Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published July 10, 2007 Buffets July 10 is National Buffet Day. Few restaurateurs would ever serve a buffet for walk-in customers if they didn't feel they had to, for conmpetitive reasons. And many do. Sunday brunches in hotels, for example, have a strong market bias pushing them into the buffet format. Chinese restaurants all over America are going wholesale to buffet service. The reason is simple. While a restaurant may be able to draw a nice crowd with excellent food, wine, environment, and service, you can actually create a stampede with the promise of enormous portions of ordinary food at standard prices. The biggest portion of all, of course, is all you can eat. Limitless portions are so appealing to so many people that many diners suspend their quality standards in order to let this miracle happen. They convince themselves that the food really is good, and will tell all their friends so they get some backup on the opinion. But if the restaurant were to put the same food at the same prices on a regular menu, those people would stop bragging and stop coming. It's really all about quantity. Is buffet food really less good than food ordered from a menu? Not always, of course. But usually. Food on a steam table soon becomes either cold food or dried-up food. The problem is obvious: cooked dishes are at their best the minute they come off the stove. Then they cool and dry. Then there's the problem of cheap foodstuffs. When quantity is the draw, the restaurateur finds no advantage in buying quality, and so defaults to less expensive. There is such a thing as a good buffet. The first indication of this is that nobody in the room pronounces the word "BOO-fay." (The good ones are always called, by staff and customers alike, "buh-FAYs.") The best buffets reach their most lavish in their cold-food sections and their made-to-order sections. They take advantage of the few dishes that improve on a steam table--red beans and soups, for example. And they have magnificent selections of desserts and cheeses. The rest of the food comes out in small batches, and is constantly being cooked fresh. And there's a chef behind the line who can make or finish dishes, so they're served hot. But that kind of buffet is rare, and usually more expensive than what you'd pay ordering. Even in the best situations, however, a buffet is an inferior way to dine. There's all that walking around, breaking up the table conversation. All those dirty dishes that pile up because of the less-than-attentive wait staff. Who are undertipped by those who think that since they have to get their own grub, they shouldn't have to tip as much. Let's get that straight: if anything, buffet wait staff does more work per dollar spent, and so should get a higher tip percentage. Finally, there is the matter of eating too much food. Next time you find yourself at a buffet, look at the waistlines of the other diners. Is that above-average girth just a coincidence? Then get back to where the portions are controlled, the food is better, and the experience more pleasant. Buffets are for chowhounds. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com