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/ck/ - Food & Cooking

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6244050 No.6244050 [Reply] [Original]

Are all you can eat buffets a scam? They price admission according to the assumption that you'll have more than one serving's worth of food, but portion sizes being too small has never been a problem in American restaurants.

>> No.6244069

it's the fact that you can get a whole mess of different stuff, not just an entree and whatever side comes with it

>> No.6244084

>>6244050
Depends on the quality. I'll pay 25 bucks to gorge on decent sushi but wouldn't pay 10 to go to Hometown Buffet.

>> No.6244162

>>6244050
some people are really big and can eat a lot so its worth it for them

>> No.6244175

>>6244050
Its just really nice to be able to eat a bit of a dozen different things, rather than being stuck with just one or two different items.

The ability to gorge yourself to bursting is just a bonus.

>> No.6244192

It's not really a scam at all. You might not necessarily get "your moneys worth" if you are someone who can't eat a lot, but a lot of people (myself included) really value the ability to try lots of different things.

I won't go to one though unless it's a very nice one, which obviously is much more expensive. Because at least then, while I can't eat a lot, I still get my moneys worth in crab legs, sashimi and oysters

if you're ever in vegas the seafood buffet at the rio is actually pretty decent, you could actually get nice bowls of chirashi and the fish was high quality. iirc it was like $30 or $35, something like that. But I mean it's vegas, you don't go there to not spend money.

>> No.6244199

they aren't a scam any more than any other restaurant is

They make money and you get fed, the logistics are a little different here, but its pretty much the same thing as every other kind of restaurant

>> No.6244223

soundtrack for this thread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDPk6OQkpeI

>> No.6244224

>go to Indian casino with co-workers
>sign up for free membership
>get free all-you-can-eat buffet
>pay for free wine and beer
>eat unlimited raw oysters and snowcrab
>drink until you throw up
>QT waitress brings more drinks because she's entertained and/or secretly hopes we all die of alcohol poisoning
>leave tip
>black out
>go to different casinos, wait for membership to drop from system and sign up to get another free buffet

>> No.6244236

My buddies and I are all big fat guys. You should see the looks on the owners' faces when we walk into a buffet. They know they're taking a hit that day.

Shit's fantastic.

>> No.6244239

>>6244236
yeah, that must make being a fat piece of shit worth it

>> No.6244243

>>6244050
Depends on the place. I have a chinese buffet I'll happily drop a ten for since I like the food.

Same for golden corral since I'm easy to please.

I think that the idea is food that's just pretty good but not amazing and being able to eat all you want. You're basically left to get your money's worth yourself which is neato.

>> No.6244244

>>6244239
No, eating delicious food all the time and giving zero fucks makes it worth it.

>> No.6244308

>>6244050
It depends. If you're the kind of person who considers gluttony a reward or a pleasure then these places might be worth ti to you.

My (now deceased) redneck uncle was a farmer and owned rental properties in a nearby town. For him going out to an all you can eat buffet for what he called a "belly buster" was a joyful occasion. I guess the idea that he could eat all the fried chicken and seafood he wanted in one sitting was proof that he had arrived. (He died worth more than my father and other uncle on that side, but both his brothers has much better cashflow. He never got to enjoy his net worth because it was all tied up in real estate). For him low rent gluttony was a stand in for things like world travel, eating at fine restaurants and luxuries of any other kind. He was married to a conservative Christian woman and lived on a farm. No other vices were available to him. He was obese by his early 50's.

All you can eat buffets are not a scam. They're just a poor indulgence for people without better options.

>> No.6244340
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6244340

Classic and topical

>> No.6244344

>>6244084
what magical place do you live in where there are good suchi buffets let alone ones for $25. The cheapest one I can find in LA that isnt shit is $50

>> No.6244356

>>6244344
Davis has one for 11.99, and it's... ok.

>> No.6244389

>>6244050
It's funny, I've been to Europe and I never thought the serving sizes were that small as compared to American food. Maybe I'm just not going to the right restaurants?

I rarely ever go to buffets but it's worth it to me because I like getting limitless options (though I think I, like most other normal people, end up eating less than 3 plates tops) instead of sticking to one dish. Plus I think buffets are really cost effective when it comes to things like salads.

>> No.6244443

i only ever go to buffets when i want to eat super gross chinese food or really good indian food.
(the indian is actually legitimately really good, i've had worse at way more fancy places. amazing.)
Its a strange compulsion, but when I'm in the mood, I basically want to eat shitty food and a LOT of it. The hazy goal is pretty much to hate myself by the end.

>> No.6244476

>>6244050
Place about an hour from me has the best breakfast buffet imaginable, for around 7 bucks. Typical breakfast plate around here costs 6-7 bucks.
So I can drop 7 bucks and go to buffet and eat eggs cooked to order, toast, biscuits, sausage gravy, chipped beef and gravy, country ham, sausage links or patties, fried fatback, grits, shredded hashbrowns, home style fried potatoes, fried chicken, waffles, pancakes and a pretty nice fruit selection. Or spend 6-7 bucks for eggs, one type meat, one side and toast or biscuit.

>> No.6244499

Any time I think of buffets I always think of that Chevy Chase movie where they go to vegas and have to eat buffet food and all the food is just colored slop.

>> No.6244523

Chinese place
>They have tables squashed together
>seat new people right next to you literally almost on your table
>drinks are expensive as fuck even water, food is made to make you drink more
>constantly taking your plates and knifes and forks away, need to ask for knifes and forks back because they don't have them out by the food
>they stand by your table literally watching you eat
>asks you if you want to order a coffee every time you finish a plate
>they start putting everything away an hour before they close whilst people are still eating


Whole atmosphere just feels awkward as fuck, they intentionally try to make everyone feel awkward so they leave sooner.

>> No.6244525

$14 all you can eat sushi

in Colorado a land locked state.

>> No.6244527

>>6244499

all the vegas buffets I've gone to have been surprisingly good

except the ceasars palace one, ironically. I just ate a bunch of smoked salmon with capers/cucumber/tomato/onion/etc on crostini because everything else was a bunch of overly sauced creamy shit.

>> No.6244550

meat attack

>> No.6244574

>>6244050
>They price admission according to the assumption that you'll have more than one serving's worth of food

No, they price admission on variety. There aren't many places you can get types of food from all over the country and a plethora of desert for under $12.

But really they're just magnets for fat fucks like me. All I can eat? The joke's on them.

>> No.6244576

>>6244344
Los Angeles county actually. Acceptable tier is around 25 bucks.

>> No.6244581

>>6244344
Montreal.

>> No.6244590

I always wonder how they make profit.
I am from Europe and the places i go i can understand as there is only a few fat fucks that eat way over what they paid, then plenty of people that will only have a small plate or two.

I hate to go over the fat American shit, but you guys do eat a lot, and i've never met an American who would claim to not eat all he can at a all you can eat place so how the fuck do American buffets survive? surely 80% of their customers are eating $40-$50 worth of food whilst only paying $20? Anyone that works at one of these places or owns one care to share how they pull a profit?

>> No.6244619

>>6244590
it's weird cause the only place i've ever seen all you can eat resturants is in europe. I figure that if i ever go to one, it's going to be after a long day of hiking and an early lunch at 11-12.

>> No.6244623

>>6244619
I live in Spain, we have a place called Wok that is mostly chinese food, but see >>6244523
that is what they do at these places.
Apart from that i get jealous of all these stories of American buffets when the only one close to me is this shitty Wok place there are like 5 in the area and no other all you can eat places i know of. I am out of the city tho so it could just be that.

>> No.6244657

I despise ayce places.Blue haired grannies on walkers and hambeasts zelously guarding the station where the next batch of frozen fried chinese shrimp raised in a mud puddle will be dumped, canned veggies,steamship round so tough it might have been cut from a mule, and cheap soft serve.All for only about 11.99. plus 1.80 for soda,tea or coffee,delivered late by a "waitress" who does nothing else yet apparently expects a full tip. I guess I am old fashioned but when dining out,the last thing I want to hear is"help yourself to our salad bar".If I wanted to help myself, I'd have stayed home. while in high school and college I worked at four restaurants, none of which had any "bars".."food bars" are just a cash cow for lazy owners.

>> No.6244665
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6244665

>>6244590
>how the fuck do American buffets survive? surely 80% of their customers are eating $40-$50 worth of food whilst only paying $20?

The food is probably US Foods/Sysco supplied shit so its cheap, easy to prepare (less workers) and designed to stay good for a long period of time. Depending on the buffet, there will probably be a lot of high carb/low cost options like rolls, mac and cheese, pizza etc to make people full faster. You don't really need actual servers since there isn't any serving to be done, just busboys to clean the shit off.

>I hate to go over the fat American shit, but you guys do eat a lot, and i've never met an American who would claim to not eat all he can at a all you can eat place

Its a cultural thing that goes back to our founding. I wish I could find the article but there was some research into our meat consumption vs Europe that showed when the first Americans came over, one of the biggest changes to their daily lives was having plenty of space for everyone to raise cattle or pigs. When meat for most people wasn't a daily thing in Europe, American colonists were used to having meat every day and eventually every meal. We've always seen ourselves as the "land of plenty" and All You Can Eat fits right into that.

Yeah, it brings out some of the worst things in Americans/American food culture but the US has always been about bigger, faster, louder, more intense; for better or worse.

>> No.6246023

>>6244344

I live an hour east of LA and we have a really good all you can eat sushi for 20$. There are plenty spots around LA area that are under 50$ for all you can eat though.

>> No.6246036

>>6244344
Lunch buffet down the street is $20 and they have some pretty good sushi. I mean its not like top tier or anything but better than anything I've had before.

>> No.6246110

>>6244192
There's a joint in my area that does AYCE roasts. IIRC, it's $35 for lunch and $50 for dinner. Decent deal for AYCE tenderloin roast, AYCE roast chicken, AYCE roast pork and cracklings and a variety of delicious sides. They don't have much in the way of veg, though. That's okay, I guess. I'll forgo veg every once in a while.

My favourite AYCE places? American breakfast restaurants that do AYCE.
My apartment complex when I first moved to this area had a restaurant on the first floor of the south building that had AYCE breakfast on weekends. Surprisingly good quality scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon, sausage, oatmeal with choice of mix-ins/toppings, bagels and bread, muffins. cheese and chives and stuff for your scrambled eggs, milk, tea, coffee and various fruits. They closed a few years back.
Now, the only places left to get American AYCE brekkie are hotels.

>> No.6246422

>crab legs $8/lb at the store
>buffet costs $15
>eat my own weight in crab legs
>that's money in the bank

>> No.6247172

It's a combination of economies of scale, menu engineering, and reduced labor requirements (leaving more margin to spend on food).

Planning the menus isn't that different than it would be for a portion-controlled restaurant. Calculations are based on averages instead of fixed portions. The objectives are basically the same, your best items are popular with a high margin (i.e., cheap). Low-margin items are ok to offer if they're not excessively popular.

For a customer, the value proposition depends on how much you eat.

>> No.6247181

>>6244344
Hibiki in Santa Clarita is... $22 I think, for AYCE dinner. You're limited to 90 minutes of ordering, though- however, if you're ordering past 90 minutes then good god.

>> No.6247184

>tfw you've been banned by your local asian buffets and have to explore further out to get buffets
I was courteous, respected their customs, and tipped 15% but they still said not to come back.
;_;

>> No.6247255

>>6247184
did you just grab whole shitty Chinese buffet pizzas and use that as a plate to pile on all the sushi they had available?

>> No.6247260

>>6244344
try asahi sushi its pretty damn good
in fact lets all go

>> No.6247264

>>6244224
>pay for free wine and beer
what?

>> No.6247267

>>6244243

golden corral ayyy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeQccPY2hTE

>> No.6247278

>>6244069
you get that from a regular buffet.
maybe all buffets are all you can eat in amerifat

>> No.6247284

>>6244344
The one near me is $30 for dinner and $18 for lunch. The only difference is the lack of crab legs which I'm allergic to so I don't care. They have a ton of different hot and cold dishes and about 30 different maki rolls and 10 or so nigiri plus bowls of tuna and salmon.

http://www.norinori.com/

>> No.6247287

>>6247278
Isn't a buffet all you can eat by definition?

Unless you're referring to the type of place I saw when I was in London. An Indian food restaurant laid out buffet style but you could only fill up a single container with food.

>> No.6247341

>>6247267

is that guy retarded or what? holy shit why does he want to blow up like the Hindenburg?

>> No.6247366

one time I went to a curry joint w/ all you can eat and drink champagne and curry brunch
I got sooooooooooooooooooo fucking drunk it was great

>> No.6247453

>>6247255
I ate seafood only en masse.

>> No.6247459

>>6247366
All you can drink? Where is this place and why haven't I tried to put them out of business yet?

>> No.6247475

>>6247459
it was on International Drive in Orlando, in a strip mall I think near the giant mcdonalds. Dunno if it's still around.

>> No.6247751
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6247751

The way I see it, you have to eat twice or even three times as much food as you normally would in order to make a buffet place worth it.

I'm not a fat fuck, so I'm incapable of eating that much food without throwing up and not eating for the next several days.
If you can cram that much shit into your body, more power to you.

>> No.6247779 [DELETED] 

>>6244192
>But I mean it's vegas, you don't go there to not spend money.
i used to live in vegas and this is something that someone who has no idea about the place would say. gj falling for the tourist traps

>> No.6247815

I don't like buffets much because it's batch cooked food. No matter how good of a job you do there are limitations on the quality compared to cook to order. There are exceptions if you're willing to constantly prepare small batches of new food and are less handicapped by having to satisfy everyone's dietary needs with a limited number of entrees. However, to me the advantage of buffets is freedom of choice and portion size rather than getting a good deal or getting the best quality meal.

>> No.6247881

>>6247287
I live in America and there are several by-the-pound buffet places in my area. They're generally of better quality than AYCE buffets. They wind up costing only about as much as an average lunch downtown in a larger city, so about $7-8.
My favourite is a Korean buffet that also has Chinese and American foods. I get hot japchae with beef, sesame spinach with garlic, collards and some kimchi.
There used to be a really good Polish place, but they closed.
I don't think I've ever been to a large American city without by-the-pound buffet joints.

>> No.6247900

I went to an expensive buffet with my grandad at a hotel for rich country fucks around 4 years ago.

There was a short and very rotund chef standing behind where the food was served, he had rosy red cheeks with a twirled moustache under his tall white hat and seemed to take great pleasure carving thick slices off of the generic joints of meat before him, grinning from ear to ear with his squashed face.

I also had the best pickled herring I've ever eaten at that same place.

>> No.6247912

>>6244523
Found the fatty.

Whats up hammy?

>> No.6247916

>>6244523
What country do you live in where water isn't free? Well, tap water, anyway. Unless you're in Europe. We never drink tap water at restaurants, but Americans do.

>> No.6247922

>>6247184
Head up mate. Chinks are stingier than jews and you basically robbed the fuckers, it's hilarious.

>> No.6247939

>>6247922
This. At least Jews have some scruples. The only businesspeople even cheaper and less trustworthy are Arabs and Greeks. Even Italians aren't as bad as Chinese.

>> No.6248123

>>6244084
The one I go to
Shinju Japanese Buffet
Is 11 dollars and I eat a metric ton of everytime

>> No.6248410

>Smoke loads of weed with 2 fat friends.
>Wait a bit
>Head to a $15 chinese buffet
>Wipe out the sushi section 2 times, eat piles and piles of meat and seafood
>We stayed there for like 2 hours
>The chinese here are very timid, so they didn't ask us to leave
>Could see the tears in owner's eyes
>We were so full we could hardly walk
>By the exit theres a bowl of candy, take them all
>Fuck the ching chongs

>> No.6248428

>>6248123
Do you really trust the quality of the fish there?

>> No.6248440

>>6248410
Amurrrrika! U S A!

>> No.6248442

>>6247916
>american
>drink almost exclusively water at restaurants
>soda and other drinks are for the good times
>releaize i wont get free water outside fo the country
>start to feel bad

what teh fuck do you all drink most of the time then?

>> No.6248484

>>6247475
Oh Florida, how I love you and your wildly unsafe drinking and drug habbits

>> No.6248521

>>6244344
Used to live in Raleigh, NC, and there was a decent place that charges $25 for dinner, you had to order off a dry erase menu and wait for them to make the food and bring it to you, but was still pretty nice.

>> No.6248557

>>6248442
In EU, restaurants have to give you free tap water if you ask for it, same as US, just that most of us don't ask for it, ever. We typically drink mineral water with our meals. The bottles are cheapish (depending on where you are and your definition of "cheap,") so most of us don't much care.
Some costlier restaurants provide mineral water free of charge.

>> No.6249061
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6249061

>>6244665

>> No.6249407

>>6247287

I think buffet refers to the presentation of the food, at least that is what I've been taught in event sales. It means essentially that your party is going to serve itself from chafers or a setup, but the food is going to be limited to what you have ordered, and not just brought out endlessly. There is no plate limitation, but only a certain amount of food available.

>> No.6249457

>>6248557
I've never asked for free water. It's weird that we get criticized for being fat and drinking soda but then also criticized for drinking water. Don't you guys have anything better to do?

>> No.6249470

A lot of restaurats only do AYCE on certain days or at a specific time, probably to get more business on slow days or whatever.
The local Subway for example offers AYCE 15cm subs every evening past 6pm
>tfw you don't even like subway

>> No.6249471

>>6249407
Didn't know that. Here though buffet usually is associated with all you can eat.

>> No.6249500

>>6244344
Aji Sushi and Teppan is pretty good

>> No.6249581

They're a neat idea but I would never go to one since I'm skeptical about the food, dish & utensil hygeine. Same with restaurants, just not to the same extent.

>> No.6249620

My girlfriend is jewish (shes a really nice girl, trust me) and she talks about how her brother and dad and occsionally her mom will go to all you can eat buffets and all eat like 5 plates of food or more each (she typically only eats 1 or 2) and how they'll always like.. "shark" the lobster tails and shit like that. As in, the brother and dad will just walk around the asiles of food waiting for the lobster to show up and they'll both completely fill their plates of the tails before going to sit back down.

Doesn't help perpetrate the "jew" stereotype. Also whenever she tells me she is at a buffet, I always think of that one post from /ck/. The "fps" (food per second) or something where a guy goes to a golden corral to laugh at people.

>> No.6249979

>>6244590
American here.

Only about 20 percent of the people at an AYCE buffet are super fat in my experience. I'm super skinny and eat like a bird. I go to AYCE because the price is comparable to a diner and I like variety. I'm super indecisive. Having the ability to just pick up whatever, especially foods I'm not sure I'll like is fantastic. I have just one super fat friend who takes AYCE not as an invitation but as a challenge. He will actually shit while at the restaurant to make more room for food. It's like having a freak side show for a friend. Still a cool guy though and has a nose for really nice restaurants in his area.

>> No.6250053

>>6247184
keep doing gods work, fellow tons of fun.

>> No.6250104

>>6248410
>not leaving all of their shitters in all the bathrooms full, eating everything again, then sucking all the ice cream out of the machine by sheer force of gravity. then watch as the owner weeps uncontrollably as his profits go up in a cloud of fat guy farts.

you have yet to live anon

>> No.6250307

>>6249457
No one's making fun of nor criticising you for drinking water for fuck's sake. Anon merely explained how water at restaurants works where he's from. Nothing more.
Don't you ever get tired of playing the victim all the time?

>> No.6250391

>>6244223
I had this for dinner and I'm a skinny rich guy.

>> No.6250397

well in general, it deals with what your ordering.
if you know you're able to eat two plates that costs 7$ each might as well go for the 10$ all you can eat for savings

most buffets through out more than what's actually eaten.

>> No.6250413

On AYCE. I cant say throughout the years Ihave enjoyed the buffets. Been to a mix of thrm from the chinese jack of all trade feed pits to hotel buffets in downtown and I say the hotel ones are the most disappointing. The entree felt like a mockery of the chef who made the recipe with roasts being drier than a fresh one. Desert buffet being just average and the sushi fish being low level fish. At a chinese place you know what you are getting but at a place that hires pro feels like I am not a good customer