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Well the local Old Country Buffet, which is the same as Ryan's in the east, has decent quality food for what I think is a fair price, for all you can eat. Some days and sometimes they actually have steak - you don't get a whole steak, but you can get a few cuts, and while it's not like you would get at Ruth's Chris, for steak as part of a relatively inexpensive all you can eat meal, it's quite good.
There are all sorts of food on offer. You can choose healthy stuff, probably more salt in it than I would prefer, but if you don't eat there all the time, it should be OK. Salad, home-made soups, meatloaf, green beans, broccoli, baked fish, roast turkey, roast beef, a variety of breads. You can load up on fried stuff and sweets as well. You can eat a very unhealthy meal that will move you closer to becoming diabetic too. Choice is yours.
Totally common at grocery store and bodega takeouts. Which is why I don't bother with the iceberg lettuce and other cheap items. If I'm paying per pound, Gimme meat.
I had a coworker do that... the buffets in the area charge per pound. He would get meat and the more pricy stuff, and cook his own rice in his rice cooker he has in his office.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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I thought you meant pay by YOUR weight. You walk in, get on a scale, and then pay. If you weigh 200 pounds, your meal will cost $20 because the restaurant knows you are a big eater. If you weigh 100 pounds, it's only $10 because they know you are a small eater.
Hmm...I think I have a new business plan. It would be a popular place for first dates, I'm sure!
So this approach sounds interesting but negates some of the appeal of buffet. For one, going to wait in a line to pay a cashier every time you get a new plate would be annoying. On a buffet, I don't get everything I'm going to eat in one trip. I'll get a plate of main items. If I'm hungry I might get another plate of different item. I might then get a plate for dessert. Another thing, I'll be less likely to try something new if paying by the pound. Even if I stick to the tried and true, I'll be annoyed paying for a dish that was prepared poorly. For families and groups, everyone tends to return to the buffet at different times after the first pass. Is everone including kids supposed to return to the food bar armed with a credit card? And finally, who wants to be thinking about what items offer best value on a weight basis? Do these places have issues with someone just filling the plate with ribeye, no veggies, no salads?
I like the pay by weight idea because near me is a Chinese all you can eat buffet for a set price and the owners became so disgusted by the amount of food left on plates that they posted a large hand printed sign at the entrance that says......"PLEASE DO NOT WASTE FOOD - TAKE ONLY WHAT YOU WILL EAT "
I would love that concept of only paying for what you eat. It exists in salad bars in grocery stores.
I avoid all you can eat buffets because I don't eat that much and I figure I end up paying for those who overload their plates.
There is one buffet in Maine that I will go to. Their food is different--healthy vegetables, beans, beautiful home made breads, different types of salads--I need to go there again now. I guess their buffet is really a creative salad bar but it's not just lettuce!
Our extensive menu includes
the “Seacoast’s Finest Salad Bar” featuring over 60 fresh and tantalizing items.In business for 78 years,
I am on vacation right now, and noticed a new (for me) trend around here: pay for what you eat buffets.
In other words, everything looks like in a typical buffet, but price is set say, $6/lb.
You put on your plate whatever you want to eat, then proceed to cashier, where your plate is weighted (all plates are the same and their weight is substracted from the total) and you pay for what on it.
I noticed that there is almost zero waste, and those places are extremally popular here, overseas.
(I took several pictures, but don't know how to post them from my phone. Will post when I return to the US.)
Is that concept already tried in the US? I didn't see it around there where I live. Perhaps in NY?
What do you think about?
I think it helps to cut the costs of meals, because you are not paying for the huge waste other patrons create, since the waste is calculated into the meal price. The buffets seem to have more quality food because all those cheap fillers are eliminated. People simply don't want to pay for that cheap crap.
I also think that the American “all you can eat/drink” thing a significant factor in causing the American obesity epidemic.
The food waste in the US is frightening, and some cities already require food-permitted businesses to keep organic material, such as food scraps and soiled paper products, from landfills.
Restaurants there will no longer be allowed to throw out food waste, and are required to dispose of their food waste by donating extra food, giving scraps to local farms for animals, or composting it. https://thehill.com/policy/energy-en...wing-away-food
This trend of salad bars that one chooses what one wants to eat and then pays according to what it weighs was already in place in NYC from 1991 at least. So it might be a new concept to you or to the area you live in but it is nothing new in reality. This option is a popular one for people working in Manhattan as they can choose to eat their food wherever they want (including back at their offices).
I have seen this in the US at cafeterias located inside of institutions like museums. I think it is a good idea, especially if it means higher quality than the standard "all you can eat".
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