Buffet style restaurants

[jaybee]

Rudolph Chelminski's book The French at Table has a chapter devoted to inexpensive eating, wherein he discusses the great buffet restaurants once popular at railway stations in Paris and elsewhere in the heyday of rail travel. This brought to mind the sorry state of buffet style restaurants in the US.

Las Vegas is famous for the pig-out buffets that offer "all you can eat" for $4.95. I've heard people talking with wonderment at the lavish spreads, with meart, fish, fowl and all sorts of gross indulgencies. Having once tried such a table, I found the food to be tasteless and of low quality.

Apart from popular breakfast buffets, that serve eggs, omelettes, french toasts and pancakes, usually freshly made, I am wondering if there are any really high quality dinner buffets extant in the US. Or are the economics of such so bad that it is unaffordable to offer a commercial gourmet level buffet?

[Suzanne F]

Granted, you said "dinner buffets," but what about some of the better lunch buffets at Indian restaurants? Never tried any, but I've heard very good things about Salaam Bombay, in Tribeca. (And when I've eaten off the menu there, it really was quite good.)

And (again, hearsay) -- the still-extant cafeterias mainly in the South?

Please note, I'm not saying these really are good; just asking for opinions of those who have experience.

[jhlurie]

I've found you can make out well at some buffets if you target accordingly. Mind you, they are still making lots of money off you, but at least you won't feel wholy cheated.

I remember eating at AmeriStar Casino in Kansas City (it used to be "Station Casino") and actually enjoying the big "Omaha Steaks Filet Mignon" buffet they throw about once a week. Now Omaha Steaks are no threat to a real steakhouse, but in an all-you-can-eat circumstance I can think of much worse things to have to shove down your throat. And to their credit, the Filet Mignon was plentiful, cooked about a second before you tossed it on your plate, with no waiting. Note that this buffet is not priced anywhere near $4.95. It's more like "$14.95", if I'm remembering correctly.

Some people champion buffets with lobster, but I've always noticed that the buffets who do this always create big lines for it.

[APPS411]

The Bellagio Hotel in Vegas has a pretty good buffet.

[Bux]

Rudolph Chelminski's book The French at Table has a chapter devoted to inexpensive eating, wherein he discusses the great buffet restaurants once popular at railway stations in Paris and elsewhere in the heyday of rail travel.  This brought to mind the sorry state of buffet style restaurants in the US.

My understsanding was that the Buffets de la Gare were real restaurants with table service and did not serve "buffet" style. I believe this is just another example of words changing their meaning as they come from France to the US. I don't recall exactly how a buffet differed from a restaurant or brasserie in France, but I suspect one generally took a three course meal ordered from the carte and brought to the table by a waitress. Some how, I have a recollection that perhaps one could eat non-stop--most restaurants in France served lunch for a few hours and then closed until dinner when they repopened for a few hours again. This would have served train travelers who might have reason to eat at odd hours. Can anyone verify this?

[nervousnelli]

East Lake Buffet Restaurant on Main Street in Flushing, New York.

[Jinmyo]

Bux, I think that you're right.

I'll not eat anything from a steam table.

[Fat Guy]

Some people are buffet people and some people aren't, and what you'll find almost universally is that the people who are serious about cuisine aren't buffet people. Those serious eaters who occasionally enjoy a buffet -- like me -- tend to do so under limited circumstances: Breakfast buffets at nice hotels, ethnic buffets such as Chinese and Indian where the benefits of sampling numerous unfamiliar dishes arguably outweigh the inevitable drop in quality, special-events buffets especially those hosted by rich people who hire good chefs to cater their events, dessert buffets that focus on traditional cakes and pies and other items that don't suffer from being on a buffet, and as self-defense when the buffet is the best mechanism for maintaining control over what you put on your plate (if, for example, you're in an area of the country where the restaurants are all lousy). But if you look at the kind of food that has been served in just about every top Western restaurant since nouvelle cuisine pushed aside the older stuff, it's just not buffet-friendly. It can be done with great effort under some circumstances, but it's not something you see every day.

[Bux]

Some people are buffet people and some people aren't, and what you'll find almost universally is that the people who are serious about cuisine aren't buffet people. Those serious eaters who occasionally enjoy a buffet -- like me -- tend to do so under limited circumstances: Breakfast buffets at nice hotels,

As much as I hate to shed any image members may have of me as someone who goes to great lengths and pains to avoid a buffet, I have taken a fair number of breakfasts at better hotel buffets. Some have been fairly rewarding, at least in Europe. Even so, I generally restrict participation to those hotels where the breakfast is included in the price of the room either as standard procedure or as a "perq" for my wife the travel agent. The vast variety of offerings at the top tables will ensure a decent breakfast even if one has to avoid the eggs.

A special award has to go to the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, for the quality of the poached eggs on the steam table, however. They looked unbelievably superb so I took one. I went back for two more. Normally, I'd skip the reasonably expensive buffet and have a cup of espresso and a roll somewhere, but we had an early plane to catch and thought it would be wise fo fill up before boarding.

By the way, I've also learned that, at least in much of Europe, they will be happy to bring you an espresso in lieu of the standard breakfast coffee if you ask and as often as not, you can get a freshly prepared egg and not have to deal with the mess on the steam table.

I am amused and enlightened by your use of the buffet as a defense mechanism.

[Stone]

I typically limit my buffet experiences to Indian food. (I used to do Thai and Chinese, but they're almost always disappointing. Having so little in my life, a wasted meal is not worth the risk.) However, breakfast buffets in the South, with steaming hot biscuits, sausage gravy and real fat breakfast sausages are wonderful. Eggs do not offer enough fat or cholestorol and just take up space. They are easily avoided.

[Ron Johnson]

ethnic buffets such as Chinese and Indian where the benefits of sampling numerous unfamiliar dishes arguably outweigh the inevitable drop in quality

You are a wise one.

[Fat Guy]

Now if you want to start a topic on buffet strategy . . . I bet some of us have some really good and hard-earned advice to offer there.

[Jaymes]

A special award has to go to the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, for the quality of the poached eggs on the steam table, however. They looked unbelievably superb so I took one. I went back for two more.

And the Thanksgiving Buffet at the Palace is an awe-inspiring treat.

[rich]

Would Churuscarria (sp?) Plataforma on 49th Street be considered buffet?

[Fat Guy]

My leaning would be to say that the buffet at CP is a buffet but the roving guys with the meat on skewers are more like dim sum, which is sort of a different category of non-a-la-minute experience.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Is Warren Buffet a buffet? I just thought as long as we were going down the road to a pedantic definition of buffet that I would throw that one in. Or how about Bernard Buffet the painter.

Buffets suck. But I like to partake in them on occassion. Usually they have at least one dish you can settle in with. East Lake Buffet in Flushing has crab legs and bacon wrapped shrimp. The Bellagio in Las Vegas, which I thought really sucked as a buffet, even though it's famous for being the best Vegas buffet, had some sliced meat that was excellent although I can't remember whether it was lamb or beef. The breakfast buffet at Paris in Las Vegas was a far, far better buffet than the Bellagio although it was still to bufettish for me. Cold buffets that are full of things like various sliced salmon dishes and herrings, tuna, white fish salads can be excellent and tend to work out the best. Things that are hot obviously loose quality sitting in those chafing dishes. But the main point about a buffet isn't to eat good, it's to eat a lot for a fixed price. If it's good, it's a tremendous bonus. And the reason for eating at a buffet is to practice the ritual of buffet eating. It's not about gastronomy.

[Ron Johnson]

Buffets suck.

Goddammit, Plotnicki, would you stop beating around the bush and just tell us how you really feel. sheesh!

[Fat Guy]

The breakfast buffet at Paris in Las Vegas

Last time I was in Vegas the Paris was just about to open -- the opening had been delayed -- and we saw Carrot Top perform at the MGM. He opened his routine with "Did you hear the opening of the Paris has been delayed? Yeah, they couldn't find enough rude people to work there."

[rich]

Is Warren Buffet a buffet?

I guess that would depend on how many BH shares someone owns.

[TheSaint]

You do tend to get an interesting shiny film over hot buffet foods. One that just cannot be replicated without leaving it to fester under a hot lamp for up to 4 hours.

[Suzanne F]

Jimmy Buffet(t)?

Georges Du Buffet?

The Three Buffeteers?

(Oh, all right, I'll try to be good.)

[ahr]

My leaning would be to say that the buffet at CP is a buffet but the roving guys with the meat on skewers are more like dim sum, which is sort of a different category of non-a-la-minute experience.

This seems an ideal thread for my first post after returning from a vacation designed around stuffing my gut with clams and lobsters. Is this really about buffets, or about fixed-price AYCE? If it's the latter, then the skewer guys at CP qualify, whereas dim sum does not.

[bourdain]

No.

[ahr]

Certainly, yours must be accepted as the definitive opinion, but "No" effing what?

Edit: Mild profanity added.

[Sandra Levine]

Indian, yes. Chinese, no. Breakfast, maybe. I've enjoyed the lunch buffet at Sapphire. The Bombay Grill in Lee, MA that I posted about on the New England board serves weekend brunch buffets that sounded good on the menu (which I seem to have misplaced.)