To think that a buffet restaurant is a bloomin weird choice for a Saturday evening out?

[MaryMotherOfHellFire]

I mean, why would you?

Noisy, busy, rubbish food, limited choice, like sitting in a canteen. Grim.

I don't get it. Why wouldn't you prefer to go to a restaurant with a proper menu and waiters?

I went to a Chinese Buffet with DH and a couple of mates last weekend. It was shit.

YABU i love buffet especially chineese ones yum yum yum, looking at all the ymmy food and having as much as i like as often as i like, et the diet commence With buffet you can see what you are getting and have as little or as much as you like.

I take it you're referring to Taybarns?

I'd imagine people go because its cheap and there is lots of food. Many people are feeling the pinch right now.

The operations director is very upfront about the fact that the company has, "unashamedly, based itself in the working-class heart of Britain."

There are some nice buffets out there. And I like being able to try a little of everything.

I went to a lovely yummy chineese buffet a while a ago instead of the buffet being in front of you, you had a card with all the options, you then picked what you wanted and told the waiter it was then freshly cooked for you on the spot and put in front of you, if you wanted more you had to ask the waiter and they would cook you more, only £9 lunchtime. Yum num num num

Well there're Buffets - and then there're Buffets. Don't write it off until you've tried it.

Taybarns? No, never heard of one of those.

Plenty of buffet places around.

Fine for a lunchtime, bit weird for a Saturday evening. IMO.

hf, I have tried it. That's why I'm posting.

There were couples there trying to have a nice quiet meal together amidst the chaos. Do you think it might have been a mistake on their part?

YABU. We all love bufet restuarants here. Yes some are rubbish but others are very good.
We recently went to a chinese one with my brother and his family. The younger children can be very fussy but there was something for everyone and we all had a great time.

Oh, ok. Just accidentally topical then.

I would still suggest though that "..a restaurant with a proper menu and waiters" is beyond the means of many people.

If the alternative to Taybarns (or similar) is nothing at all, well... I wouldn't wish to criticise anyone for their venue choice when they only have a tiny budget.

I love a chinese buffet, but that Taybarns looks awful. That pile of saveloy in the article is surely enough to put anyone off?

OP - I agree, an odd place for a couple on a date perhaps, although a chinese buffet is somewhere we might go pre or post cinema on a Saturday.

It would not be my first choice but some people like it. A lot of couples like noise and feel more comfortable in that kind of setting rather than a more formal one.

Each to their own I say.

This one was £15 a head. Curry.

Surely you can get a decent meal in a cheaper curry house for £15.

I enjoy buffets if I just want a quick meal. I don't see Saturday nights as being different to other nights, but then that's probably because I'm old and settled. We're probably more likely to have a quick meal on Sat as going on to cinema/ theatre etc if in town, during the week is better for romantic dinners as not usually going on elsewhere and restaurants not full of partying large groups of drunks.
Sounding very like my parents these days.

The plus side to buffets (and I've only ever been to the local Chinese one) is that you pay up front. So when you're done, you just go - none of that agonisingly slow faffing around while you a) wait for the bill and b) wait for someone to appear with a card reader thingy, while the DCs get more and more restless. I like the just walking out approach.

But yes, more of a Sunday lunch with kids experience than a quiet Saturday night as a couple, I'd have said.

I've always paid afterwards when dining in a buffet restaurant.

Some people are very intimidated by restaurants.

My husband's family was very poor and he had never eaten in a restaurant before university.

He felt very uncomfortable and self-conscious (didn't know correct procedure for ordering, asking for the bill, tips, how to address the waiting staff etc) in restaurants long into more prosperous adulthood.

If you're going on a date, it makes sense not to go somewhere where you'll feel stressed and judged. A buffet place may well fit this critera for these people.

Message withdrawn

The Chinese Buffet I go to is blooming lovely, so there! .

I can't stand buffets I'm afraid. I expect it makes me rather a snob.

If I want a burger I go to a burger place.
If I want chips I go to a chippy.
If I want pasta I go to an Italian.

Sometimes we do have disagreements as a family where we'd like to eat and we have to compromise with each other and we can't afford to eat out often at all, but I'd rather go to a place that specialises in what it is cooking rather than eat mass industrial catering swimming in grease and covered in coughs and sneezes.

Each to their own

Wot are some of you like!
Im just happy that Im going out.
As a couple/family we cant afford to go out that often.
So I love it, I dont have to cook, washup etc,
and I really dont care where/what it is.
It would lovley if we could do expensive places all the time but its just not realistic..

I agree would be nice to go to expensive places, but as we can't afford it either, eating out is a massive treat. You can get a really nice pasta dish or curry for the same price as one of those buffets.

I think buffetts (deliberate misspelling] contribute massively to the obesity epidemic in the UK and should therefore be banned. I watched in horror as one family seated beside us unashamedly piled their plates so hight that the food was dropping off the sides all the way back to the table. You could see one of the kids actually gagging as he tried to stuff yet more food into his mouth. And if you can afford to pay £15 per head for a meal, then you are not struggling financially. YANBU.

There is an all you can eat buffet called Angel Chef in Gloucester. They give you plastic plates. Nuff said.

PILs love it but I think it's vile. It's not even particularly cheap to be honest.

I loathe buffets in general and would much rather spend a little bit more and have a decent meal. To be honest, with all the discounts flying around at the moment you don't have to spend very much on a dinner out, no need to resort to the real el cheapo options.