War on Buffets

I used to love buffets when I was younger. (And I used to be obese too.) But now, as I grow older, I find myself growing out of buffets.

When I was a perpetually-hungry-teenager, buffets were paradises to me, especially since normal food portions could never satisfy me. The freedom to eat whatever you want and how much you want was simply intoxicating. It made buffets very worth it even if they are pricey. (And I avoid the filling foods like rice, noodles and bread)

Now, I shun buffets... well, sort of. Despite my appetite being much smaller than in the past, and my avoidance of getting too full, I still end up eating too much even though I only wanted to try a bit of everything. Of course, this applies only to good buffet restaurants with a good spread of food. 

On a different angle, buffet restaurants (probably) waste an extreme amount of food. With time and experience, they may be able to better estimate their inventories and amount to cook daily, but this is only one side of the story. Wastage would probably come mostly from consumers, as some people take too much, eat a bit, and throw the rest away.

It also encourages over-eating. In Economics, we learnt that under normal circumstances, we would eat until our marginal utility equals our marginal cost. As there are no marginal costs for buffets, people are inclined to eat until their marginal utility equals zero, which usually translates to over-eating.

Having said that, the buffet restaurants I like most are Carousel (Royal Plaza by the Scotts), Triple 3 (Meritus Mandarin Hotel), Aquamarine (Marina Mandarin), Straits Kitchen (Grand Hyatt Hotel), and Princess Terrace (Copthorne King's Hotel). The last two serve hawker fare, so some may question whether it is worth your money, but the amount of business they get proves it. I just went to Carousel two weeks ago, and I was really astonished by the huge spread of food, especially seafood. Their lobsters, oysters and mussels were really fresh, and for sashimi, they also serve mekajiki (sword fish), which was my favourite sashimi. For the hot food, their prawn mee soup was excellent, though still one step below Princess Terrace's. The buffet is obviously not cheap, going at $62+++ for weekday dinners and $75+++ for weekend dinners, but regardless of the price tag, it was almost fully occupied when I visited on a Wednesday night.

Update as of 28th July 2011:
I visited Triple 3 for dinner and was actually quite disappointed. Their sashimi was still excellent, and they served salmon, salmon belly, swordfish, tuna, octopus. It was easily one of the best sashimi I have ever eaten at a buffet restaurant. But other than that, everything else failed to impress. At a hefty price tag of $89.90++ per pax (on a weekday night!), I would rather go to Carousel, which had quite a number of great dishes, wider variety, better seafood, and at a lower price. Fortunately Triple 3 had the OCBC 1-for-1 offer, but even then I still found it too expensive (total bill came up to around $115 for 2 pax).


Triple 3 is officially out of my recommended buffet restaurants now.