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Buffet Manners

Monica Bhide
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Monica Bhide

Monica Bhide

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I just got back from an interesting lunch. Buffet style. There was a group of five suited young men at the table next to mine. They would go get tons of food, eat a bit and then ask the server to take the plates away ... and then do it again. THe owner came up and respectfully requested them to not waste so much food. They got mad.. we are the customer routine.. The owner was apologetic but firm

who is right? :rolleyes:

Monica Bhide

A Life of Spice

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Mayhaw Man

Mayhaw Man

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Morally the owner, in my book, is correct. The guys were callously taking advantage of the situation.

Technically, I suppose, the suited "gentlemen" were within their rights at an "all you can eat" buffet. Even though the idea is that it was all you can eat, not all you can put on your plate and throw away.

Many of these places have signs asking you not to put more on your plate and warning that if you get too carried away that you will be cut off (or someting like that).

Brooks Hamaker, aka "Mayhaw Man"

There's a train everyday, leaving either way...

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tanabutler

tanabutler

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I agree with the owner. Wastefulness is the same as destructiveness, and both are the only "sins" I know. The kind of attitude displayed by those callous young men is why the world is in the shape it's in.

"Hello? It's the clue phone, and it's for you!"

Bah.

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eunny jang

eunny jang

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It was rude (and wasteful) for the customers to do it (did they do it over and over?) but, perhaps, a bit off-putting for the owner to say anything to them (although I think a lot of customers take all-you-can-eat as though the is restaurant saying "we don't care about food costs or paying the dishwasher so it's a free-for-all where you can dispense with all manners." If I were the owner, I wouldn't have said anything, if only because no matter how it's worded, it seems as though you're ungrateful for their business. Of course, given how these guys acted, I might not WANT their repeat business.

There is a (not very good) sushi buffet 'round here that has a sign posted reading "You will be charged $1.00 for each piece of rice you leave on your plate." :laugh: I guess people were taking nigiri sushi, peeling the fish off, and going back for more.

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Gifted Gourmet

Gifted Gourmet

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There is a (not very good) sushi buffet 'round here that has a sign posted reading "You will be charged $1.00 for each piece of rice you leave on your plate." :laugh: I guess people were taking nigiri sushi, peeling the fish off, and going back for more.

Minado, or something of that ilk, no doubt ... Atkinsing people would not eat the rice and did precisely what you have described .... and it is why the owners inevitably have to say or post something ... stands to reason ... :rolleyes:

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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mongo_jones

mongo_jones

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I just got back from an interesting lunch. Buffet style. There was a group of five suited young men at the table next to mine. They would go get tons of food, eat a bit and then ask the server to take the plates away ... and then do it again. THe owner came up and respectfully requested them to not waste so much food. They got mad.. we are the customer routine.. The owner was apologetic but firm

who is right? :rolleyes:

perhaps they should have given them saucers?

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lala

lala

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I have to side with the owner on this one. That's just wrong.

I was having lunch at an Indian restaurant buffet once (you know, you've been there...) and this one kid ate several full plates of food, then refilled his plate as high and wide as he could at the end. He then had the balls to ask the owner for a doggy bag. Needless to say, the owner let him know that this was not cool.

I'm not a big buffet person (other than the occasional Indian lunches), but there aren't very many buffets in Seattle, and I don't see this behavior here. Perhaps we're all so PC, we don't want to waste a scrap of food...

“"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"

"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"

"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.

"It's the same thing," he said.”

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Anna N

Anna N

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I side with the owner on this one. I'm betting those young men were not raised to take more than they can eat even at the family table. No doubt they were trying to prove some adolescent point among themselves. I imagine buffets are costed out just as any other restaurant meals and are based on the assumption that the majority of people do not find it necessary to behave like this but eat a predictable amount on average.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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sequim

sequim

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More owners should speak up like this. If no one does, these people won't have any idea that they are ill-mannered or will feel that they can get away with such behavior. Why stoop so low that you are grateful for business such as this?

I agree, I hate to see wasted food. All you can eat, means EAT, not leave.

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mongo_jones

mongo_jones

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though to be fair if you load up on a couple of items in your first pass and find them revolting you should be able to discard it and still load up on other items.

these people's behavior seemed completely gratuitous though and goes against the code of professional buffet eaters everywhere.

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GG Mora

GG Mora

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I'm with the owner on this one.

My 10-yr-old stepdaughter, who has a chronic eyes-bigger-than-stomach problem, recently proclaimed that she loves buffet restaurants because "you can take as much food as you want!". Both her Dad and I lit into her post haste, gently but firmly, to straighten out her thinking on the issue.

Instilling values is a dirty job, but someone has to do it. Sounds like, in the case of the fellas in Monica's tale, nobody bothered.

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sequim

sequim

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though to be fair if you load up on a couple of items in your first pass and find them revolting you should be able to discard it and still load up on other items.

This is true. Allow them the benefit of having something they didn't like and leaving it.

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tanabutler

tanabutler

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You shouldn't load up on anything first time around. Put a small taste on your plate and use your fork. If it's good, take a little more. Come back for seconds.

Does anyone want to nominate me for Empress? Other items in my platform: everyone will have to smile at babies, and men will wear a tuxedo once a month. I'll furnish the tuxes, if elected.

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natasha1270

natasha1270

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Something about buffets seem to bring out the worst in people. Entering the "land of plenty" that is the buffet always seems to make the eyes much larger than the stomach. While I have been guilty of taking a portion to taste and discarding if its not to my liking, I am not serial at it like these guys apparently were and I think the owner was well within their rights to let them know but it is an awkward situation, for sure.

On the flip side, another buffet phenom I have observed is occasionally there is a really choice item on the buffet and people will descend on it when it is replenished. At one particular chinese buffet I sometimes go to, I have seen 1 person wipe out a plate of sushi and bring it ALL back to their table, someone else pick out what seems to be all the beef in a dish and another person empty a tray of duck! It never ceases to amaze.

Natasha

"The main thing to remember about Italian food is that when you put your groceries in the car, the quality of your dinner has already been decided." – Mario Batali
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mongo_jones

mongo_jones

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You shouldn't load up on anything first time around. Put a small taste on your plate and use your fork. If it's good, take a little more. Come back for seconds.

Does anyone want to nominate me for Empress? Other items in my platform: everyone will have to smile at babies, and men will wear a tuxedo once a month. I'll furnish the tuxes, if elected.

with some foods, as with some posters, an initial taste can be pleasant, followed quickly by the realization that too much will cause digestive problems.

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tanabutler

tanabutler

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Natasha's post reminds me of the horror of having to replenish the hors d'oeuvres table during happy hour at TGI Friday's in my busser days. These completely loathsome bachelor sorts would come in one minute before happy hour, order one cheap tap beer, and stand there and eat dinner, essentially, for two hours, while nursing one beer. One guy was such a weasel...very tall and just oily. He thought he had such a scam going: he'd even put food in his pockets. When I saw him put his half-finished beer on the transom over the doorway before ducking out (presumably to get coked up in his sports car), I removed it and tossed the beer.

Happy hours sucked. It was like sticking your arm into a shark tank, trying to get at the table to clean it or fill it up.

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NulloModo

NulloModo

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In this case I would definately have to side with the manager. After all, I could see a point in the customers' case if perhaps there was just one item they all found loathsome and left, but if everything was getting this routine, they were just being wastrels.

I do have issue with the Sushi places and the rice thing though. If they don't want you to create your own Sashimi, they should go ahead and put some out there.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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JennyUptown

JennyUptown

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Something about buffets seem to bring out the worst in people.

This is the only bad behavior buffets brings out in me:

* Scope out buffet, taking only my favorite stuff

* Skip vegetables completely

* Avoid salads like the plague

* Find dessert area and try four or five

True story. Me + the Paris lunch buffet in Vegas = four servings of Bananas Foster and not much else.

I should move back in with my parents to see if the concept of a "balanced meal" sticks this time around.

:blink:

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ghostrider

ghostrider

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Kudos to the owner.

Deliberately throwing out food is a sin in my book too.

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea!

- Sydney Smith, English clergyman & essayist, 1771-1845

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torakris

torakris

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Almost any buffet I have been to in Japan has a sign on the table that says you will be charged for food left on your dish, I have seen almost no wasting over here.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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