Sure, buffet employees may not have to remember customer particulars when it comes to a dinner
order, but they deal with a whole other set of headaches.
And maybe they get a discount when lunch time comes around... but there's also a good chance
they no longer have an appetite, as workers reveal what it's really like to work in a
buffet.
Busing tables might be back-breaking work, but even harder?
Breaking up fights.
Fights can break out in any restaurant of course, but scuffles seem to be a thing at
some buffets… especially when there are crab legs involved.
At one buffet in Alabama, customers were lucky there was a police officer just sitting down
to eat when a fight broke out between two people who started brawling over a fresh tray
of crab legs.
In a separate crab leg-related incident, a husband and wife in Connecticut were arrested
after assaulting another customer at a buffet in a dispute over crab legs.
It's not just selfishness that can drive a person to lash out at the buffet either.
In 2014, a man and woman both in their 60s got into a physical altercation at a buffet
because one person reportedly cut in line.
The woman was eventually arrested after hurling a plate at another patron.
C'mon, people, buffets are supposed to be peaceful places.
It's unfortunate, but a lot of people seem to be under the impression that because they
pay a flat rate for an all-you-can-eat buffet, it gives them a free pass to steal.
News flash, paying $7.99 for a buffet plate doesn't mean everyone in your family gets
to eat off your plate and you can load up your purse with chicken wings for the ride
home.
Of course, you want to get your money's worth at the buffet, but a line has to be drawn
somewhere in the sand, and it's the employees who have to draw that line.
According to one buffet manager at a casino, stealing is a regular thing and at least in
his experience, older customers are some of the worst culprits.
Another buffet employee said that even seemingly well-to-do customers weren't above trying
to steal from the buffet.
One particular woman was notorious for trying to steal crab legs in her Louis Vuitton purse,
and regularly got caught red handed.
"Each time she was busted, she would empty out the crab legs from her bag and then speed
away in her Mercedes."
Any parent will tell you that kids do gross things daily.
Buffet employees can verify this and have witnessed all sorts of unsanitary behavior
by kids at the buffet that would make just about anybody lose their appetite.
"I want hepatitis!"
"Coming your way, buddy!"
In a Reddit thread with buffet employees sharing their most disturbing stories, one person
described this revolting scene:
"I once saw a little kid sneeze directly into one of the chicken dishes.
He was the perfect height for his head to be under the protective glass and directly
over the container."
It might also be wise to stay away from those chocolate fountains, or at the very least,
make sure you're one of the first customers to hit it up when they bring it out.
Apparently, the chocolate fountain is a pretty popular thing for children to play in and
and all it takes is a kid dumping some food into it — or sticking their face in — to
ruin the whole thing for everyone.
Being a dishwasher in a busy restaurant is never a glamorous job, but if you work at
a buffet you're trying to keep ahead of an endless flood of dirty dishes.
Customers might see stacks of clean dishes by the ends of the food bar, but back in the
kitchen, it's a different story.
One customer at a Golden Corral restaurant captured video footage of piles of unsightly
dirty dishes after he couldn't find a clean dish in the dining area.
A Golden Corral representative said "it was just a snapshot" and not the entire truth.
Max Sparber worked an an Old Country Buffet in Minnesota during his teenage years and
wrote a piece for the Star Tribune about his dish-washing experience.
"It was humid, very hot work, and absolutely exhausting.
We wore rubber gloves, but these inevitably flooded with scalding water.
By the end of my shift, my hands were swollen and red."
It might seem unthinkable that anyone would let the allure of the all-you-can-eat buffet
get the best of them and become unexpectedly sick because they just had to have one more
plate of food.
Unfortunately, if you work at a restaurant that has a buffet, you'll witness this sort
of thing happening regularly.
"Better get a bucket.”
"Garcon? A bucket... for monsieur."
One Golden Corral employee on Reddit described the aftermath that followed when they loaded
up the dessert bar with candy.
As you can probably guess, it wasn't pretty and
"kids would eat so much they'd barf on the bathroom floor."
Other employees have said that it's fairly common for people to get sick in the bathroom,
and sometimes they don't even make it that far before the inevitable happens.
If you've made it this far and still aren't turned off on the idea of eating at a buffet,
well, kudos to you.
Get a job in the belly of the beast though and your appetite for that all-you-can-eat
smorgasbord might forever be ruined.
Working in the restaurant industry can change anybody's opinion on dining out, but one restaurant
veteran said eating at a buffet is where they draw the line, saying:
"You cannot trust the general public to follow food safety rules at all.
I've seen so many people dip their grubby little paws in pans of food meant for everyone."
"No, God! No, God, please, no! No! NO!"
It makes sense that after seeing just a few things these buffet workers have described,
you'll not only see all-you-can-eat buffets in a whole different light, but the human
population in general.
And also, you might take up cooking at home.
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