Do you think new Buffets are hurting restaurants? (diners, seafood, meatloaf)

[jgn2013]

The only buffets worth going to near me, are for Indian food. Most Indian places will have a buffet from 11 to 3pm, close for a couple of hours and then open for traditional restaurant dinner service around 5pm.

I'm not sure if that model would work for other types of establishments. It works well though, because the buffet exposes you to some of the more popular Indian/Indo-Pak-Americanized dishes. The quality on average seems way higher than your typical "Chinese" buffet.

[Tourian]

All we have left are Chinese buffets and a couple of Indian ones. There are some Mexican ones inside a particular chain of grocery stores.

All the American style chains like Ryan's and Old Country are gone...except Golden Corral. I csn stand the occasional Chinese or Mexican buffet visit for lunch but Golden Corral makes me ill everytime.

[tailsock]

Calabash Seafood buffets at Myrtle Beach SC are a thing.

[Nanny Goat]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

isn't that how we build up our defense bacteria??


a vaccine assimilates what the actual disease is to build up defenses....???

Not by eating food w/ bacteria or viruses. That's food poisoning. Eating yogurt w/ "healthy" bacteria might be of help though. To each his own, I'm not a buffet consuming person. Ha.

[sheena12]

I'm not that interested in buffets. Part of going out to eat, at least for me, is being served and being away from chaos. I love food - but I am not a big eater, so the appeal of the "all you can eat buffet" is lost on me.

Quality over quantity.

I really don't think actual restaurants are suffering because of Chinese-American buffets or the various Golden Corral or Country Buffet places. Fast food might suffer.

[lieqiang]

Originally Posted by Mattie

I don't know anybody who opts for a buffet over a sit-down restaurant.

We sometimes go because one can try more a lot more different things at one sitting. There are four main kinds of buffets we hit:

1. Breakfast buffets. We travel a lot, and some guest houses or hotels have it so why not use it. Ranges from the really simple in American motels to fairly elaborate spreads with everything from smoked salmon to egg cooking stations and ethnic cuisine. Love 'em.

2. Country buffets. This does go farther than Golden Corral, there are many good southern type food buffets that serve quality stuff. Collared greens, cat fish, black eyed peas, fried chicken, all sorts of deserts like cobblers. Love 'em.

3. Seafood buffets. We don't go to these as often since can be pretty hard on the wallet. Fish, shrimp in various formats, oysters, clams, crawfish, crab legs, etc. I know there is a lot of cross menu with some of the Asian buffets but there are higher quality seafood buffets. We just saw one in Nha Trang that had a couple crocodiles on rotating on spits over coals. Love 'em.

4. Asian, the one everyone loves to hate. Obviously the quality of food is lower than a really good Chinese restaurant, but it isn't necessarily lower than local authentic Chinese food or the hole in the wall places. I like that can get salad too, and lots of variety. Love 'em.

Hooray for the buffet!

Edit = damn forgot Indian, which I guess is West Asian. Love 'em, throw me some naan and set me loose on all those lovely curries/dahls

[GeoffD]

The only chain buffet place around me was Old Country Buffet and they went bankrupt last March. The Texas parent company Buffets LLC lost some huge salmonella lawsuit and shut the doors. I ate at a chain buffet place once maybe 25 years ago and never went back.

Like anywhere, I have several bad Chinese lunch buffets and an unusually bad Indian lunch buffet available. A few Italian places have a weekly red sauce and pizza buffet dinners a slow midweek night. There's an all-you-can-eat sushi place I avoid. A couple places have a Sunday brunch buffet off-season that is OK. I think I've eaten local buffet food once in the last half-dozen years.

On business trips, I'll occasionally encounter a good Indian lunch buffet. Once in a blue moon, I have a Brazilian Churrascaria business dinner but those are $50 meals plus wine and I'm not buying.

The best dinner buffet I've ever been to is the Seafood Buffet at Deer Valley's Snow Park Lodge. It's a $60 meal plus tip & alcohol and easily worth every penny.

[ilovemycomputer90]

I've never been to a Golden Corral. Was always curious, but doesn't sound too great based on the experience of some posters here.

There aren't many buffets around here except a few Chinese and sushi buffets. I do occasionally go to a sushi buffet that is decent, but pricey. Most Chinese buffets locally are subpar...food was often out of temperature and the quality was questionable, but there is one good Chinese buffet near my parent's house that we go to. I don't see a proliferation of buffets here...I don't think they were that popular to begin with.

Even some "fancy" restaurants have major health code violations. Maybe should get in the habit of getting your hands on an establishment's inspection report before eating there.

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by lieqiang

1. Breakfast buffets. We travel a lot, and some guest houses or hotels have it so why not use it. Ranges from the really simple in American motels to fairly elaborate spreads with everything from smoked salmon to egg cooking stations and ethnic cuisine. Love 'em.

Breakfast buffets are the best of the lot. They're usually busy, and the food is often made to order or at least fresher than at many other buffets. The worst time to be at a buffet is when business is slow, because the food isn't replenished often.

There was a Mexican restaurant in Dayton that used to offer Sunday brunch buffets, including traditional breakfast food, omelets made to order, roast beef, and Mexican breakfast and lunch, also made to order. The best cure for a hangover I've ever had!

[yellowsnow]

I live in Las Vegas, probably the buffet capital of the world. Where tourists are plentiful and wages are low! The buffets are eternally popular here. And with good reason. For around $10 PP you can get a world of choices on your own schedule. Reasonable for the tourists and people who live here. Eat only what you want and as much as you want. Food quality is all over the place, sometimes excellent and other times not so good. Want to know where to go? Ask a local! They know where you can get the best buffets.

There are a lot of world class restaurants here. And the prices are world class too. Dinner at places like Bouchon or Nobu can easily run $200PP. And you might leave hungry! The food is excellent but the portions are tiny for the money spent. It's all about the ambiance and the plating/presentation. And if you want wine or cocktails that dinner for 2 may be over $500. This well out of the price range for most people. Thus the popularity of the buffet.

There are quite a few more expensive higher end buffets too. One I have been to that's really excellent is at the M. Amazing! A friend of mine waited in line for 2.5 hours for their Thanksgiving meal. I won't do that! I tend to stay home for all the big holidays that bring crowds into my usual haunts! I haven't been to most of the high end buffets because they are pricey, you might have to pay for parking, AND navigate the Strip. Not for the faint of heart!

The best buffet is without a doubt the Sterling Brunch on Sunday mornings! There was a 2 for 1 groupon a couple years ago and I missed it. Nothing since then. It's almost $100PP and people say it's worth every penny. Not only a buffet, you can ask for anything you want and they will get it for you. Lobster? Caviar? No problem! High end champagne too. Maybe someday I will get to try it!

Do they hurt restaurants? Here they do without a doubt. But the casinos don't want you to leave so they usually provide buffets and sit down dining.