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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think this looks awful?! Grazing table....

288 replies

PyongyangKipperbang · 27/04/2023 01:05

Posted by a local pub for an event ..... wouldn't be able to eat a thing if I was going! All those hands in there, not to mention how far over you'd have to lean to get to the food in the middle and the worst bit? This will sit there for at least 12 hours before the event which is surely not within food hygiene regulations and it will taste awful!

OP posts:
BadNomad · 27/04/2023 01:41

I don't think they'd be allowed to leave all that meat out unrefrigerated. But if they do, it won't be hard to find the source of the outbreak of food poisoning in your area.

DiscoBeat · 27/04/2023 01:46

Ugh

SeaToSki · 27/04/2023 01:47

Ewww. Its not even on platters and wooden boards, just right on the formica or whatever the table is made of. I hope they sterilized the table before they put the food on it. Its like a party/rave/festival for salmonella, campylobacter and ecoli

Brrrrrrrrrrrr · 27/04/2023 01:48

Grazing tables just look rough don’t they. Usually found on sketchy FB ‘caterers’ who might offer sharing boxes, afternoon tea for two boxes, sweet boxes etc etc. I always wonder who actually pays for that stuff. Grim. It’s always the cheapest of the cheap food they use too.

SiliconHeaven · 27/04/2023 01:49

For fucks sake, plates were invented for a fucking reason

Deathmetal · 27/04/2023 01:53

From a distance it looks like a painting. From a practical perspective though, it would be unhygienic

RandomSunday · 27/04/2023 01:57

BadNomad · 27/04/2023 01:41

I don't think they'd be allowed to leave all that meat out unrefrigerated. But if they do, it won't be hard to find the source of the outbreak of food poisoning in your area.

There’s not a chance the venue would leave a table full of food out of the fridge for 12 hours. It looks like a pic full of food being served for a previous event - as an advertisement of what to expect if you book an event with them.

Any buffet will be freshly prepared on the day.

Maybe OP could check with the venue instead of asking for opinions from a bunch of people who have no idea of the venue or its hygiene standards.

No venue will prepare, and leave out food, unrefrigerated and uncovered a day before it’s needed!

Only the OP can challenge the picture advertisement.

viques · 27/04/2023 02:02

Don’t you just know that some greedy sods will squeeze themselves on to the seats at the back and trough down for an hour……… if grazing tables had been a thing when Orwell was around the Animal Farm pigs would have had one.

Lemoncakefortea · 27/04/2023 02:06

Awful!! Can you imagine the germs 🫣

Northernsouloldies · 27/04/2023 02:12

They been as well setting out a trough, looks disgusting 🤢.

Fraaahnces · 27/04/2023 02:17

Delicious food for sure, but people seem to have forgotten about the plagues that are amongst us. Not just the obvious COVID ones, but all of the gastric bugs and influenzas. I feel like this is Darwin Awards stupidity.

QueenBitch666 · 27/04/2023 02:20

Grim 🤢

LadyGrinningSoul85 · 27/04/2023 02:23

I'm with you, OP.
Oddly I even tried to Google what on earth this weird trend is yesterday as I noticed that more and more buffets I've been to have been laid out like this, and I hate it.

Just put them on plates ffs.

QueenBitch666 · 27/04/2023 02:26

It reminds me of this movie 🤢
www.netflix.com/gb/title/81128579?s=i&trkid=258593161&vlang=en&clip=81215670

Berklilly · 27/04/2023 02:26

I'm with you OP, not a big fan.
It actually reminds of the news stories about the peanuts bowls in France when I was a teen! Not sure if you had that in the UK, but there used to always be little bowls of free peanuts at the bar that people would snack from whilst having their drink, and the bar would top it up throughout the day.
Until the day newspapers started to report on the number of people not washing their hands whilst coming out of the toilets that is 😂Some studies found they were full of germs and generally disgusting, and it's pretty much disappeared now (although i still see them sometimes)

Missingmyusername · 27/04/2023 02:26

DrFoxtrot · 27/04/2023 01:19

It's a bit grim but I absolutely love food that's been left to go soft/ crusty/ curly Blush. Leftover buffet is my ultimate guilty pleasure.

Also don't mind fingers and couldn't care less about double dipping.

I will leave quietly now...

😝😂

Eww noooo! YANBU op! I couldn’t go in there. It doesn’t like a buffet, it looks a mess! I just know I’d likely be sick the next day.

ALongHardWinter · 27/04/2023 02:26

Fine if it was just me but then I'm really greedy

bugbugMNthx · 27/04/2023 02:34

PyongyangKipperbang · 27/04/2023 01:06

Forgot photo!

I love a good buffet, and have many handy tips to share about how to optimise one's buffet performance... but that table is just feral.

What's wrong with putting grub on plates and offering a stack of napkins and some hand gel?

Bigboysmademedoit · 27/04/2023 02:38

No, just no.

changeme4this · 27/04/2023 02:44

Not keen on grazing tables, but yes to grazing platters. Can you imagine everyone's tops or jacket ends touching this food as they reach over to get something else?

there's going to be a lot of food on the floor that is for sure..

PerryMenno · 27/04/2023 02:47

I love a good buffet, and have many handy tips to share about how to optimise one's buffet performance

Grin

A kindred spirit!

  1. no carby fillers (I will make an exception for really fabulous bread that's a dish in and of itself)
  2. eat things that are expensive - seafood, good cheese
  3. eat things you can't/won't cook at home
  4. Coke to keep you burping and freeing up space
  5. long breaks between courses, don't rush it

Back to that abomination on the table though - nope! A nightmare for allergy sufferers for starters. They could achieve the same effect using little plates and pots at different heights and there'd be much less of a mess after the first few people went in.

SD1978 · 27/04/2023 02:54

I wouldn't touch it. Even at a family event I'd be side eyeing anyone whose fingers ended up in their mouths 😆

SkyandSurf · 27/04/2023 02:58

I hate all grazing tables.

Morestrangerthings · 27/04/2023 03:02

NO.

I loathe buffets. Used to work at a pub years ago and the way some people think their germs don't matter was horrid to observe.

transformandriseup · 27/04/2023 03:18

Germs aside, they were foolish to pile a table high with food with a carpet underneath. I can see some of it getting knocked onto the floor when people are reaching over.