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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think all you can eat restaurants are just awful

96 replies

TaylorQuifft · 15/08/2015 18:35

I was out with dc today and we went to get lunch/early dinner, every other restaurant was packed and full apart from this enormous buffet all you can eat place.

I paid £9 per person for each of us and tried a little bit of every cuisine in the restaurant but could not taste the difference between the pizza and chow mein. Everything was full of salt and just shit.

Aibu to say all you can eat is awful.

OP posts:

DurhamDurham · 16/08/2015 19:19

I hate any restaurant where you are expected to get up and queue to get your own food. Give me one plate of lovely food over a couple of plates of crap food any day.

I don't even think that the buffet restaurants represent good value for money, £9+ per head is hardly a bargain given the choice and quality of food available........burgers, pizzas etc are cheap as chips to make.

Candycoco · 16/08/2015 19:32

These places are disgusting. My old workplace insisted on going to them every month when we went out for a meal. Absolute shit in a tray that has been breathed on and touched by everyone. Gross!

unlucky83 · 16/08/2015 23:34

Something has just made me think about this thread again...
I have always considered the AYCE buffet places the cheapest restaurant type place to 'eat out' but I've just had a real eye opener.

I've had family staying so 'eating out' for dinner a lot this week (mainly cos out in the day doing touristy things, back too late to start cooking). Just going through my receipts and noticed that the Indian Buffet place cost more or less the exact same amount as a pub food type place. Was surprised - at the pub we all had a main course (not the cheapest ones) and pudding and all felt satisfied (but then I guess DP wasn't with us) and 3 of us had two drinks rather than the one at the buffet place.
Then I remembered that DD1 (14 -so gets charged as an adult) wasn't even with us for the Indian buffet place - if she was that would have added on another £13 plus drink ...(and she did have an adult main course at the pub food place)...
I really am surprised - I guess cos I wouldn't normally have such a direct comparison...
Next time we want a cheap family dinner out we won't choose the buffet place...

SistersofPercy · 16/08/2015 23:56

Taybarns. Where food from every continent all melds into tasteless slop.
The most vile place I have ever been to, to this day I don't see the fascination but the car park is heaving every time I pass so it must suit some folk.

I do enjoy our local Chinese buffet though, nice to have a little of things I wouldn't normally try. They have signs up now saying they will charge for wasteage.

DogWalker75 · 17/08/2015 00:15

YANBU. They are mostly vile. The only nice one I've been to was called Ming Moon's in Wolves (there's one in B'ham too I think). I was pleasantly surprised because they are usually utter shite.

jenkait · 17/08/2015 04:15

I find that all-you-can-eat places are best suited for teen boys/early 20-something men...who seem to want quantity over quality...?

TheNewStatesman · 17/08/2015 06:08

I think some types of food like Indian curry house food do quite well in a buffet.

Mostly, though, AYCE is pretty dire. ESPECIALLY places that do every type of food.

FreudiansSlipper · 17/08/2015 06:44

I do not really like them breakfast buffets on holiday are fine but all the waste is awful and rarely is the food very good. Have not been to a Cosmo but it looks like a canteen

Was not keen on the ones in Vegas either found it off putting the greed of people was disgusting though food was ok but again the waste it's not a pleasing dinning experience

As someone else said I would rather go to a greasy spoon or cheap cafe

southeastdweller · 17/08/2015 07:50

Most of them are awful places, in my experience. Shit quality food with greedy customers and frequented by lots of lary stag and hen parties and annoyingly loud kids running around. I'd rather pay more for a better experience.

I think the best thing about them is what some other posters have said about knowing how much you've paid for making it easy to divide the bills when in groups.

noeffingidea · 17/08/2015 08:05

I have had the pizza hut buffet a few times. The trick is timing - if you go when it opens (12 o'clock I think) everything is fresh. In fact, we've been the first ones up a couple of times.
I also go to the harvesters. I like the salad bars and my autistic daughter loves them so it's a little treat for her. They are pretty good at freshening it up at our local one. Anyway, none of us have ever been ill after eating there.
As for taybarns - I've looked at the menu, and there isn't a single thing on it that tempts me. Cosmo's menu looks more interesting but there isn't one anywhere near here anyway so I won't be trying it.

swisscheesetony · 17/08/2015 08:16

Decks Newport - see the 7 deadly sins played out in real time!

As someone else said, it brings out the worst in people. Gluttony , elbowing kids out of the way, plates laid six inches deep, people so fat they can't sit at a booth.

My parents favourite "restaurant". I'm a porker and find it extremely unsettling.

FreudiansSlipper · 17/08/2015 09:18

gluttony is the right word

Over indulgence greed and waste all the things that we really should despise

bakingdiva · 17/08/2015 09:30

There is a very good AYCE Chinese in Reading, but it's one of the 'order off the menu, eat that and order more if you want' versions. Definitely prefer that type.....freshly cooked for you, rather than being left to fester in heated trays, no one else breathing / sneezing over it and because you have to actually order again there is less of the gluttony (IMO) and less waste.

It also says on the menu that dishes ordered and not eaten will be charged extra for, so it is a disincentive to order too much, although we once had too much rice, as they brought out a portion for everyone which was wayyyyy too much, but they didn't charge us for that, I guess rice they don't mind so much as more expensive meats.

Crosbybeach · 17/08/2015 09:33

We did AYCE in Las Vegas, and left feeling slightly sick, not from too much too eat, but from watching other people, and the waste...And although there was some nice stuff there, hand made sushi etc, you had to walk past so much stuff to find it ...

I think it can be really useful if you are out with a family, have hollow legged teenaged boys, or a range of 'fussy' eaters. But I really don't like them.

westcountrywoman · 17/08/2015 12:22

YANBU. The food is poor quality, I don't like the greed / waste that one associates with such places and the hygiene is questionable. Besides all the coughing and poking with fingers, I've witnessed people 'tasting' dishes, actually putting the serving spoons into their mouths with a bit of food on, before deciding whether to serve themselves a full portion . I've also seen children skewer king prawns and then poke them in the chocolate fountain. Yuk yuk yuk. It's cheap for a reason.

ShelaghTurner · 17/08/2015 12:50

The fat aren't allowed to eat out now? Or is it ok if we only eat at nouvelle cuisine type establishments? Or places without booths? Tell me where I'm allowed to go in order to enjoy whatever meal without judgement. Or should I stay at home with a trough?

whois · 17/08/2015 13:07

There is the most amazing tiny all you can eat vegetarian Indian in Brighton it is gorgeous cheap and totally lush

I have been there and it's amazing! Can't remember the name tho.

whois · 17/08/2015 13:10

I actually really like buffets - I like having a little bit of 5 or 6 different things on my plate.

IceBeing · 17/08/2015 13:16

I love either a chinese buffet or an indian buffet..or yo sushi etc. but Cosmo's was indeed horrible!

EmmaWoodlouse · 17/08/2015 13:19

There used to be a Mexican restaurant in my town with an all-you-can-eat buffet at lunchtimes. It was genuinely lovely food and definitely didn't all taste the same, but I think the fact that it was all-you-can-eat was a disadvantage in some ways, in that you sort of felt you had to eat a lot to get your money's worth, when in fact it would still have been quite good value if it had been the same price for just one visit to the buffet. They also ended up having to put up notices saying they would charge for food taken and not eaten, as people were just taking much more than they could finish, again probably because they felt they had to!

FreudiansSlipper · 17/08/2015 14:33

Don't be so ridiculous no one is saying that overweight people (including myself) should not eat out

But the pilling your plates so high and scoffing far more food in one sitting than is needed in a day is down to greed

And the waste is wrong no one can argue with that

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