Pay for what you eat/ pay by weight buffets. (vegetables, garden, cheap)
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Sure, AYCE is a better value, but true to form, not all of us are able to get their value out of it (by eating enough such that what they consume is at least equal to what paid). For many, it's just unhealthy to REALLY exceed that. I went to a lunch buffet with coworkers, and after we get back to our office, my supervisor was just admiring how much sense I had because he over ate and is in a "semi-food coma". I told him "I'm not smart"... I did the same thing you guys did a few weeks back. I learned my lesson the hard way that however many plates I was gunning for... eat one less.
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Furthermore, calls to my parents would reveal that 5, 10, 15 years later... some of the AYCE buffet places were STILL around. They most definitely nailed down the business side of things. Charging for soft drinks means they make $1 to $3 right off the bat, which goes a solid way towards profitability.
I rather do like some of the buffets that charge by weight compared to AYCE. With these, I can take the food home with me, and eat it over the course of 2 to 4 meals. AYCE buffets have this option (although one Polish place, a container was the same as the AYCE option). Supermarkets, like Whole Foods have a salad bar and hot foods bar.
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Originally Posted by michgc
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!
That, or also put in a "parking meter". The longer you stay to eat, the more you have to "feed the meter".
If I've read the OP correctly, the point was that this isn't a grocery story, and you aren't buying the food to take home. It's a restaurant where you consume the food on premises like a regular restaurant, but you don't order off a menu, you select from a price per pound buffet/food bar as opposed to an all you can eat buffet.
So your answer don't negate the OP's question, it actually confirms it, which is that no, that type of model for a *restaurant* isn't a common thing in the US because a take out salad/food bar at a supermarket or deli isn't what she was asking about.
It's not an either/or. The hundreds of places in NYC who offer this also have seating. The choice is there to take out or stay and eat. I've done both. Sometimes I needed to eat at my desk, other times I ate there alone or with friends.
I worked in lower Manhattan, one of the most tourist-infested places you could think of. Families on vacation eat at the food buffets as well as entire classes on field trips.
A couple of places I worked had that concept in the cafeteria. I learned very quickly it was not a good value because they seldom put out meats. Lots of lettuce, which is cheap, and pasta and potato dishes, which are cheap AND heavy.
Almost all the AYCE places that I recall have disappeared. Quality has gone down and price way, way up. Our town has only one left, a "Chinese" place. Way overpriced for what you get which leads people to "I'm going to eat my money's worth." Comparing to the ones I was familiar with in the past, the price used to be reasonable and people seemed to be reasonable about what they ate (naturally there were a few gluttons), but as prices shot up, people taking a LOT more food than they could eat did too.
Yeah, I know that pay by weight is available in stores where everything else also get sold by the weight. Some hospitals, government buildings, salad bars or company cafeterias do that too, but the places I saw are stand alone restaurants, where people go to eat, not shop. They are buffets/restaurants where all your food is sold by the pound. They look like all-you-can-eat buffets.
By definition they are not AYCE buffets.
It would be analogous to describing any regular sit-down restaurant with a menu as AYCE, but you have to pay for each item you order.
It would be analogous to describing any regular sit-down restaurant with a menu as AYCE, but you have to pay for each item you order.
Except of course that a traditional restaurant with a menu looks nothing like an AYCE buffet, whereas it's very easy to envision someplace that looks like a standard ACYE buffet except that rather than paying up front and returning as many times as you want, you pay after you take your food based on how much it weighs.
I ate at Whole Foods hot bar last night for the first time in months. They finally had something I wanted to eat: lasagne, meatballs, grilled vegetables, and steamed green beans. I had actually given up shopping there for the most part, as eating and shopping together is something I like being able to do, and their food had become too uninteresting to bother with.
I ate at Whole Foods hot bar last night for the first time in months. They finally had something I wanted to eat: lasagne, meatballs, grilled vegetables, and steamed green beans. I had actually given up shopping there for the most part, as eating and shopping together is something I like being able to do, and their food had become too uninteresting to bother with.
When all is said and done, is it any cheaper than eating at a full service restaurant?
Can you provide locations, maybe even some restaurant names if they are a chain that might be in more than one location?
Sure emm, I first saw it over 20 years ago at the Ground Round restaurant in Pittsburgh, PA. We don't live there anymore so I don't know if they are still doing it. Hope that helps!
Now, back to our regularly scheduled thread.....
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