All Your Buffet Are Belong To Us
Two guys in Louisiana were overcharged for eating too much at an All You Can Eat buffet, insulted for being fat and then banned from the restaurant when they balked. The worst part of this whole kerfluffle is the fact that some Slashfood readers think the issue is justifiable due to the customers’ size rather than the contract implied with selling something that is “All You Care To Eat”.
A restaurant is a business, not a fat-person fan club.
Those two men, EACH, were probably eating two or three times what one person could.
The restaurant would be loosing (sic) money; they weren’t singled out because they were big. They were exploiting the all-you-can-eat offer.
Strikingly, no one is taking up the charge for the people who come in and only eat a small portion of food, yet get charged the same as everyone else. Where is that outcry? Where is that discussion board? These guys had large appetites with the combination of large stomachs and it has actually become a philosophical discussion about whether the restaurant is justified in banning them from the premises. I’m probably a little jumpy given the current state of our civil liberties, but god, I hope this doesn’t lead to fat profiling. I mean, more than usual.
Doesn’t the logical step seem to be that if the pricey items on the buffet aren’t profitable because people eat too much of them and ignore the iceberg lettuce and Jell-O, then stop putting crab legs and shrimp on the damn buffet. Am I completely off base here? This is why I don’t own a business, I guess. All of this logic.
Posted by Weetabix
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The restaurant is way off base. If they are worried about people (thin or fat) eating ‘too much’ they should stop being an ‘all you can eat’ restaurant and change their pricing structure to reflect food portion not the size of the restaurant patron.
I don’t think it’s an issue of profiling. And as a southern girl who has sampled many a Chinese buffet and who has lived around Houma, I will say that they probably were eating a LOT in order to get kicked out.
To give you an idea, Houma is right next to New Orleans, where food rules. Before Katrina, Hospitality was the number one industry in the New Orleans metro.
We don’t know all the details of the story, but I think if a business owner is losing profits because someone is taking advantage of the giant chinese trough, then action needs to be taken.
If the sign says “All you care to eat” then they should be able to eat until mashed potatoes come out of their ears.
If you don’t want to serve people of varying appetites varying amounts, you really shouldn’t own a buffet. End of story. This is nothing more than fat shaming. If they were thin guys eating “two to three times more than a person could” it would just be seen as a healthy appetite.
And I refuse to believe that a few extra plates of food are enough for a buffet to “lose profits.” This is just non-sense.
We are now officially living within a Simpson’s episode.
I’m sure for every person that is “taking advantage” of all you can eat, there’s someone else out there eating a single plate. If you have more of the former than the latter, you raise prices. It’s not difficult.
Wish, I was thinking the same thing!
“Please! Don’t take the steam tray! Sir!”
“That man ate all our shrimp! And two plastic lobsters!”
“Come see Bottomless Pete! Nature’s cruelest mistake! Come for the freak! Stay for the food!”
The episode is called “New Kid on the Block” in case anybody is interested. It was also written by Conan O’Brien.
All of these restaurants have posted signs giving them the right to exclude people.
Buffets are not really going after the glutton market, but rather the families with kids market. The days of parents making kids eat what they’re given are over, for better or worse.
When I visit my sister’s family I try to avoid get-togethers at restaurants, since I know we’ll have to drag along their kids and we’ll be stuck with the lowest common denominator “Chinese” buffet crap. Life is too short to eat stuff like that.
I’m certain that if two thin people ate the same amount, nobody would have even noticed. What about all the people who sneak an extra bread roll into their bag? I don’t hear any outcry over that, and they’re actually breaking the rules. Whereas the only thing the two men did wrong was dare to eat in public while fat. The charge of “exploiting the all-you-can-eat” offer is absurd. It doesn’t say “all-you-can-eat-(assuming-you-can’t-eat-more-than-we-think-you-should).”
Mike, exactly what signs do these restaurants use to discriminate against people? I haven’t been to a buffet in ages (the last one I was at involved more karaoke than eating), so I am very curious.
Is anyone else reminded of the old John Pinette standup routine?
You bin he-ah fo’ ow-ahs! No mo’ shrimp! You eat veg’able!
Read the story again.
The reason the guys got banned is because…they acted like total jerks and got into a brouhaha with the restaurant staff and owner. One which needed the police to be called in to stop the fight. In other words, this was a situation that would have resulted in the guys being banned if they were thin as rails!! See here:
1.) These two were eating nothing, according to the story, but the pricey stuff…and a lot of it.
2.) When the “good stuff” (the expensive seafood) ran out, these “hearty eaters” would then raise a ruckus until the kitchen gave in and made more. All of the time.
These guys were wrong to do that: Restaurants make money on selling food, not making more than they can sell and therefore would have to throw out; the amount that is put out (on a buffet table) is what the place estimates will sell that day. A wise move, especially when the item is seafood, which does not “keep” well.
Just because the “Foodsie Twins” show up on a particular day does not mean that the restaurant is required to cook more just for them. After all, this is a BUFFET, NOT a place that handles individual orders. The fact that the cooks would make more in answer to the customers’ repeated (IMHO unreasonable) demands shows they were doing their best to keep these customers happy.
3.) The restaurant can charge whatever the market will bear; if they don’t charge enough, the restaurant will lose money. And, no, the buffet will NOT necessarily make up the losses with the “light” eaters since restaurant margins are “thin” and even a Chinese buffet is fairly costly to run.
4.) We don’t know whether these two customers were warned previously of the possibility of being charged a higher price if they continued to eat the expensive stuff and make their overblown demands on the kitchen staff.
I suspect they were warned–over and over–and they did not listen and the owner had had enough of their nonsense and finally tried to make good on their threats to charge them the higher price.
5.) Then, rather than pay the bill (and simply go elsewhere to eat in the future if they were that pissed-off), these “hearty and fussy eaters” start a near-riot??
One that the restaurant owner tried to quell by going so far as to call the police AND give them their meals “on the house”?
No wonder they were banned!
Now…
6.) Their weight had nothing to do with anything really, bad jokes notwithstanding**. All the claims of “weight discrimination” in this case are a “red herring”. After all, if these guys felt so discriminated against time and time again, why did they not vote with their feet a long time ago?
I am sure that this place is not the only Chinese buffet in the area…
**Keep in mind that the owners and staff of the restaurant are not native English speakers and therefore any jokes–which might well have been meant to be in good fun–may well have “fallen flat” because of (unavoidably) poor delivery.
Whyme63, that’s EXACTLY what I was thinking about as I was posting.
Observer, the joke in question was ” ‘Y’all fat, and y’all eat too much”, which seems more like an explanation for the action rather than funny ha ha. You’re right, it definitely fell flat, regardless of whether the speaker was ESL or not.
Yup, I was instantly reminded of the Simpsons episode, too.
I have only once been to such a restaurant (they’re not common in Britain) but if I’m understanding the modus operandi… yes, I think the owners would be justified in not cooking more of a specific item if it ran out, without expecting a fuss.
But I don’t think they’re justified in making personal comments about customers for any reason.
One thing nobody’s mentioned: it’s possible that the restaurant staff may have found two six-foot, heavyset men who were in a bad mood physically threatening, and that might be the unspoken reason for the ban (an overreaction). OK, they had reason to be annoyed, but it seems it was the manager that banned them, not the waitress that had insulted them.
I think sometimes big men don’t realise the visual impact that they have on smaller people (especially but not exclusively women) who don’t know them personally and have no way to gauge their general friendliness.
many buffets have stopped using the phrase ‘all you can eat’ just to be able to justify controlling the consumption of their more corpulent customers. people see ‘buffet’ and assume ‘all you can eat’ but many now have strict rules about numbers of plates, numbers of trips, amount of time to occupy a table.
businesses have a right to control their business model and with whom they do business.
getting rude or abusive with someone is never justified, but isn’t that on the employee, not the business itself? that’s a personal action, not a corporate one.
Regardless of the facts or not in this case and the various opinions,
THE TITLE IS THE BEST EVAR!!!!
I will be laughing all day.
also, consider this quote:
sounds like he’s one of those guys who has figured out that he can pay $15 at a buffet and then eat 15 pounds worth of crab legs.
reminds me of the case several years ago when folks on the Atkins diet were getting booted for abusing the roast beef carving stations.
isn’t this really about common decency telling people that at a “buffet” you should be having a bit of everything, not pounding away on a single item all night?
Whoa, jhimm, surely you’re not equating fatness with the ability to eat large quantities of food with this statement? “many buffets have stopped using the phrase ‘all you can eat’ just to be able to justify controlling the consumption of their more corpulent customers”
If they elect to carry expensive foods on their buffet tables, then… yes, people are going to eat them. There are always people like me who don’t eat expensive foods to make up for the people who do. (I don’t eat seafood and don’t eat red meat which comprises most of the ‘expensive’ foods at most places)
If you actually intend to have some hidden limit on certain items, you can hardly expect people to know that. Indian buffet restaurants here have no problem putting up signs saying ‘2 scoops of ice cream only’ so why don’t they put up something similar if they want to limit seafood or whatever? (clearly posted at the entrance so people know what they’re getting)
Having worked at a busy buffet in the Extremely Shitty Jobs phase of my life, I can tell you that people get kicked out/banned regularly. In my year there, I’d guess they ousted maybe two dozen people during my shifts alone.
Behavior was definitely the common factor, not size–the first customer I was there for that was asked to leave was having a very impressive binge-purge cycle in the restaurant and wouldn’t qualify as overweight. It was awful, with the crying and obvious bathroom trips and then immediately five pieces of cake again.
I only remember one person raising the size discrimination issue, a large man who was going up to the line and actually tipping the entire shrimp pan onto his plate every time they filled it, even when there were other customers waiting to get some (since he’d taken all of each previous round). The manager had booted a skinny guy doing nearly the same thing (sans pissing off the rest of the diners) two weeks before.
My suspicion is that people get kicked out of buffets all the time but are too embarrassed to go to the press or police about it, especially when their behavior has been shitty.
Oh–and the place where I worked had a clear notice about reserving the right to kick you out on both the wall and on the back of the receipt that entitled you to a table.
The restaurant business seems like it’s own circle of hell. Really, it does.
I go back and forth between “god, restaurant patrons are jackasses” and “god, business people are greedy.”
I’m ready to raise hell on the part of the small portion brigade! I have a good friend who loves to eat at a brazillian churrascaria. They have a flat rate, all-you-can-eat policy. The problem? I don’t eat beef (migraine trigger) and they have very limited (and untasty) non-beef options. Every time he has a birthday or something to celebrate, I end up paying $45 to have a side salad, 2-3 pieces of sausage, a piece of dried up chicken and enough rolls so that I’m not enviously drooling while my dining companions suck down slice after slice of succulent, tender beef. Screw that. They should be forced to have a “salad bar only” option or something.
Thatgirljj, one churrascaria that I have been to (Fogo De Choa) does offer a $20 non-meat option.
jhimm, thin and normal sized people can eat mass quantities of food at the buffet too. I know it’s common prejudice that fat people are nothing but food slobs who don’t know how to eat, but I had hoped people who visit this blog would know better.
And yes, a rude employee reflects on the business.
My friends and I go to a Chinese all you can eat sometimes. The thinest one of our group is always the one back up there 5 or 6 times. Me, the fat girl, goes once (because they don’t have many vegetarian options) Truthfully I don’t care if I take all the “expensive” stuff, though. As someone else said, they should put a sign with a limit if they are so concerned. If it’s what I like, I will eat it. If it runs out, though, then I assume it’s out. I wouldn’t demand anyone make me more food (and if they asked me nicely to lay off a certain dish, I probably would) Everything in the world is give and take. I have little sympathy for a restaurant who advertises all you can eat if they don’t anticipate some people can eat a whole heck of a lot, but I also wouldn’t tolerate people being rude because they ate all there was to eat.
Observer and h, stop spoiling the fun.
People are never kicked out of a buffet restaurant for being rude, obnoxious or repeatedly demanding that the place cooks them extra (and the workers must cook them extra food humbly, not “grudgingly” btw.) No, it is due to fat prejudice each and every single time. There can be no other reason.
Also, heaven forfend that fat people should become fat because they eat too much. Why, everyone knows it’s the mystical fat fairy who with one sweep of her wand, adds all the extra rolls. Is it really so impossible that demanding that a buffet restaurant rustle up seconds for you after you ate everything they had may contribute to weight gain?
As for civil liberties, please. Mo Pie and Weetabix, you are both intelligent women. You are named after pleasant and useful foodstuffs. You display both wit and attractiveness, if I may make so bold. Why, then, in Heaven’s name, do you compare two argumentative big guys being refused service to a denial of civil liberties?
There is no vague comparison at all beween kicking off with the (probably) minimum wage staff at a buffet restaurant and demanding they serve you more crab legs NOW DAMNIT and being arrested, denied a lawyer or even to know what the charges against you are, becoming a prisoner of war in a strange country without even a prisoner of war’s rights, being shackled, abused, tortured, forced to denounce your religion…
That can happen to those who are racially profiled. Fat people? Doesn’t happen to.
This story has actually, even though it’s not funny, made me laugh because there was a funny fat comedian who had an act years ago where the Chinese buffet people screamed at him (and he imitated the way they yelled with the accent) “You been her four hour! You go NOW!” It never gets old, but you probably had to be there.
Ideally I’d like restaurants to have the right to run things how they please (and to go out of business when the negative publicity they engender by being pricks works its magic) but the fact is that under the laws we actually have, they aren’t allowed to discriminate against people of color, the disabled, women, etc. There is NO excuse whatsoever for discriminating any group. What’s next, throwing out women who breastfeed? Oh, wait. But seriously, I’d like to see some real protesting about things like this – this fat-hatred and phobia is getting way out of hand, and it’s scary. And I know what the usual excuses are, “But being black or Hispanic isn’t a choice, and being fat is, therefore discrimination is OK.” No on both counts. No, no, hell no. At any rate, THEY advertised “all you can eat” and that’s their tough crapola if they think it’s hurting them financially to deliver just that. If they want caveats to the “all-you-can-eat” policy, then they need to CLEARLY advertise the caveats and enforce them at the door before they let people in. They’ll soon find people turn away in droves when they do.
One last thing, my husband and I went to Sizzler once (ugh, and never again considering how horrible the food was) because we had coupons. One was for all-you-could-eat fried shrimp. So they delivered a tea-saucer sized plate of tiny fried shrimp with the meal, and it was slightly piled in the middle. I was like “Ok, we’ll certainly be getting more,” and when we asked for the second plate the waitress was visibly annoyed. She brought us a second plate, with about half the amount on the same sized plate. When we asked for another, she actually harrumphed aloud, and threw down another small plate with just a smattering of shrimp on one side of it. Well, I didn’t even bother complaining since most of the food was so crappy I didn’t want coupons or something, but if we’d been tempted to go back, we wouldn’t have anyway. All-you-can-eat is just not always what they really mean. We could have eaten a decent-sized platter of those things, most likely, but they had no intention of really letting you eat what you could. Jerks.
LFMAO…..
Chuffed…I think you made me wet my pants a little from laughing so hard.
Also, I agree, best headline ever.
Weetabix… that’s awesome! I wish the place near us offered that. Maybe I’ll try to redirect him next time to a churrascaria that’s a little more friendly to the non-meat lover.
Ok… so… what’s up with your headline? When I heard about this story, I thought it was fat discrimination right away. Totally rude, cruel behavior. I still do, but then I see the title of your post and see that other people think it’s brillant to mock Chinese people who don’t speak English as a first language.
Yeah I get it, some comedian did it as stand-up, and I don’t know your headline is from that comedy routine or what, but this strikes me as one of those unneccessary jabs that’s also a bit hypocritical. Hey, you can’t make fun of fat people, but you can make fun of Chinese people’s grammar! Isn’t the point of your post that discrimination sucks? Should go both ways.
Seems to me that the restaurant could solve this by restructuring their buffet and charging a couple bucks more for the “seafood buffet,” and then limiting it to two trips per patron, or something. From a basic advertising perspective, you don’t get to say “all you can eat” and then bitch when people do just that.
That said, it sounds like the men were knowingly abusing the restaurant’s offer (and had been for some time — the article mentioned them visiting up to three times per week) and got pissed when the place called them on it. That doesn’t justify the wait staff being rude to them, but the men’s behavior went well beyond obnoxious, regardless of their size.
I guess my point is that we need to separate the fat acceptance element from the “people being assholes” element. I honestly think that the restaurant *would* notice if a thin person came in three times per week and at five plates of seafood at a crack, for example. (See above regarding advertising, however.) Yes, the wait person made the horrible fat remark, and that’s wrong. But the guys were being jerks (starting a fight over the bill, being demanding) and that’s wrong too.
AliB, it wasn’t meant to be discriminatory but rather a reference to a very old (ok, 2001) internet phenomenon, which was spawned by a line from a poorly translated video game. You can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us
It really doesn’t apply in this case, but as an aside, I will always make fun of poor grammar, regardless of gender, race, creed or sexual orientation. I’m very equal opportunity that way.
I agree, a restaurant is a business. Its business is its customers and if they are not going to honor their own policy of “all you can eat” then they shouldn’t be in business or they should put up a sign: “one plate refill only”.
Ok, after reading the article describing the situation I can honestly think that this doesn’t sound to me like a case of fat discrimination, rather weight was brought into it by a rude or rude and frustrated employee.
What really appalls me here is that the guys actually seem to have no shame whatsoever over what they were doing. I mean, the article has a quote from the person involved saying that they would deplete the seafood and that the cooks only grudgingly made more? WTF? There is no shame there- and the restaurant isn’t under any obligation that I know of to refill that particular section of the buffet if they’ve already used up what they planned for for a particular day.
Now, that’s just for that particular case. I know most restaurants (all u can eat & non) do have notices posted- not huge in your face ones, but usually somewhere behind the cash register- stating that they reserve the right to, well, ask you to leave. You run into that at a buffet, you run into that at a restaurant that is busy for lunch. They don’t want you sitting around nursing your free refills for too long, especially if they need seats or something like that.
I think if a restaurant says “all you can eat” they should mean it, but I also think that they have a right to defend themselves if people don’t have the common decency to not take insane advantage of that.
Also, the buffets with the “expensive” foods drive me buggy, especially if it is something like crab legs (seems to be a popular one)- because I swear, everyone there is after that ONE THING and it’s like fighting hyenas to get the stuff when it finally gets refilled.
Hopefully I haven’t rambled on too much on this.
The local buffet in my area has people of all sizes who can really put it away. I do a mixture of meat, seafood, chicken, and fruits/salad. Two plates plus one dessert (usually a small cup of chocolate ice cream or a few pieces of fudge) is my limit.
People really do take advantage of the buffet, and most of the culprits I’ve seen are older people who go with their senior or church groups. Not only do they eat a lot while they’re there, they also get several carry out boxes as well. I guess they are getting to go so they can stretch their meals out for a few days or a week. If you’re on a tight budget, I can see why they do that though.
I know buffets that have changed the phrase from “all you can eat” to “all you care to eat.” Maybe all buffets should do that, or as someone else said, make more expensive foods an extra charge.
Wow, never thought id see people fighting to be cool with obesity. What the hell is wrong with people.
Don’t advertise “all you can eat”? Either fat people can’t read and think it says, eat all you can, or they are just GLUTTONS. You fat people got yourselves to the oaf position you are in and your too damn lazy to try to lose weight. Yet your willing to expend energy on dumb blog sites like these and waste your ambition on campaigns to accept your rolls and unsightly looks.
I DO give props to those who work at losing weight.. It takes time though and perseverance. Most people these days want instant gratification. thats NOT how everything works even though our system today caters to that attitude. I give 25% blame to society for fat people. The rest of the 75% is on THEM.
Apparently the fatter you get, the quicker your IQ drops. So so sad.
I MUST reiterate this though, BUFFET IS NOT HEALTHY TO BEGIN WITH. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist, GLUTTONS!!!!
( and fat people go ahead and make yourselves feel better by replying with angry blogs, your just lowering IQ that much more when you do :) )