Restaurant buffets were very, very common when I grew up in the 70’s. They were everywhere. We had a Holiday Inn with a nice buffet in my hometown.
My dad loved them because of the variety of food choices and family pricing. It was also a quicker meal because the food was already prepared. I can remember family vacations and there were restaurant signs along the interstate. Dad would always choose one that advertised a buffet.
Finding a buffet these days is difficult. Are they just not advertised anymore? Have they totally disappeared?
I miss them. I like cafeteria food. A slice of ham or roast beef, some vegetables (corn, sweet potatoes, green beans or turnip greens) and a slice of cornbread. It doesn’t take fancy food to make me happy.
Thats how you identify a Buffet newbie. A newbie piles their plate high with everything on the buffet. Eats half of it and wastes the rest.
People that eat at buffets regularly know better. You get small portions and choose what items you want carefully. I can eat at a buffet without stuffing myself.
My guess is that it has something to do with the economics.
Too many people eating way too much food and making the business unprofitable.
What is the owner of the business to do?
What happens when the tell one or two people their business is no longer wanted? You would think that any business owner should have the right to serve who they want and refuse who they want. But, it may not work that way.
I wonder if the owner can get sued for discrimination?
Old Country Buffet is another one. I have similar memories as a kid, although my dad always called them "smorgasbord"s. They still certainly exist around here in Chicago. I live maybe 1/4 mile away from a place that has four different cuisines in buffet form (Mexican, Italian, American, and Chinese plus sushi) and you can mix and match. There’s still a few Polish buffets around, and many Chinese and Indian restaurants have buffet options.
And you identify a buffet regular by the way they knock chairs over on both sides of their path back to the steam tables, sometimes with people in them.
And yeah, my childhood term for them was smorgasbord or smorgies, too.
It doesn’t take fancy food to make most people happy. It does take adequate food, however they define adequate. Buffets became notorious for having poor quality food. Especially vegetables, which almost never survive being boiled in large batches, drowned in gloppy sauce, and left out to wilt.
Fast food and family sitdown restaurants started making better food prepared to individual tastes and capable of riding the latest trends. Allergies and eating conditions made knowing ingredients and getting food made without more important. Rising food prices made the higher end offerings less profitable. Make too little food and people walk away unsatisfied; make too much food and it goes to waste.
Buffets seem like a good idea in theory, but they are next to impossible to make work in practice. You wind up catering to the worst percentage of the restaurant population (those deciding solely on price and bulk) and a single wrong decision about managing their expectations leads to failures. It’s amazing that they lasted as long as they did.
To make it work economically you have to use lower quality food prepared in bulk and even then much of it gets wasted.
That said, there are still several buffets near me but they are in three camps: 1. Chinese/Japanese food or 2. Brunch, usually only on weekends and 3. Extremely high end buffets usually at finer hotels with dress codes that have lobster, carving stations and fine food.
Old Country Buffet closed down around here about five years ago, but there’s still a Golden Corral and several independent buffets (often featuring Asian food). I suspect it was the economics, not so much that people ate too much – they ate too much in the heyday of the restaurants – but because it became difficult to provide the food at a cost people would pay. Old Country Buffet – one of the best – had lower quality food then most sit-down restaurants in order to keep prices down, and it probably reached a point where the quality dipped down and the price kept going up, so people went to Applebee’s and the like.
Personally, I’m not sure I even entirely buy the fact that they are waning in popularity. To me, it seems like there are more buffet options than ever, but I’m counting Asian buffets and non-American food buffets in the mix. Especially in what has been recently a downturn economy, buffets would seem to be a popular option.
A Golden Corral is about to open not far from us, altho my experience with them is less than stellar - I doubt that I’ll ever go there. I can think of 3 or 4 “Chinese” buffets also, only 2 of which I’ve patronized. One was so horrible, I’ll never return, the other was decent a decade ago, but has really gone downhill. I haven’t been there in over a year, maybe 2.
There are also a couple of local places that offer breakfast buffets, but I think they’re rather pricey - like $13 per person, plus another couple of dollars for a beverage. I can get an omelet, potatoes, and a drink for under $10, and it’s all I can do to finish it. I didn’t see anything on the buffet I’d consider to be a $13 breakfast. But I suppose if you want 20 or 30 slices of bacon, it would be to your advantage.
Frankly, in my old age, I’d rather someone bring me my food.
My WAG is that the real killer for a buffet restaurant is, not when people eat too much, but when people don’t eat enough. Even on a slow day, they have to prepare a lot of food, which means an unsustainable level of waste unless you get enough customers.
Plus it’s a vicious cycle. If they only prepare a new plate when customers have or are about to have finished the last one, then the food on average for a slow night for a buffet will be less fresh, resulting in fewer repeat customers.
The local Chinese buffet’s food is relatively fresh on their weekly special nights (sundays), but of questionable freshness on other days.
Yes, people not eating enough is probably a problem. There are several buffet options around town that my wife and I COULD go to, but neither of us eats a lot of food at a single sitting as part of our dieting regimen. When we go to a sit down restaurant we generally split an entree. So why pay buffet prices when we are not going to eat a lot, and the food is mediocre.
That said, I personally LURVE cooked veggies, and there is ONE buffet we go to that serves a limited selection of cooked veggies and is very reasonably priced. I get boiled cabbage, greens, butter beans and other traditional veggies that generally is NOT served at sit down restaurants. But I don’t think it’s a chain, so no hope for the rest of you.
We were at the Hotel del Coronado a few years back, after its change to corporate management (= soulless suckage; not recommended, especially if you have fond memories of it in earlier eras). They have a famous annual brunch - Mother’s Day? - Easter? Something like that. We were going to hit it on our last day, only to find it was $66 a person, plus tax, plus gratuity - even for hotel guests. (It draws a considerable number of people from outside, as well.)
I’ve had $100-for-two plate-served breakfasts that were just barely worth it, in context (Oscar’s, in the W=A). I’ve had very nice $20 breakfast buffets at resort hotels. I’ve had very nice included buffets at everything from Residence Inns to trade-show hotels. I simply can’t imagine what could make a brunch worth $75 a person, whether it includes champagne etc. or not.
We passed, and had a fabulously splurgey breakfast at a place two blocks away in Coronado. for about $30, with tip.
Holy crap, that is my exact experience! The Old Country Buffet in my town had a rotating "smorgasboard’, 1/2 of which disappeared into the kitchen where it was refilled. The nice people on the restaurant side had to stand in lines at partitions that designated distinct plate filling areas.
As for where they went, not too far from me there are Golden Corral type deals, and many Chinese, and a few Polish buffets.
Some foods hold up better under the buffet heating lamps.
I’ve been to a buffet at a catfish restaurant and it was very good. Pizza buffets are always good. My wife likes Chinese buffets.
I hate soggy corn on the cob thats been in the water all day. Golden Corral is a buffet I avoid. Even if you go at 11:30 for lunch the food seems like its been under those lamps for hours.
A newbie piles their plate high with everything on the buffet. Eats half of it and wastes the rest.