Urbandale, Iowa - Wendy Dershem had a battle at the buffet last Saturday. Dershem was told never to come back because her family wastes too much food. She argued that - hey, it's an all-you-can-eat buffet. But management at the Dragon House, 10912 Douglas Ave. in Urbandale, said it's not an all-you-can-waste buffet.Buffet owner won't fork over food to family that wastes
This article reminds me of a story hubby told me. A friend of his went to an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet in Iowa City for lunch. He went back for seconds and the little old Chinese woman behind the counter stopped him. He pointed to the sign that said "All you can eat $3.99." To which the little old Chinese woman replied (INSERT UN-PC CHINESE ACCENT) "You HAVE all you can eat AH-READY!" He quietly went back to his seat. It is unclear if he wanted to avoid an international incident or if he was intimidated by the thought of the 4 foot 11 inch, 90 pound Chinese grandmother going all crouching-tiger-hidden-dragon on him.
Waste not, want not
I don't know if the woman in the article was wasting food or not. I wasn't there so I don't know how much food she was taking versus how much food she was actually eating. But any restaurant running an all-you-can-eat buffet has to factor in the cost of some customers taking more and some customers taking less. At the end of the day, it should balance out evenly.
On the other hand...
As a general rule, I try not to take more than I know I will eat when I go to a buffet. I usually end up leaving some food on my plate but hopefully not in excess. If this woman was a regular and was known for wasting unreasonable amounts of food (the key word here being "unreasonable"), then I can see where the restaurant might have a legitimate "beef ."
What if a customer camps out in the restaurant for 8 hours and eats the equivalent of three meals? Or how about the customer who goes back for a 12th helping of roast beef? Or the unruly teenagers who pay for the buffet but then use it to do John Belushi Animal House impersonations, "I'm a zit! Get it?" Surely we can all agree the restaurant would have the right to remove/ban those types of customers.
So what exactly is all-you-can-eat? Most reasonable people don't need an explanation but for some people further enlightenment is required. I think it can be summed up nicely with this statement - Eat all your want, but don't be a jerk.
And now an announcement from our corporate newsletter...
On Friday, May 26, the cafes are celebrating Memorial Day withCommemorating?
a themed buffet to kick off your holiday weekend.
Honoring?
Observing?
Surely any of these would be better than "celebrating"! Themed buffet?!?! I shudder to think what macabre feast they are planning...
Stink-O de Mayo
Sorry – I’m just not feeling terribly festive after all the ILLEGAL immigrant protests. “Bitter - party of one, your table’s ready!"
5 comments:
I had a Stinko de Mayo as well, but it did not involve an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner. I phoned in an order for Malaysian "Beef Randang" and picked it up 10 minutes later.
I have yet to see a food or owner fight over an all-you-can-eat, though. Curiously enough, New Jerseyites are civilized once they get out of their cars. "You know, Lady...that lump you're standing on is my foot." "Oh, sorry."
Food fights are left for college cafeterias.
I'm like you, inasmuch as I'll take what I can reasonably eat, which really isn't that much. I might leave something on the plate that I thought looked interesting, and tasted awful, but that's about it.
On the other hand, when I visit Morton's in Chicago, and the smallest filet mignon they will sell is 16 oz., damn right I'll ask for a doggy bag for the remaining half to 2/3s of it. And they don't even give me an evil look about it when I ask for one. LOL!
my mate Stentor never approaches an all-you-can-eat without having that goal in mind, usually with attempting to beat whatever record is held. I saw him eat 9 plates of ribs at one point, and have heard stories of greater excesses.
As such, all you can eat should, I think, mean all-you-can-eat-continously-without-stopping,
pausing-deviating-or-disposing.
God help me if I ever get into a competition with him.
Dantares.
When I was in college and food was scarce, going to the buffet was a little different. We ate like a pack of wild dogs. The attitude was - "Here is food. Eat while you can cuz you might not get the chance tomorrow."
When a local grocery store was giving away free hotdogs, we kept going through the line until the guy caught on. Back then it was a survival thing. It is a miserable thing to be hungry.
Stopped at Sam's Club this afternoon on our way through Big City. On the bottom of our receipt was found the following:
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
05/06/2006
When I pointed out the obvious error to my dear hubby he stated as he munched on his guacamole (sp?) and chip sample ... "They celebrate that here everyday."
Me bad, as the saying goes nowadays ... But it was funny.
I remember those cafeteria days. How many ways did we devise to sneak out dinner rolls?
I remember too, the time my roommate brought home a garbage bag full of left-over popcorn from the concession stand were she worked, and I lived on it for a week and a half, until I got my paycheck.
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