<p>People who don’t like Indian food usually complain until they find naan. :)</p>
<p>Mmm… Indian food! </p>
<p>D’s university had ala carte pricing at it’s dining halls. They had determined that a one-price meal plan, eat all you want, promoted food waste and fatter students. </p>
<p>"One big reason to go back to Disneyworld is the dinner buffet at Boma in Animal Kingdom. "</p>
<p>That reminds me of the mostly-herring appetizer buffet at the Norwegian restaurant in Epcot. It was fantastic. I’ve been trying to find a way to get to Norway ever since.</p>
<p>Son’s school has ala carte pricing also. Dormers are required to purchase the meal plan which includes a set amount for the year. He ran though his meal card by half way through the year, as did most of his male friends. They are allowed to purchase meal dollars from other students and he was able to get most of his remaining meal dollars at about a 50% discount. Still, it ended up being an expensive year! This year he is in an on-campus apartment, and while they still have to purchase a meal plan, he is supplementing it with most breakfasts and lunches cooked at home. </p>
<p>My husbands grandmother used to love Golden Corral. I went several times with her. She would pile up her plate and wrap up all her food at the table and hide it in her purse. She was a famous chicken leg stealer. My mother in law was mortified and actually called the restaurant. The manager said many of the elderly clientele did that and they weren’t concerned about it. </p>
<p>Eyemamom, we must be related. Before my complaining finally got her to stop, my elderly aunt would pile chicken parts in her purse during our meals at a local buffet. I was always afraid that I would be tackled at the door on the way out by a busboy.</p>
<p>I don’t mind an occasional buffet. I think owners of the buffets are more concerned with those who waste a lot of the food or steal it rather than consuming it on the spot. There have been news stories of people asked to leave buffet restaurants after filing up plate after plate and not finishing the food, but going back for more.</p>
<p>Ooh, I just remembered another one for the meat-lover. I went to Cancun with a friend years ago and we ate at a Churrascaria called Jaguaros. The waiters walked around the dining room with different Brazilian-style meats on skewers and slice off hunks.</p>
<p>I don’t like buffets, but can tolerate Sweet Tomatoes pretty well… can keep my meal fairly healthy there.</p>
<p>I have only been to four buffets that I"ve enjoyed, some of them more than a few times, but for the most part, I stay far, far away from them: Boma at AK/WDW, Sunday Brunch at the Bellagio Vegas, Harraseeket Inn for AYCE boiled lobster, et al in Freeport, ME, and one small Indian restaurant in NOVA. If a buffet is served at a wedding or other large party, I eat all the passed appetizers and hope salad/soup/dessert is served to guests. I was in the restaurant business for about 35 years and I’ve seen everything but the worst I’ve ever seen is when I waitressed at a buffet place, gag me.</p>
<p>We always used to let our kids decide where to go for their birthday dinners, and S2 picked Hometown Buffet for several years when he was between 9-12. The irony was that he was a skinny kid and a picky eater. I think he liked that he could choose only the things he liked, get as much of them as he liked, and load up on desserts. The rest of us went along with him because he was the birthday boy, but we wouldn’t have chosen to eat there otherwise.</p>
<p>@NEPatsGirl, I will have to try the buffet at the Harraseeket! It’s only 9 miles from our house.</p>
<p>We had a terrific Asian buffet near here for a while. When it first opened, the buffet dishes were very small, so the food was constantly being replaced with a fresh batch. After a year or so…they made the serving dishes very large…and the quality suffered. We stopped going.</p>
<p>I’m not a huge buffet fan anyway at restaurants. </p>
<p>MaineLonghorn, what’s your license plate number? I’ll follow anybody to a lobster buffet.</p>
<p>Does anyone else here remember the Olentangy Inn (I’m sure I didn’t spell that correctly) in Columbus Ohio? They had an all you can eat lobster buffet we used to go to when I was in college in the very early 70’s. I think it was about $10 a person at the time!</p>
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<p>Yes, I should have clarified. Not a fan at chain restaurants.</p>
<p>I just remembered the seafood buffet our crowd of grad students used to pillage in Virginia. Can’t think of the name but the AYCE was on Friday nights. A couple of guys in my group exclusively sampled the lobster, in heaping plates of the stuff. Fairly decent as I recall.</p>
<p>I love buffets at pizza places (choose the salad, let others get loads of pizza, everyone is happy), at Indian places (everyone orders one of about ten dishes anyway, why not put them out?), and for sampling foreign foods (tourist places like the buffet at the entrance to Machu Picchu). High customer volume is really key for a good buffet experience, in my mind.</p>
<p>@MaineLonghorn and Lake Washington ~ Harraseeket Inn buffet is probably one of the best buffets anywhere. It is a small inn with several small dining areas from which you walk to a room that holds all the food. All the lobster you can eat, it is boiled but served room temp/cool with hot butter. There’s also prime rib, and many other items…it is all very quality food. They do Sunday brunch every week…reservations are accepted and usually necessary, although my husband and I called a day before and were told no room in the inn lol but we just showed up and they sat us in about 20 minutes. Its not cheap, I think $45pp, but I can easily eat that in lobster and rib. Absolutely a must do if you are in the area! My parents travel 3 hours for the brunch (well, honestly they stay overnight and do some shopping too but I think they really go for brunch).</p>
<p>Sounds like a great place to take my parents when they visit! They come up from Texas every summer.</p>