All inclusives: what’s your buffet strategy?

[Juicesausagecake]

Help! I used to be good at this!

Am currently on an all-inclusive, and may have lost my mojo. I blame the need to feed the kids with healthy food (cucumber, tomato, melon etc. on a little plastic plate), and am not rinsing managing the buffet as effectively as I would have in times of yore.

How do you approach it?

Start by having a good look round and what’s on offer, I’m a proper fussy bugger when it comes to eating .

Then repeat with small plate for a snack, making faces at husband who is dreading what I’m coming back with; before returning for my main course - all inclusive for the mahoosive is my motto, which is why I’ll go to the gym numerous times whilst I’m away!

If I’m having prawns/lobster I always prepare a bowl of warm water and sliced lemon cause I’m
posh like that 😂

I always pile my plate high on the first day. Then I learn what the regular bits are and calm down. I'm vegetarian so I get a bit overexcited by the choice.

I went to a massive hotel in Egypt and quickly learned that the best food was the local food. They had 8 restaurants with different themes and you were free to take a seat anywhere after getting your plate. My family surfed all the choices but I stuck to their Egyptian restaurant. The food was incredible (closely followed by their stone baked pizzas that were made to order in about 2 minutes).

Part of my plan was to try and eat ten vegetables a day. Because the South Koreans live longer than anyone else, and they eat ten vegetables a day.

And do you know how they do it? They start eating vegetables at breakfast.

So I came on an all- inclusive that had one of those omelette chefs so that I could eat vegetables at breakfast. But the queue is too long.

Just eat a normal meal. Look at it all, portion it into normal meals and chose one. Otherwise it all gets weird and sloppy and gross.

Forget the carb bit - focus on the veg and protein foods- and the desserts! Find out asap if you can order a bottle of cava. Order as you walk in.

Eat things you don't always have at home. We went away earlier this year and with breakfast there was rose jam, fig jam, candied cherry jam.... I ate a lot of jam.

Go hard or go home.

No further notes.

Oh don't ask me.
I just fill my plate with a cacophony of food that looked better in the serving platter, than it does on my plate.

In Sardinia I noticed the Italians would basically just get the right constituents for their 3 course meal, so parma ham and melon for starters, fish and grilled vegetables for main and a small helping of dessert.

We're HB at Lanzarote in October so I'm going to try to do that.

The desserts are like a hundred variations on a Sara Lee chocolate cake (like you used to get from Iceland - no idea if they still exist, except in this hotel, obviously). All are delicious.

If Paul Hollywood is reading this then the Bake Off should definitely put Sara Lee as their next technical challenge.

So I came on an all- inclusive that had one of those omelette chefs so that I could eat vegetables at breakfast. But the queue is too long.

Don't baked beans count as veg though OP? 😬

Friends I used to go on holiday with every year used to have a competition for the most random plate of food all eaten together. I wouldn't recommend it as a strategy!

My tip is skip dessert as they can sometimes be essentially the same dessert in different colours, and go for the cheese instead. With a glass of wine, obvs.

I always have a salad (usually a BIG salad 😁) with some cold meat or cheese if there is any as a starter, then I go back for a very small helping of what looks nicest in the hot meals. If I have room I will go back for another helping of what I tried, or something else if it wasn't great. I never have the desserts as I just don't fancy them. Sometimes there is a separate cooking station doing other stuff and it is usually worth waiting for that. For instance fresh sardines, pork chops, paella etc. We always used to go for ten days and they repeat the menus, so second time round I usually know what to choose. Breakfast for me is only ever toast and fruit.

Always go for the most expensive/luxury/unhealthy food. At home I eat healthily with lots of veg and wholegrains etc., am not a big meat eater and tend to eat fruit over cakes/puddings etc. At a buffet a typical meal would be prawns, steak, salmon and some form of lamb or chicken curry or spicy dish followed by chocolate pudding, ice cream and cake. Washed down by prosecco or equivalent.

Aim to sample local dishes - Mexico was particularly good for having a wide choice of local options that were still pretty decadent and meat and seafood based.

Avoid any plain carbs like bread, rice etc. If you must have carbs at all make them part of a meal, like pizza, lasagne, tacos etc.

Have some token fruit salad at some point to pretend to yourself that you're still being relatively healthy.

I'm on a Different planet to OP. my love of AI is that you can eat whatever you want: 30 different things on your plate, that don't necessarily go together, but that is the joy.

Do a reccy.

Don't straight up grab a plate and pick what looks nice straight away - every stand and every option and then start fresh. I remember one holiday in Spain pre kids we only realised on the penultimate night that around the side of the fresh fish stand they had a make your own pancake stand but it was just very oddly placed.

KNOW. YOUR. AREAS.

The Italians are very conservative. But I have also repeatedly visited an all-inclusive in Sardinia. And very good it was, too @rookiemere. And a bit easier to stick to plausible courses!

We went to an AI in Lanzarote once, and there was a sort of local food counter and a guest in the hotel asked what the food was and the answer from the chef was ‘Mice’ (as in, ‘maíz’), and the man backed away saying, ‘Mice? Mmmmm. No, thank you!’. That was the most memorable thing that happened to us on that trip.

I am not beyond that, either @Oblomov22 !

Eat a normal sized portion of the main food stuff (usually fish / seafood) that takes my fancy. Add some salad. Return to table.

Not a fan of pudding.

Tbf - I've only done AI once and was rendered slightly nauseous by the combos I saw on some plates or by some of the Repeat Reloaders.

My colleague has a formal process for this. He says you never eat the bread, and aim to start at the very end of the buffet because that's where the lobster and/or caviar is - apparently they want you to fill your plate so you don't have capacity to really horse into the expensive stuff.

If there is a custom omelette option he recommends a caviar and lobster omelette.

I'm no good at a buffet because I fill up too quick and I can't resist watermelon.

Is the aim to eat a bit of everything, eat it in in weird and wonderful ways and clever ways, or to beat the buffet financially by getting your full money's worth (or more than your money's worth) ?

If it's the money's worth option, then you work out what are the most expensive 'premium' bits and eat as much of those as possible, if you have any room get the 'filler' items, usually things like bread and soup.

@Juicesausagecake I'll try to avoid the mice !

This thread has been a bit of an eye-opener. There are clearly upper levels of all-inclusive that I never imagined existed.

There is no caviar here (unless taramasalata counts?) and I think it is unlikely that anyone will be bringing out lobsters.

I actually think that if I asked for them to bring me a bottle of Cava in an ice bucket to my table, they might ask me to leave (or laugh heartily in a group and point). I will ask for a glass of Cava, tomorrow, and see how it goes.

I don’t fill up on bread, though. This is usually because I am carrying a baby and cutting into the bread with one hand just involves me mashing it with the bread knife and spoiling it for everyone else.

Check if there’s cava at breakfast and if there is, start the day with a bucks fizz…

Too much?

That's made me remember my first time at an eat all you can buffet, I didn't realise that you could keep going back so I piled it all on one plate 🤢

I start the holiday with 3 good meals. By the middle of the first week I feel horrible and revert to eating yoghurt and fruit for breakfast and soup for lunch. I never get my money out of an AI buffet, but DH more than makes up for it.