I've pretty much eaten at cafeterias and buffets all my life after going away from home for college.
I like them because you can fill in all the things you need in the amounts needed, including fruit. Fruit is one thing not often served by restaurants, except those with salad bars, which are kind of like small buffets. Marie Calendar used to have a pretty good Salad Bar and Buffet about 25 years ago, but it went into such decline at the local outlet that I began to fear going there. Buffets and salad bars have been in disappearance and decline it seems, since about forever, especially from their peak about 22 years ago, but I've frequented a pretty good steak bar and buffet for decades.
I've always liked to have my buffet dinner during working house (mid-day is best for the greatest meal) and do my reading, usually a magazine or nowadays often my phone.
Buffets don't require much personal service. But they want to make a show of personal service if for no other reason that their table servers be paid a lower rate as "tipped staff." OK, I'm fine with tipping for minimal service, or even none. (When I was younger, this pissed me off. I'd rather get my own drinks than have people constantly ask me if I'd like a refill. But now I have more sympathy for the employees, and frankly I don't get asked as much anymore anyway, as I drink less.
I'm fine with tipping these people--they need the money...and I'm partly saving the service cost in the direct payment. But sometimes these people amp up the show to either assure contribution, assure retetention for following the the rules, or some such. Before too long I feel like they're not really serving me, they're "Serving" me to someone else.
Often servers make ask over removing plates after they are done. I generally wouldn't care much if they didn't take anything, OR just took it without asking. Actually, at expensive restaurants, they generally grab the plates at the earliest moment unless you stop them immediately. However, once you stop them, they then make permanent adjustments. But at buffets they often ask if you want you're plate removed, when you've started on another, and it's an interruption.
Much interaction nowadays is for the drink refill service, and I suppose one can't complain about that, as long as one is not asked too repetitively if you want your drink refill, which was typical in some places I used to go.
And then there's the seemingly mandatory "Is everything OK" or sometimes "Are You OK?" I guess once per visit would be OK, but frankly I'd prefer not being repetitively asked such questions, or even once, when I'm obviously very busy eating and reading something. If something is not OK, I usually try to find some staff immediately, or stare at any staff I see, not look busy reading something.
If I merely nod or mumble OK, that usually works for most servers, but some seem to be a bit hard of hearing, in which case I might get further asked the "Are you OK?" a second or third time with greater emphasis. And then have this entire ritual played out 2 or 3 times in one visit to the buffet. It gets very tiring.
Decades ago, I started complaining about being asked such questions, actually in regards to the minute by minute "Would you like your drink filled.: One time I determined that I had been asked if I would like my drink filled 8 times during a 30 minute dinner. I refused every time. No matter how many times I asked, to the same service people, that I didn't want to be asked such questions anymore and ever again, the same people resumed asking at the next visit.
Ultimately, hoping I'd get less attention, I tried reducing my tip. That didn't get the intended result either, but convinced one server I was a starving student, so now I now got fake sympathy on top of everything else.
The very worst of all, is being asked what I've brought to read, as is most often done at entry. It's as if I was bringing the anarchist cookbook or something, and they were screening people for such things. They always try to make it seem friendly, I find it intimidating. I haven't brought The Nation to buffet in years, I hesitate to admit, for this reason. I was thinking of hiding it in something else, and I did that a few times. It's bad enough to take Scientific American, which is one of my standards. In fact that might be worse, more than once a person commented that they knew of something better, or they stumbled for a moment, which in both cases I suspected was for politico-religious reasons.
I like them because you can fill in all the things you need in the amounts needed, including fruit. Fruit is one thing not often served by restaurants, except those with salad bars, which are kind of like small buffets. Marie Calendar used to have a pretty good Salad Bar and Buffet about 25 years ago, but it went into such decline at the local outlet that I began to fear going there. Buffets and salad bars have been in disappearance and decline it seems, since about forever, especially from their peak about 22 years ago, but I've frequented a pretty good steak bar and buffet for decades.
I've always liked to have my buffet dinner during working house (mid-day is best for the greatest meal) and do my reading, usually a magazine or nowadays often my phone.
Buffets don't require much personal service. But they want to make a show of personal service if for no other reason that their table servers be paid a lower rate as "tipped staff." OK, I'm fine with tipping for minimal service, or even none. (When I was younger, this pissed me off. I'd rather get my own drinks than have people constantly ask me if I'd like a refill. But now I have more sympathy for the employees, and frankly I don't get asked as much anymore anyway, as I drink less.
I'm fine with tipping these people--they need the money...and I'm partly saving the service cost in the direct payment. But sometimes these people amp up the show to either assure contribution, assure retetention for following the the rules, or some such. Before too long I feel like they're not really serving me, they're "Serving" me to someone else.
Often servers make ask over removing plates after they are done. I generally wouldn't care much if they didn't take anything, OR just took it without asking. Actually, at expensive restaurants, they generally grab the plates at the earliest moment unless you stop them immediately. However, once you stop them, they then make permanent adjustments. But at buffets they often ask if you want you're plate removed, when you've started on another, and it's an interruption.
Much interaction nowadays is for the drink refill service, and I suppose one can't complain about that, as long as one is not asked too repetitively if you want your drink refill, which was typical in some places I used to go.
And then there's the seemingly mandatory "Is everything OK" or sometimes "Are You OK?" I guess once per visit would be OK, but frankly I'd prefer not being repetitively asked such questions, or even once, when I'm obviously very busy eating and reading something. If something is not OK, I usually try to find some staff immediately, or stare at any staff I see, not look busy reading something.
If I merely nod or mumble OK, that usually works for most servers, but some seem to be a bit hard of hearing, in which case I might get further asked the "Are you OK?" a second or third time with greater emphasis. And then have this entire ritual played out 2 or 3 times in one visit to the buffet. It gets very tiring.
Decades ago, I started complaining about being asked such questions, actually in regards to the minute by minute "Would you like your drink filled.: One time I determined that I had been asked if I would like my drink filled 8 times during a 30 minute dinner. I refused every time. No matter how many times I asked, to the same service people, that I didn't want to be asked such questions anymore and ever again, the same people resumed asking at the next visit.
Ultimately, hoping I'd get less attention, I tried reducing my tip. That didn't get the intended result either, but convinced one server I was a starving student, so now I now got fake sympathy on top of everything else.
The very worst of all, is being asked what I've brought to read, as is most often done at entry. It's as if I was bringing the anarchist cookbook or something, and they were screening people for such things. They always try to make it seem friendly, I find it intimidating. I haven't brought The Nation to buffet in years, I hesitate to admit, for this reason. I was thinking of hiding it in something else, and I did that a few times. It's bad enough to take Scientific American, which is one of my standards. In fact that might be worse, more than once a person commented that they knew of something better, or they stumbled for a moment, which in both cases I suspected was for politico-religious reasons.
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