Dining at buffet restaurants is not merely an experience to fill up a hungry tummy. It is also a gastronomic sport that needs conscious decision in every food you pick. Because buffet prices are a lot higher than regular a la carte meals, we need to know how to maximize the experience to match or even get more for what we pay for. Kindly share your best buffet dining tips here. I'll start with one. Don't drink soda. Take hot tea instead. With soda you will immediately feel full and bloated. Tea helps your digestion and it cleanses your mouth to help you enjoy the next flavor you will take.
I love this topic! I hope you get a lot of tips. My tips are go for the expensive items. I do always start with salad but their are certain items that I can rarely afford to have on them like olives, specialty cheeses (blue for example), and artichoke hearts. Then there is the main dishes - they try to fill you up with carbs but go for the meat! That is the money maker. Now you might not want a meal that is made up of all meat, but if you must choose side dishes, again go for ones that take more time to prepare. If they have opened up a big can of corn and heated it up, it is not worth it to me to waste my calories on. But a piece of chicken wrapped in ham and bacon is something worth the money! Olive oil is expensive, drink water, and don't forget to ask if you can have a box to take left overs home!
Haha! I love buffets, so I have learned so many things through the years. Here are some tips: 1. Don't take large portions of food. You will become full in an instant because of this! 2. Don't make pastas your first course. 3. Drink water instead of sugary drinks. 4. Stay away from the cakes/pastries if you haven't sampled everything yet! 5. Take your time!
This might be obvious (but it's good for me because I eat like a bird) but only take a little bit of everything at least at first. That way you get to try everything you want. Also try to get things that you can't easily find at home. I tend to avoid mac and cheese for example because it usually doesn't have an exclusive taste.
Don't get bread or rolls. Those are cheap carbs that fill you up. Go for the items you can't afford to eat at home, like the seafood and meats. My local Chinese buffet has Jello. Who do they think they're fooling? Jello is 50 cents at Walmart. Walk away from the Jello and get the good desserts. If something looks good, but you have never tried it before, just get a little taste. Otherwise, if you don't like it, you'll end up throwing it away and my local buffet frowns on diners throwing away food and going to get more.
Don't just follow the normal flow of the customers, if possible, but instead scope out what they buffet all has first and where everything is at, so you don't load up on the cheap fillers before you get to the goof stuff. When I am hitting up the Vegas buffets, I always go straight for the prime rib and the seafood first and gorge on the expensive stuff. I take it easy on stuff like mashed potatoes, fried stuff and rice and other starches. I also try to avoid or limit any super rich foods that are swimming in cheese sauces and cream sauces, or drenched in melted butter. So no "cream of whatever" soup or salad with blue cheese dressing as a first course. I also try to hold off on all the fried stuff until after I've gotten a good amount of the expensive stuff, then I will move on to the egg rolls, or french fries or fried chicken.
I love you for bringing this topic to light!!! We are buffet fans and proud of it. We have kids that are not patient enough to wait for their actual meal. I know, but it's just the way it is. Our trick is like yours... never get soda! We always all get water that way the kids won't fill up on soda which is more expensive anyway. Another trick is... we usually go for lunch. It is less expensive than dinner and usually has just about the same kinds of food. Just a few tips to make it more worth your while!!! Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has to say too. Thanks for sharing!! Danyel
Lots of good tips so far. I don't really want to repeat too much, but definitely focus on the foods you truly enjoy and that you don't normally buy at home. Not just because they're too expensive, but sometimes you may not like the effort of having to make a whole lasagna or pie, etc, so get a small piece of those types of items, too.
Buffets are fantastic! Unlimited food for usually $10 a plate fits me very well. Usually what I do at a buffet is just stick to one sort of course that goes together per plate I get. So Round 1 might be Tri-tip, mashed potatoes, salad, and something else. Then Round 2 might focus on pasta and other italian dishes. And if I'm just going crazy, Round 3 might be Seafood themed plate. I've found it really helps hold me back on what I get per plate I bring back to the table, because my eyes always want to grab everything I see.
