I know most chinese restaurants and some steakhouses and some pizza places do. What other kinds of restaurants do? Are there mexican all you can eat places? All you can eat places that have seafood or mcdonalds esqe food (fries and various burgers)?
I love all you can eat buffets, you get tons of varied foods that way. I’m skipping dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow so i’m in good shape when I go to the all you can eat chinese place tomorrow for lunch.
Well, buffet restaurants, of course. Brazilian barbecue tends to be all you can eat, but with slabs of sizzling meat being sawed off onto your plate and a nice little salad bar. But you don’t go to Brazilian barbecue for the salad bar.
Mongolian Barbecue are( or at least used to be, I don’t think I’ve been to one in 5 years)
Damn, I never even thought typing ‘buffet’ into the online yellow pages. There are only 3 listed in town on the yahoo yellow pages. Not a good number as I know of at least 6 places that have all you can eat buffets in town and I am only moderately knowledgable about what this town offers, but one of the 3 is a place called ‘mandarin BBQ buffet’. I am going to try instead of the chinese place tomorrow. I could go for steak and BBQ over General Tsaos chicken.
Maybe I can just go through the 269 restaurants yahoo yellow pages says are in town and just start calling them and asking if they have all you can eat deals. I know some of them are doubles or triples (7 Mcdonalds, 4 burger kings, etc) and that when you subtract the restaurants listed multiple times and the restaurants I know don’t have any all you can eat deals like fast food places that is probably only 150 places to call. I can start calling 5-10 a day over the next month.
I know this isn’t a buffet place, but have you gone to the Runcible Spoon yet? They have awesome steamed milk and a bathroom that has to be seen to be believed. They also have wonderful breakfasts on the weekend. Sit in the basement. It’s lovely.
Of course now that I have said that you will go and hate it! Oh well, I tried.
I’ve been to a couple sushi buffets.
A Mongolian Grill doesn’t have steak, burgers, and barbecue… it’s a style of cooking which is prety much your typical Chinese fare but cooked on a large communal grill after you pick your ingredients.
It’s okay for novelty but I much prefer a decent “Chinese” buffet to a “Mongolian” one although, if they were common, I’d pick Indian or Thai over either every day of the week.
Wesley, since you live in a big college town (and you’ve talked about being a student before), I’m guessing you have a lot of affordable all-you-can-eat options around you! The problem with buffets is the food quality can sometimes be mediocre (or worse), but you can make up for that in sheer quantity and also selection. The temptation is always there to make a pig of yourself, but you seem to have a good attitude about having a variety of choices, so the best thing is to enjoy a little bit of everything there, and not end up leaving mounds of food on your plate to be wasted. (This is a major pet peeve of mine when people do this.)
Chinese buffets often bring out sushi, crab legs, prime rib, raw oysters, and other delicacies if you go for dinner instead of lunch, so that may be an option. Dinner almost always costs more as a result, though. In Florida, we have the Golden Corral, which serves up buffet-style home-cookin’. Again, not the greatest food in the world, but certainly not bad, especially if you’re a poor college student. Sonny’s Barbecue isn’t a buffet (although their salad bar is, and it isn’t bad for a barbecue place), but they will bring you unlimited plates of barbecued meat, fries, garlic bread, beans, and cole slaw if you catch them on the right nights. And there’s nothing I love so much as barbecue in large quantities!
If you’re feeling adventurous, seek out some Thai or Indian restaurants that might have buffets, and try exotic new things! I haven’t had either cuisine very much since my friends aren’t culinary risk-takers like I am, so buffets are the best way to introduce yourself to new tastes and foods you haven’t had before. This can be a very good thing to do on a date, in a group of friends, or even go by yourself first to become accustomed to stuff, so you seem like an experienced “native guide” when you bring a girl or the guys around to the place.
(Of course, I generally don’t recommend all-you-can-eat buffets as a place to bring a date, but if the girl seems into it, you’ve got a good one!)
Sweden House( probably Michigan Only) is perfect for slightly overcooked buffet style greasy food to fill your big fat pie hole.
Their dessert buffett ( soft serve ice cream) is a hit for children and adults alike.
Do you have a Golden Corral up there? I believe those are fairly widespread and not just a Southern thing.
Around here (Panama City Beach, Florida), all-you-can-eat seafood buffets are very popular. Most of them cost about $8.
Yep, we have a golden corral but I’ve never been there before. I know the ponderosa and Ryans in town have all you can eat buffets before. But i’ve heard the Ryans is pretty bad in quality.
As far as steakhouses we also have a Colorado Steakhouse, Crazy Horse Emporium, Outback, Texas Roadhouse &Wee Willie’s Inc. Does anyone know if any of these generally offer buffets? I’m actually more in the mood for an all you can eat seafood place but in town there are only 5 seafood places. 3 long john silvers, red lobster & red sea.
I’ve never been to a chinese buffet during dinner, just lunch. Has anyone else thought they brought out better food during dinner? I thought the price was just lower because there was less traffic during lunch and they had to keep prices low to keep people coming in.
I had a long thread once where I invited a female aquantance to an all you can eat buffet and used a coupon. Apparently this is a bad thing. I didn’t leave a tip either for those of you who were following that little situation. I think she left a tip though. My social skills are shit.
I’m adventerous with food too. I have 267 restaurants to pick from (probably closer to 200 when you discount the multiples) and I don’t want to eat at burger king everytime.
In town we have 2 Thai places, 2 korean, 3 japanese & 17 chinese as far as asian cuisine goes. I am going to call the Thai, korean and japanese places and see if they have all you can eat buffets. And I intend to make a pig of myself, I feel ripped off if I can’t eat at least 3 plates of food.
I don’t think there are any in Indiana, but Shoney’s has an all you can eat seafood buffet on Fridays. And a Prime Rib and Shrimp buffet on Saturdays (the prime rib isn’t all that great, though).
Haha, I remember that thread! I don’t think I read how it turned out for you, though. Tipping 10% is a good rule of thumb for buffets, since someone is coming around to pick up your dirty plates, and possibly refilling your drinks. Nothing wrong with using coupons, though! (Although on a date, I’d do it very discreetly and not mention it to the girl.)
If your college town is anything like ours was (Gainesville, Florida), you probably have dozens and dozens of wonderful local restaurants, comfortable bars with good food, and little student-friendly mom-and-pop places that need your support. Living in a college town changed my entire outlook on eating out, and now I really hate going to run-of-the-mill fast food or the same old chain restaurants you find on every suburban main street of every town. I’d much rather take a chance, check out the hole-in-the-wall, the mom-and-pop joint, the interesting-looking storefront next door to the Subway. You probably have some sort of student-oriented community newspaper that offers capsulated reviews of all the local places, contact information, prices, and possibly even menus. I’d consult that first, and start planning some dining adventures!
Indian restaurants frequently have buffets, as big pots of curry lend themselves well to communal dining.
I second the Indian buffets previously mentioned. They are great ways to try out Indian food. The flavors are so different from anything else, that it’s hard to know what you will and won’t like. Buffets are the perfect solution. 
Also, Shoney’s has a great breakfast buffet. Eggs, pancakes, grits, sausage, bacon, biscuits, etc. The rest of the day it’s pretty much just an extended soup and salad bar, but still worth it.
Country Buffet is, of course, also a buffet. As the name suggests, it’s just good ole country food. I’m not sure how wide-spread it is though.
The food at Golden Corral is way better than it is at Ryan’s. I imagine Ponderosa to be of similar quality to Ryan’s, but I’ve never been. Quincy’s, which we only went to once in college when they advertised a $2.99 lunch buffet, was the WORST.
Texas Roadhouse has awesome ribs, but they don’t do buffets, and neither does Outback. I think Outback is rather expensive for what you get, although for a chain restaurant, it is considered a “nicer” place. I think Long John Silvers and Red Lobster both suck, and neither do buffets as far as I’ve ever known. Long John’s is fast food–cheap fried seafood, and Red Lobster is a sit-down place that is considered “nice” (and as a result, isn’t cheap)–I just don’t care for the food there at all.
I know Kmart, for some reason, has all you can eat pancakes on saturday morning for $1.99. The nearest shoneys is 25 miles away.
Actually Ryans is pretty good, its just this Ryans in Bloomington that sucks.
There are 2 Indian restaurants in town. What kind of all you can eat deals do they have? is it like a buffet where you have 50+ foods to pick from, or a deal where a server specially makes a certain type of food and as much of it as you want, or what? Like comparing a chinese all you can eat vs the kmart all you can eat pancakes. Do you get a pick of 50+ foods at an indian restaurant? how much do they usually charge? I’m going to call and check but i’d like a ballpark since i’m here.