Shakey’s? I know they were doing the AYCE lunch buffet thing at some restaurants for a while. Might be on a franchise-by-franchise basis, tho.
Arrggh. Phases, not fazes. It does not faze me to say I must have been going through a bad spelling phase when I typed the above.
When they share the same vegetables, meats, sauces, oils, and cooking techniques, they’re grouped together in my mind. The Mongolian Grills you’ve been to may be different but the ones I (and I assume, most of whitebread America) have been to are just Chinese restaraunts with a fancy grill and a gimmicky “make it yourself” approach.