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

[JLTraveling]

Has anybody here ever been to Lambert's Cafe? It's a bit of a tourist trap, but fun. I've only been to the one in Foley, AL, along the Gulf Coast near Pensacola, but apparently there are also a couple in Missouri.

It isn't a buffet, but it's a place to gorge yourself. Everything on the menu (Southern food like pot pie, meatloaf, and fried chicken) includes unlimited "pass arounds," which are tons of different side dishes that servers come around and just ladle onto your plate over and over and over again. Or for $10 you can skip the entree and just get a plate for the pass arounds. It's also the home of the Throwed Rolls, which literally, the servers chuck them at you from across the room.

Anyway, I love going there when I'm passing through because the food's delicious and I love the atmosphere. But I definitely don't get my money's worth, because I have a small appetite and I can't resist ordering an entree, even though I'm always full from pass arounds by the time it comes LOL. I can imagine big eaters would go nuts there!

 

[tvguy]

And mine being away at school, we grab a bite to eat when I pick her up and take her back on the weekends and Red Lobster and the $30 lobster linguini is her favorite...

My son lived in an apartment the last two years of college and that was in his Alton Brown phase of cooking.
I got a call from him at the grocery store asking me if I knew how expensive whole vanilla beans were? My response, "vanilla extract does the same thing for less". Son, "but Alton Brown says never use vanilla extract" Me "I'm sitting here eating Ramen, buy the vanilla extract"

 

[mjkacmom]

Same with having not-picky (or maybe more accurately, reverse-picky? one of mine loved sushi even as a toddler but wouldn't eat breaded meat/fish) kids. None of mine were particularly happy with the chicken nuggets, mac n cheese and hot dog offerings on most kids' menus but I certainly didn't want adult entree portions for them (except in the rare occasions I could convince two of them to agree on one thing to share). Buffets let them have adult food at kid prices.

That was my daughter! Loved fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, didn’t like hot dogs, Mac and cheese (or any cheese), or sandwiches. Packing lunch was not easy, soup, salad, and finally cans of slim fast. I gave up.

 

[mrodgers]

My son lived in an apartment the last two years of college and that was in his Alton Brown phase of cooking.
I got a call from him at the grocery store asking me if I knew how expensive whole vanilla beans were? My response, "vanilla extract does the same thing for less". Son, "but Alton Brown says never use vanilla extract" Me "I'm sitting here eating Ramen, buy the vanilla extract"

I remember my oldest shopping with mom. She saw a leather coat on sale. It was the "can I get this, can I get this..." and mom's response was, "You have money from Christmas, you can buy whatever you want." She looked at the 75% off price of $300 and went, "meh...." and put it back on the rack

The youngest does ask, "can I get this?" before ordering food when we go to a restaurant. If I didn't want to spend money on Red Lobster, we would have been at Wendy's so yeah, if we're here, get whatever you want. It's not like the $30 lobster dish is going to break me over her ordering a $28 dinner that everything else is.

 

[mrodgers]

My son lived on hot dogs and pasta with just butter on it. We took the kids on a cruise when he was 15 and our daughter was 11 and encouraged them to try new things and they did.
Unfortunately, he acquired a taste for filet mignon and escargot on that trip.

Oh yeah, I forgot. Went on vacation, the oldest stayed home. I gave her a couple $100 for the week for food. We are Facetiming on my other daughter's phone and she says, "Me and Maddox (her enormous German Sheppard) are eating Filet tonight." I started to freak out, I gave her money and she's buying Filet for the stupid dog. Then I remembered, it was Filet in the freezer, from grandpa's cows. About $3/lb. to have it butchered, wrapped, and frozen. Yeah, feed the stupid dog all you want of that Filet, LOL.

At least she knows how to cook steak. I've finally gotten her to cook so it belches out it's last moo when it hits the plate, except for Maddox, he eats it raw.

 

[tvguy]

I remember my oldest shopping with mom. She saw a leather coat on sale. It was the "can I get this, can I get this..." and mom's response was, "You have money from Christmas, you can buy whatever you want." She looked at the 75% off price of $300 and went, "meh...." and put it back on the rack

The youngest does ask, "can I get this?" before ordering food when we go to a restaurant. If I didn't want to spend money on Red Lobster, we would have been at Wendy's so yeah, if we're here, get whatever you want. It's not like the $30 lobster dish is going to break me over her ordering a $28 dinner that everything else is.

When both my kids were 21, alcohol was what killed my dining bill. $18 steak sandwich washed down with $30 worth of beer.

 

[tvguy]

At least she knows how to cook steak. I've finally gotten her to cook so it belches out it's last moo when it hits the plate, except for Maddox, he eats it raw.

We're not supposed to discuss politics here! Steak cooking can be political. I can eat a steak anyway it is cooked, from just touched the grill to almost charcoal and it's a different meal.
My son converted my wife into a "steak mustn't be on the grill more than 3 minutes per side" person. I tend to order medium in a restaurant, so a bit more cooked. My wife's Aunt, well, I think you might have liked her. She ordered her steak butterflied, well done, all gray, not even a hint of pink. She horrified more than one chef at a steakhouse.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

The OP's first mistake was walking in the door at Applebee's Things went downhill from there.

 

[NotUrsula]

The incident I will always remember is an occasion eating at the Garden Grove at the Swan on a Friday, which is their seafood buffet night. Now, many people do like to grab a few extra snow crab legs, and I can't blame them when it's a single price, but I will never forget the guy who waited until the staff brought out a fresh pan of crab legs, and then proceeded to pick up the entire double warming pan and bring it back to his table. It was at least 15 lbs of crab legs.
The staff just stood there kind of frozen in shock.

The kicker is that he finished it off and attempted to do it again, but this time they were onto him. The manager stopped him and pointed out that health regulations required him to use the provided plates. He still loaded his plate about a foot high, but at least there were some left for other diners.

 

[notatallmagic]

My 17 year old swimmer/cross country runner weighs 120 dripping wet... and could easily eat at least 5 plates. I love cooking for him; but something like this would be incredibly cost effective..lol

 

[bcla]

The incident I will always remember is an occasion eating at the Garden Grove at the Swan on a Friday, which is their seafood buffet night. Now, many people do like to grab a few extra snow crab legs, and I can't blame them when it's a single price, but I will never forget the guy who waited until the staff brought out a fresh pan of crab legs, and then proceeded to pick up the entire double warming pan and bring it back to his table. It was at least 15 lbs of crab legs.
The staff just stood there kind of frozen in shock.

I've been known to do that. The thing about crab is that it's not something that balloons in the stomach like potatoes or fried foods.

I do remember the weekend brunch crab buffet at Harrah's Reno (RIP to the place that started the Harrah's empire). It was maybe $12.99 and we even used a BOGO coupon that we would get in the mail. I think they had snow crab and half Dungeness crab. They were precooked on ice and it was amazing how much I could eat. I wasn't grossed out by it, but I've been there around closing time where they had last call. I saw them take the crab from the trays and just put it back on ice rather than throw them away even after being out. Probably didn't violate any health regulations, but they were clearly throwing out everything that was cooked/warm.

 

[JLTraveling]

That was my daughter! Loved fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, didn’t like hot dogs, Mac and cheese (or any cheese), or sandwiches. Packing lunch was not easy, soup, salad, and finally cans of slim fast. I gave up.

I was pretty open to anything as kid, from gourmet to hot dogs. But I particularly loved lamb. And there was a restaurant in a department store downtown that my parents loved to go to. They had a VERY boring kids menu, mac and cheese, bland chicken nuggets. And the most expensive item on the adult menu was the baby lamb chops. So you guessed it, every time we went, I talked my parents into buying me the lamb chops. I know it was painful for them, I was maybe 6 when the place closed and my appetite was about four bites. But they let me order it every single time (and then Dad usually finished it off, on top of whatever he had ordered). Awesome memories

 

[John VN]

Well, I'm 65 years old, 6 ' 2" and up to 237 pounds and I'd be 337 pounds if I ate some of those portions now.

25 miles bicycled today. 25 miles bicycled yesterday. 32 miles bicycled Sunday. Started training again to see if I can walk WDW Marathon Weekend Marathon next year. Been almost 6 months of non-activities due to recovery from being hit by a wild hog while bicycling resulting in a Fractured Left Tibia from the headbutt. If I didn't exercise when eating big I'd be in trouble.

 

[bcla]

I was pretty open to anything as kid, from gourmet to hot dogs. But I particularly loved lamb. And there was a restaurant in a department store downtown that my parents loved to go to. They had a VERY boring kids menu, mac and cheese, bland chicken nuggets. And the most expensive item on the adult menu was the baby lamb chops. So you guessed it, every time we went, I talked my parents into buying me the lamb chops. I know it was painful for them, I was maybe 6 when the place closed and my appetite was about four bites. But they let me order it every single time (and then Dad usually finished it off, on top of whatever he had ordered). Awesome memories

I remember working some place and asking some Indian-American colleagues if there was a good Indian restaurant. One suggested this place with a $9.99 lunch buffet and it included lamb. Or at least was supposed to include lamb since that would typically be gone quickly. They had the same price to fill up a takeout container. I think if I just loaded it with that lamb, that would have been something like $40 worth of meat. They probably would have told me not to come back either.

 

[ronandannette]

I love this rule - hate seeing people load up and leave piles of food that get thrown out. As someone upthread said, you can always go back for more.

This always bothered me at cruise buffets. So much waste.

Only a little OT ...one of the things I absolutely LOVE about formal dining on a cruise is that the portions are very small; perfect for being able to have all the courses and try multiple dishes. I honestly don't know why all restaurants don't significantly reduce portion size. If the prices were reasonable, I'm sure it would up the sales of appetizers and desserts by a lot.

 

[bushdianee]

I went to Red Lobster one time when they were running their Endless Shrimp special and there was a guy at a nearby table who was trying to see how many shrimp scampi he could eat. He ended up with 30+ dishes in front of him when he was finished.He would order a few at a time. He was a younger guy and pretty thin. I just can't imagine all the greasy butter he consumed. He had many people stopping by and commenting including the manager and other workers.

 

[mylilnikita]

It’s been awhile since I did all you could eat but when I did I’d starve myself for like a day

Years ago one of my cousins who I actually liked. She would go to Ryan’s or Golden Corral and would stay there for hours. I think a lot of it was she was lonely and depressed.

 

[kdonnel]

Only a little OT ...one of the things I absolutely LOVE about formal dining on a cruise is that the portions are very small; perfect for being able to have all the courses and try multiple dishes. I honestly don't know why all restaurants don't significantly reduce portion size. If the prices were reasonable, I'm sure it would up the sales of appetizers and desserts by a lot.

Because the vast majority see quantity over quality as the winner.

 

[ronandannette]

Because the vast majority see quantity over quality as the winner.

Alas, you're right, but mostly only us North Americans, it would seem. When we travelled in Spain, France and Italy, that totally wasn't the case. Nothing automatically came with a humungous heap of deep-fried starch just to fill up the plate. Even the McDonald's didn't have "value meals". Practically all dishes were ala carte and you'd order an entree; which was small, and whatever sides you wanted separately, until you had as much as you needed. All in, it still cost about the same for a full meal as it would in a comparable restaurant here.

 

[leebee]

When I was in college, The Ground Round ran a 10cent chicken wing special on Monday nights. My record was 32 wings, but the guys would eat 50 or more! We always kept count...