do enjoy them - here in Canada we have The Mandarin (Good but very expensive) and Kings Buffet (Good if you go at the right time of day), among many other choices.

 

The biggest problem with a buffet is that for most people, you're never going to eat enough food to make it "good value". Basically, if you were to go to a comparable restaurant (in terms of food quality, dining experience, etc), and order the exact same amount of food, it would likely be cheaper - possibly by a lot.

 

Some people of course can cram ungodly amounts of food into themselves - these people will likely get better value.

 

The other major issue is food quality - not the food itself, but the freshness. Most buffets make food at pre-determined periods, and then refill as things get low.

 

That means a particularly unpopular food item may have been sitting under that heatlamp for a few hours already.

 

The main benefit of course, is that you can try a bit of everything. If you only want one egg roll? just get one egg roll. Want only 3 chicken balls? Just get three of them, etc.

 

Sushi restaurants can use this to their advantage.

 

So it's not a clear yes/no type situation. As with most things in life: It depends

[Richtofen_]

Personally, I really do love buffets. If I find a good one, I will usually be very pleased. In America, we have Golden Corral. I found one that was so darn good... Heck they had the best grilled asparagus. But I have seen people do some weird things at the place, and most of the people in buffets have the most craziest children. I've also seen strange people in the bathrooms.

 

Reason why buffets can have very weird people is because if they want to simulate eating out, they can do it for a cheap price.

[dalekphalm]

Just now, Richtofen The Hyena said:

Personally, I really do love buffets. If I find a good one, I will usually be very pleased. In America, we have Golden Corral. I found one that was so darn good... Heck they had the best grilled asparagus. But I have seen people do some weird things at the place, and most of the people in buffets have the most craziest children. I've also seen strange people in the bathrooms.

 

Reason why buffets can have very weird people is because if they want to simulate eating out, they can do it for a cheap price.

That's highly dependent on which buffet they go to. Quite a few buffets actually work out to more expensive than a cheap mainstream "sit down" restaurant.

 

Now from what I understand, there are some places in the US where buffet's are stupidly cheap, but remember that this is not a universal constant.

[AresKrieger]

They are a good value if the place is decent and you are the type of person who can eat more than a full plate of food, as for people doing disgusting things at a buffet the only thing I've seen is really fat people eating a mountain of food, nothing beyond that and it didn't really disgust me it was more so humorous to watch the whales in their natural habitat

 

Out of the buffets I've been most were good to excellent with an excellent one being at a casino, there were a couple meh to bad ones but they have all since closed down while the all the others still existing as far as know

[Richtofen_]

1 minute ago, dalekphalm said:

That's highly dependent on which buffet they go to. Quite a few buffets actually work out to more expensive than a cheap mainstream "sit down" restaurant.

 

Now from what I understand, there are some places in the US where buffet's are stupidly cheap, but remember that this is not a universal constant.

Yeah I have seen some crappy buffets myself. Some restaurants try to advertise their sit-down restaurant with a little salad bar, or mini-buffet of some sort.

 

Ruby Tuesday is a good example. They had a salad bar and for some odd reason, they show advertisements and literally act like they have never had a salad bar before.

(their food is meh anyway.)  

 

And then there are the random Chinese buffets that you find in the middle of nowhere that serve pre-packaged food. No thank you.

[AresKrieger]

Just now, Richtofen The Hyena said:

And then there are the random Chinese buffets that you find in the middle of nowhere that serve pre-packaged food. No thank you.

Yeah chinese buffets can be quite good (most of the ones near me are chinese), but pre packaged food is garbage quality so screw that

[Xanthe_2871]

4 minutes ago, Richtofen The Hyena said:

Personally, I really do love buffets. If I find a good one, I will usually be very pleased. In America, we have Golden Corral. I found one that was so darn good... Heck they had the best grilled asparagus. But I have seen people do some weird things at the place, and most of the people in buffets have the most craziest children. I've also seen strange people in the bathrooms.

 

Reason why buffets can have very weird people is because if they want to simulate eating out, they can do it for a cheap price.

I've seen children lick the serving spoon and put it back in, and the employees not doing anything about it. I've also seen parents pick up spoons or tongs that touched the floor and put them back in the food. Kids can be pretty gross!

 

I've never tried Golden Corral but I've heard of it. There is a hybrid Japanese and American place I tried while I was in California that had unlimited drinks for $5, and it included Mike's hard lemonade. I had 5, that was fun. At 5% booze though, it wasn't very much alcohol... The sushi was great, even though the crab was fake.

[Xanthe_2871]

2 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

Yeah chinese buffets can be quite good (most of the ones near me are chinese), but pre packaged food is garbage quality so screw that

One Chinese place I went to actually took a can of cherry pie filling and poured it right on top of the cherry desert tray without taking the tray in the back or rotating the food! They seriously fail at FiFo!

[Richtofen_]

1 minute ago, AresKrieger said:

Yeah chinese buffets can be quite good (most of the ones near me are chinese), but pre packaged food is garbage quality so screw that

I have eaten at some decent ones myself, but I truly feel bad for people that can only get a Chinese restaurant through those weird buffets. 

1 minute ago, Xanthe_2871 said:

I've seen children lick the serving spoon and put it back in, and the employees not doing anything about it. I've also seen parents pick up spoons or tongs that touched the floor and put them back in the food. Kids can be pretty gross!

 

I've never tried Golden Corral but I've heard of it. There is a hybrid Japanese and American place I tried while I was in California that had unlimited drinks for $5, and it included Mike's hard lemonade. I had 5, that was fun. At 5% booze though, it wasn't very much alcohol... The sushi was great, even though the crab was fake.

I have seen children put their hand in the chocolate fountain, to kids sprinting for a race in the middle of a big crowd,  heck I have even seen kids just drop food purposely.

 

That is what it is like in most Golden Corrals. Luckily they serve Pepsi

[kingsizedump69]

I remember going to the same Chinese buffet for over a decade. Best place to go whenever you were almost broke. Too bad it burned down. Now I'm stuck with Golden Corral for the foreseeable future. 

[Xanthe_2871]

13 minutes ago, kingsizedump69 said:

I remember going to the same Chinese buffet for over a decade. Best place to go whenever you were almost broke. Too bad it burned down. Now I'm stuck with Golden Corral for the foreseeable future. 

That's unfortunate.  There was a great buffet here with crab mac 'n cheese, real crab, I loved it, but they went out of business. I understand the pain!

[yathis]

Its a rare occasion I will have a buffet. I had a roast beef one I paid $35 for, but it was the usual shit.

I was pondering hitting up China town, but every buffet I have been to is all the same.

 

When you pray before you eat, pray you wont get sick. I did that when the Christians were slinging food to the bums across from City Hall.

[Dylanc1500]

14 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

That's highly dependent on which buffet they go to. Quite a few buffets actually work out to more expensive than a cheap mainstream "sit down" restaurant.

 

Now from what I understand, there are some places in the US where buffet's are stupidly cheap, but remember that this is not a universal constant.

The one I go to regularly is only 8.50 a person... It's more of a southern home cooking buffet though; fried catfish, crawfish, grits, collard greens, deep fried squash, and much more. Oh, and homemade pies and ice cream.

[Ithanul]

Golden Corral.  Use to be two here until one got pushed out of business (the city nearby has fierce competition in the restaurant industry).  Even the Ryans went out of business.

 

Think there over five or more buffets.  Not sure, most are cheap since good luck competing against all the restaurants.  The little city has the nickname circle restaurant city for a reason.  (last I check there is over 360+ restaurants and two new ones coming in).

 

On Chinese buffets, there one in Panama City that is pure awesome.  They have actual crab legs on Fridays.  Over 10 types of ice cream to pick from.