Y’arrr! These buffet pigs be no men - they be remorseless eating machines!
Count me as another who does this. It’s especially frustrating to get something that looks really delicious until you try it.
I try not to pile my plate with food though, because I’ve left too much food behind and it makes me feel embarrassed that I was so wasteful. You live and learn. Too bad other people can’t take smaller samples first. Maybe we just have a lot of people with eyes that are bigger than their stomachs.
::Lame joke in reference to my user name::
I love a good buffet, but I always feel like I’m there to “beat the house.” I force myself to eat more than I normally would, which isn’t great, I admit. I never waste food–I’m a member of the Clean Plate Club anywhere I eat–but I’ll leave something behind if I just don’t like it. This is rare.
But the main reason I love buffets is for selection (different foods) rather than sheer quantity (shoveling as much food as I can). I like being able to try new and interesting things, mix flavors, and sample a few items when I can’t decide what I want. While buffet food quality just isn’t as good as places where you order off a menu, I love having freedom of choice, and the ability to take some culinary risks and challenges.
Are you SERIOUS??? And you didn’t use the opportunity to say (loudly enough for the other table to hear)…:
“You are Not going to BELIEVE this woman. She went through the chicken tray and picked out every single breast. Some people were raised by wolves…, some peope’s children…(and lots of other clever stuff I’m too tired to think of right now”.
??? Oh my sister and I would have used this as primo passive aggressive insult time.
When my fire company did family style sit down AYCE dinners, my Dad always atttended. One Sunday, he had the misfortune of being seated between two heffalumps who cleaned off the plates before Pop got to smell the food. After a while, he entered the kitchen and informed me of his plight. We looked out and agreed that he didn’t stand a chance-filled his plate and sent him on his way. 
Excellent point. When I was in college, I was invited over to a friend’s house for dinner, as was a German exchange student. This student was extremely spoiled, and extremely intolerant, and flatly refused to consider that the corn on the cob my friend served (Silver Queen!) was anything other than an insult. The dinner went downhill rapidly. Spoiled brat.
and yet you haven’t gotten the traditonal Asbestos Mango Massage
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I must confess I’ve been guilty of this. It happens when I go to a buffet after having skipped a meal or two, either because I’m just flat out too busy to eat or because I don’t want to “fill up” before I go out to eat, and end up having to wait longer that I had expected before I can get to the food.
So, there I am at the buffet, ravenously hungry, and there’s all this food. Right there in front of me. Hey, the mashed potatoes look good, so does the watermelon and sparribs (really don’t like apple pie, so I’ll pass on that, but if there’s peach or cherry, I’m all over it). So, yeah, I’ll have some of this and some of that and some of the other thing, get back to the table and, after doing some gnoshing, realize I’ve exceeded my stomach capacity.
I don’t do it any more, I’ve learned my lesson. I do like to take a variety of foods, but I now take smaller portions to avoid wastage.
Of course, there’s still the aforementioned “it looked good on the steam tray but once I actually tasted it, blech” factor. Hint- the Riviera buffet, avoid the duck. And the calamari steak. And… well, actually avoid the Riviera buffet altogether. The only reason I eat there is because at my mom’s job, one of the perks is she gets them comped, and when you’re as poor as we are, any free food is good food.
There is a chinese buffet near my girlfriend’s place that we have eaten at once or twice. Both times I noticed that there were quite a few overweight people there - it was definitely a greater ratio than one would find at a regular restaurant. Do others notice the same thing?
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When I go to Vegas in two weeks I’m eating at the In-N-Out Burger every chance I get. 
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Yeah, what the hell is that green thing in EddyTeddyFreddy’s linked photo?
(Oh, and I spotted the reason they are all acting so reserved - no plates - it’s a buffet trap! - get out!)
Plus, you can see down the white shirt on the girl in the upper left of the picture if you stand up and look down at the monitor. 
My father immigrated from Belguim after WWII, when he went to dinner at his future in-laws(my grandparents) they served corn on the cob. He stated: This is for pigs! It’s been a family joke ever since.
For those who don’t know, I am guessing that the picture is part of the last night of a cruise where the kitchen goes all nights in the food setup. The first hour or so is spent with too many people standing in line looking at all of the stuff. After everyone has gone through, they then open it back up for people to eat it all.
For my horror story, I had all but given up on buffets. I’m not a complete germ-o-phobe, but I’ve seen enough nasty stuff to turn me off. That said, I still stuck with Sweet Tomato (salad buffet that also features soups, potatos, etc). That was one place where I didn’t mind filling my plate heaped up because it was, you know, SALAD.
In addition to the salad, my other love was getting their clam chowder. One Sunday afternoon (the worst time for these places because all of the church crowd goes with their 18 screaming kids), I approached the soup bar to get myself a cup. I saw that the soup container was just about full. ‘Mmmm, fresh’, says I and get ready to scoop it up. It was then that I noticed a hair. Not just a small hair, but a 2-footer curled nicely, wrapped all over the top of that soup.
I got someone from the kitchen who brought the soup to the back and then brought out a container of new stuff. I am sure that it was the same container, and I know that the hair touched only a little bit of it, and I know that to toss out a fresh container would have been needlessly expensive and wasteful, but despite that, I could not enjoy it (or any other) soup, and on the rare occasion I have been back, I have gotten only the salad.
These days that kind of comment could get you killed! :eek:
For the Las Vegas Buffets check out the one at the Aladdin. It’s the Spice Buffet I think.
Y’arrr! Ye say that as if it be a *bad *thing…
I love buffets…not to eat at them, but to serve as the flypaper that draws in every neandertal, helping to ensure that my dining experience at typical restaurants is enhanced.
Whenever I think about a restaurant and get tempted for buffet, I just think of my in-laws, who think buffets are the oasis in the dessert and recommend one buffet after the other.
When I go to dinner, I don’t need the aggravation of a buffet and the crowd that goes there.
Food sucks, the people sucks, and waiting on yourself sucks.
And watch how people tip there (they usually don’t). You’d think the place cleaned itself, or the trays were filled magically. The low tip/no tip is the crowing moment for the cheapo rat bastards who flock to buffets.
This thread popped into my life with perfect timing. 20 of the office staff just went celebrated the Big Boss’s B-day with a trip to a buffet restaurant. Four tables of entre, and two dessert tables.
As we were sitting in the back room having a drink before going for the buffet, I thought of this thread and made a comment that I hope I didn’t see anyone who thinks the buffet is a challenge to see who can make the biggest food pyamid on their plate, particularly when you could go back for more. Everybody nodded in agreement, and nobody committed this insane act.
My general rule is two plates of food and one of dessert. That’s enough.
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Out here in California, we call 'em Souplantations. My parents love to go there because they keep getting the “discount dinner” coupons let them eat guilt-free for cheap. Me, I wonder why they don’t pick one name nationwide and stick with it.
And I used to love their clam chowder. Unfortunately, now they’ve switched to that “Yankee Clipper” watered-down psuedo-chowder, and I just hates that stuff. You know something’s wrong when Sizzler’s makes a better clam chowder than you do.
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I wanna party with you…not.