Am I the only one with a severe aversion to Buffets?

[LynneSin]

Food Buffets, Salad Buffets, Dessert Buffets - I hate them all. To me they are just one thing: BACTERIA BUFFETS!!!

I don't mind them so much when it's a private home and food is served buffet style since I usually know the folks who are eating from the buffet. But don't even think of inviting me to an "All-You-Can-Eat" place because I am so totally repulsed by them. Who knows who washed their hands before handling the food (and picking at it while they are in line getting the food). It makes me totally ill just thinking about it.

I have a close friend who just loves buffets but I refuse to go with her when she dines at them except this one in Ocean City MD. But that place includes Hard Shell Crabs in their "All You Can Eat" and they bring the crabs out to your table - so I know they're safe to eat.

Am I alone in this disgust????

[jpgray]

1. What about Jimmy? Yikes. (nt)

[TXlib]

5. Or Warren?

[trof]

25. Or Lulu?

Jimmy's sister, Lucy, runs a damn fine bistro and seafood shack down on the intracoastal.

http://lulubuffett.com/

[LynneSin]

8. I thought you were talking about the jimmies they have at dessert bars

those things are just absolutely gross-me-out!!!

I like Jimmy Buffett (he's a double tt on the end)

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. Nope. and my family loves them. I get sick just looking at the

kids grabbing stuff with their hands, and people coughing. I know that the kitchens of regular restaurants are disgusting too. But then I don't have to watch. :puke:

Sveden House=Blech.

[lpbk2713]

18. Agreed.

Even the people who cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze use the same hand right after that to pick up the serving utensils......:thumbsdown:

[vi5]

3. My mother simply loathes them....

With a passion. I on the other hand love them. Particularly breakfast buffets.

[LynneSin]

4. Breakfest Buffets are almost tolerable

especially if they have a cook who does your eggs to order (then I know my eggs are fresh and not those powdered crap ones that make me ill). Plus there is usually a basket of fruit and juices that I can choose from.

I can tolerate one for breakfast

[trotsky]

6. I have a coping mechanism.

Call me a germophobe, but I only use my right hand to scoop food, and my left hand to touch and eat it. And I wash my hands between trips.

I do like buffet-style eating, but the sanitation bothers me a lot.

[SheilaT]

7. I've heard some real horror stories

about what food preparers and servers do out of sight of the customers, so just because your food is individually prepared and brought to the table is no guarantee.

I've never seen anyone picking at the food with their hands -- everyone seems to use the utensils.

In short, unless you prepare the food yourself, you simply cannot be certain of the cleanliness and thoroughness of preparation. But that's why restaurant inspection takes place. Some areas (municipalities, counties, whatever) do a better job than others.

[HereSince1628]

9. Bacteria yes, but also Norwalk-like & little round viruses...

[skippysmom]

10. not a huge buffet fan

less because of sanitation but more because I feel like I eat more and the meal isn't a nice balanced one with protein, starch, veggies. It ends up being a rather gross hodgepodge of crap.

Breakfast buffets aren't as bad, though.

(not a huge buffett fan, either, BTW)

[DS1]

11. Why do you have so much trust in the servers?

:shrug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

13. I don't. Like I said above. It's better for me if I don't see the yucky

stuff thats going on. :7

The Grumpys usually eat at home. Even then, my own kids can turn my stomach. Heeheehee

[Bridget Burke]

12. Proper selection is the key.

Who knows what happens in the kitchen of non-buffet places?

A Chinese place in my neighborhood has a buffet with a huge turnover, which keeps the food fresh. I go there for the chilled boiled shrimp & lovely mussels, but there are other good items--at a really decent price. It's also fun to watch the hugely varied clientele--all colors, all ethnic backgrounds, most economic levels. The place is new & kept gleamingly clean.

Several restaurants in town have weekend brunch buffets--especially good if they feature Mexican breakfast.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. Not me!

I love 'em.

They got cough shields on them, so I'm not worried about picking up SARS or TB.

Buffets are big around here, and some sitdown restaurants have put them in due to demand. Most are Chinese, but there are others, and the Chinese have other stuff for the locals with no taste buds.

Salad bars, too, with appetizer bars, and whatever...

No agonizing over the menu, or sorry-ass vegetable choices. I can take a small taste of everything that looks good and go back and pig out on the winners. No choice of soup-- I can have a bowl of everything. Even mix the soups together. (Ever tried sweet and sour eggdrop wonton soup?)

I usually do two bowls of soup and three plates, unless I'm hungry.

:loveya: them buffets!

[pansypoo53219]

15. frankly

i can't stand jimmy buffet.

[dolo amber]

16. Awww, LynneSin!!

Buffets are actually GOOD for you! All those wee germs and microbes and whatnot...here, don't take it from me, listen to the wisdom of one Mr. George Carlin;

"Hi Lynne, Dolo asked me to pop by and try to ease your mind a bit, so here goes...
In my neighborhood no one ever got polio. No one, ever. You know why? Because we swam in the East River. We swam in raw sewage! it strengthened our immune systems, and the polio never had a prayer. We were tempered in raw shit!
Hope that helps!"

Wow, thanks for that George, I really appreciate it! :hi:

There now LynneSin, don't you feel better? ;)

[populistmom]

21. There is something about that

Lots of studies are now linking allergies with an oversanitized environment. My daughter has terrible allergies and when she was little, we lived in an apartment with hardwood floors and she didn't get sick with anything until she was 2. My boys on the otherhand learned to crawl on an old, dusty carpet (which is now thankfully, for asthetic reasons, gone) and seemed to pick up every little cold possible their first two years. They have no allergies.

And anti-bacterial soap too. Don't use it unless preforming surgery or stuck your hand in manure. It kills off the weaker bacteria and leaves the resistant "super-bugs" to multiply.

[flamingyouth]

17. Ever since I saw a guy "sample" all the dressings once

...at a salad bar when I was 6, I run screaming from them. Yep, he stuck his finger in one jar, *licked it off* and repeated it all the way down the salad bar. I can still remember my utter horror to this day.

[Dees]

19. I live in OC, MD...which restaurant is it?

?

[LynneSin]

22. Phillips over on 21st street

We use to go to Jonah and the Whale until my friend got bad food poisoning.

Only thing I hate is it's like $30/person and hardshells take forever to eat (I'm not keen on the legs, I actually like cleaning the crabs). But I usually only have to go there once a year when I'm staying at my friend's place down in OCMD. They have a condo near Big Kahuna (a place I refuse to go to).

Are you a full time resident in OCMD? I really do love going down there. Even spent a couple of New Year's Eve hanging out in the city!!

[Dees]

29. Yes, full time resident. A "local" as they say. My wife and I

live on the boardwalk between 19th and 20th streets. Phillips is just around the corner. We're not big buffet busters but there are several here that are OK. Bon Fire and the Clarion are decent.
We moved to OC from Missouri last summer. I'm Midwestern, folksy and country and my wife is from Baltimore originally. I'm trying to get it together here. It's horrible to wake up every morning and have to look out at the ocean.

[supernova]

20. Not fond of buffets anymore

less to do with hygiene that I just can't justify the price anymore. I don't pig out anymore, so I don't feel I get my money's worth.

I'd much rather go to a sit down restaurant with a menu of stuff I don't ordinarily eat and a maitre d' and a wine steward to fuss all over me. ;-)

[LynneSin]

23. That's another issue I had with buffets

As I was posting to the response right before yours, the only buffet I go to is like $30/person (+ drinks & tip). We try to go to the early bird special so we can save a few dollars, but I am a fussy eater and won't touch most of the stuff on the buffet. Only because of the hardshell crabs can I even justify eating there (and my friends don't like Hardshell crabs and won't go to All You can eat Hardshell crab places).

But I figure it's just once a year and I'm with friend, so I suppose it justifies the extra $20 I'll have to dish out for 6-8 hardshells.

[Blue-Jay]

24. "All you can eat"

Unfortunately, it doesn't occur to most people that you probably shouldn't eat all you can eat. I have nothing against buffets, per se, but I try to stay away from them. The last time I was at one, I didn't eat for two days afterward. Portions at "regular" restaurants are large enough as is.

[beawr]

26. I never liked Jimmy Buffet

n/t

[xultar]

27. No! Think of all the people you see pickin their nose in the parking

lot at the grocery. Then they walk right in grab a set of tongs and start fiddlin around in the salad bar! YECH!

If terrorist wanted to mess with us all they really needed to do was put some anthrax or other deadly chemical in the salad bars, buffets, or in the sample stuff the lil-blue hairs hand out in the grocery store. Oh, don't even get me started about the unattended samples they have in some stores...YECH!

Just say no to buffets, food bars, and samples

[Zuni]

28. do you live in Maryland?

I used to live the summer in Ocean city maryland.

[LynneSin]

30. I live in DE

But I usually head to OCMD 2-3 times a summer

[MediumBrownDog]

31. My parents love them....

and eat at one called Old Country Buffet or something twice a week at least. I went with them once, to be a good sport, and I must say it is a LOT of food for $6.95 (it is $8.95 without the senior citizen discount). The place is enormous and has heaping tables of salad, meats, gloppy starches with helpful labels -- it is hard to tell one beige casserole from another -- wilted vegetables, breads, and, of course, desserts.

The vast majority of the patrons were overweight. It is not a good venue for folks with portion control issues. I don't know why you'd want more than one plate -- it all tasted the same to me. And they didn't serve alcohol, so there was no way to anesthetize yourself against the overwhelming ickiness of it.