Will a buffet kick you out if you eat too much? Can you take your food home? And what's with all those dirty dishes? Turns out, the answers to these questions aren't as simple as you might think.
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00:00Will a buffet kick you out if you eat too much?
00:03Can you take your food home? And what's with all those dirty dishes?
00:07Turns out the answers to these questions aren't as simple as you might think.
00:11We've all heard stories about people getting kicked out of all-you-can-eat
00:15buffets for eating too much.
00:18That man ate all our shrimp and two plastic lobsters.
00:21Tis no man, tis a remorseless eatin' machine.
00:25And in fairness, there is at least some truth to this.
00:28In a few rare cases, people have been kicked out and even banned from buffets.
00:32But that's usually because they hit almost comical levels of overindulgence.
00:36For example, German website The Local reported in 2018
00:40that an athlete was banned from a buffet for eating nearly 100 plates of sushi.
00:45Others have been banned for behavioral issues,
00:48such as eating so much and so quickly that there was no food left for other customers.
00:52But the vast majority of people can't eat that much in the first place,
00:56and from the owner's perspective,
00:58most heavy eaters are balanced out by all the other diners who don't eat so much.
01:03Rather than kicking you out for overeating,
01:05it's more common to see restaurants impose limits on your time at the buffet.
01:09This limits the damage if someone really goes to town and starts eating too much food.
01:13In that case, they can go wild for a couple of hours, but after that, they're out.
01:18Some people believe that buffets serve carbonated drinks in order to make you
01:22feel more full and eat less as a result. This almost makes sense, too.
01:26After all, the less you eat, the more money the restaurant saves, right?
01:30It's also true that the calories in sugary drinks can have an effect on how full you feel.
01:35Another thing, the cold, crisp taste of Coke is so satisfying,
01:38it keeps me from eating something else that might really add those pounds.
01:42Thing is, you'd have to drink a heck of a lot of soda for it to actually make you feel full.
01:47On top of that, carbonation may actually have the opposite effect.
01:50A few years ago, a study published in Obesity Research and Clinical Practice
01:55found that drinking carbonated water led to an increase in ghrelin, the hunger hormone.
02:00Though the study was fairly small-scale, it would suggest that drinking carbonated
02:04drinks actually helps your body digest food, which could lead to you feeling hungrier sooner.
02:09As a result, it's very unlikely that buffets are giving you carbonated drinks
02:13to make you eat less food. If you can't finish your meal at a regular restaurant,
02:18you can usually get it wrapped up to take home with you. But what about buffets?
02:22All-you-can-eat buffet owners want to be sure people aren't loading up a second plate just
02:26to take it home with them, so it's easy to imagine they have strict rules about leftovers.
02:31And in some places, that's true. Some prohibit taking anything outside the restaurant.
02:36Others will charge a per-pound price and actually weigh your leftovers,
02:40or will charge a fixed fee. But this isn't the case everywhere.
02:43Some buffets don't mind wrapping up a few leftovers when it's clear that they're
02:47actually leftovers, and policies can often change even at the stricter establishments.
02:52If you're unsure, simply double-check the buffet's takeout policy each time before you go.
02:58One common myth about buffets is that the employees
03:00take your leftovers and put them back out on the buffet table the next day.
03:10It's an unpleasant thought, but thankfully, it isn't true.
03:14Maybe there's a few rogue restaurants out there that do this, but the majority of
03:18reputable buffets wouldn't dream of it. For one thing, it's a major violation of health codes.
03:23Second, the staff simply doesn't have time to separate everything on your plate and return
03:27it to the buffet. It is true that, when given the opportunity, people will take
03:32more food than they can finish. As such, buffets have to find ways to control food waste.
03:37But reusing what you put on your plate isn't one of them.
03:41It's even less likely if a restaurant does have anti-waste measures in place,
03:44such as clean plate rolls, as there's nothing left over to reuse to begin with.
03:49If you've been through the line several times at a buffet,
03:52you've likely seen the dishes pile up at your table,
03:54and you've probably wondered why no one was coming by to pick them up.
03:58Well, there's a reason for that, but it's not because no one cares about hygiene,
04:02as so many people claim. Some have suggested that buffets do this in order to subtly remind
04:07you of how much you've eaten, thus discouraging you from going back to get you more food.
04:12This is unsubstantiated, however, and there's not a lot of evidence to support it.
04:16The likelier reason has to do with etiquette and ensuring that no one feels rushed during their
04:20meal. If a busser takes away a bunch of plates, it could make the customer feel like they're
04:25being pressured to leave the restaurant. Instead, servers and bussers are often taught to not remove
04:30dirty dishes, especially when one person is still eating. Regardless of which reason is true,
04:35you can rest assured that the buffet's employees almost certainly do care about table hygiene.
04:41All-you-can-eat buffets are a great deal for most people. They're not a great deal,
04:45however, if you can't eat much due to a medical condition.
04:48With the rise in bariatric surgeries, which limit a person's ability to eat,
04:52more and more people face the problem of having to pay full price for food they can't eat.
04:57Often, hospitals will offer cards that note an outpatient has had surgery and therefore
05:01can't eat too much. These cards are then used to score discounts on meals at restaurants and buffets.
05:07Unfortunately, not every buffet will honor those cards, and as harsh as it might seem,
05:12restaurants aren't required to discount the price of food.
05:15If you receive one of these cards after surgery, always call your chosen restaurants ahead of time,
05:20and don't be surprised if it refuses to offer your meal for a lower price.
05:24I mean, why is your face suddenly bigger than it was before?
05:27I can't feel my lip.
05:30Imagine this. You're at a buffet, and you've got a huge spread of food in front of you,
05:34with everything into different containers with separate serving utensils.
05:38If you have a food allergy, you probably just need to look for the containers that have foods
05:42you can eat, right? Well, no. Sadly, those open containers of food are hotbeds of cross-contamination.
05:49Food can easily fall off serving spoons as customers reach across the buffet table,
05:53while some people use a single spoon to grab food from several containers.
05:57There's just no way to be sure your food will be free of allergens.
06:00There is some good news here, in that a few buffets have allergy policies that help diners
06:05navigate the buffet line safely. But many don't, and the general advice in these situations is to
06:10avoid eating from the buffet in the first place. In these cases, you might be able to order food
06:15from the kitchen, but this isn't a guarantee. The best thing to do is to call ahead and ask
06:20about allergy-friendly policies and procedures, and find another buffet if the one you call
06:25has nothing in place.