All you can eat doesn't mean all you should eat

[NotUrsula]

I haven't lived in Atlanta, but having lived in both Central FL and New Orleans, I can relate to this. My biggest surprise when first moving to NOLA was how much "winter" we get by comparison. It sounds crazy to anybody who's lived up north, but it really is different. Still very few days at or near freezing, but a good bit more than one or two in a season. And lots and lots of days that feel like winter to this FL girl, with highs not making it out of the 50s or maaaaybe very low 60s. And the potential for those days lasts a lot longer, from late October through early April. I remember once right after I moved here that we got sleet on Easter! Absolutely unthinkable in Orlando lol.

One of my fondest college memories is being in the cafeteria line at LSU freshman year and overhearing a male student grousing about how cold it was. (It was about 40F outside.) Everyone around him was like, "Dude, if you were wearing a jacket you wouldn't be so cold." His reply was, "I'm from Florida; no one told me y'all actually have cold weather here!"

Coastal Louisiana is consistently colder than most of Florida in winter, especially in January and February. It's also windy and rainy that time of year, so 35F feels like about 10F if you have to spend any time outside in it. (I actually got mildly frostbitten toes one early Mardi Gras year after marching all day.)

 

[bcla]

35+ years ago my wife and I would occasionally go up to Harvey's at South Lake Tahoe on a Friday night for their all you can eat seafood buffet. I have only been to Red Hawk once and thought their food prices were very high for a casino. But my mom was the Queen of the Reno/Tahoe gamblers special busses. She said Indian Casino food was always way more expensive than Nevada casinos.
I did look at the menus at Sky River Casino in Elk Grove. Their prices seemed high for a casino restaurant.

It was $10 (no tax) if one had their player card. I think some people went there and never gambled. Under $10 was pretty common for smaller tribal casinos. I think I paid that much at Colusa Casino and Chukchansi Gold, but that was years ago. Maybe Rolling Hills.

There is one tribal casino that charges a small sales tax. Thunder Valley might charge 2%, but that was from a deal with Placer County where they agreed to let them annex the land as part of their reservation. But the tribal government there has been a mess with one former chair being banned and cut off from revenues for 10 years. Chuckchansi Gold shut down after a takeover by tribal members. Rolling Hills near Red Bluff also shut down when a tribal member (former FBI agent) led a group that tried to take it over. These can be messes, especially with disenrollment. Red Hawk's biggest controversy hasn't been over membership, but they have a lot of members and I heard it didn't really net the members a lot of profit - maybe $500 per month per member. But it did pay for full health coverage, a local medical clinic, and educational benefits for families. Their big thing was that they agreed to a very high revenue to the state and they had to borrow just to make guaranteed minimum payments to tribal members. The renegotiated the compact and I understand are in better shape now.

 

[JLTraveling]

One of my fondest college memories is being in the cafeteria line at LSU freshman year and overhearing a male student grousing about how cold it was. (It was about 40F outside.) Everyone around him was like, "Dude, if you were wearing a jacket you wouldn't be so cold." His reply was, "I'm from Florida; no one told me y'all actually have cold weather here!"

Coastal Louisiana is consistently colder than most of Florida in winter, especially in January and February. It's also windy and rainy that time of year, so 35F feels like about 10F if you have to spend any time outside in it. (I actually got mildly frostbitten toes one early Mardi Gras year after marching all day.)

I remember one time leaving FL to drive to NOLA in the early spring. We left pretty late in the evening, and it was right around 70F. I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt. When we stopped at a rest area in the Panhandle, I nearly froze to death just walking to the restrooms and back. Immediately tore the suitcases apart to find the one jacket I had tossed in "just in case." It was freezing cold the entire week!

 

[Jml813]

Not a huge buffet person but I really miss Sweet Tomatoes. It was a fresh salad bar and soup restaurant and was super reasonable. It used to be my regular lunch or light dinner. Place. Fill up on all kinds of fresh veggies, a bowl of soup and a fresh baked muffin and I was set. Covid did them in.

 

[bcla]

Not a huge buffet person but I really miss Sweet Tomatoes. It was a fresh salad bar and soup restaurant and was super reasonable. It used to be my regular lunch or light dinner. Place. Fill up on all kinds of fresh veggies, a bowl of soup and a fresh baked muffin and I was set. Covid did them in.

They had those coupons. I've never seen a location with the (bizarre) "Souplantation" name. Their biggest competitor was Fresh Choice which has a similar setup. The odd thing was the setup with the salad bar first and then paying. When going back for salads it felt really weird walking past the cashier.

 

[Jml813]

They had those coupons. I've never seen a location with the (bizarre) "Souplantation" name. Their biggest competitor was Fresh Choice which has a similar setup. The odd thing was the setup with the salad bar first and then paying. When going back for salads it felt really weird walking past the cashier.

Souplanation was their west coast stores.

 

[mrodgers]

One of my fondest college memories is being in the cafeteria line at LSU freshman year and overhearing a male student grousing about how cold it was. (It was about 40F outside.) Everyone around him was like, "Dude, if you were wearing a jacket you wouldn't be so cold." His reply was, "I'm from Florida; no one told me y'all actually have cold weather here!"

My brother called me from Texas. Said they tried camping last night but had to go to a hotel because it got so cold, like 46° or so. I just laughed, "Dude, it's -15° and I just finished clearing the 20 inches of snow out of the driveway for the last 2 hours."

Plus, 40's over night, that is ideal camping weather.


And when we went to Disney, it was 63° when we left the house. I stopped for gas in a little town on a corner and there was a wind whipping through the buildings. I got out of the car and hopped right back in and turned the key on. Wife asks what's wrong. I point at the 103° on the display, "That's what's wrong!"

Our coldest day that week in Disney was 105° towards the end of the week. Still cooler than work, but my kids looked like they rose up out of the Pet Cemetery.

 

[bcla]

Souplanation was their west coast stores.

Southern California I think. All their locations I saw in Northern California were Sweet Tomatoes.

 

[heresabe]

They had those coupons. I've never seen a location with the (bizarre) "Souplantation" name. Their biggest competitor was Fresh Choice which has a similar setup. The odd thing was the setup with the salad bar first and then paying. When going back for salads it felt really weird walking past the cashier.

Not a huge buffet person but I really miss Sweet Tomatoes. It was a fresh salad bar and soup restaurant and was super reasonable. It used to be my regular lunch or light dinner. Place. Fill up on all kinds of fresh veggies, a bowl of soup and a fresh baked muffin and I was set. Covid did them in.

I loved Sweet Tomatoes. Huge salad bar- yes, it was awkward to bypass the cashier again, so many folks prepared two salad plates before paying. After paying and finding a seat, there were many more options- potatoes, soups, pizza, breads, all all-you-can-eat. It was extremely affordable. There was a Sweet Tomato just outside of the Disney Springs area, + one on I-Drive. I miss them,

 

[NotUrsula]

My brother called me from Texas. Said they tried camping last night but had to go to a hotel because it got so cold, like 46° or so. I just laughed, "Dude, it's -15° and I just finished clearing the 20 inches of snow out of the driveway for the last 2 hours."

Plus, 40's over night, that is ideal camping weather.


And when we went to Disney, it was 63° when we left the house. I stopped for gas in a little town on a corner and there was a wind whipping through the buildings. I got out of the car and hopped right back in and turned the key on. Wife asks what's wrong. I point at the 103° on the display, "That's what's wrong!"

Our coldest day that week in Disney was 105° towards the end of the week. Still cooler than work, but my kids looked like they rose up out of the Pet Cemetery.

Eh, it's all in what your body is used to. Folks who live in the South develop what we call "thin blood"; we semi-evolve to handle heat and humidity, but any hint of cold dry air sends our bodies into full shiver survival mode and our skin just plain gives up.

I spent last weekend in Wisconsin, and I've been through 2 containers of Aquafor in the past 3 days just trying to de-scalify my skin and heal my split lip, not to mention 10 broken fingernails because they snapped off in the cold. IME, 3 days spent in a cold dry climate takes me a solid 10 days of skin recovery time to get rid of the pain and itching.

 

[AprilsZoo]

My kids love local all you can eat sushi restaurants, I think it’s around $28 pp and they certainly get their monies worth! You can order as much as you want, but have to pay for what you don’t finish. My kids are kind of health nut gym rats, my daughters are a size 2. I refuse to go with them. With age comes a smaller appetite and I don’t enjoy it. They do starve themselves all day and don’t eat the non sushi items, although they love ice cream and fried Oreos at the end.

But then what happens if you try things that you end up not liking… you have to choke down sushi that you think is gross, instead of just ordering the things you did like.

I’ve never been to an all-you-can-eat sushi bar, but I’ve seen a few that are on my “someday” list. The appeal to me is that I could go in and try one of everything, then get more of the ones I like.
Is that actually discouraged by charging me extra for the pieces I left on my plate that I didn’t enjoy?

 

[shh]

I got lured into Applebee's by their current all you can eat special on riblets, boneless wings (well more like glorified sauced chicken tenders), and fried shrimp. When I got there I verified that it did mean that I could get refills for all three items (and their varieties) and was told yes. For $14.99 and tax it seemed like a good deal. At least until I got the first full plate.

I mean - the price was actually lower than that of the regular entree price - at least where I was. But after finishing the initial plate with fries, I was already starting to feel full. And I had actually eaten minimally all day in anticipation. The refills were all pretty small though. They were on 5 inch round plates. I think my shrimp refill had something like 6 fried shrimp with cocktail sauce. Then one try at some boneless wings and I was done. I was feeling regret at that point.

I'm wondering who actually eats that much as to make something like this worthwhile. I do remember when I used to play pickup games at an open gym I could eat massive quantities, but that was years ago.

This is a ghost thread - not sure why it's suddenly live again, but gotta say, I really dislike all you can eat buffets or promotions. It's so unhealthy as it incentivizes one to overeat to get our "money's worth" - which taxes the digestive system unnecessarily, causing other health problems.

It's usually overpriced vs just ordering one entree off the menu - especially if you eat a lighter portion of a generous sized menu item and get to box up the remainder for an additional meal the next day - I love leftovers!

And whenever I'm out with others who do enjoy the all you can eat table service, too often they have to flag down the server for refills and wait around while everyone else is pretty much done and ready for dessert or the check- kinda throws off the pacing of a group meal.

 

[Sparkly]

Not a huge buffet person but I really miss Sweet Tomatoes. It was a fresh salad bar and soup restaurant and was super reasonable. It used to be my regular lunch or light dinner. Place. Fill up on all kinds of fresh veggies, a bowl of soup and a fresh baked muffin and I was set. Covid did them in.

Yes I loved Sweet Tomatoes. So nice to have a big plate of salad after a week of theme park food. Their cornbread was lovely and the strawberry lemonade.

Here in the UK we have a restaurant called Toby Carvery, where for cheap (under £10 in some cases, and they often do special deals) you can go up and choose from a selection of 4 meats. You get some meat sliced off for you, and a yorkshire pudding, and only go up there once. But the main attraction for me is the buffet style unlimited vegetables, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, macaroni cheese and cauliflower cheese plus as much gravy as you can stand. I go there when I feel deficient on vegetables and stock up on a lovely big plateful. One of my favourite meals out.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

Last Thanksgiving I did a buffet dinner at a tribal casino since the family units (immediate and parental) were elsewhere. I actually managed to pound down something like 15 oz of prime rib and 6 oz of turkey along with who knows what else. But I avoided the fried foods. Those just balloon in ones stomach. I was thinking that experience might have been similar enough to Applebee's, but it didn't quite work out. I think part of it would be the side of fries on the initial plate. As much as I hear the ragging about their "food" - they have decent casual dining fries.

they have decent casual dining fries.

As long as they haven't been frozen, are fried in GOOD oil and are HOT, slightly salted, it'd be hard to screw up.

 

[mjkacmom]

But then what happens if you try things that you end up not liking… you have to choke down sushi that you think is gross, instead of just ordering the things you did like.

I’ve never been to an all-you-can-eat sushi bar, but I’ve seen a few that are on my “someday” list. The appeal to me is that I could go in and try one of everything, then get more of the ones I like.
Is that actually discouraged by charging me extra for the pieces I left on my plate that I didn’t enjoy?

It’s not exactly clean your plate, but it prevents folks from ordering hundreds of dollars worth of food and wasting it. I’m not a big eater all at once, it’s not a good deal for me, but my kids have been there with idiots who just order everything, a fancy sushi roll can cost $16, don’t order it if you think everyone might hate it.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

It was a long time ago so I don't remember where it was had a restaurant with a sign "ALL YOU DARE TO EAT".

 

[Lord Manhammer]

This is a ghost thread - not sure why it's suddenly live again, but gotta say, I really dislike all you can eat buffets or promotions. It's so unhealthy as it incentivizes one to overeat to get our "money's worth" - which taxes the digestive system unnecessarily, causing other health problems.

It's usually overpriced vs just ordering one entree off the menu - especially if you eat a lighter portion of a generous sized menu item and get to box up the remainder for an additional meal the next day - I love leftovers!

And whenever I'm out with others who do enjoy the all you can eat table service, too often they have to flag down the server for refills and wait around while everyone else is pretty much done and ready for dessert or the check- kinda throws off the pacing of a group meal.

I don't like them either for exactly those reasons. Our European friends look at the way we eat here and are shocked.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I don't like them either for exactly those reasons. Our European friends look at the way we eat here and are shocked.

European dinner portion.

 

[shh]

I don't like them either for exactly those reasons. Our European friends look at the way we eat here and are shocked.

Right? My parents would place one thin slice of ham - ONE - on a slice of bread with a thin slice of cheese. They were horrified by what we call "subs" here with multiple layers of cold cuts. "Everything in moderation" was my parents' constant mantra, from food to work to leisure fun. We Amercians hate moderation - lol.

 

[bcla]

Right? My parents would place one thin slice of ham - ONE - on a slice of bread with a thin slice of cheese. They were horrified by what we call "subs" here with multiple layers of cold cuts. "Everything in moderation" was my parents' constant mantra, from food to work to leisure fun. We Amercians hate moderation - lol.

I think the big thing is that it's not considered rude to not finish one's meal. In fact that's a much healthier than being expected to force down more food just because it's still on the plate.