I totally abhor buffets!

[Joe Fields]

As far as I'm concerned, you may as well eat off of a public restroom floor, as eat at a restaurant buffet. They have got to be one of the most unsanitary public gathering places there is. How anyone can keep their appetite, let alone go through a buffet line, knowing that kids with runny noses, who cough and sneeze on the food, as well as adults who also cough and sneeze in the direction of the food, is beyond my comprehension. And, while there may be tongs for all food dishes, I have seen people, young and old grab food out of the warming trays with their bare hands, without any consideration to sanitary practices. And those plastic awnings that are over the food line do little good in preventing germs from anyone that is under six feet tall.

Not only that, but I have never been a fan of "all you can eat."

[NC_Nurse]

1. Ever been in the kitchen of most restaurants?

You'd never eat out again. They all have problems.
Fortunately, the GI tract is made to kill most germs.
The worst risk is Hepatitis A which is usually spread by employees
in the kitchen, not the customers at a buffet.

[Joe Fields]

3. I've spent many years working in restaurants.

What kitchens I've worked in and managed that didn't practice sanitary behavior, I was able to change through various means. I know all about restaurant kitchens, and can pretty much tell you where and where not to eat out in Kansas City.

[Hippo_Tron]

27. I worked at a kitchen this summer and amazingly didn't lose my appetite for the food

The fact that we handled everything with bare hands and no gloves got me at first but we made mostly pizzas and since everything was cooked at 500 degrees I figured it's pretty safe.

[bedpanartist]

2. the idea of a sanitary world is a false one

you are much more susceptible to illness from a weak immune system (something a total sanitary environment encourages), than from one that is exposed.

That being said, I am in no way endorsing eating apples just handled by someone with turds underneath their fingernails.

[Joe Fields]

4. It is all a matter of degrees. Buffets have a high degree of

unsanitary conditions.

[Nikia]

7. If you go to someone's house for dinner, do you worry about their sanitary practices

I have eaten with a number of people who I have known to do unsanitary things while preparing food. With some of them, I ate their food several times before having the oppurtunity to observe them doing some of those things. There are a number of seemingly normal people who do things that no responsible restaurant employee would ever do.
I try not to think about it too much.

[bedpanartist]

10. bingo!

the same holds true for child molesters. If I was REALLY worried about child molesters, I would never let my children go to a family reunion.

[Joe Fields]

14. I make it a practice not to do that.

We always eat, then go over to friends for drinks.

[bedpanartist]

12. It's not the food in buffets that grosses me out, it's the people

it's like walking in an apocalyptic line to the sacrificial alter of high fructose corn syrup intake.

[Joe Fields]

15. That is precisely my point.

I have no problem with food served at a buffet. What I do have a problem with are the hundred or so people during mealtime that pass through, some handling the food with their fingers, others passing through the line coughing and hacking, or sneezing...

[bedpanartist]

29. its not the coughing and hacking as much

as it is witnessing an army of giant asses with tsunami's of cellulose dangling in the wind.

[Tektonik]

30. quaint

:sarcasm:

[Nikia]

5. I have a hard time with buffets, since I am recovering from an eating disorder

My husband likes such places though so we have been to a couple of them in the past year. It helps me if I look at it more like a cafeteria type style arrangement and just take one plate. Looking at all that food makes me want to eat so much and so little at the same time. We definitely don't get our money's worth out of me, but my husband likes them. All other things being equal, I eat least at work in the break room, next less at an all you can eat buffet, a little more at a restaurant where I can take the rest home, and most at home whether it is what I make or take out.
When I was young though, I ate a huge amount at all you can eat buffets because it was one the few oppurtunities I got to eat what I wanted to eat in the amount that I wanted to eat it in.
I don't worry too much about the sanitary issues. There are potential sanitary issues anytime someone else handles your food. The only way to avoid this is to grow and make your own food.

[qdemn7]

6. I've eaten at a number of different buffets in my 50 yrs.

The only time I EVER got food poisoning in my life I gave it to myself at home with my own cooking. Just my $.02.

[Left Is Write]

8. I'm not a fan of buffet-style restaurants, but it's because the food is usually overcooked.

[baldguy]

9. Warren, maybe. But Jimmy too?

[Joe Fields]

24. Nah...Jimmy's cool!

[Akoto]

11. Is this a response to my Golden Corral thread?

:P

[WindRavenX]

13. i hate buffets not beause theye any dirtier/cleaner than the next joint, but because it's nothing...

...more than a glorified feeding trough for the masses.

[TommyO]

35. Which is what friends of mine call a local Chinese buffet - the feeding trough

What's interesting is that the food is decent, and you can get decent sushi there as well (tipping the sushi chef guarantees it).

[hippywife]

16. I'm of two minds on them.

We don't frequent them hardly at all. When we do, I try not to think about the things you've mentioned and try not to overeat. The food isn't usually the best, taste-wise, anyway. But the thing I do like about them is that I can have exactly the foods I want in the combination and portions I want them, which is something I usually can't do when ordering off a menu. To me that's the sole advantage of ever eating at one.

[philosophie_en_rose]

17. Same with potlucks.

:puke:

[ironflange]

31. Good Lord, yes

Most things at potlucks I don't even want to look at, let alone eat. We usually drive thru McD's or something on our way to potlucks, though if the desserts look OK we'll have some.

[struggle4progress]

18. Foo! Germs are your friends! Meet as many as possible.

[Joe Fields]

20. George Carlin used to say that he built up his immune system when

he was a kid by going swimming in New York's East River. LOL Well, when I was a kid I built my immune system up pretty well, also. I just really prefer not to eat food with nasal particles covering it.

[sanguinivorous]

19. I hate buffets...

...but it's usually because there's never anything on them that I'm all that interested in eating.

As for germs, my immune system gets a lot of practice because I don't obsess about it and I'm not constantly trying to sterilize my surroundings. I almost never get sick.

[Joe Fields]

21. I don't obsess. I just really hate eating snot covered food.

[sanguinivorous]

23. You may not obsess...

...but a lot of people do.

Still, if you're really against eating food with other people's snot in it, you should just avoid restaurants altogether.

[bridgit]

22. naw, you need to try the one at the top of Harrah's Tahoe...

:9

[Joe Fields]

25. Bridgit, if I could be at Tahoe right now, I would visit the buffet

at Harrahs....for about two seconds, and then go back to playing poker.

[bridgit]

26. hahaha, why did that make sense to me...

we ended up gambling & sucking up free drinks all day too :hi:

[S n o w b a l l]

28. Shit...

little did I know how freeing it was to be germ phobia free.

I'd hate to not have dinner with friends for fear of ...GERMS!!!!!

And can you imagine sex with such a person?? LOL...oh my...do they make full body condems?

[Joe Fields]

34. It doesn't sound like a very good commentary on how you live or

who you choose to have sex with.

[S n o w b a l l]

37. ummmm....

because I'm not germ obsessed and would prefer not to be with someone germ obsessed? Ok, then :eyes:

If someone won't even eat at a friend's house, I'd say that was a little obsessive and sorry, but someone that fearful & unadventurous would be a huge turn off to me personally. I just imagine that obsession would carry over into more situations than just eating food.

[ironflange]

32. I was a caterer for many years

I usually did it buffet style, however, it's not the same when it's served, one by one, like at receptions. I always made sure the kitchen and procedures were clean, and know how much of my time actually was devoted to that. So I know the buffet joints can be rather dicey, to make an understatement. I also think the health department should do surprise inspections, that would sure save a lot of grief, but when places get plenty of warning that the inspector is dropping by, they can clean up their act. Even so, there are plenty of places that get shut down, I can't imagine what went on before they new the guy was coming over. Actually I can. In my catering years, I've seen restaurant kitchens from A to Z: all the way from places where you could literally eat off the floor to places even the roaches wouldn't go to.

[Joe Fields]

33. likewise...

[wildhorses]

36. is cafeteria style dining considered buffet?

:shrug: