To not want to go to an all you can eat buffet?

Nobody will give a shit what you put on your plate and eat.

you do you.

I’ve been to one in our local town a couple of times. Despite being fat, I don’t eat a lot in one go, so I’m sure people would expect me to eat 3 large plate fills. I would generally have a couple of pancake duck rolls, then a small helping of noodles and something.

I guarantee many of your group you are with will just eat normal portions. It’s far more unusual to mound a plate up with stuff.

We go to one when we are in Newcastle. Its immaculate,, the food is delicious fresh and you can see the chefs cooking.
We visited on a Friday once where the place was filled with Indian families
the ladies dressed in beautiful saris.
I'd take that as a good recommendation

I'm going to one this month - can't wait.

However, I am a very untypical MNer who doesn't get stressed, annoyed, upset etc. by perfectly normal activities.

It’s so they can have something to write on MN to sound pious. 😉

This, it’s so weird!
Go or don’t, but why do so many people care about what others are eating? Really weird

I wouldn't. Last time I went was long ago, to Melbourne's first smorgasbord restaurant. Never forgot the sight of a kid picking food up, taking a bite and putting it back in the other food. 🤢

The global buffet in our town is brilliant. It's £24.99 a head (half price for under 10's) including refillable soft drinks. It's all 3 dc's favourite place to eat so we're there 3 times a year as they always choose it for their birthday meal.

There's a couple of token beige food options, then a huge amount of Chinese and Indian dishes, most of them pretty good. The live cook stations are where it shines though...steak, seafood, lamb chops etc, all cooked fresh. Huge sushi area too.

We always get far more than our moneys worth when we go. The dc seem to have an innate sense of what costs the most and fill their plates with sushi, lamb chops, calamari, mussels, duck pancakes etc 😂

I have been to a "world food" buffet once. Like you @wizarddry, it wouldn't have been my first choice, but I was pleasantly surprised. My advice would be to avoid all the massive piles of carbs and stick to the teppanyaki station, if they have one. That way you can get meats and seafood freshly cooked in front of you. Top up with some veggies and you're good to go! Also avoid the bottomless soft drinks!

That looks amazing @Turmerictolly but I would feel vexed at having so much choice. I LOVE food and eat most things so a buffet like that one would torment me. So much lovely stuff and I can’t possibly try everything even though I can see how delicious it looks. I don’t like restaurants with huge menus either- just give me four or five dishes to choose from or we’ll be here all night! (Actually the bigger the menu, the lower the quality I often find, though that Ned’s feast looks like an exception!)

www.thened.com/london/restaurants/neds-feast

There is a resurgence of these type of restaurants in London and the big cities but not as you know it. They are huge feasts with luxury ingredients and cost a lot of money.

I change my mindset - it's not about all the quantity you can eat; it's about all the variety of dishes available for you to choose from

We have done them for big family meals and it's so much easier when you haven't got to find one restaurant/cuisine that will suit everyone
We all have the dishes, portions and timing we want

I personally go for the freshly cooked to order stations and avoid too many carbs. I'm not stuffed and last time had steak cooked how I wanted it, salmon, prawns and veg. Plus dessert and cheese!

I like them because if I ever go out to eat, I always order the same thing to ensure I like it.

But with all you can eat, you get to try new dishes and things that you may never have tried before.

You don’t have to gorge yourself.
You can have small amounts of different food on your plate.

It doesn’t bother me if people want to gorge and go up multiple times.
I wouldn’t judge them for it.

What I cannot stand is food waste and some people fill their plates and then leave most of it.
If it’s a place where you can go up multiple times then there is no need to overfill your plate every time.

To be honest though OP, I don’t think I would go if I was you.
It doesn’t seem your cup of tea, which is fine and so I would make an excuse not to go.

Not something I would want to do. Even less if it is billed as brunch, a word that should be deemed as unacceptable to market as the F or C word is. We are not the 51st state.

I am obviously not very worldly as I thought this concept only existed at Chinese restaurants (and AI hotels) but it sounds as though there are other types!

I’m not a fan of the ones at Chinese restaurants because I don’t like Chinese food all that much (or the anglicised version of it at any rate). Went to one recently for a birthday and it was £25 a head!

That’s probably because buffet all you can eat chains like Red Hot were either ultra processed or shite.

The last time DH and I went, we had salmon sashimi ( had to rush as soon as it came out) crispy duck and hoisin pancakes, and fresh seafood cooked on the teppanyaki.

People hear the word buffet and assume it's all beige ultra processed food.

an Indian restaurant here does one and it’s lovely- lots of fresh food and quiet. Nobody goes OTT
That said I went to a ‘world foods’ one and it was help on earth. Cheap, greasy food and loads of people. It made me feel ill and non of the food appealed to me. If it’s one of those place Yanbu

I would go with others but I wouldn't choose it for myself. I can't eat more than one normal plate of food anyway so I don't really get the appeal.

What?! You’re massively over-thinking this.

Just eat what you fancy. You choose your own portions.

“All you can eat” doesn’t mean “You must eat until you physically can’t eat any more”. It just means you can eat as little or as much as you want and it will still be the same price. There’s no etiquette involved. Nobody will care how much or how little you eat.

They are hit and miss. Last one I went to in Manchester was pretty poor quality and very similar dishes. Nothing was so nice that you would eat loads, it just wasn't special at all, most v low quality. But good for a crowd where people are fussy or want different things.

The Cosmo one used to be good but I haven't been for a while. It had some genuinely delicious Chinese and Indian dishes, where each one tasted unique and was fresh and not over cooked.

Those “world foods” style buffets were mostly bloody grim. The kids liked them when they were younger.

Far too many foods for one restaurant to make any to a high standard or with decent ingredients. The majority of dishes bought in 80% prepared and heated through.

It was like a vast array of supermarket ready meals to pick and choose from.

If I had no choice but to go (e.g. birthday meal for a dear friend), I'd choose the foods that I like and are least likely to give me food poisoning (people touching the food / food being left out) and generally be happy and chatty but not eat much. I feel really unwell when I overeat (that doesn't mean I never overeat, but I always regret it!)

Luckily, there are not any/ many of this type of restaurant where I live so I haven't been invited to one for years. When we were teenagers, I remember there were fill you up inexpensive buffet restaurants in Chinatown (London).

I'm a greedy bint so I love them