Is your friend having a meal or trying to screw the restaurant just so he can say he “won?” What’s the point of that?
I can be a big eater and I love me some buffet binging once in a while, but it has never in my life occurred to me that I should choose my items according to some formula that would ensure I ate far more in food value than the price I paid. If what I want to eat three plates of happens to be the cheap stuff for the restaurant to serve, why would I eat something else just because it’s more expensive?
I mean, sure I might realize the crab legs are a treat at this price and enjoy some, but trying to eat $60 of roast beef just because that’s the mathematical way to beat the system? Weird.
I’m waiting for some fat slob to start suing these places ("All You Can eat"0 for making him fat! Suppose somebody dies, in the process of stuffing him/herself with food , at an all you can eat buffet-good grounds for a lawsuit? (The buffet didn’t post signs warning that eating excessively can kill you!)
There’s plenty of them. A jolly nice one is a Chinese all-you-can-eat in Barnet (North London) where you can include one piece of quality meat and have it specially cooked.
The Chinese restaurant at a small town where I used to live had a buffet M-F; there was a sign stating that you could take out from the buffet but “non-buffet prices will apply”.
I’ve seen places where the buffet is “one plate each trip”: the plates are large enough to take a bit of this and a bit of that, but you can take only one plate. Chinese grandmas are great at keeping burly guys from using two plates, specially when they get instant backup from every Spanish grandma in the place.
Of a better value, they offer all you can drink for two hours in Japan. Beer is insanely expensive here, so as often go to places with all you can drink. One place we sometimes go to has this for about $12 for 120 minutes. In a city with superb public transportation, getting ripped for the cost of three Starbucks lattes is one of the better deals around.
My friend is a little bit insane. Did I also mention that he doesn’t like buffets? I’m totally serious. He does, however, really like to eat. He calls it his “constant internal struggle,” like if it were some type of religious strife.
If we all decide to go to a buffet, he will vehemently object. Once there, he employs the strategy I previously posted about. When we all went away for college, we would come back in the fall, about 1 month before Thanksgiving and get together at this posh hotel, that for some reason, was having a buffet (it’s become tradition). He actually has a 2 week eating program to prepare himself (so that he can eat more) for this (this in itself is pretty nuts). His thinking is that if he can cause a loss to a buffet, it will shut down, and we can go back to eating fresh(er) food.
Wow, I’m sincerely fascinated by this. What an odd, odd character. Any idea why he puts so much effort into this? Does he not have anything else going on in his life?
Does he even enjoy the meal? Or does he have his game face on the whole time as he’s toiling away at his task? I keep imagining him forcing down another omelet and laughing maniacally… “Ha! Take that, you buffet owners!”
It would be so strange to go to dinner with a friend and watch him do that. Do your friends comment on it and tell him how strange this is?
Heh. My father starves himself during Lent so he loses enough weight to be able to gorge himself on half-price Easter candy. He’s a slim, almost gaunt guy, but I can’t believe his body likes being treated like that!
What astonishes me is people who go to AYCE and get one small plate of food. I understand not gorging yourself, but take some advantage of the variety and volume available! Shoney’s ATCE breakfast bar was a memorable experience; one of my three plates consisted of one half frothy yellow scrambled eggs and one half (separated, not mixed with the eggs!) frothy pink jello and cool whip. Heaven. Eggs are what, 10 cents a piece?
He’s actually a successful senior manager at E&Y. He’ll say that “he’s all about value and efficiency.” If he really knew the cost of the food and all other costs involved, he would much rather use that number so that he can be more efficient.
Like I said, he likes to eat. He’s also a fast eater, normally, so we always question if he enjoys what he eats. This behavior is a running joke within my circle of friends. Other than this, he’s really quite normal, and besides, it gives us something to talk about while we wallow in gluttony.
He is aware that there are many restaurants that are not buffets, and that he could go to those instead, right?
I don’t usually go to buffets because I almost always eat way too much when I do. Pretty much the only time I ever go to a buffet restaurant is when I go to Todai, which works out to probably a few times a year. And I always eat too much when I do go there.
I would like to think that I beat the “house” at buffets. However, I doubt it.
I frequent Cicis Pizza, Sweet Tomatoes (Same peeps as Soup Plantation), and a local Chinese buffet.
Things I’ve noticed:
Costs are kept to a minimum on non-foods. Cicis’ napkins are half the size of full napkins. Where bulk practices / economy of scale can be exploited, it is.
2.If food costs are low, drink costs are even lower. And the profits there for are even higher I beleive a regular drink at Cicis is 1.50 ish. Other places are comprable.
3.Bread items are out in force: Sweet Tomatoes has an entire Bakery section, Cicis has Breadsticks/Cheesesticks, The Chinese buffet goes for “Chinese doughnuts” and even has american dinner rolls.
4.Other grains are just as public: Rice and Noodles make their presence known.
5.Try as I might, I cant stay longer than 30-45 minutes (No time limits are expressed). I would bet this is average to slightly above average for a ‘normal’ customer. I would assume that Costs are pegged to some time duration. As we have alluded, Im sure psychological and other tricks are employed to ‘hurry’ the customers.
I (like many people) enjoy good food. But what is the point of stuffing yourself like a Thanksgiving turkey? In the firts place, getting too full is extremely unpleasant. Second (as many have noted), buffets tend to have an abundance of cheap, starch-laden “filler” type foods-do you REALLY want to eat a plate of mashed potatoes? It reminds me of the scene in “LAS VEGAS VACATION” : “that’s NOT the chiken Ala King…THIS (plops sign into glop) is the chicken ala king!” :eek:
That’s not the goal I start out with at a buffet, but it ends up happening.
When I’m starting to get full, this one thing I didn’t try yet looks good, and might as well get my money’s worth… repeat until stuffed.
I’ll admit it- I’m the sort of person they made those 100-calorie packs of snacks for, because I will eat more of something if there’s more of it around. I have to watch myself very carefully on this- stuff like not eating snacks directly from the bag, and buffets don’t make that kind of control any easier.
I only wish it was. Being overstuffed makes me feel soooooo good and safe and content. There’s literally nothing I like better than eating too much and immediately going to sleep. This is not good, and it’s one reason why I’m fat. (Another being that I do NOT find exercise invigorating or refreshing or empowering or any of the good things some of y’all claim. I find it exhausting and painful.)
Uh, yeah. I love mashed potatoes. (Although buffet mashed potatoes tend to be crap.) And noodles and stuffing and deserts. Me likey starches. This would be another reason I’m fat.
Really, there’s a reason beyond simple costs that the starches are so popular at buffets - it’s because starches are popular at buffets. Lots of us LIKE to eat them, and since we’re not weirdos out to screw buffet owners out of some odd moral superiority complex, we’re going to eat what we like.
