Eh, Dr. Atkins would have kicked their ass after the second slice and told them to each some green leafies. RIP.
Gluttony is still gluttony no matter what you call it.
I’ve been to AYCE places with specific restrictions on expensive stuff, and one place with a note on the table saying you had to finish to come back for more. But if they were eating the roast beef, I don’t see what the problem was.
Sure they were pigs, but we go to AYCE places with my in-laws, who hardly eat anything. When my daughter was a vegetarian she balanced out excessive meat eaters. And if they were running out after twelve slices of roast beef, they need to plan their food purchases better. What happens if six people more than expected come and have two slices each?
If you look carefully, buffets are carefully planned to minimize eating, with high volume, low cost salads before the expensive meat. These people, pigs though they might be, beat the system. Tough.
waterj2, your comment cracked me up.
I think the manager could have solved the problem with less ruckus by posting a sign that states, “Limit of 2 servings per person” or “Limit 2 plates” or something like that. That way customers coming in know what they’re paying for and they cannot claim ignorance that the 12th slice of roast beast is included in a nine buck price. With the pro-meat diets that are so popular now, this isn’t going to be the first person to make a glutton of himself at the Chuck-O-Rama.
As far as AYCE, I think in polite society it’s pretty well understood that you shouldn’t eat the whole pie, whether you are at Chuck-O-Rama or a friend’s house. I think it’s also understood that just cause you paid $8.99 for an AYCE meal, you can’t sit there for 12 hours and eat til your heart’s content. However, for the gluttons or idjits amongst us, it’s probably best for these type establishments to post clear signs so that everyone knows the rules.
I used to go to an AYCE sushi place, and the sign said they’d charge you for each piece you didn’t eat, like 50 cent or a buck or somewhere around there.
Eating everything I ordered was never a problem for me…
The only problem I see is that maybe they didn’t have another roast ready to come out of the oven for a while. If these people kept on eating up the one that was on the buffet line then it would be sure that others would lose out.
It’s unquestionably all you can eat unless restrictions are stated ahead of time. Or I perfer all you care to eat.
I thought SOP was to offer the pigs their money back to leave, this manager was totally a 'hole. If it was on a credit card I hope they contested the charge.
There are a couple buffet restaurants near me that charge different prices on what kinds and how much food I can get. If I get only crablegs, it’s AYCE but only crablegs. If I pay for one trip, I get one trip. Etc.
The all-AYCE may be local to you, but not everywhere.
Robin
It says in the article that they were going there twice a week… shouldn’t they have run into this problem earlier?
FYI I assume that buffets are all you can eat, unless otherwise specified. I would be insulted if I went up to get more salad or something and the manager told me I couldn’t have any more chick peas or something because I’d had too much. Isn’t running out of food the RESTAURANT’S problem? When I pay for a buffet, I’m not concerning myself with leaving food for others! It seems common sense that there will be more brought out when the current bins are empty… and if there isn’t, it’s not the fault of the person who took the last serving!
“Oh, there’s only one chicken wing left… but maybe someone at another table would like it.” Riiiiiiiiight. :rolleyes:
Maybe, but it also said they’d just started Adkins two weeks earlier too. Maybe the other 2-3 times they ate between starting it and then they ate more of a variety? Or they skipped a visit or two?
As far as I’m concerned, the manager handled the situation very badly.
What would have been wrong with taking the man aside and asking him to lay off of the roast beef rather than just chucking him out? (Perhaps that’s the origin of the name of the establishment?) Also, I can’t be too impressed with the managerial skills of a man who runs a buffet and doesn’t expect some variation in the amount of food he goes through in a night. I think the diplomatic thing to do would have been to ask the man to stop scarfing beef, if he absolutely* had * to do so to avoid a stampede by later customers, and offer him his money back if he objected. Was saving himself $18.00 worth ending up with bad publicity? I doubt it.
Alternately, the manager could have just crossed his fingers and toughed it out for this one night, then taken advantage of the lesson learned by posting a sign spelling out any limitations on portions the next day and forevermore.
All this probably went through the manager’s mind at some point, but by the time the beefmaster had made his 12th tour of the roast beef he lost it.
Let’s take a brief interlude to think about this for just a second. I’m a reasonably large man, and I think I can tuck in with the best of them if I’m hungry enough. Assuming normal portion sizes, I might be able to waddle back for a 4th helping of roast beef if I made an effort, but 12!! helpings! We’re dealing with a truly mind bending level of gluttony here. I mean… what was Mr. Creosote thinking about around the 10th, 11th and 12th helpings of cow? Was he in some hypnotic meat trance? “Meat…Meeeaaat!! MEEAAATTT!!!”
Anyway, by the time the bellied up for the 12th time the manager was probably in berserker mode and just lost it
Does anyone know what size a portion of roast beef is at a place like this? Towards the deli roast beef for sandwiches size(like in an Arby’s sandwich), or mom’s pot roast size? If it’s fairly thin slices, I can see 12 servings, but if it’s hunks o’ beef, that’s another story.
At Hometown Buffet, the slices are pretty thin.
But I’d have trouble keeping 12 of 'em down.
12 slices? Come on, that’s nuts.
It might be nuts. Or maybe they were tiny pieces.
I used to go to an AYCE sushi place, and the sign said they’d charge you for each piece you didn’t eat, like 50 cent or a buck or somewhere around there.
Now THAT is just nuts. You pay up front, and then you pay AGAIN if you don’t clean your plate like a good boy? WTF? If they don’t want to lose money on people who waste food they should just jack up their prices a bit and be done with it.
Still, I think it’s pretty clear that if two patrons put enough of a dent in the roast beef that the buffet managers can’t get more to the table before other people are obliged to go without, that’s the very definition of piggery.
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That’s the restaurant’s problem, not the customer’s.
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I wonder what time of day this happened. We have a great little Chinese buffet here that closes at 10. At 9 they start getting lazy and halfassing the buffet so the selection isn’t as big. Go at the right time of day and you very well MIGHT clear out the chicken lo mein and you’re not being a pig.
I’m not saying that 12 pieces of roast beef isn’t excessive (provided they were “average” sized pieces). However I guarantee you this place has probably had people go haywire on other food items and didn’t say a word to them about it. This is about money. Roast beef is expensive. Pie isn’t, so when someone cleans out the dessert tray they’re not going to be bothered. Tough titties, I say. They charged 9 bucks. What are they gonna do? Start giving customers a list of what they can have and how much of it they can have?
And anyone who thinks that Atkins encourages vast amounts of meat needs to read the book. All I’m saying is that a restaurant that goes “WOOHOO! We’re AYCE for only $9” and then starts throwing out customers when they get pissed off that the customer isn’t eating what the managers want them to eat is engaging in bad business. A place is either AYCE, or it isn’t, and either way is fine, but I don’t think there should be any of this changing the rules in the middle of the meal.
I’ve been to an AYCE sushi place like that too, in South Florida. But to be fair, it isn’t a buffet. Rather, you order your pieces off a checklist-style sushi menu, and everything is then made fresh at the sushi bar while you sit. I can see why they do it this way, to discourage a lot of idiots from checking off 10 or 20 pieces of sushi when they’re already full, monopolizing the chefs’ time, and then picking at them and leaving a lot over on their plates to be wasted. At least at a buffet, someone else will conceivably eat what you don’t.
I am a compulsive plate-cleaner, so it is always a personal challenge to order a lot of sushi and never leave a piece behind. The very idea of paying extra for not finishing my meal motivates me to scarf everything down, and even more than I would usually. It’s like a little game I play. But I don’t hold that policy against them, especially with all the old people and rude people in South Florida.
When I was younger, my grandparents regularly took us out to Chuck-A-Rama (or “Up-Chuckrama” as my other grandfather called it). It was definitely AYCE, and I’m pretty sure my sisters and I regularly put back more than 12 pieces of roast beast (which is cut thin and dry.)
My WAG is that the manager was alarmed because Chuck-A-Rama is frequented by Senior Citizens who go there for the Senior discount every day and they are not big eaters. Maybe the people were knocking down the nice ol’ ladies in their mad dash to the meat counter…
I’m practically speechless at the thought of -12- servings of roast beef this couple each packed away! Geeze louise!
Most places that have buffets where they charge one price are AYCE, at least the ones I’ve encountered (Old Country Buffet and Golden Corral). I think the reason that they were asked to leave was that they wanted their money back … uh, I believe 12 servings of roast beef probably covered the $18 they were charged–they -ate- their money’s worth and I wouldn’t have refunded it, to be honest.
While I have in the past enjoyed AYCE buffets, I can’t go to them and enjoy them any longer–I have a tendency to eat too much, too quickly and then get too full. 
I’m better off just ordering something off of a menu, a regular meal. Plus that way, if I can’t eat everything, I get to take the leftovers home. At AYCE, you can’t take anything home! Hey, maybe that’s what this couple was doing! They wern’t eating it, they were stashing it in doggie bags! 
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A “no carb” diet is a fatal one. Carbohydrates are essential to survival.
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Buffets are usually AYCE unless stated otherwise. That’s standard, IMO.
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I never make more than two trips in such a case. Anything more than that is piggish.
Hey, that sounds exactly like the place I was talking about. I’m sure there’s more than one like that in S Florida, but by chance are you speaking of the place in Boca Raton, in the Albertson’s plaza on the NW corner of 441 and Glades?
I call more than two trips “getting your money’s worth”!