How do buffet restaurants make any money?

[Riprorin]

I ate dinner at a bunch of Indian restaurants in TO for $8.99 when I was there recently. How do they make any money?

 

[loup garou]

Ugh. Repost x infinity.

 

[Riprorin]

Originally posted by: werk
Ugh. Repost x infinity.

Okay, I changed the topic just for you.

 

[rudder]

for one they sell 10 cents of soda for $1.50. And its all about buying in bulk. I once cooked for about 50 people for my inlaws 40th wedding anniversary. I think I probably spent $300 on food and served chicken and pork loin. Even had dessert. I was even paying mostly retail prices for the food so I would imagine a restaurant gets the stuff much cheaper.

 

[clamum]

By charging money for you to eat there.

 

[Riprorin]

Originally posted by: americangigolo
By charging money for you to eat there.

Oh, that's it. I guess I wasn't supposed to just eat and leave. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[clamum]

Originally posted by: Riprorin

Originally posted by: americangigolo
By charging money for you to eat there.

Oh, that's it. I guess I wasn't supposed to just eat and leave. Thanks for the heads up!

Well, that is how they make money! As someone else stated buying in bulk cuts costs. And at least at the buffet place here it's ~$10 with a drink for the buffet. Not exactly cheap.

 

[Whisper]

Cheap food. Lots and lots of cheap food.

They just go into it with the hope that you're coming to an all you can eat buffet hungry enough not to notice the quality of the meal.

The two buffets I've been to that used "good" food were around $40/person.

 

[DnetMHZ]

Originally posted by: Whisper
Cheap food. Lots and lots of cheap food.

They just go into it with the hope that you're coming to an all you can eat buffet hungry enough not to notice the quality of the meal.

The two buffets I've been to that used "good" food were around $40/person.

I've never heard buffet and "good food" used in the same sentence before .....interesting

 

[Eli]

I've wondered the same thing myself.

 

[csiro]

They make money off old people, women and little kids who don't eat much.

 

[dirtboy]

They hope people like me pay 8.99 and eat only one plate of food.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

A large part of it has to do with the lack of service that must be provided.

Cooks don't need to cook individual portions, so they spend less time on special orders and small batches. One serving of deep fried onions takes the same amount of work as 10 servings.

There are no waitresses to hire. The ones that do have waitresses do so much less work that they can cover a much larger area of the floor. So instead of 4-5 tables, they cover 10-20. 2-5 waitresses on staff instead of 4-15.

The people that don't eat alot offset the people that do.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: dnetmhz

Originally posted by: Whisper
Cheap food. Lots and lots of cheap food.

They just go into it with the hope that you're coming to an all you can eat buffet hungry enough not to notice the quality of the meal.

The two buffets I've been to that used "good" food were around $40/person.

I've never heard buffet and "good food" used in the same sentence before .....interesting

Good buffet.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: dnetmhz

Originally posted by: Whisper
Cheap food. Lots and lots of cheap food.

They just go into it with the hope that you're coming to an all you can eat buffet hungry enough not to notice the quality of the meal.

The two buffets I've been to that used "good" food were around $40/person.

I've never heard buffet and "good food" used in the same sentence before .....interesting

There used to be this place that was called "The Velvet Turtle" down in LA, they had a breakfast/brunch buffet that was very high quality. They did actually have caviar.

 

[LordJezo]

Originally posted by: werk

Originally posted by: dnetmhz

Originally posted by: Whisper
Cheap food. Lots and lots of cheap food.

They just go into it with the hope that you're coming to an all you can eat buffet hungry enough not to notice the quality of the meal.

The two buffets I've been to that used "good" food were around $40/person.

I've never heard buffet and "good food" used in the same sentence before .....interesting

Good buffet.

Better buffet

 

[BigSmooth]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
A large part of it has to do with the lack of service that must be provided.

Cooks don't need to cook individual portions, so they spend less time on special orders and small batches. One serving of deep fried onions takes the same amount of work as 10 servings.

There are no waitresses to hire. The ones that do have waitresses do so much less work that they can cover a much larger area of the floor. So instead of 4-5 tables, they cover 10-20. 2-5 waitresses on staff instead of 4-15.

The people that don't eat alot offset the people that do.

Exactly, labor is one of the major expenses at a restaurant and a buffet-style restaurant would need to employ far fewer people both in the kitchen and in the dining room.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: LordJezo

Originally posted by: werk

Originally posted by: dnetmhz

Originally posted by: Whisper
Cheap food. Lots and lots of cheap food.

They just go into it with the hope that you're coming to an all you can eat buffet hungry enough not to notice the quality of the meal.

The two buffets I've been to that used "good" food were around $40/person.

I've never heard buffet and "good food" used in the same sentence before .....interesting

Good buffet.

Better buffet

No.

 

[xospec1alk]

dude, minado sucks ass, the sushi is crap! the hot foods, admittedly are not too bad, but the shellfish was dry and overcooked, the sushi is just plain terrible and the hibachi stuff is tasteless

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: xospec1alk
dude, minado sucks ass, the sushi is crap! the hot foods, admittedly are not too bad, but the shellfish was dry and overcooked, the sushi is just plain terrible and the hibachi stuff is tasteless

Exactly. It's terrible.

 

[MrYogi]

$8.99 for indian buffet? They might have built a couple of big buildings by now. There is not really that much expense in an indian buffet. They do not prepare the food every day. Most of the food except for the rice is frozen and is used every day. The employers are the people of one big family. The people who clean the tables and plates are paid $hitty wages. One of my friend (he has a MS in comp sci) who used to work in an Indian restaurant used to get $5.15+tip. His employer thought that he was making more than $10 per hour, so paid him only $3 per hour + tips. By the way, He used to make a dollar or two per hour by tips.

 

[psianime]

They keep overhead low by paying everyone min. wage and making deals to buy in bulk. The fact of the matter is that they don't make a lot of money on each person but you always see whole families that come in. They make their money on the volume of people.

I recent had fed 30 people at a BBQ for 4th of July and it cost less then $100. No cheap food either... pure brests and spare ribs.

 

[MrYogi]

Originally posted by: dirtboy
They hope people like me pay 8.99 and eat only one plate of food.

More than 50% of the customers eat only one plate of food.

 

[Eli]

We go to 3 bufett places here in Portland, Oregon.

Old Country Buffet, which is like 8.79/person, and is OK. They have some good items. They're a national chain, and probably bottom of the barrel.

JJ Norths, which is a locally owned buffet(I think), and has some awesome meats(fishes, hams, etc), $9/person.

And a chinese buffet place called Best Buffet. It's only 6.95/person, and some of it is actually pretty good. Fried shrimp, pepperwings, mandarin chicken, BBQ pork..

Mmm.. Damn, I wonder what time they open. Chinese sounds good.



Oh, there's also Izzy's Pizza, but I haven't been there in a while. It's 8$ and some change. It's pretty good, if your in the mood for pizza and some other stuf.

 

[Kevin]

Originally posted by: dnetmhz

Originally posted by: Whisper
Cheap food. Lots and lots of cheap food.

They just go into it with the hope that you're coming to an all you can eat buffet hungry enough not to notice the quality of the meal.

The two buffets I've been to that used "good" food were around $40/person.

I've never heard buffet and "good food" used in the same sentence before .....interesting

Go to brunch at the Molly Pitcher Inn in Redbank. I absolutely despise buffets but their brunch on Sunday is out of this world. Reservations used to be like weeks in advance but its worth it. I believe its around $40, maybe more/less...