Item — HN Reader

I regularly treat my 25-ish team to all-you-can-eat (AYCE) buffets (until recently, almost every week). What I observe, which could be country-specific, there are two kinds of "ideal" customers:

1. Family with kids. The kids don't eat much.

2. Couples. The female doesn't eat much. I honestly don't understand why they go to AYCE.

I'm surprised to learn that in the US the ticket is $20. In Indonesia, with a minimum wage of only $320/mo, it's around that price too! ($10 to $20). Also in most AYCEs here you're limited to 90 minutes.

3 comments

> doesn't eat much. I honestly don't understand why they go to AYCE

If someone is going and eating a small amount of a single dish then it makes no sense (unless, as in your example, they're going with someone else like a spouse in which case maybe the person/s they're going with like it enough for it to be worth going on average despite the person who isn't eating much).

But I've known a handful of people with quite small appetites who enjoy AYCE restaurants because it lets them enjoy several of their favourite dishes and/or try several new dishes, even if only a few mouthfuls of each. It might still work out poor value in raw terms of calories per $, but compared to any other way of enjoying 5 different types of tasty food in the same meal it can be very good value in pleasure per $.

I personally can only manage about 1 1/2 plates of food. Not stacked either. But I do enjoy going to them as like you point out the fun is having all these different things you can try with low risk.

Couples. The female doesn't eat much. I honestly don't understand why they go to AYCE.

Because a buffet isn't a competitive contest where you pay to see how much food you can stuff down your gullet for $20. No, you're paying to walk away satisfied. If that only takes one plate, well, you still "got your money's worth".

I like buffets in general for the freedom it allows me, not for the amount of food I can eat. Of course there's the freedom to choose foods, but I'm more talking about not being tied to a waitstaff. Eat what I want, then just leave. No having to flag down waitstaff when I want to pay, having to wait on them to come back, feeling guilted into tipping someone who did a pretty awful job, etc.

>Because a buffet isn't a competitive contest where you pay to see how much food you can stuff down your gullet for $20.

I mean it was for me and my brothers growing up. Back when Pizza Hut used to have a linch buffet we'd always have a competition to see who could eat the most slices. Even though I was the youngest I won a decent amount of times. I recall my record being somewhere north of 20 slices, though the buffet slices were smaller than normal pizza slices. We were all skinny as rails back then too (and mostly still are).

> though the buffet slices were smaller than normal pizza slices.

That makes sense. At my local pizza place there isn't a buffet, but there is a lunch menu for slices, and those slices are double the size of XL slices.

Making sure they don't actually make any money off you - this means checking your eating performance against your estimate of the prices of their inputs (wholesale food prices) - challenging and fun ?

Most AYCE places I know of charge 1€ per year of age which I find very reasonable.

Outside of children, it doesn't seems like a very good deal for customers. You don't eat more and more as you age.

Sorry, I should've been clearer. I was replying to the "families with with children". It applies only to children, usually up to 14 or the normal price.