Current Events > Buffets are gross, share your horror stories

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This one time when I was a kid I saw a little girl use the serving spoon to put some macaroni directly into her mouth, decide she didn't like it, and spit it back into the serving tray. When I told an employee about it all he did was change the spoon and not the macaroni.

In 2002 I worked as a waiter for Golden Corral for 6 months. Our restaurant was 100+ top (tables). Ask me anything.

I once saw a woman wearing a Betty Boop shirt that said You go girl with her head under the sneeze guard wafting the macaroni smell into her nose.

A different time but the same location there was a guy wearing a shirt that said No, I will not fix your computer with a huge plate of fried chicken, approximately 8-10 pieces, ladling gravy on his plate and it was overflowing all over the floor.

I dont go to buffets to eat food thats valid for consumption. I went to feed my teenage appetite.

I havent been to a buffet in... 25 years?

I refuse to eat at a buffet so that's not possible

If i arrived to Vegas 1 week later from when i went, i could have had this...
https://youtu.be/v_jhoQ6n96Y

Here is buffet tip
Skip the veggies and breads
Those are the cheapest things to make so they make them front and center with lots of variety to trick you into filling up on them and not getting your money's worth
They only put out tiny portions of meat because this is where the big money is spent
They use subtle tricks to try to slow your meat consumption like giving you a serving utensil that can only grab one piece of meat at a time so loading up takes longer
Or only putting out to try and guilt you into taking less hoping you will believe that Id you take a lot others won't get any even thought they refill the tray as soon as it empties

Anyway your first plate should be all meat products
Your second plate should be half meat and half of the filler like salads and pasta.
Your third plate should be desert
Unless you think you can handle 4 plates then just get whatever on your third trip

Last time I went to a buffet I was 14-15 and every single thing tasted like windex cleaner.

Ok I'll give some facts to get started.

-we dumped out, not exaggerating, 20+ 100 gallon trash bags on a busy night.
-everything was, yes, fucking disgusting
-everything put into a freezer, nothing was covered.
-everything was wet

customers...

i can't even get into the customers, but anyone who has worked food service or retail knows what i mean. it definitely builds character in the same way that going to war or prison would build character.

the depths of humanity know no bounds.

i honestly can't say it wasn't interesting, as I cleaned the 35 tables in my section and listened to Avril Lavinge's "Complicated" over the restaurant's radio several hundred times. Some days I actually made a shitton of money, like 90 bucks in cash, for absolutely exhausting 4-11 shifts. The cash was enough to buy a PS2 the first week, with GTA3 and FFX. Spent the summer buying PS2 games, playing PS2 games, working at Golden Corral, and developing a smoking habit as a 17 year old. Literally the clich of "I got a smoke break or no break" the older servers would of course bum me smokes.

Went to a shitty Cracker Barrel knockoff restaurant and there was a rusty screw in the green bean buffet tray. Not horror story, but still nasty.

yusiko posted...

Anyway your first plate should be all meat products
Your second plate should be half meat and half of the filler like salads and pasta.
Your third plate should be desert
Unless you think you can handle 4 plates then just get whatever on your third trip

4 Plates? Fuckin' lightweights.

I used to be taken to them all the time as a kid and the last time I went to one was as a young adult at a Chinese buffet. Never had an issue, but I can imagine what goes on when I wasnt looking. Probably why I havent been to one in over a decade.

Lived in Las Vegas for many years.

all the buffets are nearly the same. Just choose whatever asthetic hotel you lik best.

The only time I went to Golden Coral I came home right after and was shitting liquid. The next day was the only day I ever called in sick to high school, first time calling in since the second grade. Vomiting and shitting and alternating between a fever and cold chills all day. I rarely get sick and that was the worst Ive ever felt up until I got Covid a year and a half ago.

Went to a Chinese buffet for a work party. And one guy suggested heavily that we should all get the roasted duck dish because he'd had it before.

About half the party went for it on the first round and amazingly no-one noticed that it was infested with maggots until one of the girls started screaming.

Oh wait, one of my wife's cousin's had a buffet for his wedding reception.

The chicken was straight raw in the middle.

I hate it when people put their head under the sneeze guard to smell the food or get a serving or whatever.

once i saw jason vorhees in the breakfast section of golden corral

Im just glad Ive never stepped foot into a Golden Corral now. Fucking yikes.

After covid Im surprised buffets still exist outside of Vegas.