If you’re the kind of person who stares at menus for way too long trying to decide what to eat, an all-you-can-eat buffet probably sounds like pure heaven. You get a little bit of everything without the pressure of making the “right” choice. And for foodies or adventurous eaters, it’s like a playground of flavors.
But of course, with great buffet power comes great buffet responsibility, and unfortunately, not everyone gets that memo. Some people treat these magical food havens like a personal challenge to commit every possible dining offense.
Today, we’ve gathered stories from buffet workers and diners about the wildest, most shameless culinary crimes they’ve ever witnessed. Keep scrolling to uncover the wildest, weirdest, and downright grossest things people have witnessed at all-you-can-eat buffets.
#1
I was a cook/sous chef for 17 years.
My last job was a popular austrian area in the alps.
We had a lunch buffet every afternoon. More like an afternoon snack.
3 different mains, 3 different sides and a collection of salads and veggies and some cake.
Once a week it had a theme and, usualy I, would have to stand at the buffet and make either fresh waffles or fresh (austrian) pancakes.
I had a huge set up with tons of toppings and ice cream at one end. I was in the middle and at the other end was the stuff I needed to make waffles/pancakes. Like a container with the batter.
Everything had a description. Everything. Even my batter. You'd wonder why I put a sign to let the people know, that it was the batter.
People would watch me, pour the batter in the pan/machine and then they would grab the ladle and poured some of the batter over their food.
I was completely baffled the first times. I couldn't understand.
I even told the people that it was the batter and they would not stop.
I even put lids on everything and other stuff. I would grab the ladle out of their hands.
IT DID NOT STOP THEM.
They all told me, that I have no idea what I was talking about and that this was vanilla sauce. I kept pointing them to the vanilla sauce at the other end. They did not care.
The weirdest thing is, all of them did not have desert on their plates. It was a main dish like casserole, ham, salads, paella, lasagna and whatever was on the buffet and they poured, what they thought was vanilla sauce over it.
To make it more weird. ALL of them ATE IT. Their plates were all empty.
I had to notify the director, as the batter not only had raw flour but also raw eggs in them. I did not want to be responsible. And my director did not believe me. So one afternoon, he sat behind the bar and watched it all happen and was confused too.
We had to stop doing fresh waffles and pancakes.
We had signs in 3 languages (german, english, italian) that told the people what it was and to not touch it.
It was out of reach. Really far out of reach.
Image credits: lipa84
#2
I used to work at my school’s all-you-can-eat cafeteria. One day, a visiting football team from a rival school came in for lunch. One of the players, a big guy, walked over to the fruit table and loaded up his plate with watermelon. Then he headed to the condiments and slathered the whole thing in mayonnaise. I watched, half amazed and half horrified, as he ate what looked like half a watermelon and half a jar of mayo in one sitting. It was honestly one of the most bizarre and impressive things I’ve ever seen.
Image credits: rhinokick
#3
I saw a man use his hand instead of the spoon to get ranch dressing on his plate. He then proceeded to lick his hand clean, and then go for a second scoop. Golden Corral behavior (it was a Golden Corral).
Image credits: Carmen_SanAndreas
IGlobally, the restaurant industry is booming. In 2023 alone, the U.S. full-service restaurant industry raked in over 78 billion dollars. That’s a whole lot of dining out. From fast food to fine dining, there’s something for everyone. But there’s one kind of place that attracts all types of diners and drama: the "all-you-can-eat" buffet. It’s where hunger meets hustle and sometimes, chaos.
To dig into this buffet bonanza, we spoke with Mi Lau, a manager at one of Munich’s most popular buffet restaurants. With years of experience under his apron, Mi has seen it all: both heartwarming and horrifying. “It’s exciting,” he says. “We get regulars who skip breakfast just to make room for dinner.” Fair enough, right? But that’s just where the fun begins.
#4
This is going to get lost, but we once went to a Chinese buffet and were in line to pay when a woman vomited at the cash register, then argued with the person working about whether or not she should have to pay for the food she just threw up.
Image credits: bigmike2430
#5
Golden Corral customer here. Watched a 70+ year old dip his fried chicken in the chocolate fountain. He caught my look of astonishment and said “you’ve never tried it? You’re missing out.” Years later and I am still missing out.
Image credits: ClosingTime247
#6
At a Sizzler back in the 1980s, a woman changed her baby's diapers at a table right next to the all-you-can-eat salad bar...and left the dirty diaper there.
Image credits: michelemybell123
“They want their money’s worth,” Mi laughs. “And believe me, some come in with strategies.” Think game plans, plate-stacking tactics, and even partner coordination. While most diners keep it classy, there’s always someone who crosses into chaos territory. And that’s where the buffet becomes less about food and more about survival.
#7
Obligatory, customer not employee.
I went to a Golden Corral once. And never again. While there I watched a kid pick his nose, stick his finger in the chocolate fountain, and then in his mouth. Repeatedly. Half his family was right there and did nothing.
This was before COVID, but I noticed a lot of customers coughing and sneezing around the food. So it did not surprise me to come down with the flu within 48 hours. Golden Corral must be the Florida Wally World parking lot of buffet restaurants.
So yeah.... chocolate covered booger.
Image credits: jdlech
#8
We had a regular customer at our Asian all you can eat, who binged on sushi and stir-fry, for the whole evening, and repeatedly threw up (self induced) between a few meals to, as he said, "make more room to enjoy the food, and not have all the calories ". So sad.
Image credits: chonkehmonkeh
#9
Worked at my college dining hall and had a guy several times a week get a soup bowl and filled as high as he could with black olives and then cover every square centimeter of it with ranch. I’ll never look at black olives the same way again.
Image credits: Wildcat_twister12
“One time, I saw a guest filling up bottles with soda straight from the drink station,” Mi recalls. “Not just one, but multiple bottles from home.” And it doesn’t stop there. “Some even swipe ketchup packets and entire sauce containers. I mean, really?” It’s not a grocery store, folks, it’s dinner.
#10
I was about 14, and I watched a lady at another table open her purse and fill it with chicken. The purse was lined with foil.
Image credits: buzzed247
#11
I worked on a cruise ship. One midnight buffet was chocolate themed, everything was chocolate. A passenger took a tray and filled it, including a whole 8 inch chocolate cake. He then placed upturned glasses at each corner of his tray and added a second tray. Then a third. He eventually sat with three full trays of food. I saw him pick up whole cakes as if they were sandwiches. I returned an hour or so later and he was in the line for another run, his table had the detritus of his previous binge.
Image credits: Puzzleheaded_Two7358
#12
I watched a kid at the ice cream / dessert area casually having a conversation with another kid, while his hand was fully in the bowl of sprinkles, doing what I would describe as massaging the sprinkles, the entire time.
Image credits: coreywolfhart85
And then there was the purse incident. “This one lady casually stuffed her purse full of chicken wings. No shame at all,” Mi says. “She just zipped it up and carried on like it was no big deal.” The staff was left to clean up the grease.
#13
Not an employee, but my husband was though. One night he came home and told me the story of how he was just standing around after waiting for the next batch of food to be put out. He went up to the front to check to see what needed restock, and just casually watched a small child, small enough to be under the plastic guards, proceed to just have a full on attack and sneeze all over the food he was standing in front of. Picked up a few pieces and put them on his plate and walked away.
He told his front line, and they just shrugged and said they don’t have enough to replace the food just yet. He quit the next day… and that’s why I refuse to go to buffets ever since 🤷♀️.
Image credits: Iamnotpicklerick
#14
I once saw a fat man in a mumu try and take an entire steam tray to his table. He ate so much that two employees had to physically drag him away from the buffet and eject him from the restaurant. The man eventually sued, saying he did not get all he could eat.
Image credits: Murat_Gin
#15
Not a buffet worker, but at Old Country Buffet(RIP) once saw a family get plate after plate of fried chicken and only eat the skin. Literally piles of chicken at their table with no skin. Pretty sure workers werent taking the plates away in hopes the family would eat the chicken.
Similarly went to a Pizza Buffet and saw a dude just eating cheese and toppings and leaving the bread. Must've had 6 pizzas worth of bread at his table when he left.
Image credits: jayngel81
Mi says it gets worse. “Some people will literally cut in line to grab something hot the second it comes out.” You can almost hear the kitchen doors swing open and the herd stampede in. “And sometimes, they’ll just take the whole tray,” he sighs. “Like, what about the 15 people behind you?”
#16
I saw kids dipping their hands on the chocolate fountain at Golden Corral.
The mother laughed.
Image credits: One_Hot_Doggy
#17
The buffet limited each guest to one plate at a time…but you could return to the buffet table to get a new plate and more food. A guest apparently didn’t understand the process, stacked the plate high with an entire meal (appetizers, mains, salads) and, on the precarious pile, added cake, soft serve ice cream and poured chocolate syrup onto the whole pile! The staff watched in amazement as she gingerly walked back to her table, not spilling anything, and sat down with her friends. The friends apparently explained the one plate at a time deal but, to her credit, she shrugged her shoulders and ate all the food without complaining (and even went back for a second serving of cake and ice cream).
Image credits: Due-Cry-1862
#18
In high school worked at a buffet and this old man would come and wait patiently for us to refill the fried chicken he would then take EVERY single piece. Usually 12-15 pieces at a time. Eat every bit to a bare bone and repeat. He would generally eat 2-3 plate fulls of fried chicken, nothing else, when he'd come in about 1-2x per week. If I remember correctly hia record was 52 pieces of chicken. We'd start making double batches, 1 for him and 1 for the buffet. I got to where I knew him and I'd catch his eye and get a thumbs up or down if he was done.
Had another dude that used to come and take several pieces of chocolate cake from the bar, place them in a single plate, do soft serve over the top and and cover it in ketchup as if it was chocolate sauce.
Image credits: Slade_Riprock
Others take things to criminal levels. “We’ve seen guests smuggle out food using baby strollers,” Mi admits. “Piled high under blankets, as if no one will notice the buffet’s missing three trays of spring rolls.” It would be hilarious if it weren’t so maddening and unsanitary.
#19
Does a customer dying in the middle of a Saturday night dinner rush count?
Image credits: Become_Pneuma462
#20
Not an employee but if you've ever been to Golden corral in Texas, you know they have a melted chocolate fountain for people to put on berries and ice cream and what not and kids stick their mouth right under that fountain sometimes and that chocolate dribble off their spit laden cheeks just gets sucked back up to the top and back down through the fountain.
Image credits: Meet_in_Potatoes
#21
I worked as a baker and dessert bar at a Golden Corral in highschool. I've seen my share:
Kid wiping snot off his nose and then reaching into the container of gummy bears at the ice cream station. He did the same to the candy corn and the chocolate chips.
Customer used his tray as his dinner plate. Technically there was a plate on the tray, but it was buried under a mountain of food. The worst part was you could no longer tell what was food anymore, just looked like a pile of pig slop.
Saw a woman open a foil wrapped sweet potato and then proceeded to make an ice cream Sunday out of it.
I had just pulled a tray of brownies from the oven and put them on the line. Guy takes the entire tray and takes it back to his table. He hunched over the tray and ate every brownie while glaring at the people he was with. I've seen wolves eat with less anger.
While making cookies a woman came behind the counter and just grabbed a handful of dough out of my tub. Didn't put it on a plate or a bowl, just walked back to her table eating it out of her hand
Non customer atrocities:
The manager kept insisting that baked chicken didn't really need to cook for one hour in the oven, 15 minutes was enough time. No one noticed.
Image credits: atombomb1945
“It’s not hygienic,” Mi explains, “and it’s honestly really sad.” While most patrons respect the rules and enjoy their meal, there are those who treat it like a food heist. But despite the chaos, Mi finds humor in some of it. “Some eat until they literally pass out. Like, face down on the table.” Mission accomplished?
#22
Ive been doing this for awhile and I don’t eat from buffets anymore…
Leaning under the glass and sneezing on the salad bar, sipping from the soup ladle, picking up something with fingers, tasting it, and putting it back on the line, visibly scratching under their skirt, sniffing, and then using the same fingers to flip through a stack of cookies like a rolodex, dropping stuff onto the floor and then putting it back in to the pan, picking up an entire tray of 40 cheeseburgers and walking off with it… the list goes on and on
My favorite memory tho was when my old chef had had enough, saw someone stick their fingers into the food, marched ip to this customer and said “Excuse me, do you mind if I put my fingers in your mouth? Just grab your tongue and waggle around a bit? No? THEN KEEP YOUR F*****G HANDS OUT OF THE FOOD!”
He wasn’t around for much longer.
Image credits: hooty_hoooo
#23
Worked at a buffet in high school. This one fine Saturday a truly massive woman had a heart attack right at her table. Was the meat carver that day and I will never unsee it. I came out of the kitchen to the sight of paramedics shocking her to try and restart her heart - feverishly doing CPR after cutting open her shirt.
While the lights and sirens were on, and this poor woman was laying there dead, some other massive person was getting mad at me for not dispensing the roast beef more quickly. This lady was dead 15 feet from me in direct eye-shot and everyone there knew it. This guy didn't care. That was luckily the only time I've had to see someone die so far in my life. As a 16 year old kid I was a little bit traumatized.
#24
My grandma owned a small little buffet kinda in the middle of nowhere (in the South), aimed at providing a place for farmers to eat.
There was this one guy that came in weekly, dude looked like a participant on My 600lb Life.
He and his wife the first few times got a lot of food but nothing too extreme, then they started getting a *lot* more. To the point we charged them double because we basically had to.
Then the last two times they came in and cleared the entire buffet. As soon as we added more food they'd clear it. I watched them like mix everything together to eat it. The guy mixed blackberry cobbler and f*****g gravy. It was so nasty.
Not only did they eat way too d**n much, they'd leave a huge mess behind thar my poor teenage self had to clean.
After the second time my grandma banned them.
Still, there’s a limit. “I get it,” Mi says. “Buffets offer variety, and people want to feel like they got value.” But at some point, it stops being about enjoyment and starts becoming unhealthy. “Respect your body,” he adds, “you’re not doing yourself any favors by gorging past your limit.”
At the end of the day, buffet restaurants are businesses too. “We try to provide a fun and affordable experience,” Mi shares. “We want people to enjoy their time, not ruin it for others.” It’s a balance between treating yourself and treating others with respect.
#25
It’s the waste that offends me. I’m not judging you for indulging, I’m at the next table; I’m judging you for leaving an entire uneaten meal on the table you destroyed.
#26
In my elementary school, in the higher grades, you could volunteer to help serve lunch for like a week. I remember one day I was supervising the salad bar and a girl got a spoon of sour cream, used the same spoon to get some bacon bits, took a moment to contemplate the spoon, then sucked it clean and put it back. I quickly took it. That was my first time I remember witnessing somebody being gross around food.
Image credits: NeitherSparky
#27
Not really a buffet but I have worked multiple self service stations.
I’ve worked with a salad bar and donut case but I’ve heard another story from a coworker who worked with the soup bar.
When I would try setting up the salad bar in the morning I had to do 2 trips because of the utensils. I would often catch and scold customers who tried to handle the salad with their bare hands and have tossed out a whole lot of salad once or twice because I was too late. Eventually I brought out the utensils first before bringing the food but even that wasn’t foolproof. I’ve seen people pick up something they dropped and put it back in the respective container before. Yes I tossed that too.
The self service donut case was a special time too. It wasn’t unusual for someone to pick up a donut, take a bite and then put it back if they didn’t like it. I also once had an old guy manage to get chocolate icing all over the case. It looked like a monkey smeared p*o all over the doors…
And my favorite was a coworker told me that it was extremely common for customers to lick the portioning spoons for the soup bar. Thank god they got rid of it.
Mi wraps it up perfectly. “We want our customers to have a good time,” he says. “But please, don’t risk your health or our sanity for a third plate of fried shrimp.” After all, there’s always next time, right?
#28
My parents were at The Pizza Ranch (a pizza/chicken buffet chain in the Midwest). As they were eating they watched a little girl around 6 years of age take her plate of leftovers and scrape them all back into the buffet. They never went back to a buffet after that.
Image credits: BeachBound1
#29
In college I worked at a pizza joint that had a 30 foot salad bar. This one lady came in, just ordered the salad bar and went through. It was slow so I was cleaning the front and saw her every move. She no joke stuck her finger in one dressing, licked it, then went to the next, stuck her finger in and licked. Ran over to stop her, gave her small containers to put them in first before tasting. Had to dump 2 containers worth of dressing. About 2 weeks later she came back and did the same thing. That time we made her leave and take her food and go and no longer welcome. 2 weeks later she's back, tries again, gets denied service so goes into the parking lot and tries to get people to buy her lunch and join their party. The look of disgust from the people she was trying to scam when we told her the reason for her ban.
Image credits: stellabitch
#30
Some parents were spotted dipping their baby’s bottle into the communal soup pot. Not a ladle. Literally submerging the bottle. Repeatedly. Staff had to throw out the entire pot and sanitize everything.
Image credits: 2hot5you
#31
I'm not an employee, but I've seen things. At a Pizza Hut buffet, I saw a kid who would jam his fist down into the bacon bits and haul out a huge handful every time he went past the buffet. Not the cleanest-looking kid in the world, either, though that doesn't matter: it's gross regardless. I never got the buffet anyway--it was gross by definition, like CiCi's is all the time.
And my own sainted mother once put a hard-boiled egg from the Chinese buffet into her pocket--only it wasn't hard-boiled, and soon broke.
Image credits: masterpososo
#32
Watched a kid go up to a soft serve ice cream machine, put his mouth on the dispenser and then just let the ice cream go into his mouth.
Image credits: ShockwaveMWA
#33
I worked at a buffet in high school. There was a man who would come in to eat lunch, read the newspaper, take a nap, then wake up and eat dinner.
Image credits: fraintrain0
#34
Worked at golden corral. One time an old farmer got sick while sitting at the closest table to the cash registers. He started to vomit, so he took off his hat to catch the vomit for some reason. Only problem was it was a trucker hat, so it just acted as a vomit colander and strained out the liquid vomit from the chunks.
#35
Years ago, we were standing in line at a buffet on a cruise, and there was an old man, probably in his 90s, about 3 ppl ahead of us. He picked up the serving spoon of some rice concoction and took a bite right off the spoon. About that time, a middle-aged woman walked up, grabbed the spoon from him, and said, "Dad, no! You can't do that!" She turned to a floor attendant, handed her the spoon, and told her what happened and asked her to please get another spoon. I'm not sure the attendant spoke English because she stood there holding the spoon, looking confused after the lady walked away and then just stuck the spoon back in the rice. We all groaned loudly in disgust, protested, and have never eaten at a buffet since.
#36
As a customer - was at a chinese buffet in NJ. A very obesse family comes in, finishes before we leave. Our view faced the entrance. We watched as at least 2 members of the family puke in front of the entrance. You literally couldn't enter or leave because there was so much vomit. Felt bad for the workers.
#37
We used to put out crab legs out every hour or so. There was a couple people loitering around the crab spot. When the legs were put down this big lady just body checked a dude and grabbed all the crab legs at once using the plate as a kind of shovel. When he yelled at her she said "these are for my family".
#38
My dad told me about a friend of his who is Tongan (I'm pretty sure) & when he & his 5 brothers came to visit America for the first time in the early '80s, they went to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Well, according to my dad's friend, chicken is a scarce commodity where they're from, so they went a little overboard. My dad's friend said he & his 5 brothers were tiptoeing out of the door when they were done because they felt as though they would be in trouble for eating so much chicken. Apparently, the owners thought it was great & caught up with them in the parking lot to give them more chicken to take home. The guys were sweating when the owner came running out after them 🤣🤣🤣.
#39
At a Chinese buffet there was a table of four obnoxious women who acted like they’d never been in public before.
Employee came out with a hotel pan of crab legs. One of the women snatched it out of his hand and took the whole pan to their table. Anyone nearing their table was greeted with evil stares like you were taking a snarling dog’s food.
#40
I'm not an employee, but I saw a lady dip her chicken wings directly into the ranch dressing at the salad bar and then placed them on her plate. When I spoke up, she went off on me. I haven't gone to a buffet in at least 15 years, and I won't. People are just nasty asf.
#41
Worked in a Chinese buffet (in the uk) until becoming physically disabled.
Seen it all
- people piling their plates with a literal mountain of food (you could go back as many times as you liked just don’t take more than you can each cuz waste surcharge) then covering the whole thing in sweet and sour sauce
- people trying to wrap food up and even put the little desert bowl in their bags/pockets (no take out restaurant due to licensing)
- people getting their kid a plate full of something then the kid not liking it
- people saying their “baby” clearly a toddler, wasn’t going to be eating then kicking up a fuss when told they needed to pay for the toddler
- kids mixing all the soft drinks off the refills together.
#42
Not super heinous, but way too common and inappropriate.
People that don't use tongs to serve themselves. They just grab the food. I see this at hotel breakfasts all the time. I don't understand. You're not at home. How hard is it to use the tongs?
#43
Was at a hot pot restaurant in Boston a few months ago, at the “mix your own dipping sauce” station. There were about 15 or so sauces, each with its own ladle to add to your bowl. Watched in absolute horror as the lady in front of me “taste tested” multiple sauces directly from the ladles (like fully brought them to her lips and sampled!!) before putting them back.
Immediately went to the GM and said that entire station probably needed to be changed out 😬 .
#44
I was the chef of a buffet, decided I didn’t want to do it anymore. It’s gotta be the most unsanitary (not the staff, the customers), cheap, unhealthy, and exhausting experience I have ever had.
Customers are disgusting. They will eat in line, with their fingers, straight from the steam table. Pick their nose, grab the serving utensils, use the same plates that they already ate from (use new plates!!). Imagine how often people awash their hands, then realize they all touch those serving utensils on the line. That’s right, that pizza you grabbed with the tongs? No you eat it with grandpas unwashed hands that wiped his own a*s and with. Or your neighbors hands that just jerked himself off.
The food is cheap. Very cheap. The goal is about a 30% food cost on the HIGH END. How much quality do you think you are getting? Why do you think they only give you a small thin slice of beef? Premade processed foods, lower quality ingredients. The goal is to make money! It’s incredibly unhealthy as well. They use starches, fats, and sugar to fill you up. Desserts were mostly frozen bulk purchased from US Foods. Not fresh. Omelette bars were good, if you wanted, but all veggies came in pre-sliced, and liquid eggs for the scrambled eggs.
The buffet life wasn’t for me. I left and transitioned to a different type of kitchen, and now am working with my family at a local business. I would say to skip buffets as much as you can, or eat the proteins like fish, chicken, beef, and fresh veggies. Stay away from everything else because it’s most likely processed and or frozen.
#45
Not an employee. Went to buffet with a couple of friends. They served freshly roasted chickens, pieces cut as per your request. There were two guys who ate 4 whole chickens, each. We lost our appetite just by watching them eat.
#46
My mom used to work at a casino with a buffet as a sous. She's got some wild stories and some pretty dark ones too. My favorites:
Retired police cheif and his wife used to come in with garbage bags and containers and freely fill them with as much food as they could. These two were very well off. They used the husband's previous position in the police force to intimidate workers into letting them use the buffet as their own grocery store. They regularly made a scene in the restaurant, refused to tip or clean up their space, and screamed at workers that they'll use their power with the police union to put the casino buffet out of business. Management finally grew a pair and banned them after they started walking out without paying.
There were two morbidly obese ladies that would come into the buffet and stuff as much food as they could into their stomachs. They'd eat to the point of vomiting AT THE TABLE and would continue to eat after getting sick. They also got banned.
A gunman came into the place looking for an employee he used to be romantically involved with. The woman had restraining orders against him from prior domestics and stalking. My mom hid in the walk-in with her co-workers and a couple of customers. The dude wound up opening fire and hitting a few people, including the woman he was stalking. She survived with non-fatal injuries. The gunman was later killed while being held in jail.
Lots of octogenarians throwing hands with each other for all you can eat crab legs.
Lots of drunk people pissing and s******g themselves or walking into the buffet covered in their own waste from extended hours gambling. Most didn't care and would be back out on the floor in 30 minutes after they were told to leave.
There was a guy that would come in wearing expensive jewelry and clothes. He always had with him 5 to 7 foreign women, dressed to the 9s, who were beautiful but silent. None could speak English, and it looked like they were sleepwaking. They did not make eye contact and kept the women in sight at all times. The casino bent over backward for the guy because he was a high roller, so I helped my mom make a complaint to the human trafficking hotline.
The casino would try to trap employees by putting decoy money on the ground all around the buffet as well as the back of the house. If the employee touched the money, they were then fired for theft. My mom nearly had a heart attack after someone dumped a bunch of change into the hood of her coat, which had been hung up in an employee closet.
Lots of elder abuse. The casino offered check cashing as a service. Caregivers and relatives of the elderly people under their care would drop grandma at the buffet, cash her ssi check, and proceed to lose it all while grandma languished for hours at the buffet table.
Child abandonment. S****y, gambling a****t parents would leave their children in the car or drop the kids off somewhere that wasn't age restricted and proceed to gamble for days at a time.
#47
I saw a man fill himself absolutely full, stagger out into the parking lot, vomit what looked like gallons of vomit and then try to come back in for more.
#48
Ugh. Not a buffet but a salad bar at a grocery store.
Some lady was just shoveling cut fruit into her mouth hand over fist.
Juice and bits flying everywhere.
I called her out on it. I was appalled and disgusted.
She tried to turn it around like I was harassing her.
I went and found a manager but they didn’t do anything.
She was well-practiced. Not her first gluttonous crime.
I was leery of buffets and salad bars before but now I avoid them like the plague.
#49
The guy who went up to get more food from the buffet, and a t**d rolls out of his shorts. Doesn’t even notice.
#50
Not an employee but a few years ago a woman sitting next to us took all the lemons from the buffet and sat there and made a lemon based sauce from them, soy sauce and some other sauces. At the end she must have used 20 lemons by continually going up to the buffet after they replenished them.
#51
Chinese buffet in the UK about 20 years ago.
Guy who'd been there stuffing his face for 3 hours. It was getting time to close and he got really angry at being asked to finish up because he hadn't had all he could eat yet. Threatened that he was gonna sue the owner and report him because "all you can eat" was a misleading trade description. The Simpsons didn't miss with that one episode. He didn't actually do anything, as far as I'm aware. Guess he was just hangry.
We also had some really drunk guy who shat his pants at the table and carried on eating.
People going to the toilets to vomit, then coming back out and loading their plates up again. That happened a couple of times when I was there. Perhaps bulimia-related, not sure.
Edit:
This one wasn't so bad, really. Just amazing to see him eat. There was this weightlifter/muscleman looking guy who must have been 6'6" and 300+lbs. He looked like a bear. He wanted the chicken. All the chicken. Just inhaled plate after plate and went back up for his next mountain of chicken. Kept the chefs busy that night.
#52
We had the typical church crowd that would come in on Sunday and there were two groups that were from, and I don’t know how you would say this “rival churches?” I feel like they were both Baptist but the pastors would sit there and loudly debate each other about whatever their topic of the week was and the families would sit there and sometimes be cordial and sometimes they’d sneer and you never quite knew how it would all play out because sometimes one side would get up and leave abruptly. So one of the Pastors had an adult son who was special needs and this boy loved to eat. I learned early on that this kid (he was probably 25 and I was 16) would eat to sickness and then go vomit in the bathroom. The manager basically knew it was going to happen every week and would have me go clean it up. Sometimes he made it to the toilet, sometimes he didn’t. Sometimes he made it to the sink. That was super difficult to clean. His parents didn’t give a rats a*s that he vomited every week and his Dad would go to the bathroom, sometimes while I was cleaning his kid’s vomit and he would leave little Bible comics from Chick Publications and then leave. I always got a big kick out of those because they had illustrations similar to Mad Magazine and the content was like “Dungeons and Dragons is Devil Worshipping!”
Super exciting times. Very sanitary.
#53
When I worked at a Ponderosa Steakhouse when I was in high school, a lady would come in once a week and fill an entire to-go bag with cherry tomatoes from the salad bar.
The manager would stare her down . . . but would not say or do anything. He said it was 'corporate rules' not to interfere.
#54
When I was a kid I worked at a Golden Corral in the pre chocolate fountain era. It was the cheese sauce on EVERYTHING people. Is half your plate covered in fruit and or dessert items? Who cares, got to slather on an ungodly amount of cheese sauce covering the other half and soaking into everything anyway. Is cheese sauce an acceptable salad dressing? Of course, must be in at least equal parts cheese to vegetables though. Bonus points if it gets on your jello. If it's served at a Golden Corral I've seen it covered in cheese sauce. Now that they've got those gross chocolate fountains I'm sure things have gotten much worse.
#55
Not an employee. However, once when my family was on vacation in Florida we went to a surf-and-turf AYCE. This was back in 1991 or 1992.
Anyway, there was a family/table of three sitting at a nearby table, already eating. All they were eating were crab legs and eating them like they were in a food eating contest. They would splash the crab meat into their bowls of butter and shovel it into their gaping maws.
As soon as they were all finished, which included an extensive wipe down of their faces from the dripping butter, they would get up and go get more crab legs. If the crab legs were low at the buffet table they would empty what was there and wait for them to be replenished where they would continue to stack their plates until the tray was practically empty again, return to their tables, and continue their Olympian style eating.
Other diners were super frustrated by them both for their disregard for others being forced to wait in a line for further replenishing. And for the repulsive display they were putting on at their table. In the time my family was there they probably went up at least 5 or 6 times. They were there before we got there and were still there when we left. In the time we were there they outpaced my family almost 3:1 in number of trips to the buffet and probably quantity of food as well.
The image of them eating and the butter dripping from their faces still haunts me and is still a memory my family talks about.
#56
I made the mistake of going to a Golden Coral for lunch. Hideous gluttons and their out of control children handling everything they could handle, piling up plates with so much food they defied gravity, only to leave these heaping piles of food on the table to get even more heaping piles of food...then leave. I swear the amount of food people wasted would feed a small nation!
#57
I've seen people stick food in their plastic bags like no one sees them all the time.
#58
One guy just picked up the large serving tray of prawns and took it back to his table and ate straight out of it. It was my brother’s birthday dinner and he LOVES prawns and specifically chose that restaurant because of their seafood. He was so pissed.
#59
I stopped eating at Golden Corral after I saw multiple children standing at the chocolate fountain double dipping. Chocolate all over their grubby fingers, smeared on their faces, germs endlessly cycling through that fountain.
#60
I used to work with these guys who once a week would go to a buffet and dare each other to eat these disgusting combinations, like chocolate pudding on pepperoni pizza or spaghetti with mayonnaise. The rest of us would go just to watch.
They’d also go to White Castle, get a case of 20 and go burger for burger. Whoever tapped out first had to pay for lunch. More than once they had to get a second case of 20.
#61
I remember this dude making a soft serve cone that had to have been a meter tall. He ate it all to before it melted.
#62
Not quite it, but one time my mom went to get some soup. She was eating it and was like, wow, this is really good, why haven't I've ever eaten it before. Took a look and it was a bowl of gravy. 😆 And yes, I still bring it up, she still gets embarrassed.
#63
Worked at a pizza place with an all you could eat lunch buffet. We had a guy who would come in and eat like no one I’ve ever seen. For context, my personal wing record was 50 in a single setting and this guy blew my mind! Probably ate close to the equivalent of three or more pizzas every time he came. Eventually our manager would start having us make these pizzas we called “gut bombs” when we saw him sit down. We’d just layer cheese and toppings til it was like an inch plus thick. The cooked pizza was probably a couple pounds at least and he’d eat a whole one like it was nothing. Funny thing, he wasn’t some huge dude, just some normal looking guy…even kinda on the skinny side. I can eat to the point that my friends would pay for me to go to buffets just to watch me eat and this guy was like nothing I’d seen before or since.
#64
I’ve been in the Industry for almost thirty years and I’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff. Buffets are the worst. The most egregious things happen in the back, but the customers can be pretty gross also.
I worked in one for about three months before I found something that was a better fit. I saw a woman once take a portion of fried rice and then proceed to pick single every pea out of it and flick them back towards the steam table. Another time, I saw a server clear a table that left, and then a minute later, come back with a plate of crab legs from that table and dump them on top.
And I know this post is about what patrons did, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind everyone here that if you’re the first person to go to a buffet when they open…….choose wisely.
#65
I work at a Mongolian grill and I watched a woman dig very deep in her a**e with her right hand and then proceed to touch every single tong on my buffet line to fill her bowls. I freaked out and ran to the kitchen for the extra tongs and was trying desperately to exchange the contaminated ones for fresh ones and customers kept pushing in front of me trying to use the dirty tongs despite me begging them not to. People constantly ask me if the (clearly labeled) tofu in my line is cheese. I've had customers get mad because they thought the (clearly labeled) zucchini was cucumber. Customers constantly misplace sauce ladles into random containers which means I have to throw out the entire container due to cross contamination, they don't even look they just throw them back anywhere they please. I feel like I work in an insane asylum.
#66
Was at a Chinese buffet when the servers started running around. They went to each table and told them that if people wanted more food they should it get it now and within the next 5 minutes or so. Within 10 minutes two buses full of mainland Chinese tourists came in like a swarm of locusts. It was just like you see in those videos of people fighting over trays.
We were pretty much done but stayed for the chaos and free entertainment. They were screaming at employees to bring more.
Workers couldn’t even put the shrimp and other seafood trays in the buffet before being surrounded and having food grabbed. One guy took a whole tray of chicken wings to his table. We didn’t stay too long but the restaurant was like a war zone with stuff all over the floors.
I’ve traveled extensively and everywhere I’ve gone it’s the mainland Chinese tourists who are the rudest people.
#67
In Sharm El Sheikh nearly 20 years ago. The hotel was full of Russians. We were one of only 3 British couples in a whole massive 5 star hotel. I will never forget it.
The first morning, we stood open-mouthed in the restaurant as we watched them. One group pushed a big load of tables together, so around 30 of them could sit together. They filled their table with all the trays of food, trays included. Whole.baskets of fruit. When they left, a few of the women took plastic carrier bags to the buffet and started filling them with fried eggs, beans, sausages, hash browns all mushed together in bags. Security guards had to break up at least 1 fight and usually 2 or 3 every meal time.
A member of staff came and spoke to us, and upon realising we were from the UK, ushered us to what was the VIP part but was basically where they put anyone who was not Russian. The other 2 couples explained that we got real cutlery and plates, etc, in that bit, and the Russians got disposable stuff because they either broke or stole it. We got table service instead of buffet as it was almost impossible to get through them. Especially once they knew you weren't Russian. It was quite a spectacle. They actually burst the glass door of the restaurant one night trying to be the first ones in. The chefs had turkeys and beef joints etc, they were supposed to go up and get some carved onto their plate, they were taking the whole thing. Whole gateaux.
We were treated brilliantly by the staff. They referred to the Russians as the pigs. At first we had reserved tables with security in the bar in the evenings because the Russians would get drunk and fight with each other and try to fight with us. One of the couples we met we got on quite well with, the guy was a producer and they lady did music stuff for quite a famous tv program that was on at the time. Fairly respectable people. Me and the guy went to the bar and came back to a group of Russian women trying to attack our wives and literally carry our tables and chairs away because they had no where to sit the security had to form a ring around them. We were moved to a private bar after that.
Was a very memorable 2 weeks. Over Xmas and New Year, too.
#68
Tourist buffet in Hawaii.
A 5 year old ish child gets very excited for the chocolate pudding. It is the only thing he gets. It's a big a*s bowl.
He takes the first bite and makes a face.
It was poi, not chocolate pudding.
RIP all that lovely poi.
#69
Wife and I once went to a Chinese buffet with acquaintances that we thought could be friends. Well after 4 hours of watching the guy demolish plate after plate of food, and having the entire kitchen staff come out and watch like it was a circus show, I was done. He ate so much shrimp the kitchen staff couldn’t keep up. It was insane. After that I started watching how big my portions were at meals, it was disgusting. Sadly, but not surprising, he passed away from a heart attack a few years after that.
#70
Just a guest, but this deserve to be here. Out of the blue, my son threw up into the buffet. It splattered on the area and there is no chance in hell it didn’t hit nearby dish container, or multiple in its vicinity.
We are still kicking ourselves for not catching any signs that this was on it way, but it really caught us off guard.
I immediately apologized profusely and explained the situation clearly.
The kicker? The buffet staff then cleaned up the counter area AROUND the dish and let it all just stay there.
We paid (out of embarrassment), left immediately, and never came back…
Looking back I regret not informing some health authority.
I’m struggling with buffets in general, ever since this episode.
#71
Sunday buffet lunch in Australia. I saw a giant Samoan guy try to take the tray of chicken wings out of the warmer to take back to his table. The waiter kindly had to tell him that's not how it works.
#72
At a Chinese buffet, I saw a guy get vanilla ice cream, and then ladle on sweet and sour sauce. I stared, expecting him to be like OH SILLY ME, but he just sat down and ate it. I followed and checked. Later on, I decided to try sweet and sour sauce on vanilla ice cream, in case he was privy to some wild new flavor combination, but it was gross. He was just some working class, middle age white man, I don't get it.
#73
Not an employee but I saw a guy at Sweet Tomatoes stand there and scoop out all the chicken from a giant vat of chicken noodle soup and fill up over 16 bowls in a tray while there was a line behind him. Saw him again doing something similar when I went there again a few weeks later. They are out of business now. They said it was because of the lockdown but I still blame him.
#74
The last time I went to a Golden Corral was to celebrate my nephew’s 8th birthday. For whatever reason, the kid liked GC. Anyway, we’d sat not far from the sweets section of the buffet, and I happened to notice a grown-a*s man load a bowl with candy corn, then proceed to drown it with chocolate sauce and top it with whipped cream.
Image credits: liz_teria
#75
Golden coral - lady got the last of the Mac and cheese and stood there in line eating it waiting for the reload.
#76
I am not a buffet employee. But I saw a grown man eating the pickles off the Nashville hot chicken, using his hands.
#77
Not sure if this was a crime or just good financial sense by me.
Back in college, early ‘00s, me and cousin/roommate would frequent a Chinese Buffett that allowed take-out.
You paid for a styrofoam container and then could fill it however you liked. The first time we went we filled them as you would expect. Rice, noodles, stir fry veggies and proteins.
But after we ate we discussed that no one ever looked in our container after we purchased it.
So the next time we went we just filled those things to the brim with protein. Those suckers felt like they weighed 10lbs.
Then we’d just cook the rice or noodles at home. We could 4-5 meals out of those containers.
Rice is cheap, steak and shrimp is not.
#78
This isn't a crime... Just weird. But once I saw a guy eating only plates upon plates of kiwis. They weren't even ripe.
#79
College dining hall charged per meal, not per serving; you could go back until you were full.
Friend would have one meal a week and eat nothing but water the rest of the week.
#80
I started working at a restaurant with an all you can eat buffet in Norway, at first, people would look at it and make fun of us for working there without anyone buying. But then, American tourists came in, the fat kinds of tourists. They began shoving dollars in our hands, eventhough the sign clearly said "NOK only" (Norwegian Kroner) they never cared and only ate. I remember last week, some american came in, handed me a hundred dollars bill (1k Norwegian) and he took a fat plate of food, I dont know how, but he ate too much that we banned Americans who eat without caring to read signs.
#81
Places that require you to eat everything you take otherwise they charge you for it are just asking for food hidden in nooks and crannies when people leave.
#82
This one is on me.
About 18ish years ago when Golden Coral was okay. My dad and I finally had a day off together. We did some golfing, some shopping, and needed food bad. It was still way early.
Both of us did two plates from tye breakfast bar. Played on our phones. It was right around Facebook being popular. D**n near scrolled for an hour. Both of us went to the bathroom and continued to chill at our seat.
Dad looked up and smacked my shoulder. “Lunch!” We both went up and had lunch. Not sure if there’s rules for this now. It was a pretty funny day/moment. Never felt fatter.
#83
Too many people throwing up in the crab buckets to make room for more and then going up for another plate.
#84
When i was a kid, my parents took us to a Chinese buffet where they have snow crabs on the weekends. I remember watching a lady with multiple plates of crab happily peeling all the meat off and put them all in a bowl that's full of that melted "butter" and ate it all like soup.
I love dipping my crab in butter but not slurp up all that butter like soup. 🤮.
#85
I was behind a lady in the salad line and noticed she didn't get any dressing. Whatever, eat your dry salad. As I was finishing up, I saw her dump 2 ladles of brown gravy on her salad.
