What type of "all-you-can-eat" type restaurant would you like to see?

Human toddler meat restaurant.

Vegetarian.

All you can eat Thanksgiving dinner buffet.
Roast Turkey, Chicken and Ham, multiple dressings, multiple veggies, yams, corn, potatoes, mashed & baked, creamed cauliflower, green bean casserole, brussels sprouts, baked cabbage and, of course, cranberry sauce. Sweet dinner rolls, corn muffins, and pies, pies pies!
Pecan, Pumpkin, Cherry, Berry, Lemon Meringue, Key Lime, Custard, Butterscotch.

OMG…I am so hungry now!

Crab legs!

@Coloma You can get that at Golden Corral on Thanksgiving day. It’s sooo good, too. At least the one in Wichita is.

Lobster.

Side ribs. long ribs and pork and beef each. Maybe BBQ duck with skins.

I’d like to see “all-you-can-eat” restaurants abolished. They’re terrible.

Why are they terrible?

^^^ Because they promote overeating of all things decadent and bad. haha
Having 7 desserts in a row once a year isn’t all that bad though.

@dappled_leaves, one of the top hotels here used to have a buffet evening that included a range of fresh seafood. That was spectacular and the food was amazing. I only went twice because my husband loves seafood. However, it wasn’t good value for us. Both of us tended to eat as much as we would if it wasn’t an ‘as much as you can eat’ type event. So one plate and some dessert and then we didn’t want any more food. I’ve never got my monies worth from such places. My experience of other smorgasbord venues is the food is often awful.

@Earthbound_Misfit “My experience of other smorgasbord venues is the food is often awful.”

Exactly. If I’m going out to eat, the point is to have an unusual and delicious meal. It’s about quality, not quantity. Otherwise, I’d save all the money and eat at home.

^ totally agree (except the one the Marriott ran. Which is the hotel Obama stayed at when he was here. Their seafood buffet was really good. They’ve stopped doing it now.)

If I don’t like an all you can eat restaurant I don’t go back there. For the most part, my experience has been that they’re really good and for $6 – $10, it’s not bad. That Golden Corral in Wichita was AMAZING! They made the best medium rare steak I’ve ever eaten.

As far as over eating, again, that’s personal choice. Watch a 400 pound woman go back to the buffet 6 times and coming back with loaded plate each time…her choice. Nobody is making her.

@dappled_leaves: “I’d like to see “all-you-can-eat” restaurants abolished. They’re terrible.”

This. I can think of nothing more disgusting than a restaurant advertising quantity.

The best meals I have had have been long, multi-course meals consisting of tiny (reasonable) portions. When I leave a restaurant, I should not feel full.

Huh. I never read it as advertising quantity as much as options. Lots of stuff to choose from. But I guess that’s what they’re doing. Every restaurant advertises quantity. The fast food chains are blatant about it.

@Dutchess_III – I’ll admit that I don’t really know of any “all-you-can-eat” restaurants, so I don’t know how they advertise.

@Dutchess_III: “Every restaurant advertises quantity.”

That is just not the case. Quantity is definitely downplayed in good restaurants. As strange as it may sound, quantity is negatively correlated with quality in dining. Even the tastiest food in large quantities = bad dining experience.

I have to say even though you could go back as often as you wanted at the Marriott’s seafood buffet, the advertising was still about quality. Beautiful seafood, baked whole fish, delicious salads and vegetables. I’m sure some people did pig out but the cost would have deterred people who were motivated by the ‘eat-as-much-as-you-like’ notion.

This is one of my favs. Not a gambler but Harrahs buffet is worth an hours drive. Mmmmm, delish, and look at the view!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO8m9v2MW9s

Beaver, i’m a vagitarian.
Shrek & Fiona see a sex therapist, his advice…“eat your greens”

We have a Chinese restaurant that advertises some like 300 different foods. It’s pretty good.

None. I am not much of an all you can eat person, I am a “grazer” and eat small meals throughout the day. I simply cannot eat a huge amount of food at one time and if I do, I just might throw up.

Me too. The sheer amount of food some people can eat astonishes me!

@Dutchess_III Yeah and then they wonder why they are fat, it’s because they eat too much and don’t get enough exercise, that is why.

The art museum in St. Louis had the best buffet I’ve ever seen in my life. Sunday brunch and they featured dishes from around the world. Limited seating and they served the food much like you would at home rather than from stainless steel troughs. Mimosas were the beverage. I didn’t even overeat…I was too concerned that I’d run out of room before I’d tried all the delicious and exotic dishes. It was a fantastic experience. I checked recently, and, of course they no longer have it.

I would bring that to my hometown for buffet.

Second would be the vegetarian buffet I visited in St. Louis once. Small, intimate, and delicious.

Indian food. But I agree; I don’t like all you can eat. I fill up fast, eat too much and yet, if the array is enticing, feel that I haven’t gotten “my money’s worth.”

@ragingloli @ZEPHYRA ~ How about a cafe that serves human Vegetarian.

At 53, I’m too old for traditional ‘All You Can Eat’.

The last time I went to Golden Corral, the 4 of us agreed that it was “All the Cafeteria Food You Care To Eat”, and the bill was over $50. I no longer care to eat cafeteria food. Intimate locally owned mediocre is preferable to chain, trough, mediocre, if it comes to that.

I’m not a big fan of all you can eat, because I tend to over eat in that situation especially if it is expensive.

The all you can eat “salad” bar at Texas de Brazil is fantastic. Roasted veggies, different types of lettuce, several dressings (I get the balsamic vinagrette) smoked salmon, rice, beans, delicious bread, thick bacon, olives, marinated mushrooms, tabouli, and more. If you also get the all you can eat meat you have choice of sirloin, tenderloin, sausage, pork, chicken, and I am sure I am forgetting something. It’s really easy to over eat. I only go when I get 50% off and then I don’t feel inclined to pig out too much, I just eat a normal, slightly too big, restaurant meal.

My mom and dad love Golden Corral, which cracks me up. They get the salad and baked potatoes and maybe a small cheat of something else to taste.

Japanese all you can eat can be good, not too fatty. I find Chinese buffet is fatty and gross usually.

I like the salad bar at Ruby Tuesdays.

I guess my answer to the question is I like all you can eat to have a lot of healthy options. I like the idea of Mediterranean food, grilled foods, lots of vegetables, baked potatoes, rice, soup, salads.

There are AYCE- restaurants? As in, you can always go right in and start eating? I’ve been to regular restaurants with specified AYCE days, didn’t know there are establishments where it’s the norm.

I’d like a healthy all-you-can-eat buffet.

Chinese CAN be fattening. It depends on what you get. If everything you select is fried, then ya. Fat. But they have plenty of non-fried selections.
It also can be gross, if you select things typically non-American, like little squids. Ish.

>>things typically non-American
>>gross
I think you will find the opposite to be true.

@Dutchess_III Chinese food in America is almost all fattening unless you can order something no oil. Every noodle and rice dish (except for plain white rice) is “fried” in a wok. I live Chinese food, but it can be overload at the buffets. Usually the food it sitting in more oil than usual. Soups would be an exception and steamed dumplings. What Chinese foods are you thinking of that aren’t made with oil?

But they barely use a tablespoon of oil for an entire batch of rice. A little fat wouldn’t hurt me. Fact, I can probably use it.

I like their beef and broccoli, and the mushrooms. They have this in-the-half-shell crab dish that they make that I like. I especially like their sea food dishes. My meal consists mainly of sea food dishes. Peel and eat shrimp, stuff like that.
The only fried things I eat are crab Rangoon and egg rolls. When you fry like that, the oil soaks into the breading. Even if the other things are fried in a wok, even if they’re sitting in oil, most of it drips away. Frying in a little bit of oil, so it won’t stick to the pan, isn’t the same as deep frying breaded stuff. Again, if you’re a normal weight it won’t hurt anything.

Looking at this recipe, it only calls for one table spoon of oil for the entire meal. The sauce they are sitting in is mostly sugar…which is just as fattening as oil. But again, much of it drips away. Over all it’s a pretty lo cal dish.

The local grocery was having Cajun night in their restaurant yesterday $14.00. Squid was a $3 upgrade. American, I’m guessing, since it was Cajun.

My experience is they use more than a tablespoon.

What experience? Have you been a cook at a Chinese restaurant? (That could come off sarcastic, but it isn’t meant to be. I just wondered how you know.) They use just enough so it won’t stick to the pan. Why would they use more than they need?

I’ve been to take out where you can see right in the kitchen and also places like Stir Crazy where they stir fry up the veggies and meat you picked right in front of you. They have those squirt bottles of oil and they usually squirt in more than a tablespoon. Almost all restaurant food is full of fat though, so I don’t know why I’m harping on Chinese food.

I am having an all you can eat healthy buffet here today. Tuna salad with olive oil mayo, diced celery and cucumber, & dill pickle relish on toasted thin sliced french bread with a big salad and oven baked garlic fries. Also a tray of olives, radishes, and carrot sticks.
Come on over…dinner at 4. The trick is to eat all you want early. haha

A whole food buffet… with lots of veggies (raw and cooked options), fruit, meat, nuts… all with clearly marked allergen/ingredient labels. No dessert.

I am currently dairy and soy free because of my baby’s reflux… and I can barely eat out. It is really ridiculous how many foods have dairy or soy in them.