When is a buffet not a buffet?

[Henrietta75]

So family member invites me for a buffet breakfast
to a pub type place which we haven't visited before so
they can speak privately about an issue.

The blurb on the doors and advert hoardings is
"Buffet breakfast 7am - 11am" come and enjoy blah..

Anyway we sanitise our hands at this empty place (9am saturday morning) and we're told yes its a buffet but
the servers pour your breakfast choices in the plate, here is your seat. Unlimited tea included.

So we go over to the counter and one by one server pours our food and we take it back to the table. Sausages are a bit cardboardy but thats another story, rest is fine.

I feel like another hash brown and a few mushrooms, FM wants a couple of slices of bacon. Eventually server appears and says sorry, you only get one plate that's it.

Is this a buffet? Nothing other than prices on the disposable paper menu for veg or non veg and reads clearly buffet - Is this normal?

A buffet means you can get seconds (or thirds!).

To me a buffet is a presentation style, rather than a perputal circuit of grazing sheep.

Look what happened to Oliver when he went back to the Gruel Buffet!
Lesson learnt, I feel.

OP, where do you live that food is ‘poured’ by servers? I’ve honestly never heard that before!

OP - cardboardy sausages? I think you may have been inadvertently been served the 'display item' rather than the real thing.

Just a thought.

Yes I’ve been troubled by food being ‘poured’

That’s false advertising. Fine for them to serve you but you should be able to go back for seconds etc. Hit them with a bad Tripadvisor review.

If your bacon is being poured something is very wrong,

Buffet does not equal "all you can eat".

This is a set size breakfast, previously you got to serve yourself (the set amount paid for), now servers serve you (the set amount paid for).

The long wall pub (are they green king?) Do this and buffet means you can go up as many times as you like for as much as you like.

No they are beefeater I think. But buffet breakfast is a help yourself to seconds, thirds and as much as you like

@honeygirlz

That’s false advertising. Fine for them to serve you but you should be able to go back for seconds etc. Hit them with a bad Tripadvisor review.

Why?

They don't advertise "all you can eat".

That’s false advertising. Fine for them to serve you but you should be able to go back for seconds etc. Hit them with a bad Tripadvisor review.

It isn't false advertising. Not all buffets are all you can eat. Some just offer a selection of items. The three different plate sizes make it pretty clear that it's a one visit only thing or they would only offer one playe size.

I've never had a breakfast buffet but I have seen them on menus and at least in my area it tends to be just one visit to choose your items but you can have all the toast and hot drinks you want. Just as in the OP's case.

Hotel breakfast buffets tend to be all you can eat though.

Hmm, yes, different plate sizes=one serving only, I’d say.

I went to a buffet style restaurant this week. Obviously you’d normally serve yourself, but not now. The server was serving whatever you asked for and took the plate. Unfortunately, he was dripping with sweat and kept wiping his face-mask beneath nose then returning to ask what I wanted next. He wasn’t wearing gloves. Never again! At one point, he just put down the plate and went to leave. I asked if he was ok!

If you pay by plate size then obviously no refills. It would mean people could pay for a 'small' and then keep refilling

They 'poured' your breakfast?

I like the sound of a breakfast you can pour

Given that there are three sizes it's reasonable that you can't go back otherwise everyone would pay for a small breakfast but keep going back?

Are there any other Yorkshire folks on here wanting to answer "When is a buffet not a buffet?" with "When it's a stool."

No? Just me then.

Of course it’s a buffet. You go up and choose the bits you want from the selection on offer.

If it was an all-you-can-eat buffet, it would say so.

@AlwaysCheddar

A buffet means you can get seconds (or thirds!).

No, that's an all-you-can-eat buffet. Not the same thing.

I and many others associate buffets with "all you can eat", but turns out a one-plate-only buffet is still a buffet.

No self-service is obviously an adjustment for anti-covid precautions.

A buffet means you can go up as often as you like in my experience. Sounds rather mean.

Come on, OP. You must know that the big question here is not “why couldn’t I go back for seconds?”

It is HOW DID THEY POUR YOUR SAUSAGES, EGGS AND TOAST. How??? I must know!

Was it that weird breakfast in a tin thing that Crosse & Blackwell used to do?