The Future of Buffets, Salad Bars, and Self Serve?

[Alpha8472]

The buffet chains were never common in the San Francisco Bay Area. Instead, there were many independent restaurants that offered buffets at certain times of the day. There were some sushi buffet chains, but they all closed years before the pandemic.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, there are even fewer chain buffet restaurants than before. There are some sushi buffets, and Asian buffets. There are many restaurants that have returned to offering buffets for lunch. However, not many restaurants offer buffets all day long. Dinner is mostly non-buffet.

There are some Roundtable Pizza Clubhouses/Pubs that offer pizza buffets for lunch. However, no buffets at dinner time.

[storewanderer]

Up here in Reno, Round Table cut the buffets and claimed it was a "corporate directive." I was curious if some elsewhere still carried the buffet. Truckee (franchise) hasn't had it since before COVID. The locations here were corporate owned until earlier this year when they refranchised most of them.

[Brian Lutz]

In other buffet news, a former Sweet Tomatoes location in Sandy UT has been reincarnated as "Dollie's Soup and Salad". I am not familiar with Sweet Tomatoes since they didn't operate in the area I used to live in, but this particular location appears to have closed back in 2017 and sat vacant until it was reopened in January 2023 under this new ownership, which appears to be operating only this single location currently. I went with my wife and several other people today, and the place was surprisingly crowded during lunchtime on a Friday. The parking lot was full with people waiting for spots. Based on photos I could find of the old Sweet Tomatoes location on Yelp it looks like they did a moderate amount of interior remodeling, but otherwise the place has changed little from what it used to be.

One thing that seems a little unusual is that when you walk in you just proceed straight to the salad bar to serve yourself, and then when you sit down at a table someone comes around to take your payment at the table on a card reader equipped tablet (there is no option to pay in cash.) I'm not sure if this is how Sweet Tomatoes operated, but it does seem to preclude the possibility of offering take-out options, making it a strictly dine-in operation. I know some of the buffet chains experimented with takeout options before COVID largely shut them down, usually by way of providing a takeout container that you can fill up at the same price as the regular buffet, but I believe Old Country Buffet also tried offering a pay by weight option as well. Some Mongolian Grill places like HuHot still do the single container version of this, but Chuck-A-Rama appears to be a strictly dine-in operation as well.

Then again, Utah seems to be an area where buffets do unusually well owing to the large families that are found here, so I don't know how these places have recovered (if at all) elsewhere.

[storewanderer]

Food cost is a major issue for buffets right now.

If customer volume is high enough, it can still work... but have to be very focused on hours of operation and food preparation.

Or be a casino where the leftover buffet food gets sent to the "employee cafeteria."

I have not noticed any of the "Asian Buffets" closing. I have noticed more of them start to promote take out, in various forms, by the pound, in the form of family meals, etc. I think this is an example of independent businesses that can quickly adapt to the market to maximize volume.

[SamSpade]

Or be a casino where the leftover buffet food gets sent to the "employee cafeteria."

Oh. I hadn't thought about that one. That's where the surplus can be moved to once it's no longer "guest presentable."

[bryceleinan]

My mom and I had to attend to some family stuff over in Salt Lake in the last couple of weeks, and we went to the Chuck-a-Ramas in Ogden (with my nephew) and in Salt Lake (thanks to a canceled flight home.) We were both shocked at how clean both restaurants were, and at how busy they were. I know some people knock CAR, however, I know my family enjoys going there, and it's a lot better than not-Golden Corral.

[storewanderer]

My mom and I had to attend to some family stuff over in Salt Lake in the last couple of weeks, and we went to the Chuck-a-Ramas in Ogden (with my nephew) and in Salt Lake (thanks to a canceled flight home.) We were both shocked at how clean both restaurants were, and at how busy they were. I know some people knock CAR, however, I know my family enjoys going there, and it's a lot better than not-Golden Corral.

I thought Chuck-a-Rama isn't an all you can eat buffet but just a self serve restaurant?

I always wondered how that worked.

My guess is Chuck-a-Rama probably owns their locations and has maintained them properly over the years. So by just running their business they have been able to survive and remain relevant.

A lot of restaurants are run by absentee owners for "investment purposes" and debt financed and those don't seem to work out so well.

[arizonaguy]

One thing that seems a little unusual is that when you walk in you just proceed straight to the salad bar to serve yourself, and then when you sit down at a table someone comes around to take your payment at the table on a card reader equipped tablet (there is no option to pay in cash.) I'm not sure if this is how Sweet Tomatoes operated, but it does seem to preclude the possibility of offering take-out options, making it a strictly dine-in operation. I know some of the buffet chains experimented with takeout options before COVID largely shut them down, usually by way of providing a takeout container that you can fill up at the same price as the regular buffet, but I believe Old Country Buffet also tried offering a pay by weight option as well. Some Mongolian Grill places like HuHot still do the single container version of this, but Chuck-A-Rama appears to be a strictly dine-in operation as well.

Sweet Tomatoes operated in a way where you proceeded straight to the salad bar and then there was a cashier at the far end of the salad bar (before you reached the seating area).

Of all of the chains that closed during COVID it is the chain I missed the most. I felt that they actually were a good value for what you got and I felt that their "hot" options such as pizza / pasta were actually decent quality for the price.

I haven't been to many buffets in the post COVID era but I did go to a buffet at a place called Mountain Mike's pizza (decent salad bar, actually fairly decent pizza) where the price for the buffet was the same dine in or to go but if it was to go they simply gave you a to go container.

[arizonaguy]

Food cost is a major issue for buffets right now.

If customer volume is high enough, it can still work... but have to be very focused on hours of operation and food preparation.

Or be a casino where the leftover buffet food gets sent to the "employee cafeteria."

I have not noticed any of the "Asian Buffets" closing. I have noticed more of them start to promote take out, in various forms, by the pound, in the form of family meals, etc. I think this is an example of independent businesses that can quickly adapt to the market to maximize volume.

The Asian buffet closest to my house was torn down and replaced by a Dutch Bros Coffee and a Take 5 oil change place. It was fairly busy prior to COVID.

Then again, probably the best Asian buffet in the area moved into a larger 11,000 square foot space (their old location became a Cheddar's).

https://www.pacificseafoodbuffet.com/gl ... aign=gmaps

[veteran+]

One thing that seems a little unusual is that when you walk in you just proceed straight to the salad bar to serve yourself, and then when you sit down at a table someone comes around to take your payment at the table on a card reader equipped tablet (there is no option to pay in cash.) I'm not sure if this is how Sweet Tomatoes operated, but it does seem to preclude the possibility of offering take-out options, making it a strictly dine-in operation. I know some of the buffet chains experimented with takeout options before COVID largely shut them down, usually by way of providing a takeout container that you can fill up at the same price as the regular buffet, but I believe Old Country Buffet also tried offering a pay by weight option as well. Some Mongolian Grill places like HuHot still do the single container version of this, but Chuck-A-Rama appears to be a strictly dine-in operation as well.

Sweet Tomatoes operated in a way where you proceeded straight to the salad bar and then there was a cashier at the far end of the salad bar (before you reached the seating area).

Of all of the chains that closed during COVID it is the chain I missed the most. I felt that they actually were a good value for what you got and I felt that their "hot" options such as pizza / pasta were actually decent quality for the price.

I haven't been to many buffets in the post COVID era but I did go to a buffet at a place called Mountain Mike's pizza (decent salad bar, actually fairly decent pizza) where the price for the buffet was the same dine in or to go but if it was to go they simply gave you a to go container.

Is Sweet Tomatoes the same company as Soup Plantation?

I really miss SP!